Critical Design readings_Mini-task

Vu actively states the importance of critical design in response to social, political, and world issues
There is a growing interest in creative movements that push specific agendas
Problem with CD being perceived as following an agenda is that it has colonialistic connotations.
If critical design turns mainstream, it loses its soul. If you want it to be understood by many people, how can it keep its soul?
She shows different objects, each taking an object we already know, and flips it on its head with a specific message.
These objects are trying to make an impact, rather than other products that just exist in the world.
Makes the invisible visible – Highlights social issues, opens discourse, says “This is problematic, why is it?”
Question present conditions

About taking objects we already know and flipping them on their head, while retaining the original function.
More of an idea or attitude than a method for creating
Came From Italian Radical Design of the 1970s
- One of the foundations of critical design
First use of “Critical Design” in Anthony Dunne’s book Hertzian Tales (1999)
What’s it for
- Think outside the box
- Spark curiosity about a topic outside the social norms and creating solutions to those issues
- Create tension between the creator of the design and the audience
Not a movement, can’t be neatly defined
- About Values and attitude, looking at design and imagining “possibilities beyond the narrow definitions of what is presented through media”
Related to:
- activism, cautionary tales, conceptual design, contestable futures, design fiction, interrogative design, radical design, satire, social fiction & speculative design
Biggest Misconceptions:
- That it is negative, jokey, fake, not aesthetical, has no power of changing anything, and is against everything.Critical Design is not art
Critical Design is more disturbing and continuously changing

Critical Design – Jackson McConnell

Judah Mantell