Dear Designers. . . Sound Matters

Michael Kimmelman's recent piece on the NY Times' interactive website, "Dear Architects, Sound Matters," suggests that we live in an unusually noisy age:

. . . during the Middle Ages, smell was the unspoken plague of cities. Today it is sound. Streets, public spaces, bars, offices, even apartments and private houses can be painfully noisy, grim and enervating. . . 

Thanks to the site, we hear that the sound of a book page turning can be distracting in the tomb-like Frick Art Reference Library and a baby's cries echo through St Patrick's Cathedral.  But the site also allows you to compare sounds in different spaces;  noise is relative.

And so, it's all the harder to believe that this is a particularly noisy age. Anyone familiar with New York's forgotten sounds  would think twice . . . or should click over to Emily Thompson and Scott Mahoy's website, the Roaring Twenties.  Richly detailed, the site uses historical records to help us recall the loudspeakers, boat whistles,  and street hawkers who populated  the city's raucous soundscape in the 1920s and 1930s.   It reminds us that the twenties were "roaring" for a reason.

Posters book on Design Observer

Thanks to Rick Poynor of Design Observer for listing my Posters: A Global History on his list Top Ten Books of the year. Says Poynor:

"Guffey gives a familiar subject a brand new scholarly treatment, paying close critical attention to the poster’s social history. Anyone with an interest in the medium should read this book."

The Getty Museum's access issues

I sometimes wonder how designers and architects might revisit their work over time.

I'm just back from the Getty Research Institute, which has
stunning views, elegant plazas and a stark modernist facade.  And it also suggests that architect Richard Meier was unaware of issues of access, signage, and wayfinding.

What's up this staircase?  You have to go ahead and climb up to find out. There aren't any signs here. . .

Want to find the easiest access route to  exhibitions, buildings, and accommodations?  Don't even bother looking for the International Symbol of Access, since it's scarcely used anywhere on the premises.

While good signage could certainly help user experience at the Getty, it's clear that Meier himself didn't give the disabled much thought at all.

The museum and institute cover large spaces, the layout relies on staircases to link its sprawling campus, restrooms are spread out, and the entire complex is paved in harsh and unforgiving marble. It is an uncompromising place.

The entire complex seems to have been designed for an adult male, aged 25-45, who is in good physical shape.    The Getty is one of Meier's crowning achievements, and it is unrelenting in its vision. Moreover, it remains largely as he envisaged it some 25 years ago.

But Meier, now an octogenarian, has aged.  He uses a cane.  Perhaps he could not foresee this while young. But I wonder if he's walked through the campus more recently. . . using his cane.

Meier aside, the complex was built before the ADA went into effect in 1990; surely it's time for the Getty to update itself, and join the ranks of other (accessible) art museums worldwide.

How good is a design if the law behind it isn't enforced?

I was pleased last week to talk with the Associated Press and just see their article ("Peppier handicapped symbol gets support, but problems remain") on the new icon of access:
 

Finally, a more nuanced discussion of what a symbol might mean. . . Of course, as a disabled person, my relation to the International Symbol of Access is complex:

"On the face of it, it seems like a really positive step to take," said Elizabeth Guffey, a professor of art and design history at State University of New York at Purchase. "When you start thinking about it more fully, it brings up more questions."

Indeed, I have a great deal more to say about the older symbol, and its usage. I've grown so tired of able-bodied people parking in spots designated for the disabled that I've begun photographing cars I find doing this. This car had no hangtag and was parked (illegally) in the last disabled parking spot at my work. Using my hangtag, I parked in a metered space next to it. When I returned, I got a parking ticket, but this person did not. How good is a design if the law behind it isn't enforced?

An act of rogue design?

The New York Times just published an article the mysterious appearance of Arabic graffiti in the HBO series Homeland.  Appearing in the background of a scene depicting a Syrian refugee camp was graffiti reading "There is no Homeland" and "Homeland is racist."

The producers hired designer Heba Y. Amin (MFA Design, Minnesota) to help transform the set, a Berlin street, into an unnamed Middle Eastern venue. Interesting that the Times called these communications"street art."  When, I wonder, is something "art" and when does it get counted as an act of rogue or subversive "design activism?"

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon success!

Thanks to all the students and librarians who made Purchase College's Wikipedia Art/Design/New media and feminism edit-a-thon such a success. We had roughly 30 people come (fortunately, lots brought their laptops, but even then some ended up having to sit on the floor of our computer lab).

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Wikipedia’s gender trouble is well documented: in a 2010 survey, Wikimedia found that less than 13% of its contributors are female. The reasons for the gender gap are up for debate: suggestions include leisure inequality, how gender socialization shapes public comportment, and the contentious nature of Wikipedia’s talk pages. However, the practical effect of this disparity is not: content is skewed by the lack of female participation, with more articles on notable women missing on Wikipedia in comparison to Encyclopaedia Britannica. This represents an alarming aporia in an increasingly important repository of shared knowledge.


Help address this absence at a Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon . Along with librarian Kim Detterbeck, I am organizing a satellite event (that will focus on design and new media) at Purchase College:


· Date: Saturday, February 1, 2014, 12noon - 6pm. Can’t be there the whole time? No problem. Join us for as little or as long as you like.

· Venue: DMZ Lab 1015B, Purchase College Library, Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577

· Cost: Free

· Participants: The event is open to anyone who wishes to attend. No Wikipedia editing experience necessary; as needed throughout the event, tutoring will be provided for Wikipedia newcomers. Female editors are particularly encouraged to attend.

· RSVP by signing your username here! If you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia, you might try this training module which will help explain a lot of things, including how to add your signature.

· What to Bring: Computers (Macs) are available in the computer lab, though attendees are invited to bring their own laptops (and power cords). Light snacks and drinks will be provided.

· Twitter Hashtag: #ArtAndFeminism

Parody of New York Times Dialect Map

I enjoyed this New Yorker parody of the Times' dialect survey and map.  Their map,  of course, is dull:


But who can resist a survey that starts with this question:

What do you call sweetened carbonated beverages?

a. Soda
b. Pop
c. Coke
d. Dope
e. Horse
f. Fizz-bang
g. Explodo
h. Gentleman’s seltzer
i. Heaven bubbles

Today the Times has an interesting article, "A Makeover for Maps" chronicling the field's growing pains.  Big Data needs new forms (and specialists in color--"no more than 18 colors at once").

How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

I just took this quiz on regional dialect, and it had me pegged, linguistically.  But the big surprise was the elegantly simple interactive map of the United States. Congratulations to Josh Katz, a graphics editor for the New York Times, who developed this quiz and maps based on over 350,000 survey responses collected from August to October, 2013.

For the Rest of Us

Design Observer has just uploaded my blog post "For the Rest of Us,' about design museums, seating, and accessibility.  I used to think I was the only one who got tired at these shows.  It's amazing to read so many comments and experiences on the topic. . .

Knobfeel and Design Criticism

We have long been discussing the nature of design criticism. But I have yet to discover a form of critique quite like Knobfeel.  The project has a tumblr feed: Knobfeel.  Even better, it also has a series of youtube shorts Knobfeel.  All dedicated to describing the texture, shape, and general usability. Without ANY words. Grunts, taps, and dismissive panting, followed by the ubiquitous "meh," can be a form of criticism too.

Creating and Re-creating AIDS Activist Art: The Biography of the Gran Fury Poster: An Introduction to My Project

My MA student Karen Summerfeld is involved in some ground-breaking work on the design activist collective Gran Fury. She will be making her research and interviews available on a new blog:

Creating and Re-creating AIDS Activist Art: The Biography of the Gran Fury Poster: An Introduction to My Project:

The Power of Pink

In keeping with the groundbreaking feminist education program at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles, in 1974 Sheila de Bretteville designed Pink, a meditation on color and feminine identity.  The poster responded to a call for submissions issued by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), which was looking to grow a scholarship fund by asking one hundred of its members, an impressive array of artists, designers, and photographers, to interpret the word “color.” While many chose to exploit the prismatic variety of hue, saturation, and value, de Bretteville chose a single color.  Using thirty-six squares of pink paper, she solicited various women to shape, model and, to some minds, distort their reactions to this furtively fussy and feminine color. 

Times have changed, and pink’s new engagement with major league football is fascinating (if utterly different from the way the color was envisaged in de Bretteville’s poster or even James Jaxxa's 2004 Pink Football).  

The patches of color on cleats, jerseys, wristbands and fields are striking. So much for the color being feminine. Or is it? Pink has a history that transcends as a fighting color (as a variant of red).  But others say it’s about NFL promotion, and the creation of new, consciously feminized clothing that can now be sold with professional teams’ other paraphernalia profits the owners and not cancer research. 

It's hard not to see the spectacle today and not think back to Judy Chicago's Fresno Art Program's Cunt Cheerleaders c. 1971.

Eastern European posters

In my research, I've been struck by the aspirational quality of Eastern European posters.  For instance, the Czech New Wave film director Jiri Menzel  used Larks on a String (krivánci na niti) (1969) a movie set in grim postwar Czechoslavakia,  to critique Pollyannaish posters.  A political satire made during the Prague Spring, the film tells the story of  a labor camp  situated in a vast industrial dump.   Never is the gap between Marxist theory and practical reality  more clear than when a shy couple pose for a state-sponsored newsreel; party functionaries insist that they sit before a brightly colored poster depicting an idealized man and a woman . 

In Poland, Andrzej Wajda’s 1977 film Man of Marble  (Czlowiek z marmuru), explored the underside of socialist propaganda as well. In this case, the film-maker follows the rise and fall of Mateusz Birkut, a humble bricklayer who, in the late 1940s, is mythologized as a model worker. Using newsreel footage of crowded parades, cheerful martial songs, idealized statues (including a marble one mentioned in the film’s title) as well as over life size posters, director Wajda also critiques the official Soviet-style art and the scaffolding that propped it up.  Individuals are submerged behind idealized, constructed images.  The rickety structure girding this system is nowhere more clear than Birkut’s fall from favor, when he loses his state-sponsored apartment and witnesses the massive posters of himself pulled down.  

Here Come The Bronies: No Pony Pushover

While in Seattle last month I stayed at the Marriott and stumbled on one of the most interesting conventions I've seen for a long time.  We knew something was up when we entered an elevator with a twenty-something man with a "My Little Pony" shopping bag.  But, as he and my ten-year-old compared notes, it became clear that this isn't the same little pony at all.  That is, Pinkie Pie, hasn't been killed, off, and Rarity is still the jazziest pony this side of Unicornia.  But the new ponies no longer spend their days planning picnics and finding the perfect gift for each  birthday party. This is my daughter's favorite, Pinkie Pie  (c. 2006) and a My Little Pony storybook featuring her:



Suddenly, however, Rarity has been channeling her inner Bruce Lee and Pinky Pie seems to have revealed a diabolical side to her personality.  Indeed, a quick web search revealed that this is a recent transformation. Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise was changed from bottom up by Lauren Faust.  She helped change and develop the Powerpuff Girls, another gender-crossing TV show. Now she's helped "reboot" the equestrian series as "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."  Little wonder that it is now attracting an adult male, and occasionally female audience (which calls itself "bronies," as in "bro" + "pony").  The change is intriguing in design terms. This is the new Pinkie Pie:
  



Big eyes, big teeth, and fluffy sculpted hair. . . And a major course in assertiveness training ("we little ponies. . . are noooo pony pushovers").  . .

The Universal No in Arizona

Just back from our grand tour of Arizona, California, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska. While in Arizona, I began to notice all the "no gun signs." Most show a handgun crossed out.  Nice example of the "universal no" in action.

I began photographing them, but quickly learned that this was a sure fire way to strike up conversations with anyone nearby. I got tired of it and finally stopped after someone at a swimming pool pulled me aside.  Alas, the photo above isn't mine, but looks pretty typical.

Making Things by Hand

I've just been having some edifying discussions on "making" by hand and its role in design and craft. And now I see that the National Association of Swedish Handicraft Societies (SHR) is branding itself to include DIY, Guerilla actions, Craftivism, Recycling and other strands.  Their new poster is meant to sum this up in a wordless fashion:

Knowing Their Space: Signs of Jim Crow in the Segregated South

“They had black, well it was “colored” back then, on one side and “white” on the other, and we had our place on the bus, we had our water fountains for coloreds and our bathrooms for coloreds . . . we figured that’s just the way it’s supposed to be.” -- Sheila Florence

My article on segregation signage in the American South has just appeared in Design Issues. Although "Jim Crow" signs have a complex history and are examined as a social and semiotic form, I interpret  them differently.  These signs are an early, if incomplete, example of wayfinding signage. Design historians have paid scant attention to Jim Crow signs as artifacts, or as parts of processes or systems, but doing so illuminates important aspects of the signs’ function and appearance, examining how their style made them meaningful and authoritative. Even more important, when recognized as a feature of communication design history, they remind us how often design is used to enforce social regulation.

Nigerian posters

As I finish my book Poster: Paper as Fetish, Enchantment, and Trash in the Twenty-First Century, I've become hooked on the status of West African  posters today.  While I love popular posters that describe current events as well as urban legends, like this description of a secret cult.

 

But I've become especially interested in the heavy posting of election posters. To this end, I was amazed to see a 31 second, this television spot, issued by the Federal Road Safety Corps of Nigeria and posted on You Tube earlier this month, highlighting a safety hazard  has posted a short promo warning of election posters.  For years, pundits decried the ensuing visual mayhem as posters were plastered "indiscriminately on bridges, road medians, major roads and expressways across the state.” But a poster covering a highway safety sign? Note the car crash in the background. 

Electric Dreams

I'm currently writing on retro-futurism and am startled to find a  series of chromolithograph postcards published by the printer Villemard.  Their visions for the future in the year 2000 include flying firemen and teachers who feed books to machines hooked up to  students' brains. Books go into the meat grinder and behold, ideas come out like electricity.