Design Issues

Yun Wa Chan

Foster begins with the discussion of the idea of Art Nouveau “total design” and aesthetics vs. utilitarianism. He believes that currently the idea of total design is visible within our society but not in the way previous artists had expected. The concept of design has been integrated with almost all aspects of life. For example, Foster mentions designer surgery, drugs, museums, children, etc. All of this is tied to consumerism and the creation of sign exchange value. The idea of design is linked with sign exchange value, not use value, and this encourages people to consume the commodities. Because consumers need to be constantly encouraged to consume, design becomes inflated to produce desire.

Foster believes that contemporary design does return to the Art Nouveau idea of total design, but in a more harmful way. Presently, design is used as a tool of consumerism. Design focuses on aesthetics and the creation of sign exchange value to increase profits. This causes people to see their identity as a product of design. They choose products that seem to speak to their individuality, but are really just mass produced and generic. They begin to see their own worth and the worth of others through sign exchange values. This is similar to Loos’ story about the poor little rich man. By having everything in his life designed by someone else, he traps himself into a category. In a way, he is being defined by the designer and the products. So in the end, he loses the urge for living, striving, developing, and desiring because everything has already been prepared for him and he has no “running room” left.

Foster states that the three main reasons for the inflation of design are 1) the perpetual profiling of the commodity or its constant tweaking 2) the replacement of the product by the package 3) increased centrality of media industries to the economy. Foster seems to be describing consumerism’s constant creation of desire through the creation and dissemination of sign exchange value, especially through the media.

Biotechnology is an example of total design because it tries to bring together all aspects of life and art/design, but it is usually driven by capitalistic or individualistic motives. The products or services, such as surgery, reproductive technologies, etc. are seen as ways to improve oneself. This is also driven by the creation of culture and trends that encourage people to improve themselves in certain ways. Ultimately, these efforts are driven by people who want to profit from them. It is also true for genetically modified food, nanotechnology, etc. because these technologies bring in profits, which drives the inflation of design. While some technologies may be beneficial to people, the problem is that their creation are being driven by profits instead of a genuine desire to help people. Others are not so beneficial, so desire is often generated through design. This also generates the desire for new and improved products, which also inflates design.

Providing culture with running room seems to be a difficult task. It is important for designers to realize what they’re doing and how they affect culture. They should avoid the creation of sign exchange value to convince people to consume. Designers should work on projects that are informative, educational, and beneficial. For example, subRosa’s projects aim to inform the public and encourage them to question their everyday beliefs and practices.
 

Kevin Casanzio

After reading the Design and Crime article, I visited Bruce Mao’s website -Massive Change. What interested me the most was that the site raises some very important questions about the dangers and benefits of DNA restructuring. Genetically altered foods can have a huge effect on health issues dealing with new breeds of allergies. While at the same time genetically altered plants can reduce the need for pesticides, which are damaging to the environment. Negatively, new weed varieties can threaten crops due to their new high resistance to pesticides. Also, Food distribution can be greatly improved with GM crops by using less land for growing and extended the foods shelf life. However, GM crops can be patented and will make it too expensive to distribute to third world countries where it is needed the most. It seems that every positive effect has a negative effect that stems out of it. SubRosa’s studies on new repro-technologies all seem to have a positive outcome on reproduction. This advance in technology can significantly change the way humans reproduce positively and negatively. The power of these ideas not only lies on politicians but design strategies too. On the Massive Change website, it shows that the US is on the top part of the Human Development Index giving US designers more power than ever.
Designer’s responsibilities are also changing. Brand identities that Bruce Mau works on go beyond multi-media. He integrates interiors, architecture, signage, print, and web applications all into one environment. These aesthetics correspond to the ideas of 1920’s Art Nouveau where every aspect of the space is integrated. The article mentions that the image-products have a higher sign exchange value than the worth value. Image retention can also play a big role in designing an identity environment. The consumer retention of just the logo is not good enough any more. People have to be drawn in, and given a unique feel of the store environment. The article stated that the world of ‘total design’ was perfected by the Bauhaus movement, and everything after was a commercial knock-off. I cant help but to agree, especially when you can go into Target stores and buy a complete Todd Oldham dorm room collection to complete the pseudo college experience of glitter pillows and funky alarm clocks. These modern products are not marketed for their object value, they are more of an image to be manipulated and reconsumed. The writer of the article described this as a second industry or ‘political economy of design.’ Either which, designers like Bruce Mau have focused on more global issues of design that seem to have a greater good of spreading more important information.
 

David Bellari


Design is everywhere one looks. Someone once designed everything you come in contact with. All of these products and designs contain sign exchange value as well as a standard usage value. One would think that the usage value of a product would be more important than the sign but that is not the case. People buy products for their appeal, its look, its status symbol, and its persona. Thee characteristics push the consumer into desiring the product, which in turn creates a push for further design. Design for desire.
Most design today is focused around consumerism. Many designers work to create desire for a product and in return generate a profit for that company. The problem is these designers lose touch with themselves and their individual ideas by limiting themselves to a generic product. Designers themselves become generic and lose their identity in a sea of others doing the same.
There are three main reasons for Fosters ideas. He talks of constant change or tweaking, the replacement of the product by the package, and the increased importance of the media industry due to the economy. He explains that consumerism creates desire with the help of the media.
Biotechnology fits into this because it is the process of creating even more desire through means that are not natural. Biotechnology brings together life and art driven by capitalistic motives. It is a way to bring design to the previously undesignable. The design associated with Biotechnology is supposed to show the consumer that they can benefit from these technologies. The underlying goal of these new technologies is not to help people, it is to create a profit. It is a fresh, new area for total design to obtain. It is the idea of the new which generates the inflation of design.
Designers should work on projects for their own self. They should utilize their own motivation and drive to persuade the viewer with their own beliefs of ideas. Create design not for the exchange value but for themselves. There is more room in the world of design for educational and informative work.
 

Brigid Gallagher


Basically Foster is relating the all-over art nouveau from a century ago to our current all-over "designed life," in which products stand for images, images stand for "lifestyles" and we stand for the prepackaged "lifestyles" that have been created for us. "Reality" is created for us in a world where our desires are also created for us. We wouldn't know what we want or what is good for us unless we are told by the media. We look to design to tell us what is safe, "cool", "new", what will make our lives easier, what we cannot live without!
Driving the inflation of design is the constant profiling of the commodity, packages replacing the product, and the increased centrality of media industries to the economy. In this sense, biotechnology relates to Foster's ideas about the current state of design in "a retooling of the economy around digitizing and computing, in which the product is no longer thought of as an object to be produced so much as a datum to be manipulated- that is to be designed and redesigned, consumed and reconsumed." Genetically modified foods, reproductive technologies, plastic surgery, etc. are being approached today with an "If you can dream it we can make it happen" attitude, surrounded by widespread controversy in these areas about "playing god", and the harmful effects vs. the benefits of these manipulations.
I cannot think of a good way to "provide culture with running room", as I think that the way design and the media have made people think is now like an infectious disease. It is everywhere, we cannot escape it. Kids especially, but people in general are all about "I want, I want, I want!" Our lives are very oversaturated with commodities to have and the sign systems they create and our lifestyles to uphold. The rise of attention deficit disorder in my opinion, is a direct result of this overstimulation, and each new thing creates a desire for more or bigger or better. If you can have nothing but the best at the mall or by mail-order online, why can't you also have the best looking modified foods, a designer baby, or your dream face?
 

Kelli Dochstader

First and foremost, the article that stood out to me the most was the online article that talks about China crowning the first ever "Miss Plastic Surgery." While I am not against this idea of surgically modifying one's looks, I feel it is rather ridiculous to honor and reward such a thing. ( I also think that standard beauty pagents are a waste of time as well.) However, it does seem to bring home the point that nearly everyone and everything can be redesigned.
The Art-Nouveaux of the past that Foster talks about has been replaced in this era by something even beyond what designers then could have imagined. Everything from designer bodies to designer foods and designer drugs can be created, all due to the advancement in biotecnologies. However, as convienient as it may be, some of these abnormal changes have been known to cause diseases (possibly a link in the rise of cancer rates?) and and eventually cause more problems than they may be worth.
I think many people may need to take a step back and think about where all this designer living may take us. Our parents and the generations before them all lived successful lives. While biomedical technology has the potential to help millions, is a facelift or cloning your deceased pet really making an impact on the world? I feel that all the advancement in technology has goes overboard, and instead of focusing on the aspects that could really help all the citizens of the world, it has taken on a more frivolus aspect... choosing what our babies will look like, cloning living things... I think that by messing with nature, we will end up creating more problems than there originally were, and then the next advancements in biotech will have to bail us out, creating an endless cycle.
 

Steve Voutsinas

Contemporary design can be defined from the text as consumerism. "It delights in postindustrial technologies, and it is happy to sacrafice the semi-autonomy of architecture and art to the manipulations of dsign. Moreover, the rule of the designer is even broader than before: it ranges across very different enterprises(from Martha Stewert to Microsoft), and it penetrates various social groups." Foster is basically saying that contemporary design does indeed have traces of Art Nouveau, but at the same time its very different because of our "consumerist world." He even states that everything from jeans to genes are regarded as so much design, and it's so true.
He gives three reasons for why this happened. Constant changing of life, how the package has replaced the product, and the media industry flourishing because of the economy. I think that all 3 of these are very true, especially the idea about the package being more important then the product. I can think of so many products that have a really intense and appealing package for a ordinary object. It is what people notice first and a lot of people buy things because of the package.
Biotechnology relates to this current start of design, because just like what Foster said about genes. You can design yourself with plastic surgery, design what you want to eat with genetically modified foods, or even design how your baby will look. It's all about the appeal of looking good, and many people feel this need, and by making these technologies avaliable, it means a big pay day for the industries providing these services. It follows the same idea of having a wonderfully done package for a not so wonderful product. It's like stepping stones, and it makes me wonder what could possibly come next.
There is absolutely no way we can "provide culture with running-room". We have literally dug the hole too deep now. Once we are accustomed to ceratin things, there is no way it can change. It seems that there is no need for a informational design, if its not selling something. It is all about what people want, and giving it to them to make a profit. It is too late to go back especially because of the latest technologies with designing how your baby will look. People will always just want more, and more, and more, until ultimately they are happy, but this happiness seems to be never-ending.
 

Alyssa Crick

The Art Nouveau movement created a style that Adolf Loos criticized in an essay titled "Ornament and Crime" (1908). Hal Foster has taken a new view of this old idea in his chapter, "Design and Crime." While art nouveau strove to ornament every single object with the individuality of the owner, it left that individual with nothing to desire or develop. In today's society, not only objects are designed for the individual, but one's education, family, business, philosophies/ideas, coffee, hairstyle or actual body can become the piece of design. Designers possess an even greater role than in the past by creating the product itself, the desire for it, and even the consumer. "Design is all about desire," and this desire may also be for the image that the design generates, rather than the actual product. Contemporary design attempts to dissolve autonomy by designing for the individual, but this attempt at perfecting every aspect of life ends with autonomy.

Providing our culture with some "running-room" seems to be a near impossible feat. While the media is selling a "style," far too many people are making this designer image into their actual character. Day to day life nearly forces an individual to adopt the ways of the others around, eating the same foods, wearing the same clothes, driving the same cars, thinking about the same things, and still desiring to be more like the people around them. Artists of today have the opportunity of commenting on such autonomy by creating projects like Andreas Gursky's "Untitled V" (shelves of sneakers). The "running-room" that Foster is asking for may only come with more public displays of how consumerism molds us all into the same "individuals."
 

What is the value of " art and design" when commercialism and commodity has swallowed its value by overusing its resource. "There is no resistance in the contemporary designer who finds its delights in the postindustrial technologies, and it's sacrifice to semi-autonomy of acrchitecture and art to the manipulations of design." This world of industitutional clones and commercial knock offs, mass productions have grown through seduction and desire from the motivation of economic wealth. Leaving behind the richness of what design was when "art nouveau" was nouveau.

Foster's three reasons as to where contemporary design is today: (1)Design is an infalted package that renders the consumer's attention. (2) The play of what the consumer should desire. (3)The increase centrality of media industries to the economy.


The current state of design reflects on what they think the consumer should want and need.
This artifial idea of what a good life is. To 'design' this idea through another person's knowledge and interpertation. For example the plastic surgery article is really scary in which the idea of what a perfect person should look like determined by a set of people makes me want to puke! This is where society today is going!!! Design itself has become the social construction of how society will be like in the future. AWK!!!

Diane
 

Katty Marte

Hal Foster's "Design and Crime" discusses design and its powerful influence on the development of contemporary culture. The overall idea of Hal Foster's "Design and Crime" is that design has taken a direction in which utalitarianism is put aside and where the trend of increasing consumerism is an more important issue. I understand that Forster believes that design and designers have taken a hypocritical position, because they use their influential power to promote a pre-designed life. The marketing of culture is one the main points expressed in this writing. Foster's critism on design and its intervention in almost all aspects of life is based to the way that this intervention is occuring: The public is being manipulated into purchasing a life and a lifestyle by attacking desire. A product is put together to give us a feeling, and it is resulting quite effective.
The Three main reasons stated in Design and Crime for the agglomeration of design are "The perpetual profiling of the commodity or its constant tweaking, ...the raplacement of the product by the package, ...increased centrality of media industries to the economy.
It is refreshing to see artist like subRosa taking a concious position policed by ethics, morality, rights and wrong. It is also a bit disturbing to think about our position as designers in this society because although designers can exercise their power to communicate and influence about relevant, mind waking issues, many of us will see ourselves forced to choose between how our work will affect the masses.
 

TRAVIS APTT

I found the text by Foster to be incredibly relevant in true in all the situations he mentioned. It’s one of those things where you don’t realize until you break the surface of it. Fosters position on contemporary design is an interesting one. He basically states that everything is a product of a design in one way or another. Look around your room… everything has gone through a similar process which involves research and thought. If you’re in a dorm room everything is designed specifically for that. If you want to take it to a deeper level you can basically say that our lives are run by these so called “designers”. They know what we need how much we need of it and therefore produce when we require it. As of late I feel that it has gotten to a ridiculous level what started as designing homes or furniture has recently turned into “your sagging face (designer surgery) or lagging personality (designer drugs), your historical memory (designer museum) or DNA future (designer children).” The word design is used so freely these days… should it be? As stated by everyone else already The Three main reasons stated in Design and Crime for the agglomeration of design is "(1)The perpetual profiling of the commodity or its constant tweaking (2)the replacement of the product by the package (3)increased centrality of media industries to the economy. I enjoyed this article and views. Makes me look forward to predetermined future that I will design.
 

-Nicolette Kulba-

“Design and Crime” examines how design is an all-encompassing aspect of life itself, in the sense of both everyday functioning and the way it affects one’s life as a whole. Foster points out how design underlies an almost infinitely wide variety of products and methods “from Martha Stewart to Microsoft”.
- “Contemporary design delights in postindustrial technologies and is happy to sacrifice the self-autonomy of architecture and art to the manipulations of design.” In the past, as Foster specifically points out with the ideas of Art Nouveau, the objective was to “win back” the forms that were seemingly lost to the Industrial Revolution – much like that which was seen with the Arts and Crafts movement. However, most of today’s design embraces the possibilities that technology brings, opening up a whole new world of ideas.
- “The package all but replaces the product.” In our society of instant gratification, first impressions mean everything, and poor branding for a product can be suicide without significant other reasons for purchase – for example, Carmex lip balm has horribly outdated packaging, but continues to sell because it is well-known for being an excellent aid for cold sores and extensively chapped lips, but a new product along the same lines that is branded poorly is unlikely to start beating it out sales-wise because there is no drive for the Carmex-using demographic to switch to something that does not catch their eye or have some sort of external appeal.
- “The increased centrality of media industries to the economy.” The “culture of marketing” – and vice versa – have a strong bearing on what sells and what doesn’t. If this were not true, corporate sponsorship, advertising, and branding would have no reason to exist.
Biotechnology, then, is a rather extreme extension of how design applies to every detail of life and functioning. It all comes down to control, and ultimately, once again, authorship. Some of the possibilities are more innocuous, entailing fewer overall consequences, such as “designer food”: the world has not been turned upside-down by the fact that scientists have discovered a way to grow larger strawberries, contributing to agriculture efficiency, reduced prices, and consumer satisfaction. However, some consequences tend to run much deeper, as in the case of “designer children”: what comes of allowing people to carefully choose sperm donors, prescriptions, and the like? This also becomes a question of morals and ethics, reaching far beyond “what can we do?” into “what should we do?”
As a designer, I think that one way to “provide culture with running room” would be to concentrate on deepening the breadth and variety of options available, rather than redesigning what we already have. The exact same thing packaged and marketed eighteen different ways does little to further societal and technological advancement.
 

Kristina Nosal

Foster is relating the all-over art nouveau from the last century to the new all over "design". Anything and everything is becoming art. The rule of the designer has become even broader than before, it can range from plastic surgery, designed children (DNA manipulation), to designed personalities (with drugs).
I read that article, "China crowns first ever Miss. Plastic surgery", that was the most rediculous thing i heard of. I can see the values of plastic surgery, for example someone gets in a car accident and they need their face reconstructed. But when you get to the point where people are being rewarded for the amount of plastic surgery they had done to them, even at very young ages, what is happening to this world? Where have peoples values gone. We can basically create who we want to be by various drugs and surgerys. Pretty soon everyone will look and act the same, we will be a world of clones...maybe not to that extent but still.

One major thign that i find interesting about design that was brought up in Fosters essay was about how design creates desire. Isnt that true! You could make the most rediculous item, but if you advertise it correctly and build it up to be amazing, everyone will want it. Every year there is that one toy that everyone will pay just about anything to get for their child for christmas. You play with it for all of 30 minutes then its thrown to the side, ex Furbies.
If you create a great looking package, whats in it jsut doesnt seem as important anymore. We as designers must learn how to create that desire to be successful.
 

Jessica Young

Foster in discussing the idea of design and crime from my understanding as directly regarding the dissembly of design or the idea of anti-ornamental. In modern design there is a blatent attempt to disassemble the use of decor and replace this with a less ornate and more distinct emphasis on the functional aesthetic. This removal of the ornamental aspect of design left room for the concentration of the everyday utilitarian combined with the aesthetic. This loss of cultural constraints in everyday design left open many aspects of developing and designing for future "Life." This idea of open ended area's of design were tossed around like stated in the reading between, "jeans to genes."
The reasoning behind these broad ranges of enterprise are the commodity and self-interpellation, as well as brand equity, and finally the increased centrality (access) of media to the economy. These reasons are about developing and desiring by both consumer and producer.
The idea of design being open to all aspects of utilitarian and ornament relates to biotechnology in design today in the situatedness of self-government and its indiscretion. The idea of design is all about desire and the future of living. The future of living is dependent on striving, developing, and desiring. Individualism drives much of the attractiveness of biotechnology and the attempt of the modern design of the artist as engineer, or author as producer.
I think as a designer that right now our culture is left with much running-room. I feel that it is difficult to tie aspects of our culture together such as religion and science, or morals and art, and therefore feel that cultural running-room is necessary for growth in a culture which strives for a liberal kind of subjectivity. It seems necessary as stated by Loos and Kraus, that there shall need to be "distinctions" and "running-room" of proposed differences and provisional spaces. Certain elements of our society can not mix and will not ever be absolute.
 

Evan Bussiere

Foster’s article draws a parallel from the art nouveau movement to today’s reality of designed lifestyles and customized living circumstances. A new reality has been progressively designed for us in which we have been divided into demographics and buying trends. This constant monitoring of consumer spending by marketing groups has refined the designing process to a point where designers design for future trends that they will generate to follow the predetermined path or cycle of taste and desire. Foster’s three main reasons for his position are:
1• the conglomeration of media outlets to form mega-corporations that encompass many areas of consumer’s desires.
2• the constant updating of information to determine consumer wants and desire’s
3• the replacement of the product by the packaging (which has an ironic flip-flop in the music industry as the consumer has broken away from the traditional consumer path to just want the final product irregardless of the packaging. Napster for example.)

The world of biotechnology relates to Foster’s ideas in that the potential market for this technology will hinge on the inherent desires the public will develop as they discover all the possibilities of areas like nanotechnology. Magazines, news programs and other media outlets can cultivate any type of desire if there is enough development time.

How could a designer provide culture with running room? It will take a complete dismissal of trend research and marketing forecasting. Some products and trends develop independent of all preconceived notions of popularity. Take the creation of jazz music in the south during the early part of this century and the combination of creativity and social aspects that led to its development as the first “American” style of music.
 

Eda Karahan

Foster talks about how design creates desire...I've never thought about it like that, but it is SO true! As long as the product or service is advertised/marketed the right way, its golden. There are a lot of products/services out there that if you were to just see the product you wouldnt think twice on purchasing it, or "desiring it" because it's probably a piece of crap, but once you take that same item and do it the right way, it seems like the best thing in the world, and everyone NEEDS to have it. Now a days, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING has become art, actually I take that back, because if you look back and think about Duchamp and his fountain, he took an ordinary urinal and flipped it upside down and named it "The Fountain". Now if he could do that and call it art, then anyone can take anything and do the same. The extent of this is endless, and sometimes I am disappointed in the art world because a lot has been lost. The appreciation for art, its meaning, and its worth is almost gone, there are artists out there that want to be appreciated for all the work htey put into their work, then there are ones that do things like "The Fountain" and become famous for that and they did NOTHING. Sometimes I think everyone should take a step back and look at art as the whole and maybe we'll get back the appreciation it is meant to have.