Tasks Due Today from Week 12
- Work toward the next Research Project Presentation milestone
- Completed the Art of Noticing task
- Submit to this open call for emoji. poems.
Check-in (5 min)
Freewrite – The Art of Noticing (15 min)
Prompt: In your language of choice, write continuously in your notebook for 10 minutes about what you noticed this week when completing the task. Don’t edit, or correct, don’t stop, just write. Feel free to share or not.
This week’s task brought to you by Faariah:
APPLY THE SLANT METHOD
Develop a “sustained attention muscle” by applying the SLANT method. This handy mental checklist can be used when in conversation or in a class to stay focused, foster deeper engagement, and improve mental processing. It’s also demonstrates kindness and respect.
Sit up
Lean forward
Ask/answer questions
Nod your head
Track the speaker
ART OF NOTICING
Next Week’s Prompt by Dorian:
Compare Memories
Think about a trip you took, ideally with someone else. Spend an hour trying to remember everything about it that you can. Do not consult photographs or diary entries: just remember. Try to remember the odd, small moments. Concentrate on what lingers in your memory, however inconsequential. Write down everything that you recall. Discuss your findings with your traveling partner.; compare notes. What lines up and what doesn’t.
ART OF NOTICING
Activities
Below, find the information covered in this session. Complete all of the following activities, videos, and assignments.
1. Research Project Presentations DUE next week! (10 min)
Review the Guidelines, especially the posting and presentation guidelines
Check out these student examples:
The Evolution of Black Graphic Design
Biomimicry In User Experience Design
Review the following milestones:
- Week 8: Define your research topic/question and submit your Research Project Outline
- Week 9: Finalize your topic and start collecting supporting media and sources in an annotated bibliography
- Week 10: Complete your Slideshow/Presentation outline and script based on your research
- Week 11/12: Finalize your research, supporting media and sources. Assemble all graphics and text in a slideshow, record first draft of presentation
- Week 13: Share in-progress slideshow presentation with voiceover, get feedback from peers and professor, finalize annotated bibliography
- Week 14: Post Presentation to OpenLab site – follow the guidelines
- Week 14/15: Review Research Project Presentations in class.
- Week 15: Submit one comment on each of your classmates’ presentations
Check out A Pocket Style Manual for tips on improving your written communications.
2. Review Research Projects In Progress (30 min)
If you haven’t already, add a comment to this post with a draft of your research project presentation. Find a partner and discuss each other’s work in progress.
3. Influences + Lineages: Postmodernism (30 minutes)
Style & Subversion
As Modernism peaked in the 1960s, a correction in the design field was brewing, influenced by the social unrest and protests of the late 1960s. The hippy counter-culture, Filmore Posters and Psychedelia coming out of San Francisco in the late 60s was the very beginning of Postmodernism in design.
With Postmodernism, mainstream Modernism (universality, simplicity, minimalist, structured, grid-based, corporate, design for all) was rejected in favor of the opposite (complexity, ambiguity, subjectivity, cultural pluralism, personal, experimental).
Activity: Take a moment to write down all the qualities of Modernism that you can think of. Think back to the early avant-garde (De Stijl, Constructivists, Bauhaus, New Typography) in the early 20th Century. What were their goals and ideology with regard to Universality in form, truth, society, and meaning? What were they rebelling against? Consider that some of their goals were realized by the mid-1960s when the Swiss/International Style went mainstream.
From about 1970 to 1990, Postmodernism shattered established ideas about design and art. A brilliant mix of theatrical and theoretical, Postmodernism ranges from the colourful to the ruinous, the luxurious to the ludicrous. It is a visually thrilling multifaceted style which so famously defies definition.
V&A EXHIBITION ‘POSTMODERNISM: STYLE AND SUBVERSION 1970 – 1990‘
In this broad time period with its range of styles, anything goes. The rejection of Modernist minimalism and functionalism and the embrace of personal expression, experimentation, mixed media, layering and remixing styles from other time periods are the hallmarks of Postmodernism.
On LinkedIn Learning via your Library Card or the low-res YouTube video watch from 1:44:17 – 1:57:58. Pay close attention to the sections on Japanese Design, Punk and New Wave, Low-tech Seattle, and Postmodernism.
These were influential trends that we see remnants and revivals today. Note the names of the designers: David Carson, April Greiman, Rick Poynor, Wolfgang Weingart, Katherine McCoy, Rudy VanderLans/Emigre, etc.
Activity: As you watch, write down the words that are used to describe this style/era during the 1970s-1990s. How would you describe the visual approach?
What is Postmodernist Theory?
Postmodernism influenced not only design but fashion, architecture, theater, fiction, academic theory, and more. Take note of some of the key ideas that some Postmodernists believe.
Does any of this relate to Stuart Hall’s theories from Week 5? Yes! With your essay on stereotype in media, you used Barthes’ and Hall’s theories of Structuralism/Post-Structuralism and Cultural Studies to explore the idea that meaning is subjective. Meaning can change depending on the viewer and each individual’s life/cultural experience and position of power.
Key Postmodernist ideas/concepts
- Postmodernists BELIEVE that our reality and interpretation/decoding of signs is influenced by our culture. Today, in our media-rich world, we experience a form of self-referential hyperreality (ie: a copy of a copy of a copy… sampling is another example)
- Postmodernism REJECTS grand narratives and universality:
- Grand narratives are ideas that claim to have access to absolute truth, whether in Culture (art); Religion; Politics (democracy); Economics (Capitalism); Fashion; Science
- Universality in design relates to the utopian, modernist aim of creating universal systems or models of communication for all
- Postmodernism EMBRACES subjectivity and pluralism
- Subjectivity relates to our opinions and experience; Objectivity relates to facts
- Pluralism is an acknowledgment of additional perspectives that have been suppressed by the dominant hegemony (dominant political or cultural group)
- Postmodernists BELIEVE objective ideas are reflections of the dominant groups in society, thus all forms of authority are suspect
- Postmodernists BELIEVE all objective ideas are untrue because there is no truth
- Postmodernists USE subversion, humor, and irony to communicate
5. Designer’s Cookbook: Influences + Lineages (30 min)
The graphic styles and visual vocabulary from postmodern design and culture has had significant influence on the field of design. These influences still linger in the work we see today.
Take Notice: As we explore the next steps in our design lineage, let’s take a look at some of your influences in your Design Cookbook posts. See if you can find the influences from the postmodern aesthetic?
When examining your influences, do any of the following apply?
- Technological Change
- Authorship vs Anonymity
- Universal vs Personal/Cultural/Political
- Social Responsibility vs Social Detachment
The goal here is for you to discover your own aesthetic lineages. Why are you drawn to one visual aesthetic over another? What are the ingredients (influences) that make up your visual style?
Week 13 Agenda Checklist
Below are all of the tasks, big and small, for this week. The due date is Wednesday, 11:59 pm before our next Thursday class. Timely completion of these tasks will contribute to your success in this course.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
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