Thesis statement

Design activism. The mental power of design.

This essay will explore the meaning of term design activism, what can be considered as design activism and argue if society needs design activism. It will be examined what powers design has and how it is related to social, ecological and political activism; what impact can it have for society and it's methods of affecting the mass's opinions and attitude to global issues.

Readings and bibliography

Design As Critique_Dunne + Raby

This book has a lot of useful information about critical design. About why it exists, what its purposes are and how it affects people. As I am discussing design in relation to activism it will be very useful for me to look at critical design and explore it’s powers and opportunities to affect behaviors and attitudes.

Adversarial Design_DiSalvo

"Adversarial Design" will be interesting for me to look at as it is talking about adversarial design both in theory and practice. For me it’s a new term and I really want to explore it more deeply. This book also talks about political design which is a very big part of design activism. 

The Disruptive Aesthetics of Design Activism: Enacting Design Between Art and Politics 

This article is discussing design activism. Thomas Markussen claims that the new framework is needed for design activism for understanding urban design activism subject. He also talks about what should be considered design activism, what it’s power is and why it is important. He claims that design activism through aesthetics should evoke revelation, contest and dissensus. There is a lot I could agree with as well as a lot I could argue with in this piece of writing, so it would be a useful reference for me.

Bibliography

DiSalvo, Carl. Adversarial design. The MIT Press, 2012.

Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. MIT Press.

Markussen, T. (2013). The disruptive aesthetics of design activism: Enacting design between art and politics. Design Issues, 29(1), 38-50.

final photos

Critical Perspective

Cell Phone as a social shell.

Nowadays technology and cellphones in particular are a big part of our life. We tend to treat them as a way of connection. If we forget cellphone at home or it is broken for a day we feel like we are cut off from the world. In this project I wanted to become a flaneur and look at this issue from a perspective of a disinterested party. 

I walked around town looking at how many people are using their cellphone. And the result was quite shocking. Approximately half of the pedestrians who were passing by were staring at their cellphones. A big number of people were talking on the cellphones. A barely saw any life conversations between people who were walking with somebody else. Most friends or couples walk both staring at their cellphones. 

What is the reason for that? Sherry Turkle discourses in her TED talk video about using social media as a way to avoid physical or voice contact with people. Many people claim that it's much easier to send a text than talk one on one (Turckle, 2010). But why are they used constantly on the streets? In "Urban Future Manifestos" Peter Noever talks about city fears and how spaces around us full of fences and concrete walls - look scary and almost threatening. City landscapes and lack of nature subconsciously makes us feel uncomfortable. Apart from that people are parts of space and being surrounded by a big number of strangers is an unaccustomed and uncomfortable situation for most people. Using cellphone is a perfect way to avoid eye contacts. 

So it's a technological and design paradox: technology that was designed to connect us is actually isolation us.

Noever, P. (2010). Urban Future Manifestos. Los Angeles: Hatje Cantz.

Turkle, S. (2012, April). Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together

Haiku