Archive for the ‘Social Capital’Category

Emory Douglas: Created a Culture of Resistance through Design

Emory Douglas: The Art of The Black Panthers from Dress Code on Vimeo.

Recently the AIGA honored Emory Douglas with a Gold Medal; Douglas  is best known for his political posters, and as the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party during the 60s’ through the 80s.’ In high school, I had a collection of Black Panther Newspapers—I kept them in my school locker, so I could quickly grab them to share with my classmates in art class. In looking back his highly charged graphic drawing profoundly influenced my art making and thinking in high school, and college. Douglas drawings also inspired the mindsets of numerous black artists and graphic designers during the height of the Black Power movement.
featured on Hyperallergic by Allison Meier on June 9, 2015

“Art has relevancy, whether it’s to exploit you or pacify you, or to enlighten and inform you. It’s a language, that’s the power of it,” Emory Douglas, the artist who drove the graphic identity of the Black Panthers, says in a new short documentary. In just under eight minutes, Emory Douglas: The Art of The Black Panthers follows the 1966 rise of the black political group to its 1980s decline in the context of the newspaper and poster work by Douglas. (read more)

 

6a011571160e4a970c0120a4fdd1ec970b-800wi Panther Newspaper BP71_02_20c.jpg.png

10

06 2015

SPARE BEATS: Happenings Near You

Right in step with Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, the Independent Fashion Bloggers  Conference takes place in NYC from 08- 12 February at Milk Studio. Want to know what’s next in fast paced landscape of fashion blogging then join IFB, they’ll bring together some of the best and brightest personalities in the fashion industry to discuss the issues, challenges and exciting future of fashion blogging and social media.

GLIDE’12: Consumed is accepting CFP abstract submissions for virtual conference to be held 07 November 2012. Be part of this major partnership with the GLIDE team and Iridescent, the Icograda Journal of Design Research. Audrey Bennett, will serves as guest editor, she’s the founder of GLIDE, and Associate Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.  For more about GLIDE click: http://glide12.org/

In need of some cultural nourishment, then head over to SVA MFA Design Criticism Spring Lecture series, starting next week February 14, the Spring line-up jumps off with an intimate Q&A with The New York Times’ newly appointed architecture critic Michael Kimmelman.  For more information on D-Crit’s lecture series click D-Crit.

Design Indaba: 29 FEBRUARY 2012 – 4 MARCH 2012 Interact/Design Indaba 2012. This year’s venue includes the Design Indaba Conference and Simulcast from 29 February to 2 March 2012, and Design Indaba Expo from 2 to 4 March 2012.

 

08

02 2012

Black Studies in Art & Design Education Conference

Coming in March
Black Studies in Art & Design Education Conference at the The New School

March 26th-27th 2011. Two Day Conference on interdisciplinary conference on Black Studies in Art and Design Education, featuring speakers from art, fashion. architecture, urban planning, art and design history and theory. Organised by Coco Fusco and Yvonne Watkins, Parsons The New School for Design, New York. Presenters include: Craig Wilkins, University of Michigan; Mabel Wilson, Columbia University; Noel Mayo, Ohio State; Carol Tulloch, Chelsea College of Art and Design; Jennifer Gonzales, North Carolina State University; Michele Y. Washington, School of Visual Arts; Kim Piner, School of the Arts Institute of Chicago; Noliwe Rooks, Princeton University; Clyde Johnson MICA are amongst the list of designers, cultural and design critics, and educators presenters.

The conference is intended to be a forum for reflection on the troubling gap between the notable significance of Black creativity in global culture and its lack of presence in art and design education. The goal of the conference is to elaborate and assess strategies of reform that would diversify curricular offerings and thus improve education for all art and design students while simultaneously generating a more supportive environment for Black students and faculty.

Scholars and practitioners in Fine Arts, Industrial Design, Fashion Design, Architecture, Urban Planning and Art and Design History and Theory will engage in an interdisciplinary discussion about the challenges involved in rethinking  curriculum, engaging with historically disenfranchised communities, and recruiting and retaining Black students and faculty. The conference will also feature two keynote speeches by prominent members of the fields under  figures whose efforts have been central to diversifying the many fields that comprise art and design studies. Panels will address the following topics: rethinking art and design theory and history courses in light of the global influence of cultures of the African diaspora; curricular reform in practical courses of art and design; strategies of engagement with black communities; Black student experiences in art and design schools; and the specific challenges of recruiting and retaining Black students and faculty in school of art and design.

photo credit: http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu

GLIDE10: Fabiola Berdiel + Cynthia Lawson Development through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design.

GLIDE10: Fabiola Berdiel + Cynthia Lawson Development through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design presenters brings us up-to-date on Parsons School of Design ongoing mission of incorporating social responsibility in to learning processes as applied to several design disciplines such as product, architecture and more.

One great aspect of Parsons School of Design  program is there hybridity of bringing students together from various disciplines to share information to build stronger coherent knowledge bases. The challenge is instructors function as facilitators, this mode of teaching forces the students to take a more interactive role to immerse themselves fully in there projects, and learn new platforms of studying beyond formal and informal methods of learning.  Students also have the opportunity to acquire primary research through traveling to developing/emerging  countries and explore various modes of practices while interacting with local people,  investigating new materials and methods to enhance new ways of design thinking. This provides the student with practical and hands-on experiences to build a diverse dialog rooted  in social and cultural constructs not available by just sitting in a classroom or surfing the internet.

 

Questions:
I’m curious how the outcomes are measured by the students each semester? When the students interact with other cultures through travels, how does this figure into the collaborative process? How do these other ethnic cultures respond to the presences of your students?

I love the concept of students taking on the role of facilitators as a shared experience with this projects. How does this method evolve from semester to semester? Do the students view themselves as real agents of change? If so what are some of the outcomes?

What are the draws backs of the participatory process in this model of learning?

For more information click on: deed.parsons.edu

GLIDE10: Susana Barreto/Towards a Global Design Taxonomy

Susana Barreto presents her paper on the recent phenomenon of global design targeted at international markets, and the criticism of these scenarios which can create problems as they take a strong hold in the ethical models of international environments. She is vehement about how graphic designers need to move forward in this area and why designers need to develop new models and methodologies for global design markets, and not replicate methods being used by other design disciplines.

Does the keyword global design  bring up issues of buzz words, while ignoring the specificity of cultures they are proposing to develop by lumping people together.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
What does Global Design mean to you?
Do designers need to apply the same techniques practiced by cultural anthropologists or ethnographer’s?

Susana discussion brings forth numerous questions, why are designers quickly latching onto clients seeking to globally expand into new markets?

Is global design another form of corporate colonization?

Susana discusses, the issues surrounding the existence of Darling toothpaste was once called Darkie toothpaste featuring negative stereotype of blackface minstrels.
Why are such ethnic stereotypes still used to sell products?

Let’s not forget Nikes sneaker design featuring the word “ALLAH,” inscribed on the back of the shoes. While Nike assumed they were being hip by there stylishly rendering of the word “Nike” in reality it was “Allah.”

Can you speak about the early 1990s controversial Benetton campaign created by photographer Oliveri Toscani, such as two young girls portrayal of angel and devil, and how these imaged fashioned to sell clothes tended to addressed negative assumptions of races, gender and sexism. Yet, the big questions arose at the time over commerce and fashion?

listens to Susan Barreto’s lecture



GLIDE10: Maria Rogal/Indigenous Design in Maya

Send your questions to GLIDE10 proceeding page

In the US we take a lot for-granted when in comes to access to technology that’s not universally available. For example my friends that teach at University of Federal in  Bahia use PCs over Macs due to cost of hardware.

Discusses her project of working the Mayan indigenous culture to expand there communities to be self-sustaining. This was a collaborative project Maria shares her experiences. Check out  www.design4development.org &www.mariarogal.com.

Technology: (referring to people in rural areas): Mobile phones usage is cheaply available; Families with teenagers own computers, however Internet access is rare due to cost some in rural area use satellite. Text messages are much cheaper; Age distinction with use of computers viewed as a tool for younger people.

Online banking transactions: Online bill paying is not totally embraced by all the people; Trust is a big factor in dealing with banks, ATMS etc.

Open Source resources: People have computers but no money for software; Identify access to free shareware such as google sketch-up.

Design Activist: deeply socially oreientated, involoving a variety of actors in the chain of events.

Working together Maria feels it’s important to use the term partners.

AK Kuxtal Workshop: Access to information is key to expanding knowledge in making products.

Ability to get students to work using unfamiliar technology and new ways of thinking about how to develop their products.

27

10 2010