The Designer As Author (By Michael Rock)

Michael Rock is an American graphic designer and recipient of the National Design Award. By his own writing  "The Designer as Author", he provokes a debates over the authorship of design content and he poses this question: "what dose it really mean to call for a graphic designer to be an author?"

He said "Authorship" has become a popular word in Graphic Design especially in those at the edge of the profession. Then he states that the meaning of the Author has shifted through history and has been the subject of severe survey in last 40 years. .......

My body is my manifesto! Slutwalk, Femen and Femmenist protest (By Theresa O` Keefe)

Theresa O` Keefe says (according to University College Cork website): "I joined the Department of Sociology at UCC in 2016, where I research gender and egalitarian social change. My areas of expertise are feminism and social movements, gender and state violence, precarity and inequality in higher education. As a feminist sociologist I have a firm commitment to feminist praxis and public sociology which reflects in both my scholarship and teaching."

In that essay she argues any desolate possible these recent movements (slutwalk or femen protest) should offer is limited among the multiplication of patriarchal and gender discrimination. This theory is included some primary research by way of news reports, illustrating on websites, Facebook pages and other online platforms.  

Unfortunately there are so many unrespectful reactions against of females are happening in the world and Theresa mentioned some of the female protest which Toronto Slutwalk is one of them. She said in one campus safety information session which was held in Toronto, one officer said to women "if they want to be safe they might avoid wearing dress like sluts."

According to BBC news after that session, thousands of people ( some dressed in jeans, others more provocatively)  are taking part in marches, or "SlutWalks".
The aim, say organizers, is to highlight a culture in which the victim rather than rapist or abuser is blamed.

Theresa mentioned that the photos of Slutwalks are in all different websites and they are including wearing a mixture of costumes, performances , happiness, sexual expression. Women dressed scantily, wear fishnet, bras, short skirt with high heel shoes. Also some people scrawl their naked body by writing Slut with lipstick or some wear badges which is written `I love sluts` or `My little black dress does not mean yes` 

According to Agreeing, Gilmore. (2011) SlutWalks have orientated organically, in city after city, fueled by the raw emotional and political energy of young women and that's the real reason SlutWalks have struck me as the future of feminism. Not because an entire generation of women will organize under the word “slut” or because these marches will completely eradicate the damaging tendency of law enforcement and the media to blame sexual assault victims (though I think they'll certainly put a dent in it). But the success of SlutWalks does herald a new day in feminist organizing. One when women's anger begins online but takes to the street, when a local step makes global waves and when one feminist action can spark debate, controversy and activism that will have lasting effects on the movement.

I have to state that unfortunately these protests are not happening in my country due to some ridiculous limitation but I like to mention about (Golshifteh Farahani) one Iranian actress`s movement in France against of Iran`s restrictions. She was naked in shooting for Le Madame Figaro and by this movement she wanted to protest Iran`s restriction on how women are allowed to appear in public, according to The Daily Beast. The facebook page created in support of Farahani’s protest says its goal is “to support Golshifteh’s move, in order to say NO to relegion (sic), tradition, culture and anti women’s law.”

   

Question:

 

 

No Muscles, No Tattoos (By Alice Twemlow & Jop Van Bennekom)

Dr. Alice Twemlow is a writer, critic and educator whose work focuses on Graphic Design and she writes for Eye Magazine, Design Issues, ID, Print, New York magazine and The Architect’s Newspaper. 

" No Muscle, No tattoos" essay was written in Eye magazine which is the international review of graphic design and is a quarterly printed magazine about visual culture & graphic design.

At first of the essay she mentioned that Joe Van Bennekom chose the American Typewriter (font) for Butt magazine as he thought it is a gay typeface and it is qualified by the reality that the interviews and erotic gay porn which are printed in pink color.

The Butt magazine, originating in the Amsterdam, features interviews, articles, and advertisements and illuminates upon attitude and lifestyles within the male homosexual community. it is produce by Van Bennekom and Gert Jonkers and it has published photography and interviews with renowned gay artists, and became popular with its first issue, which showed German fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm in nude portraits taken by Wolfgang Tillman.

(Issue=refers to how many times that periodical has been published during that year)

 

 Bernhard Willhelm

Butt was established in 2001 that time Van was starting to attract critical attention for Re-magazine and it ran from 1997–2004 and was launched by Van Bennekom as part of his design studies, he wrote, designed and photographed everything for the first few issues before building a team to help with later ones. The earlier issues set the tone; the run of 15 issues form an extraordinary series of individual magazines that shift theme and approach, using the visual and verbal language of magazines to create different experiences that are both intelligent experiments in storytelling and meditations on the art of magazine-making. 

Alice mentioned when Re-magazine spreading, it was attempting to find a new identity however Butt had a defined, format, characteristic language from the start and also it is sex magazine which provides spaces for defects. 

Van says"Other gay magazines have cut and paste, retouched bodies unlike any you have ever seen in real life & certainly not like mine."

Alice states that Van is a creator as none of Butt`s portrait is a studio shot and all photos show real people in their own environments an d it was his rules when he developed guidelines: No muscle No tattoos

Also She has  mentioned that In 2004 When Butt could starting to generate money, Jonkers and Van decided to invest it in a new fashion magazine for stylish mid-thirties men and Fantastic Man is another magazine by and for Jop van Bennekom. That magazine looks more formal that Butt and Re. Also he chose Time font as he feels it has unlimited flexibility.

 Finally Alice explains the reason of the success of his stable of publications derives, counter -intuitively, from the unsureness of his outlook,  his wayward and cruel awkwardness.



Questions:

1) What designer should do to create an identity for magazines?
2) Do you think in near future all printed magazine will killed? (Due to replacing by on-lines)

Exhibition (This Is How We Bite Our Tongue)

I am going to write about my own personal experience of the seeing three exhibitions I met recently which are Whitechapel Gallery (Elmgreen & Dragset), Calvert Gallery (New East Photo Prize) & Barbican (Balata) in London. Before going to those exhibitions, we supposed to look at the text (living Pictures) by Olivier Vallerand to prepare ourselves for the exhibitions. 

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset `s biography: They based in Berlin and London, have worked together as an artist duo since 1995. They have held lots solo exhibitions in art institutions worldwide, including Serpentine Gallery and Tate Modern in London.

That essay was related most to Whitechapel Galley which displays Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset`s art works. Olivier tries to show the impact of the transposition of spaces understood as private in the public space of the gallery and using two projects of art and architecture. He compared Mark Robbins’s Household (2003-6) with Elmgreen & Dragset’s The Collectors (their large-scale installation for the 2009 Venice) Biennale that transforms gallery pavilions into two artificial domestic spaces for a bachelor and family. Both projects emphasized the performativity of space but Olivier underlined the difficulties of transferring these critiques in lived spaces, as the design of Elmgreen & Dragset’s own house-studio shows.

Olivier pointed that two space (The collectors 2009) were different, family house had more traditional room divisions while the bachelor inhabits one large open space organized around a central glazed bathroom in a glazed enclosure in the middle of the space.

In the Whitechapel Gallery (Nov 2018) by transforming the ground floor with a new commission, they show the ghost of the Whitechapel pool and it make us questions the destiny of urban spaced in an age of austerity.

The first of their work I saw in the exhibition was that empty pool which they pointed that it reminds us the past hope and present disappointment of what is called public space. They mentioned the feeling like you arrive at part too late but it reminded me the past times when most people in my country (Iran) had a pool in their gardens (even very small) and we used to swim during the summer and in the autumn we had to keep it empty. Looking at the empty pool with soil and leaf on it, reminded me my childhood enthusiasm for waiting next summer. The interesting part of that empty pool was that all the material inside it (soil & leaf) was made by Bronze. I have to point that I found out when Emma mention that in our discussion meeting.

In that galley you also see two decades of Elmgreen & Dragset`s sculptures which are included a pregnant maid, a reversed crucifix, judge`s wig, a frightened schoolboy & a rifle on the wall. 

The first sculpture that drew my attention was the one day (The boy look at gun) which at the same time was interesting but it gave me sadness feeling. In our discussion session some students believed that it was represented the Gun culture in the United States but in my idea beside that it displayed the violence in the world which for some humans is the very simple issue. Moreover it represented the war and how easy some cruel people can kill others without a second hesitation. When I saw the innocent boy I felt there are lots of children in the world they have to get use to it.

The other sculpture I like is the Reversed Crucifix. You could see the Christ has been replaced by another ordinary man hanging the wrong way with tied wrist and it represented scenes of erotic bondage and it showed the pleasure rather than suffering. I liked artists’ braveness due to the numerous of religious beliefs in every society.  I think as an artist we should be more brave and open minded.

 The second exhibition was selected work by finalists for the second edition of the New East photo Prize and there were included 29 countries. One of my favorite photos is after season (by Adam Wilkoszarski from Poland) which focused on holiday resorts at the end of the season and gave me a relaxation and calmness and I wished I was there.

The second Photo I was interested in was Vrajitoare (By Lucia Sekerkova from Slovakia) which is focus on the witches and fortune tellers in Romania and this skill has been changed in to online business today. They can find their client online instead of walking on the streets but in my idea it represents the proper relationship between two friends or two sister and with that orange background you feel warmth of that relation more. 

 Third exhibition was about one New Zealand born artist Francis Upritchard who created a new series of sculptural interventions in the Curve to transform the space with a vibrant collection of materials and figures. All figures were in varying sizes from medieval knights to meditating hippies, painted in monochromatic or distinct patterns and decorated with bespoke garments and objects. Upritchard has conceived of the gallery as a spectrum in which to play with scale, color and texture that shifts as you move through the space.

I really like her works and I just share some of her beautiful and unique artworks.

Overall it was a great experience to see other artists`s works from all over the world.

The Feminine Awkward: Graceless Bodies and the Performance of Femininity in Fashion Photographs (By Eugenie Shinkle)

Eugenie Shinkle is Reader in photography at the Westminster school of Media art and Design and also she writes and lectures on fashion photography.

At first of the essay she states that fashion photography has been involved with uncomfortable and awkward poses recently which in her point of view this awkwardness is the history of fashion photography. There is no relation between awkward fashion photograph and different signifying practices; it just arises out of emotional responses.

External and internal forces shape the creation and experiment of the fashion photos. Internally awkwardness is included in relation between the model, camera and photographic frame but externally is the linked to the way of understanding of the photo by viewers and awkwardness is the way you understand the images look and their feels.

Eugenie points that in last decade of the 19 century models were taught how to walk, pose and gesture and they required acting like formality designed to repress emotions and individual personality. Totally they supposed to draw attention to their clothing that they wore rather than themselves.

What is wrong with Ethical Consumption? (By Jo Littler)

Jo Littler is a Reader in the Centre for Culture and Creative Industries and director of Research in the Department of Sociology. She completed a PhD in Culture and Communication at the University of Sussex, and taught there and later at Middlesex University, where she worked in Media and Cultural Studies.

She is interested in the interrelationships between culture, society and politics, and her research includes work on meritocracy, consumer culture, gender, heritage and celebrity.

In this essay she considered about key criticism of ethical consumption and it is a summery of different attitudes toward the positions and explain the theories from media and cultural studies.

 At first I want to explain what the ethical consumption is even I myself didn't know. It means as an ethical consumer we suppose to buy products which are ethically produced or which are not harmful to our environment and society. This can be buying free-range eggs or as complex as boycotting goods produced by child labour.  

Jo states that ethical consumption can be ultimately as it is only used by minimum of consumers and it is a form of independently of politics however most governments encourage people to be responsible among the social safety nets. She mentioned a Fair Trade Product as well which it`s goal is give producers a decent price for the labours. Alex Nicholls and Charlotte Opal explained this term in their Fair Trade book. They said the aim of Fair Trade is to suggest the producers in developing counties to move out of very poverty making markets access under beneficial rather than exploitative terms and the purpose is to empower products for developing their own business through international trade. Nicholas & Opal states that Fair Trade suggests a way of the producer- consumer relationship that join again consumption and production via the new supply chain model that can spread its economic benefits fairly in stakeholders.  They said the Fair Trade is defined by some key practice like agreed minimum prices, direct purchasing from producers and Co-operative.

Also there are some ways you can do as an ethical consumer: One step we can pace is checking the ethical credentials of companies before you buy. Many companies take their responsibilities towards their producers very seriously, inspecting factories and production areas. You can find these information on their websites.
The second important step is to consider whether you really need the product, before buying anything and try to be positive consumer and buy organic or cruelty free. This option is arguably the most important since it directly supports progressive companies. Finally avoiding products you disapprove of such as battery eggs or polluting cars.

 At the end I like to mention about CSR activity (Corporate social responsibility). "Corporate responsibility is simply a way for companies to take responsibility for the social and environmental impacts of their business operations," said Jen Boynton, vice president of member engagement. He said a CSR program is an opportunity for companies to show their good corporate citizenship and protect the company from outsized risk by looking at the whole social and environmental areas that surrounds the company.

I just point one of the important social responsibility is to their customers, many companies now focus on and practice a few flat categories of CSR such as Environmental efforts; Businesses regardless of size have a large carbon footprint. Any steps they can take to reduce the footprints are considered both good for the company and society.

Question:

How some well-known companies can misled costumers with their green claims?
(it is complaint not a question)

How we as a costumer can push companies to pay attention to the social and environment impacts of their products?