art design café

Pluralism (1992)

2012-05-15T12:55:00Z

Pluralism

Pluralism became highly fashionable in the art world during the 1970s and was regarded by many as the defining characteristic of post-modernism. Borrowed from the discourse of politics where it represents a liberal-democratic ideal, the term "Pluralism" signified a situation in which a number of different styles of art co-existed. No one style or movement was considered dominant, hence the single-strand, progressive development of art model associated with modernism was rejected as erroneous and authoritarian. (In fact, such a description of modern art was very dubious.) The word was also applied to artists and architects who combined several styles in a single work. A number of American art critics discussed the concept of Pluralism in November 1978 at the School of Visual Arts, New York. A symposium entitled "Pluralism in architecture" was also held at the Architecturmuseum, Frankfurt, in October 1988.

Many critics approved of Pluralism because it signified heterogeneous cultures with lots of variety and choice. However, sceptics perceived that diversity could also produce confusion, conflict and relativism. Herbert Marcuse, writing in 1964, viewed it as a sign of repressive tolerance: "The absorbent power of society depletes the artistic dimension by assimilating its antagonistic contents. In the realm of culture, the new totalitarianism manifests itself precisely in a harmonizing pluralism, where the most contradictory works and truths peacefully co-exist in indifference." [One-dimensional man, (Routledge, 1964), pp. 60-1.]

References and further readings
> Charles Jencks. "Introduction: The plurality of approaches". In Modern movements in architecture, (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1973) pp. 11-27.
> John Perreault and others. "Pluralism in art and in art criticism". Art Journal, 40(1/2), Fall-Winter 1980, pp. 377-9.
> William Mitchell. "Critical Inquiry and the ideology of Pluralism". Critical Inquiry. 8(1), Summer 1982, pp. 609-18.
> H. Janne. "Cultural Pluralism". Cultures, 8(3), 1982, pp. 26-37.
> Hal Foster. "Against Pluralism" In Recodings: Art, spectacle, cultural politics, (Port Townsend, Washington, Bay Press, 1985) pp. 13-32.
> Corinne Robins. The Pluralist era: American art 1968-81. (Harper & Row, 1985).
> "Pluralism and its discontents". Critical Inquiry, 12(3), Spring 1986, thematic issue.
> "Art in the age of Pluralism". Art & Design, 4(7 / 8), 1988, (A & D Profile 10).
> Andreas Papadakis (Ed.). The architecture of Pluralism. (Academy Editions, 1989).

Colour Supplements (1992)

2012-05-15T12:05:00Z

Colour Supplements

Colour supplements are magazines illustrated with colour photographs introduced by several "posh" or quality Sunday newspapers in Britain during the 1960s in order to carry features with picture spreads and full-colour advertisements. The first was produced by The Sunday Times in 1962 (editor: Mark Boxer), the second was The Observer in September 1964 (the Sunday Telegraph also started a magazine in 1964 but it was at first published on Fridays). More down-market Sunday newspapers then followed suit. The Colour Sups of the '60s were highly influential in terms of consumerism, fashion, photography, design and lifestyle.

Those of The Sunday Times regularly featured profiles of contemporary artists and art movements which helped to popularize pop and op art. Over the decades advertising became more and more dominant with the result that by the 1980s the colour magazine had become, as one writer put it, "an editorial disaster area".

See also Magazine Art, Op Art, Pop Art, Pop Design.

References and further readings
> Ken Baynes. "The Sunday Times Magazine: News and image". Graphis, 34(196), 1978-9, pp. 98-113.
> "The Sunday Times Magazine". (three articles), Creative Camera, (211), July-August 1982, pp. 616-27.
> C. Osman. "The Colour Supplements". Creative Camera, (231), March 1984, pp. 1296-9.
> Martin Slavin. "Colour supplement living". Ten 8, (23), 1986, pp. 2-25.

Neoism (1992)

2012-05-15T09:05:00Z

Neoism

Neoism is a term used by Monty Cantsin and others. Cantsin was previously Istvan Kantor, b. Budapest 1949. He moved to Montreal in 1977 after meeting David Zack, the founder of a mail art information network in the early '70s. Neoism refers to art and anti-art activities— graffiti, video installations, rituals and musical performances, screenings— taking place in Montreal in 1979. A magazine called The Neo was also published in Montreal from '79 to '80. An international network of Neoists was established which attracted people influenced by the punk movement. Dada / Fluxus-type events and apartment festivals later took place in Baltimore, Berlin, Wurzburg and Ponte Nossa (Italy) featuring work by Cantsin and Pete Horobin. The term "Neoism" appears to signal an unprecedented identification with the idea of newness or novelty associated with avant garde art. Cantsin observed that at first Neoism was so new it didn't have a definition, then it acquired thousands; the best one, he says, "is always the next one".

References and further readings
> Pete Horobin and Pete Below. The Neoist network's first European training camp. (Wurzburg, West Germany, Kryptic Press, 1982).
> The 9th Neoist festival. (Ponte Nossa, Italy, Arte Studio, 1985).
> Monty Cantsin (Ed.). Neoism now. (Berlin, Artcore Editions, 1987).
> Stewart Home. The assault on culture: Utopian currents from lettrisme to class war. (Aporia Press & Unpopular Books, 1988).
> Pete Scott. "Neoism". In Rapid Eye I, Simon Dwyer (Ed.). (Brighton, R E Publishing Ltd., 1989) pp. 48-51.

Commodity Aesthetics (1992)

2012-05-15T08:40:00Z

Commodity Aesthetics

Commodity aesthetics Is an expression employed by the German Marxist philosopher Wolfgang Fritz Haug from 1970 onwards to refer to the aesthetic innovations capitalist firms regularly make in the appearance of their products in order to achieve new sales. Aesthetic revamping of goods, he argues, is all too often accompanied by a deterioration in their basic use-values. He also employs the expression "the technocracy of sensuousness" and contends that "the entire world of useful things is subjugated within its sensuous organization to a permanent revolutionizing which feeds back into the sensuous organization of people themselves." Haug's critique has also been concerned with the role of advertising and packaging in creating "imaginary spaces" around commodities. The question of the relationship between design and commodities was of much concern in the 1980s, witness the theme of the opening exhibition of London's Design Museum in 1989: "Commerce and culture". The commodity status of art was also of interest in the same decade and a number of artists made works of art which commented on the very issue.

References and further readings
> Wolfgang Fritz Haug. Critique of commodity aesthetics: Appearance, sexuality and advertising in capitalist society. (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1986).
> Wolfgang Fritz Haug. Commodity aesthetics, ideology and culture. (New York, International General, 1987).
> John A. Walker. "Artworks as commodity". Circa, (Belfast), (32), January-February 1987, pp. 26-30.
> Sut Jhally. The codes of advertising. (F. Pinter, 1987).

Coventry Cathedral (1992)

2012-05-15T08:10:00Z

Coventry Cathedral

In 1940, during the bombing of the Second World War, the ancient Gothic cathedral of the British industrial town of Coventry was reduced to an empty shell. A new building designed by the modern architect Basil Spence was constructed between 1952 and '62 and became emblematic of the period of post-war reconstruction and of twentieth-century Christian art. The building was notable for the diverse contributions made by British artists: an external sculpture of St Michael by Jacob Epstein, stained glass windows by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens, a lectern eagle sculpture by Elisabeth Frink, glass engravings by John Hutton, a high altar cross in silver and gold by Geoffrey Clarke, and a huge tapestry depicting Christ in glory based on a painting by Graham Sutherland. Coventry Cathedral proved to be extremely popular in terms of attracting visitors and has been described by later writers as "a '50s time capsule". An art historical exhibition entitled "To build a Cathedral" was held at the Mead Gallery, [University of Warwick], in 1987.

References and further readings
> (Coventry Cathedral issue). Sunday Times Colour Section, 20 May 1962.
> Robert Furneaux Jordan. "Coventry Cathedral". The Studio, 164(832), August 1962, pp. 54-7.
> R. Howard. Ruined and rebuilt: The story of Coventry Cathedral 1939-62. (Coventry Cathedral Council, 1962).
> Basil Spence. Phoenix at Coventry: The building of a cathedral. (Geoffrey Bles, 1962).
> Basil Spence and Henk Snoek. Out of the ashes: A progress through Coventry Cathedral. (Geoffrey Bles, 1963).
> Andrew Révai (Ed.). Christ in glory in the tetramorph: The genesis of the great tapestry. (Pallas Gallery / Zwemmer, 1964).
> Harold C. N. Williams. Coventry Cathedral: A guide.... (Hodder & Stoughton, 1966).
> Martin Pawley. "Building revisits 1". Architects Journal, 9 May 1984, pp. 47-53.
> John Thomas. Coventry Cathedral. (Unwin Hyman, 1987), The New Bell's Cathedral Guides.

Corporate Design (1992)

2012-05-15T07:35:00Z

Corporate Design

Large commercial companies, businesses, airlines and public utilities with many sub-divisions can suffer from problems of public image and communication because of a lack of unity and impact in their outward appearance. To remedy this they often commission designers to ensure that the design of their logo, packaging, letterheads, signs, etc., conforms to a master pattern. (For the Bovis group of companies, the design consultants Wolff Olins employed the image of a hovering humming-bird as a logo.)

The aim of Corporate Design is to achieve a visual projection of the company and its activities as a whole. In the first instance it is normally important to create a sense of identity and common purpose within the organizations concerned and this may involve more than a visual re-styling, it may involve a re-design of the internal structures. In the case of conglomerates offering a variety of products and services, television advertising is increasingly being used to convey to the public a positive impression of the organization concerned.

References and further readings
> Frederick Henry Kay Henrion and Alan Parkin. Design coordination and corporate image. (Studio Vista, 1967).
> Wolff Olins. The corporate personality: An inquiry into the nature of corporate identity. (Design Council, 1978).
> Valerie Brooks. "Triumph of the corporate style: Communications design in the 1970s". Print, 34(1), January-February 1980, pp. 25-31.
> Roger Yee and Karen Gustafson. Corporate design: The interior design and architecture of corporate America. (Thames & Hudson, 1983).
> David E. Carter. American corporate identity: The state of the art in the '80s. (New York, Art Direction Books, 1986).
> David E. Nye. Image worlds: Corporate identities at General Electric. (Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 1986).
> Peter Gorb and Eric Schneider (Eds.). Design talks! (Design Council, 1988).
> Veronica Napoles. Corporate identity design. (New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1988).
> Edward Booth-Clibborn (Ed.). The best of British Corporate Design. (Internos Books, 1989).
> Wally Olins. Corporate identity: Making business strategy visible through design. (Thames & Hudson, 1989).
> Martin Pedersen (Ed.). Graphis Corporate Identity 1. (Zürich, Graphis Press, 1990).

Cranbrook (1992)

2012-05-15T06:00:00Z

Cranbrook The Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is a famous American educational institution. It was founded in the 1920s by George Booth, a wealthy newspaper magnate whose taste and ideas were influenced by the arts and crafts movement of the nineteenth century. Buildings for the Academy's campus were designed by the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950) and his son Eero (1910-61). They include a museum. Studios of architecture, sculpture, painting, metalwork, (...) - archives-design-II / Ray Eames, Charles Eames, John A. Walker (glossary), Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Florence Knoll, furniture designer / architect, Eliel Saarinen, architect, Eero Saarinen, architect / industrial designer, George Booth, newspaper publisher, philanthropist

Product Semantics (1992)

2012-05-14T09:05:00Z

Product Semantics

Product Semantics is an expression fashionable amongst American design theorists and designers in the 1980s. Semantics is the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning; consequently Product Semantics is based on the assumption that all designed goods involve meanings and symbolism for those who buy, use and see them. The term itself was originated by Klaus Krippendorff and Reinhart Butter in 1984. They defined it as "a study of the symbolic qualities of man-made forms in the cognitive and social contexts of their use and the application of the knowledge gained to objects of industrial design." Instead of designing enigmatic black boxes which concealed what a product was and did, American designers of the '80s looked for visual metaphors, ornament, and ways of styling products that would enrich their appearance and express their function. For instance, the Chicago consultancy Design Logic (founded 1985) employed grid patterns on a number of products "to express the digital electronic nature of their functioning."

References and further readings
> Mihaly Csikszentmihaly and Eugene Rochberg-Halton. The meaning of things: Domestic symbols and the self. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981).
> Klaus Krippendorff and Reinhardt Butter. "'Product Semantics': Exploring the symbolic qualities of form". Innovation, 3(2), 1984, pp. 4-9.
> Hugh Aldersey-Williams. New American design: Products and graphics for a post-industrial age. (New York, Rizzoli, 1988).
> "Product Semantics" (special issue). Design Issues, (2), Spring 1989.
> Klaus Krippendorff. "On the essential context of artifacts...". Design Issues, 5(2), Spring 1989, pp. 9-39.
> S. Vokeva (Ed.). Product Semantics 1989 conference. (Helsinki, University of Industrial Arts, 1990).

Product Environment (1992)

2012-05-14T09:00:00Z

Product Environment

Product Environment is a term devised by the American design historian Victor Margolin. He defined it as: "all the necessary conditions for acquiring the product, learning to use it, following its changes and improvements, providing components for it, keeping it in good repair. The term "environment" denotes everything that surrounds the product and becomes part of its identity and value." Margolin argued that many modern artefacts— e.g. personal computers and video recorders— were technologically complex, multi-purpose and permitted a high degree of user participation, hence the need for designers to consider the product's "environment" as well as its physical form and technical functioning. As automobiles increase in complexity, maintenance and service contracts and reliability become more important to buyers of new cars— another instance of the shift of emphasis away from the product's form or style to its "environment".

Reference and further reading
> Victor Margolin. "Expanding the boundaries of design: The Product Environment and the new user". Design Issues, 4(1 / 2), 1988, pp. 59-64.

New Art History (1992)

2012-05-14T09:00:00Z

New Art History

During the 1970s and '80s, the intellectual discipline of art history was changed radically in Europe and the United States through the contributions of a younger generation of scholars who were influenced by such external systems of thought and method as Marxism, anthropology, social history, feminism, linguistics, psychoanalysis, Russian formalism, semiotics, structuralism, reception theory and deconstruction. These contributions appeared in such journals as Block, Screen and Art History. In Britain the expression "New Art History" was originally used jokingly but it was soon taken seriously by publishers.

See also Association of Art Historians, Deconstruction, Design History Society, Marxist Aesthetics, Reception Theory / Aesthetics, Semiotics, Structuralism & Art / Design.

References and further readings
> A. L. Rees and Frances Borzello (Eds.). The New Art History. (Camden Press, 1987).
> Norman Bryson (Ed.). Calligram: Essays in New Art History from France. (Cambridge University Press, 1988).
> Stephen Bann (Ed.). "The New Art History". History of the Human Sciences, 2(1), February 1989.
> Donald Preziosi. Rethinking art history: Meditations on a coy science. (New Haven / London, Yale University Press, 1989).