For the time being, all the cases of anti-design that we can find around us happen to have one characteristic in common: they all stay out of the clutches of capitalism, they are not a belonging of the capital, a commercial weapon. At least this is how it was conceived originally, and how I still see it nowadays, even though it might have been turned into a trend within the paradigms of the market.
We can understand anti-design as a movement in art and design history. Nonetheless, in this context, I conceive it as the opposite to corporation, an antonymous of capitalism. In the most contemporary sense of the concept, I see it as a response to the highly art-directed and designed work which has been produced during the last centuries, but essentially during the last decades, where the aesthetics can be identified under certain guidelines. All this visual content was designed to generate a desire from us towards a product or service. Anti-design is not just a visual reaction to the socially accepted imagery we consume daily, but also a political statement, which challenges the visual culture and languages that have been established during the past times, and the ideas associated to them. Not only taking the consumer’s eye out of their comfort zone, but also training their capabilities to read new formal rules, out of any social nor political references or understanding One of the most rellevant case of study within the cultural and artistic context of Barcelona (Spain) is Sociedad 0. Sociedad 0 is an art, up-cycling design, research and industrial design collective born in Barcelona formed by alumni who graduated at Elisava Design School. Sociedad 0’s work is based on fine artwork, research, design objects, and exhibition making (space design, display structures...). Some of their projects include the space design and art direction for Paloma Wool’s pop up store in New York, and recently the exhibition production of the show ‘Our garden needs its flowers’ at Tecla Sala, in L’Hospitalet, Barcelona. Their work essentially recycles materials found around them, and their productions are characterised by the low budget they have and a touch of humor or irony in the compositions of their objects, usually breaking the aesthetic standards and even structurally, challenging our understanding of spaces, furniture, objects and materials. Their work processes are also translated to their lifestyle. Once the collective graduated, they moved to an empty office floor, living an alternative lifestyle based on community, low resources and a radical position towards economics and politics. Garudio Studiage. 2021. About. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.garudiostudiageshop.com/pages/about-us. [Accessed 6 December 2021]. NEO2. 2020. Sociedad 0: ¿Utopía o realidad?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.neo2.com/sociedad-0-utopia-o-realidad/. [Accessed 6 December 2021]. Widewalls. 2016. The Cultural and Political Role of Design. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/anti-design-italian-movement. [Accessed 6 December 2021]. Wikipedia. 2021. Archigram. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archigram. [Accessed 6 December 2021]. The Art History Archive. 2011. Anti-Design. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/antidesign/. [Accessed 6 December 2021]. Pau Geis
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sarah temple
1/6/2022 07:57:03 am
Pau - convincing mini-thesis that you recognise the beginning of the fall of capitalism and the diminishing heroism of design. A growing suspicion that design induces consumption at the expense of nature (Superstudio 1966) allows anti-design movement to provide the greatest critique of consumer culture ever seen? Long-live the influence of new practices such as Sociedad 0’s and Ma-tt-er - how have they been so slow to emerge? How can radical anti-art direction support this position?
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