Assignment 9:Politics of Design: the Cold war, modernism + democracy

What kinds of political or ideological messages inform design or the branding of design today? Identify one example and describe in what ways it expresses larger cultural, political, or ideological beliefs.

KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. Sanders first served his fried chicken in 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression at a gas station he owned in North Corbin, Kentucky. Why the fast food restaurants can be such popular just in this half century? Because it expresses the cultural: The country grows at a fast pace, people life style become much busier than before. 

That is only one reason why it can be such successfully. Our world need to around with the symbolic. An example of design that gives us ideological message to inform design today is the KFC logo --- Sanders’ smile. 

Sanders sold the entire KFC franchising operation in 1964. Also the chain has been sold lots of times. But the company will never change their logo. Because its already come into people’s mind. Sander had his joke about ‘His smile is the good trademark’

IBM change its logo try to give the more meaning and moderism to themselves. Such the same idea with KFC.

 Figure 1: KFC logo

Reference:

Retrieved at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFC 

Pavitt, J. (2008). Design and the Deomocratic Ideal, Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970 (pp. 72-91) London: V&A Publishing.

Assignment 8 Modernism:standardisation,rationalisation,and the search for the universal

Do you agree or disagree with the position that design is a result of “function x economy”? Do you think design today an ‘art’ or a ‘science’? Should it be one or the other, or can it be both?

Hannes Meyer argued that design is a product of “function x economy” aligning design with a specific model driven by technologies and manufacturing potential.

I agree some of idea about Meyer. Let us think about past, the design need to function x economy to help them. These based on the that fact, so something to be consider design. It might be serve a employer or owner but it just means of technology. László Moholy-Nagy stated that“Before the machine, everyone is equal…There is no tradition intechnology, no consciousness of classor standing. Everybody can be themachine’s slave or master.”As time goes by, design has been every parts of our lifestyle. Just we did not notice it.

I think art and science can be both used into design. Because from the side of art, can show people more savour taste about their life. But by the economic times it also changes human behavior. So we need to create some good idea help our busy life become more and more efficiently and comfortable. ‘The new art has brought forward what the new consciousness of time contains: a balance between the universal and the individual.’(p.167)

References：

Raizman, D. (2004). The First Machine Age in Europe, in History of Modern Design (pp. 166-191) New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.

Assignment 7

In this week’s lecture we discussed the concept of the “symbolic universe” as a cultural “structure of legitimation” capable of organizing the social world as comprehensible and connected. The structure of the symbolic universe then, places the individual in a known and knowable space. Such social structures are critical for societies in transition. Can you identify the creation of any “symbolic universe” today (or in recent years)? How might media and design be implicated in the construction of these social universes today?

An example of a “symbolic universe” today (or in recent years) is the search engine. Like Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in internet search, cloud computing, advertising technologies, and search engines. Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California. By 1996 usage of the word internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web. “Symbolic universes are created to provide legitimation to the created institutional structure. Symbolic universes are a set of beliefs “everybody knows” that aim at making the institutionalized structure plausible for the individual”(The social construction of reality, P.Berger,T.Luckmann, 1966)

I believe that this is an example of a “symbolic universe” because it’s creating a new way of people thinking. People used to learn by someone else or reading book to get knowledge if they do not know something. The search engine give us great opportunity to get using it. The future will be the internet. The internet, this new media has affected this social universe

Reference: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Construction_of_Reality

Assignment 6

In this week’s reading Benjamin argues, "To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense” Do you agree or disagree? Do you think there is a role for the ‘authentic’ in an age of digital design and manufacture?

Benjamin argues “to an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense”

I agree with there is a role for the “authentic” in an age of digital design and manufacture. The same reason likes the work of art. The example that I choose is Steven Paul Jobs. He is a famous former CEO & chairman at Apple Inc. He becomes so famous and successfully because he is a unique person, and he did such a great work in this period of time. “Even the most perfect reproduction of artwork of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” From these sentences we can see the replica does not have the element: time and space. So that is the reason why the aura, the original thing is so wonderful. I think to make this age the work of art can be original, it also depend on the time and space. The digital technology like cameras may be used by the famous photographer to the normal people. Some things that might copy by the original, but you cannot reach the original’s competency. Because it success can't be reproduced.

Reference: 

http://www.allaboutstevejobs.com/being/being.html

Benjamin, W. (1992) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (pp. 211-244 ) in Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn. London: Fontana.