manifesto link

manifesto mania, by ellen and julia lupton, from agia voice.

What the &%$@! is Social Design?

Check out this initiative going on that deals with things we are talking about in class. This is talking about helping designers realize the positive social change they can make with design. I thought it was pretty interesting and worth reading into.

Here are a few images of their first publication:




They also have a blog.



The Soft Spot

The New York Times Opinion – Sex, Lies and Photshop

I think this article makes a few good points. One of which we talked about during class, giving credit. The photographer is often credited with a photograph in a magazine, but why not the retoucher. I know this focuses on retouching in relationship to body image, but think about food retouching too. Most times food photography isnt even the real food (sometimes for time issues) but regardless. Taco Bell photographs look far different than the actual product.

Is this "wrong" too? Is any photo manipulating "wrong" whether its a models skin of the surface of a cheeseburger?

I agree with the narrator of the video that in the very least the retoucher should be credited, if they are not going to talk about the extent of the retouch. I wonder what a magazine would look like if nothing was retouched or photoshopped and everything relied on the reality of the photograph.

Sex, Lies and Photoshop

Gabrielle Esperdy: Less Is More Again — A Manifesto

I came across this article while checking out the daily image uploads on this page (which I highly recommend checking out). Anyways. I'm not sure entirely what to think about what Esperdy is saying.

What do you think?

Gabrielle Esperdy: Less is More Again – A Manifesto

transportation: rethinking the system

better place is a company planning electric car infrastructure consisting of:
1. batteries that go into normal production vehicles
2. renewable energy sources to power the system
3. charging stations at home, work, parking lots, etc
4. battery exchange stations (much like gas stations)
all in an effort to re-think how personal transportation can work now -- not in the future.

read this page from their website and it sounds like somebody's been reading cradle to cradle.

Chen Hang Feng: Logomania

At the very end I am interested in how he took traditional materials and symbols of Chinese hertiage, and added a twist of commentary about its relationship to over-consumption.

What do you think? Are there other similar applications of culture and consumption?

Is this similar to what Adbusters created with the Corporate Flag.

The Afterlife Project by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau

The part of this video I am most interested in sharing and discussing begins at 1:18 and ends at 1:40. I came across this within one of the podcasts I subscribe to "Cool Hunting Videos." It caught my attention as relevant to this class because of its controversial nature and relationship to recycling.

Would you be interested in recycling your body this way?

wednesday + friday reading discussions

for this wednesday, march 4, make sure you have read "good citizenship..." by mccoy from the book "citizen designer". we will discuss this first thing in class.

for friday, we will discuss the emory douglas reading from the aiga website.