Critical Design: To challenge assumptions and conceptions about the role objects play in everyday life.
Critical Design uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life. It is more of an attitude than anything else, a position rather than a method. There are many people doing this who have never heard of the term critical design and who have their own way of describing what they do. Naming it Critical Design is simply a useful way of making this activity more visible and subject to discussion and debate.
‘Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) foregrounds the ethics of design practice, attempts to reveal con- cealed values and agendas, and explores alternative design values, forms, and representations’ (Leon Karlsen Johannessen)
To me, from research into critical design and the lecture from Theo, it was clear that critical design is something which has been present in many of our briefs throughout university without us specifically noticing that it was critical design. Challenging certain conceptions or narrow assumptions is something which we do constantly throughout the course.
The main point for me is the idea that critical design is the opposite of affirmative design, which looks to reinforce the status quo, designing for “cat food, stomach powders, detergent..” (Ken Garland, First Things First Manifesto, 1964) and other products which are all advertisement or commercial based, looking to make money from selling products to consumers.
Critical design, to me, looks more at challenging these very conceptions and creating your own viewpoint or attitude towards a particular topic. It’s also interesting to me that critical design tends to challenge these assumptions or attitudes without particularly proposing answers or ways out of it. It takes critical positions towards particular topics rather than giving a method to help.
Polluted Water Popsicle – Hung I-chen, Guo Yi-hui, and Cheng Yu-ti
An example is Polluted Water Popsicle which took water from 100 locations in Taiwan and freezes them.
The project is intended to spread awareness about water pollution and its deep effect on our world’s population. The 100 pieces, which also included designed wrappers, was nominated for the Young Pin Design Award and featured in the New Generation of Design Exhibition this May at the Taipei World Trade Center.
The project takes the name of critical design through the way it challenges the theme of water pollution by showing viewers the rubbish and dirt which resides in the water around Taiwan, illustrating the problem, without proposing ways in which to tackle it. It works well in the sense that it acts as a hash reality and a shock to the system, questioning peoples decisions and approaches to water pollution and climate change.
Another example is Appocalypse, taking something common to us in the iPhone and apps, putting an apocalyptic spin on it and take a very cynical approach to it, giving a satirical opinion on what each of the apps really means and what it really adds to your life. Each of the apps is named after their true nature.
Again, the project doesn’t look to create a proposal to the problem or solve it, it merely poses the question of our reliance on our phones and these applications and asks why do we need them and what do they really add to my life? It poses the question and sparks a conversation without proposing a solution.
Another example of critical design from a purely graphic design standpoint is Anja Kaiser, a designer who investigates feminism within design as her main focus, creating a range of projects based around this idea. Her masters project Sexed Realities — To Whom Do I Owe My Body? remixes and collages references to the human body and places them alongside strong typographic elements in order to creating a confusing sense of hierarchy which plays with the idea of feminism in the modern society.
Again, Kaiser looks to point out ideas of feminism using strong typographic design to do so, asking questions about the way women are seen in terms of hierarchy in everyday life and pointing out the idea that women are still victims of sexism.
One of the main points to notice from the above examples and the many others shown in Theo’s presentation and online, is the way in which they notify the audience of problems and challenging these ideas, without proposing solutions. It isn’t a branding project which looks to market a product to the viewer, its a design or a project which illustrates a particular problem and very clearly makes the viewer aware of the problem.
Ben Jackson 