Geert Lovink on Tue, 1 Jul 1997 13:14:15 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> design beyond design conference |
From: vaneyck@xs4all.nl (Jan van Eyck Akademie) "A democratic civilisation will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection -not an invitation for hypnosis." Umberto Eco Design beyond design Symposium at the Jan van Eyck Akademie Maastricht Centre for fine arts, design and theory On 7 and 8 November 1997 the Jan van Eyck Academie will be organizing a conference entitled 'Design beyond design, critical reflection and the practice of visual communication'. The academy intends this conference to launch a debate on the concrete possibilities for a design that adopts a critical stance vis-a-vis current practice. A practice, whose mediatory role is largely determined by the conditions of the market and neo-liberal believe. The intention is that the discussion will be conducted in the light of the reality of communicational power relations in the world and their homogenising effects on the formation of public opinion and cultural development. Speakers: Cees Hamelink: International communication scientist, University of Amsterdam; Heinz Paetzold: Philosopher, Univerity of Hamburg; Head theory department, Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht; Joerg Petruschat: Design critic and philosopher, Humboldt University, Berlin: Susan Buck-Morss: Political philosopher and social theortician, Cornell University, Ithaca; Sheila Levrant de Bretteville: Designer and head MA course graphic design, Yale University, New Haven; Gui Bonsiepe: Interface designer, Cologne Design School and University of the Americas, Pueblo (Mexico): Jan van Toorn: Designer and director Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht; Michael Rock and Susan Sellers: Designers 2x4, New York Respondents: Andrew Blauvelt, Max Bruinsma, Alex Jordan, Gerard Paris-Clavel, Rick Poynor, Lorraine Wild, Carel Kuitenbrouwer, Tomas Maldonado. The first day of the symposium will focus on the discrepancy between the socio-economic and symbolic reality of the world-wide information and consumption culture, the prospects for democratisation of the media, and the role of visual producers and theoreticians in this process. The second day will be devoted to design that deliberately aims at 'the abolition of the boundaries between everyday and aesthetic experience' (Gert Selle) and will deal with the strategies and forms of expression of the oppositional and reflexive traditions. It will cover initiatives in fields outside the realm of official design, as well as dialogic forms of visual mediation in design aimed at the formation of independent judgement and public participation. Capitalist media society has also transformed information and knowledge into commodities. Through growing commercialisation and consolidation, the monopo=1Flies of the communication and culture industry have created a global public sphere which does not offer any scope for discussion of the social and cultural consequences of the 'free flow of information' organised by them - let alone of democratic control on their activities. Consequently, we live in a world in which the reality of the socio-economic condition is camouflaged by 'the 'decorative glorification of the inevitable' (Rem Koolhaas). Just like other forms of professional mediation, design owes its success to the economic and technological-scientific development promoted by industry and government. This is connected with its share in the planning of production, but even more with the creation of images and visual stimuli in the media which is essential to the retail of products, information and entertainment. Communication design thereby co-ordinates an important part of the virtual integration of the consumer in the social regulatory mechanisms of the market, politics and services. The engagement with private interests that was necessary for this success has left its mark on the historical and social awareness of designers and other visual producers. Co-operation with institutions and adaptation to their structures has resulted in an ideological accommodation, expressed in a lack of insight into the social practice of the profession and a visual mediation which is primarily orientated in organisational, technological and formal aesthetic terms. At the same time, however, the complexity of the 'information revolution', compels visual producers to assume editorial and directional responsibilities which entail their confrontation with uneasy questions about the quality of their own signifying practice. The sophisticated, but one-dimensional character of our communicational environment is at least as menacing as the pollution of the natural environment. That is partly due to the lack of a realistic attitude to the social-cultural conditions of professional mediation, by which use of language and methods of the operational critique have been lost as ways of forming independent public opinion. The organisers of 'Design beyond design' hope that this conference will bring together makers and thinkers who are interested in the revitalisation of argumentative, non-consumptive forms of visual communication - in other words, in the renewal of communication design as a reflexive public practice. --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de