In "The master's tool will never dismantle the master's house” Audre Lorde vindicates that to beat the patriarchy, we can't use its systems of oppression - referring to the white feminists that perpetuate racism and homophobia by not acknowledging the differences between them and non-white and/or poor women. In 2021 Ece Canli reappropriated this title when giving a lecture called "Monsterizing the Master's Tools" where she points out design as a master's tool. She enumerates seven ways how design is/was complicit in segregation and seven suggestions on how to "monsterize" (reinvent) them. One of the "monsterizing" ideas is "Embracing the monsters tools" - suggesting the use of methods regarded as substandard (...) and that challenge the norms. Anti-design is an example of this. It is an inevitable and essential response to the necessity of contradicting the standard euro-centric design rules that follow the same modernist and minimalist ideas - “the master’s tools”. the tricoutouses of the french revolution Anti-design is the proof of how excessive design rules and designer identity move in different directions - the more the rules, the less the space for creativity and vice-versa. The minimalistic design makes it difficult for the designer to have a voice and stand out, diminishing the value of his work and turning it into just a commercial element of an over-consuming society. When I think about anti-design and its visual revolutionary impact, I think about zine making. There are no rules for zine-making. It might include images, narratives, confessions, collages, stickers, or even a teabag, it is decidedly informal. Its making process is rooted in a DIY (do-it-yourself) tradition, it is a purely creative pursuit, an expression of the DIY ethic “a specific dimension of feminist expression centering upon grassroots politics and autonomous cultural production” (Kempson 4). They are a “safe space” - a way for people to share their voices, a vehicle for participatory learning, and for critical thinking development as it can be about anything. Similar to Anti-Design, zines emerged from a necessity to have a space to share and speak in a time where all medium was for the mainstream culture. They are both tools to dismantle the “master’s tool”. The Riot Grrrl Zine collection
Anti-Design is deeply inspired by the zine-making spirit and aesthetics. That is visible, for example, in today’s website making. It’s easy to make a website using templates, but for creative practitioners, whose web page is a way of presenting themselves and their work, having one that looks like a “white walls and bright lights” art gallery might not be what they wish. During this year I’ve been seeing really amazing websites that carry the DIY ethics before-mentioned - they allow creative practitioners to expose their work as they want, giving themselves an identity and a way to stand out from other websites. I believe that Anti-Design exists a long long time ago but only recently it was seen as a movement, and like any other movement, it is spreading and becoming more present in people’s lives. But one thing that I find amazing about it is that it incentives people to follow their creativity, to be more DIY. There is amazing Anti-Design and I believe that for the next years there will be even more unbelievable good Anti-Design as it is a safe space for creativity. Maria Quintas https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=m_YcZOxZyb8&ab_channel=YaleSchoolofArt "The master's tool will never dismantle the master's house” Audre Lorde 1985 https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/the-new-wave-of-anti-design-magazines-will-question-your-sense-of-taste-and-thats-a-good-thing/ "Zine-Making as Feminist Pedagogy" Kimberly Creasap https://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughts/coping-withirrelevance
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sarah temple
1/7/2022 12:44:08 am
Excellent longer look at the subject Maria and important insight into the smashing of patriarchal rules. Long live principals of participation, celebration of personal experience + expression and critical thinking from a feminist stand-point. Post-Design with Post-Modernism? (Hoffmann + Stake) I hope that your entire developing practice might explore and identity the Mistresses Tools?
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