Read Like You Give a Damn

then DESIGN FOR THE COMMON GOOD

READ LIKE YOUGIVEA DAMN

Excerpts for designersedited by LINDSAY KINKADE

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Offi cfi cfi ial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfield County, ty, ty NebraskaTuesday, ay, ay November 07, 07, 07 2006

Papeleta Ofi cOfi cOfi ial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfield, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006

not fold the ballotdoble la papeleta

InstructionsInstrucciones

Do not cross out orerase, or your vote

may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nuevaa uno de los trabajadores electorales.

1/ 8

Continue votingnext sideContinúe votandoal otro lado

Joseph BarchiandJoseph HallarenBlue / Azul

Adam CramerandGreg VuocoloYellow / Amarillo

Daniel CourtanddAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura

Alvin BooneandJames LianOrange / Naranja

Austin HildebrandandJames GarrittyPink / Rosa

Martin PattersonandClay LariviereGold / Oro

Elizabeth HarpandAntoine JeffersonGray / Gris

Charles LayneandAndrew KowalskiAqua / Agua

Marzena PazgierandWelton PhelpsBrown / Marrón

or write-ino por escrito:

Dennis WeifordBlue / Azul

Lloyd GarrissYellow / Amarillo

Sylvia Wentworth-FarthingtonPurple / Púrpura

John HewetsonOrange / Naranja

Victor MartinezPiPinknk / / RosaRosa

Heather PortierGold / Oro


U.S. SenatorSenador de EEUU

Vote for 1 / Vote por 1

President andVice-President of theUnited StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos

Vote por 1 par

Brad PlunkardBlue / Azul

Bruce ReederYellow / Amarillo

Brad SchottPurple / Púrpura

Glen TawneyOrange / Naranja

Carroll ForrestPink / Rosa


U.S. RepresentativeRepresentante de EEUU


Making selectionsHaga sus selecciones

a candidate, filloval to the left of

write-in” and printname clearly on the

line.

regar un candidato, el óvalo a la izquierda

espacio designado ‘o por y escriba claramente

nombre de la persona enpunteada.

the completed into the ballotHand in the ballot

counted.Cuando termine de votar,introduzca la papeleta en lafunda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.

Optional write-inVoto opcional por escrito

rning in the ballotgue la papeleta

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Insert tballot into sleeve. to be coCuando termine de introduzca la papeletfunda protectora y entré-guela para ser cont

Turning Entregue

Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ ________ ________ ______English / Spanish

ballot.ta.

funda protectora y entré-ada.

Fill in the oval to the left ofthe name of your choice.You must blacken the oval completely, tely, tely and do notmake any marks outside of the oval. You do nothave to vote in every race.

Rellene el óvalo que estáa la izquierda del nombrede su preferencia. Deberárellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene quevotar en todas las contiendas.

Do ot out

READ LIK

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DESIG

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then design for the common good

read like yougivea damn

About the series no book can contain everything

you need to know when setting

out on a complex mission, like

making design projects for the

common good. But a series

of readings can be a starting

point for nuanced thought

that results in knowing and

empathetic action. if in the

course of doing this type of

graphic design you come upon

other texts you think might

benefit designers in this field,

please share them with your

peers, and with the editor of

this book.

commentary In religious traditions, type is

often set in such a way that it

fills only part of the printed page

in holy books. This design is

intended to allow for thoughtful

reading and notes, or commentary.

This book, though not religious,

is also designed to facilitate

commentary. The margins

are designed to facilitate your

interaction with the text.

You are invited to mark it up

and make it your own.

LIndsaY KInKade, editor

advised by douglass scott

december, 2009.

then design for the common good

Excerpts for designers

edited by lindsay kinkade

read like yougivea damn

First things First, 1964

the critical manifesto on design for

social good, FtF is a must read for

any designer working in this area.

it outlines areas of culture where

graphic design could move beyond

advertising and it calls graphic

designers to pursue the use of their

tool for culture making in addition to

the making of their livelihoods.

21


the original manifesto was revisited

twenty-six years later by a new

generation of designers wanting to

speak out against the state of design

at that time.

27

design for the public domain, 2008

Hugues Boekraad’s review and survey of Pierre

Bernard’s graphic design work is both exhaustive

and enlightening. He interviews the designer about

his work, his goals, the practical

details of running a small design

firm, and the goal of always

doing good-looking socially

relevant graphic design.

13

the Gift, 2007

Lewis hyde’s book on creativity outlines a

history of gift-giving in multiple cultures

as a way of understanding the value of

gifts. This text on the gift process inherent

in creative work

is appropriate

for all artists,

designers, and

anyone trying to

do social good.

9

relAtionAl Aesthetics, 2002

this excerpt from nicolas Bourriaud’s book on the work

of relational artists in the 1990s analyzes the ways in

which interactive artwork was made and the ways in

which it was received. he reviews the work of many

specific artists whose work designers might look to for

precedents of how forms

of art and design create

relationships in a given space.

Bourriaud’s exploration of ‘the

encounter’ and its aftereffects

can be considered in relation

to public intervention projects

by designers working for

social causes.

35

rules for radicals,

1971

President Barack

Obama read this

text when he was doing community

organizing work in Chicago in the 1970s. It

was a seminal text for many progressive

leaders in the making. Much of the

writing about communism and socialism

is rooted in another time and context, but

the rules themselves are timeless. RFR

is a set of basic principles about human

behavior and how to shape public opinion.

53

AdditionAl

reAdings

of interest

65

the GiftLewis Hyde’s book on creativity outlines

a history of gift-giving in multiple

cultures as a way of understanding

the value of gifts. This text on the gift

process inherent in creative work is

appropriate for all artists, designers,

and anyone trying to do social good.

the gift

11

We also rightly speak of intuition or inspiration as a gift. As the artist works, some portion of his creation is bestowed upon

him. An idea pops into his head, a tune begins to play, a phrase

comes to mind, a color falls in place on the canvas. Usually, in

fact, the artist does not find himself engaged or exhilarated by the

work, nor does it seem authentic, until this gratuitous element has

appeared, so that along with any true creation comes the uncanny

sense that “I,” the artist, did not make the work. “Not I, not I, but

in his Candy Spill installations, felix Gonzalez-torres designs a formation for the candies, stipulates that the amount of them is to be ‘unlimited,’

and then allows museum-goers to take the candies. his installation is a gift that keeps on giving. These photos show the installation of the spill.

the gift

13

the wind that blows through me,” says D. H. Lawrence. Not all

artists emphasize the “gift” phase of their creations to the degree

that Lawrence does, but all artists feel it.

These two senses of gift refer only to the creation of the work-what we might call the inner life of art; but it is my assumption that we should

extend this way of speaking to its outer life as well, to the work

after it has left its maker’s hands.

That art that matters to us–which moves the heart, or revives the

soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we

choose to describe the experience–that work is received by us as a

gift is received.

Even if we have paid a fee at the door of the museum or concert hall,

when we are touched by a work of art something comes to us which

has nothing to do with the price.

...

If a work of art is the emanation of its maker’s gift and if it is

received by its audience as a gift, then is it, too, a gift? I have

framed the question to imply an affirmative answer, but I doubt we

can be so categorical. Any object, any item of commerce, becomes

one kind of property or another depending on how we use it.

Even if a work of art contains the spirit of the artist’s gift, it does not follow that the work itself is a gift. It is what we make of it.

...

relAtionAl Aesthetics

his [guattari’s] definition is ideally

applicable to the practices of the

contemporary artists who create and

stage life-structures that include

working methods and ways of life, rather

than the concrete objects that once

defined the field of art. they use time as

a raw materiai. form takes priority over

things, and flows over categories: the

production of gestures is more important

than the production of material things.

today’s viewers are invited to cross

the threshold of ‘catalysing temporal

modules,’ rather than to contemplate

immanent objects that do not open on to

the world to which they refer.

Oliver Bishop-Young’s Skip Garden

in London is intended to take

streetspace back from cars. his ‘skip,’

or dumpster, is used for several

different installations that make

recreational space out of the street.

14

A gift that cannot be given away ceases to be a gift. The spirit of a gift is kept alive by its constant donation.

...

Furthermore, when gifts circulate within a group, their commerce

leaves a series of interconnected relationships in its wake, and a

kind of decentralized cohesiveness emerges.

design for the public domain

The associations that citizens freely

undertake between themselves

are often long-lasting face-to-face

relationships based on trust and

loyalty. The services that are rendered

one to another serve a common goal.

Rights and obligations are often moral

in nature and not strictly defined.

It is not for nothing that the reciprocal

relationships of civil society that

create solidarity are often called the

cement of society.

Gonzalez torres’s posters are available in unlimited quantities. Viewers can take

them and the gallery will supply more to the exhibition. The gift of an exhibition

that allows you to take a piece of it endlessly is a true gift. The spirit of it is kept

alive by its constant donation and replenishment.

16

Hugues Boekraad’s review and

survey of Pierre Bernard’s graphic

design work is both exhaustive and

enlightening. He interviews the

designer about his work, his goals,

the practical details of running a

small design firm, and the goal of

always doing good-looking socially

relevant graphic design.

design for the Public d

omain

17

Design responds to events, topical matters and the ‘talk of the day’. In this way design acts as an instrument for maintaining or accelerating the

existing patterns of production, promotion and consumption of goods and

services. Its primary function is economic. And as a consequence of that,

what defines quality is success in the marketplace. This market conformism

makes design heteronomous and reactive. It is put into use in strategies on

which it has no influence. Market orientation also determines the field in

which design operates, while markets and brands free themselves from local

or national cultural frameworks and become international. In the wake of

privatization and stronger market forces in some countries, market-oriented

designing has penetrated into the public domain as a policy 47 instrument

borrowed from the private sector. In some countries, indeed, it has reached

the very apparatuses of the State itself, carrying out its classic core tasks:

defence, policing and justice, and taxation.

...

In cultural production too, the convergence ofthe public and private sectors

has had an adverse impact.

When cultural production is perceived and organized as a form of consumption, it runs the risk of losing its contours and becoming a component of the popular and flexible culture of media and events. Ultimately it becomes a building block and purveyor of a new branch of commerce, the creative industry.

First things First 2000

We propose a reversal of priorities

in favor of more useful, lasting

and democratic forms of

communication – a mindshift

away from product marketing

and toward the exploration and

production of a new kind of

meaning. the scope of debate

is shrinking; it must expand.

Consumerism is running

uncontested; it must be challenged

by other perspectives expressed,

in part, through the visual languages

and resources of design.

18

However much the porosity of the barriers between high and low culture

may be applauded as a form of democratization, it cannot be denied that

it jeopardizes some of the functions of art and science. The room for

experimentation, for independent thinking and research, for diversity of

intellectual styles and dissidence is increasingly limited. In this way the

public domain is seeing the same paradoxical situation as the market

sector: despite all the emphasis on distinction and identity, a clear tendency

can be discerned – in the most diverse social areas – towards greater

uniformity and standardization of the procedures and styles of designers.

The diversity of visual culture is decreasing rather than increasing.

...

Looking at this small panoramic view of design we find ourselves asking

one or two questions. The first is: do the nature and function of design

disciplines allow us to deduce possibilities and objectives that they

can realize autonomously? What is the actual value of their promise of

unobstructed invention and initiative? Is design not by its very nature a

heteronomous activity, bound hand and foot by practices, institutions and

systems which have other functions and objectives? Do we not see, in actual

practice, that design is only an instrument for more powerful players in

the social arena? Are the design disciplines not absorbed by the dominant

systems of money and power, and do they not as a consequence lose their

own profile? This book focuses on a designer who has succeeded in avoiding

the dilemma of autonomy and dependence.

Evidently it is possible to be a practising designer in a way that credibly combines relative autonomy, originality and social relevance. The prerequisite for this turns out to be a not easily achieved position of equality with clients with whom one shares certain values.

This designer moves between the state and the market in a socio-cultural

field whose dynamic allows the repeated creation of new alliances.

Bernard’s design group, Grapus,

submitted a series of nine posters,

including the two shown here,

to the 1972 Warsaw poster biennal.

The series depicts the story of a long

and bloody war in Asia. The first

poster shows the war and the second

shows the peace afterward.


omain

19

design is a form of practical reason

Design takes place in the social interaction between the client, the designer

and the user.

The designer is in the middle of social reality. He plans and effects real interventions in the real world. [Papanek 1972].

His designs are produced and reproduced in series of varying sizes. Tangible

material interests assume concrete shape both during the design process and

in the result of that process. The client-designer relationship is a business

arrangement and is usually regulated on a contract basis.

design is a function of the power of imagination

The designer looks at the world not just as a field of facts but first and foremost as a field of possibilities. Design is built on an existing state of affairs but tries to change it. The

design process is a path from a given fact to a desired situation. As such,

design is an expression of the power of imagination , to which, since the

Romantic period, almost demiurgical potency has been ascribed. However,

human imagination is not a matter of creation ex nihilo.

Design is almost always a variation on existing models and forms, and in only a few cases is it true innovation.

...

Design disciplines can be classified in many ways. As objects of

design Buchanan [1992] distinguishesn between symbolic and visual

communication, material objects, activities and services, complex systems,

and environments. More usual is an arrangement according to the nature

of the design discipline or the designer’s speciality (fashion, architecture,

landscape, print media, industrial products etc.). Another arrangement

is according to types of client: politics, culture, business, nonprofit

organizations. Less common is distinguishing design activities according

to the private or public character ofthe domain to which they relate.

This division allows of a dual perspective of design, from the individual

point of view and that of the community. It corrects the methodological

individualism practised not only by many designers, but also, in their wake,

by design theoreticians and critics.


Designers who devote their efforts

primarily to advertising, marketing

and brand development are

supporting, and implicitly endorsing,

a mental environment so saturated

with commercial messages that it

is changing the very way citizen-

consumers speak, think, feel, respond

and interact. to some extent we

are all helping draft a reductive and

immeasurably harmful code of public

discourse.

20

In the introduction to this chapter I pointed out the implications of this

market related methodological individualism. The effect is that designing is

seen first and foremost as an instrument for the private sector.

Producers see design as a means of seduction, marketing, branding, gaining attention, positioning, whereas consumers view it as a means of self-expression, a way of setting themselves apart from other consumers. In the private domain the chief functions of design are differentiation

and individualization. The public domain, by contrast, is the territory

of generality, of what binds people and transcends them, of their common

interests and identity. These interests are defined and sustained in an

unceasing and dialectical process of power and counterpower, of images

and counterimages, of proposals and counterproposals.

The heart of the public domain is the state, its organs and apparatuses, for it is the state, above all, that is charged with looking after the public weal. Second, the public domain encompasses the public sphere, in which state and civil society interact.

This interaction takes the form of communication amongst government

agencies and public authorities, between government agencies and public

authorities on the one hand and the public on the other, and vice versa,

and between citizens. Also part of the public domain is public space in

the physical sense. And finally the public domain includes the institutions

within which culture and knowledge are produced, distributed and

preserved. The dichotomy of the private and public domain is the starting

point of this book.


We, the undersigned, are graphic

designers, photographers and

students who have been brought up

in a world in which the techniques

and apparatus of advertising have

persistently been presented to

us as the most lucrative, effective

and desirable means of using our

talents. We have been bombarded

with publications devoted to this

belief, applauding the work of those

who have flogged their skill and

imagination to sell such things as: cat

food, stomach powders, detergent,

hair restorer, striped toothpaste,

aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion,

slimming diets, fattening diets,

deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes,

roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.

By far the greatest effort of those

working in the advertising industry

are wasted on these trivial purposes,

which contribute little or nothing to

our national prosperity.

Louis Vuitton’s collaborative

design with artist Takashi

Murakami is an example

of a design that consumers

see as part of their own

self-expression. Carrying a

bag with this pattern is a

status marker and a way of

indicating awareness of the

art world too.


omain

21

All social interaction outside the personal sphere and outside the marketplace is accounted part of the public domain. This pragmatic definition parallels the distinction, customary in the design

world, between social, political and cultural clients on the one hand and

commercial clients on the other. The public domain is the catch-all term

for the first three of these areas. The sixteen projects presented in this book

are grouped according to the various sectors of the public domain. Almost

all of Pierre Bernard’s work has been done in the public domain, and indeed

his work cannot be seen in isolation from the social, cultural and political 55

context in which it came into being.

At every stage of his career as a designer he has made his preference for public commissioners abundantly clear, even defining design as a social activity.This is why the unity of his oeuvre cannot be established simply by looking

at its themes, style, methods and values: it also requires an exposition of

the specific nature and connection of those areas of the public sector in

which and for which Bernard still works. It is the public domain that is the

unifying link in Bernard’s projects.

As a theoretical concept the public domain actually leads an uncertain

existence. The concept takes different roles in different scholarly and

scientific disciplines, and it is therefore impossible to homogenize the

various definitions into a single coherent theory – at least, to the best of my

knowledge such a theory doesn’t exist. Besides, the realities to which the

term ‘public domain’ refers are not static but everchanging. The boundaries

between the private and the public domain are not, after all, fixed: their

demarcation is at stake in a permanent political and social battle which is

fed by political ideologies. These ideologies, in turn ,resonate in academic

theorizing. That is why I shall confine myself in this introduction to a brief

exposition of a few concepts borrowed from cultural anthropology and the

theory of law that are relevant for understanding the role of communication

design in the public domain.

Pierre Bernard’s work for the French

parks system uses silhouettes from

nature to create an identity system.

Turning natural elements into graphic

forms, he creates an identity for

the place we find their origins–

the parks. This inventive identity

system for a non-commercial client

shows Bernard’s values at work.


omain

23

the public domain and the symbolic order

Broadly speaking, the public domain is what individuals necessarily have in

common to be able to exist as individuals. The public domain is thus not

a cultural supplement, but a basic prerequisite for community living and

survival. In this sense we can speak of a public domain as soon as people

succeed in developing shared institutions such as language, family, religion,

etc. These institutions are predicated on the human capacity to symbolize:

to render the physical and social environment manageable, comprehensible

and meaningful, for without order and meaning the world would appear to

us as an unfathomable chaos experienced only through impulses or drives.

Society and survival are impossible without regulation of drives.

...

Even on this fundamental, anthropological level we can distinguish five

functions of graphic design in the context of public communication:

orientation in an environment which without signification would be a

frightening chaos to us; identification which, by allowing us to recognize

ourselves in others, allows us both to establish our own identity and to

identify with others; representation of symbolic meanings which renders

the invisible visible and the absent present for all; integration of the various

symbols and signs in a code that is valid for the whole community; and

finally valorization as a dual, circular process: the attribution or denial

of values to people, objects and characteristics (e.g. courage or cowardice,

wisdom or stupidity), and the affirmation of the value system on the basis

of which this attribution takes place.

JR’s photos of women in different

local areas are printed and installed

back into the local environment

in the form of large-scale poster

installations.

24

Symbolization constantly conquers strangeness by means of artefacts, which themselves adapt to the existing artefacts of the world we live in. For the professional designer this symbolization and adaptation are core tasks.

In our technologically highly developed culture social changes are often

introduced by developments in the sciences. Scientific or symbolic systems

construct their own reality: their object of knowledge. True, in time they do

have a real effect on daily life and social relations, but only after selective

absorption by systems such as the economy or political power.

Here again design disciplines are necessary to mediate between those systems and the world in which we live.

26

The critical manifesto on design for

social good, FTF is a must read for

any designer working in this area.

It outlines areas of culture where

graphic design could move beyond

advertising and it calls graphic

designers to pursue the use of their

tool for culture making in addition

to the making of their livelihoods.

first things first, 196427

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have

persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective

and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded

with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of

those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such

things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer,

striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion,

slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.

rules for radicals

We know intellectually that everything

is functionally interrelated, but in our

operations we segment and isolate all

values and issues. Everything about us

must be seen as the indivisible partner

of its converse, light and darkness,

good and evil, life and death.


Producers see design as a means

of seduction, marketing, branding,

gaining attention, positioning, whereas

consumers view it as means of self-

expression, a way of setting themselves

apart from other soncumers. In the

private domain the chief functions

of design are differentiation and

individualization. The public domain,

by contrast, is the territory of

generality, of what binds people and

transcends them, of their common

interests and identity. These interests

are defined and sustained in an

unceasing and dialectical process of

power and counterpower, of images

and counterimages, of propsals and

counterproposals.

19 6 4

28

Logo for the

Azuero Earth Project

by stefan sagmeister.


From the new York times article on the new

typeface Clearview for highway signs:

‘the typeface is the brainchild of Don Meeker,

an environmental graphic designer, and James

Montalbano, a type designer. they set out to

fix a problem with a highway font, and their

solution — more than a decade in the making

— may end up changing a lot more than just the

view from the dashboard.

By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.In common with an increasing numer of the general public,

we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched

scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise.

We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals,

catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography,

educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial

publications and all the other media through which we promote

our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness

of the world.

30

rules for radicals

The basic requirement for the

understanding of the politics

of change is to recognize the

world as it is.

We must work with [the world] on its terms if we are to change it to the kind of world we would like it to be. We must first see the world as it is and

not as we would like it to be.

We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are

proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and

more lasting forms of communication.

We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes.

With this in mind we propose to share our experience and opinions,

and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who

may be interested.


the WorldWide telesope,

designed by Artefact,

is a software that allows

scientists, educators,

students, and enthusiasts

to explore imagery of space.

32

signED,

edward Wright

Geoffrey White

William slack

Caroline Rawlence

Ian McLaren

sam Lambert

Ivor Kamlish

Gerald Jones

Bernard Higton

Brian Grimbly

John Garner

Ken Garland

anthony Froshaug

Robin Fior

Germano Facetti

Ivan dodd

Harriet Crowder

anthony Clift

Gerry Cinamon

Robert Chapman

Ray Carpenter

Ken Briggs

rules for radicals

We live in a world where ‘good’ is a value dependent on whether we want it. In the world as it is, the solution of each

problem inevitably creates a new one. In

the world as it is there are no permanent

happy or sad endings.

in Ken garland’s words, ‘Written and proclaimed at the institute of Contemporary Arts on an

evening in December 1963, the manifesto was published in January 1964. inexplicably, to me,

reverberations are still being felt.’ the published manifesto is shown here.

34

A leTTer From rIck Poynor

To AdbusTers reAders:

‘last fall, Adbusters and six design magazines printed First

Things First 2000. An updated version of a 1964 declaration,

FTF 2000 states that too much design energy is being spent

to promote pointless consumerism, and too little to helping

people understand an increasingly complex and fragile

world. It was signed by 33 high-profile designers, and has

since been signed by hundreds more.

First Things First 2000 had a simple aim. We wanted it to

provoke debate. lulled by the economic boom, design has

shown little inclination of late to consider first principles.

We figured that if we gave it a big enough push – high-profile

signatories, co-publication in several magazines – it stood a

good chance of grabbing attention.

The response is tremendous. The manifesto’s message

clearly taps a deep need. seven months after its launch, the

campaign continues to roll. scores of letters – supportive,

angry, perplexed – have poured in to Adbusters, emigre, and

the other magazines. some are outraged at the signatories’

nerve. others want to know how they can add their names to

the cause.

Around the world other magazines are publishing the

text. design Week and creative review in britain; I.d.,

Print and communication Arts in the u.s.; Idea in Japan;

and, belatedly, Germany’s Form. Public events have been

organized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the

british design History society, and the design biennale in

brno. The manifesto is being debated everywhere in design

schools, and ken Garland, who wrote the original, reports

that even if he doesn’t bring it up, as a visiting lecturer, the

students invariably do.

The issues are out in the open. The question now is: what

next? let us know: [email protected]

The original

manifesto

was revisited

twenty-six

years later

by a new

generation

of designers

wanting to

speak out

against the

state of design

at that time.


We the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents.

2 0 0 0

Using the tools of graphic design for a

different message, John Briggs makes a

modest suggestion in his 2008 project with

stefan sagmeister’s Things I Have Learned in

My Life So Far workshop project.


Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market

rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and

imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds,

detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners,

light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles.

Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure,what graphic designers do. One way designers can use their skills is

building educational tools. these interactive

tables by second story give visitors an

opportunity to learn more about the strategy

and technology used in World War i.

the table uses 3-D reconstructions to show

military tools, archival video footage,

and interactive projects in which visitors

can make their own propaganda.

38

this, in turn, is how the world perceives design. the profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best. Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this

view of design. designers who devote their efforts primarily to

advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting,

and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated

with commercial messages that it is changing the very way

citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.

to some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.


there are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills.Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand

our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing

campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools,

television programs, films, charitable causes and other information

design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning.


these questions do not relate to

an excessively anthropomorphic

vision of art. they relate to a vision

that is quite simply human; to

the best of my knowledge, artists

intend their work to be seen by their

contemporaries... those artworks

that seem to me to be worthy of

sustained interest are the ones that

function as interstices, as space-

times governed by an economy that

goes beyond the prevailing rules for

the management of the public.

the first thing that strikes me about this generation of artists [working in the 1990s] is that they are inspired by a concern for democracy.

for art does not transcend our day

to day preoccupations; it brings us

face to face with reality through the

singularity of a relationship with the

world, through a fiction.

Andrew sloat’s typographic video project,

A More Perfect Union, shows citizens spelling

out the preamble to the Us Constitution.

this project was made during the run-up

to the historic 2008 election.

40

the new York times’ Year in ideas issue

highlights the most innovative, most

groundbreaking ideas of each year. it is an

editorial project that uses design to further

illuiminate new areas of thought. it expands

the scope of debate.


sheila Levrant de Bretteville’s take a break, out to lunch, back to work

installation about work at the rhode island Department of Labor

and training considers workers, union leaders, and managers in the

capitalist system. it relates the means of production, not the means of

consumption.

the scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand.Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by

other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages

and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our

skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of

global commercial culture, their message has only grown more

urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more

decades will pass before it is taken to heart.

signED,

Jonathan Barnbrook

nick Bell

andrew Blauvelt

Hans Bockting

Irma Boom

sheila Levrant de Bretteville

Max Bruinsma

sian Cook

Linda van deursen

Chris dixon

William drenttel

Gert dumbar

simon esterson

Vince Frost

Ken Garland

Milton Glaser

Jessica Helfand

42

steven Heller

andrew Howard

Tibor Kalman

Jeffery Keedy

Zuzana Licko

ellen Lupton

Katherine McCoy

armand Mevis

J. abbott Miller

Rick Poynor

Lucienne Roberts

erik spiekermann

Jan van Toorn

Teal Triggs

Rudy VanderLans

Bob Wilkinson

tibor Kalman’s direction of Colors magazine challenged what kinds of information could appear in magazines and how they could be displayed.

relational aesthetics

this excerpt from nicolas Bourriaud’s

book on the work of relational artists

in the 1990s analyzes the ways in

which interactive artwork was made

and the ways in which it was received.

he reviews the work of many specific

artists whose work designers might

look to for precedents of how forms

of art and design create relationships

in a given space. Bourriaud’s

exploration of ‘the encounter’ and

its aftereffects can be considered in

relation to public intervention projects

by designers working for social causes.

relational Aesthetics

45

t h e w o r k o f a r t a s s o c i a l i n t e r s t i c e

the possibility of a relational art (an art that takes as its theoretical horizon

the sphere of human interactions and its social context, rather than the

assertion of an autonomous and private symbolic space) is testimony to the

radical upheaval in aesthetic, cultural and political objectives brought about

by modern art. to outline its sociology:

this development stems essentially from the birth of a global urban culture and the extension of the urban model to almost all cultural phenomena.

the spread of urbanization, which began to take off at the end of the second

World War, allowed an extraordinary increase in social exchanges, as well

as greater individual mobility (thanks to the development of rail and road

networks, telecommunications and the gradual opening up of isolated

places, which went hand in hand with the opening up of minds). Because this

urban world’s inhabitable places are so cramped, we have also witnessed

a scaling down of furniture and objects, which have become much easier to

handle: for a long time, artworks looked like lordly luxury items in this urban

context (the dimensions of both artworks and the apartments where they

were displayed were intended to signal the distinction between their owners

and the hoi polloi), but the way their function and their mode of presentation

has evolved reveals a growing urbanization of the artistic experience. What

is collapsing before our very eyes is quite simply the pseudo-aristocratic

conception of how artworks should be displayed, which was bound up with

the feeling of having acquired a territory.

from creAtivetime in neW york

in 1993, artists and designers

‘transformed manhattan’s historic West

42nd street into a dynamic, around-the-

clock public art exhibition. in many cases,

participating artists involved passersby

and members of the community in the

actual making of their pieces.’

this piece, Everybody invites pedestrians

to sit, to be included. it creates an

inclusive territory in the urban space.


47

We can, in other words, no longer regard contemporary works as a space we

have to walk through (we were shown around collections in the same way

that we were shown around great houses).

contemporary art resembles a period of time that has to be experienced, or the opening of a dialogue that never ends. the city permits and generalizes the experience of proximity: this is the tangible symbol and historical framework of the state of society, or the ‘state of encounter’, that has been ‘imposed’ on people, as Althusser puts it, as opposed to the dense and unproblematic jungle of Jean-Jacques rousseau’s state of nature.

rousseau’s jungle was such that there could be no lasting encounters.

once it had been elevated to the status of an absolute civilizational rule

this intense encounter finally gave rise to artistic practices that were in

keeping with it.

it gave rise, that is, to a form of art with intersubjectivity as its substratum. its central themes are being-together [l’etre-ensemble], the ‘encounter’ between viewer and painting, and the collective elaboration of meaning. nl Architects’ moving forest project

designed for droog’s Urban Play event

put trees in shopping carts. With trees

that are mobile, citydwellers can create

a new dialogue about new ways of

relating to the city and the availability

of green space.

48

We can leave aside the problem of the phenomenon’s historicity: art has

always been relation to some extent. it has, in other words, always been

a factor in sociability and has always been the basis for a dialogue. one

of the image’s potentials is its capacity for ‘linkage’ [reliance], to use

michel maffesoli’s term: flags, logos, icons and signs all produce empathy

and sharing, and generate links. Art (practices derived from painting

and sculpture and displayed in the form of an exhibition) proves to be

an especially appropriate expression of this civilization of proximity. it

compresses relational space, whereas

television and books send us all back to spaces where we consume in private; and whereas the theatre or the cinema bring small groups together to look at univocal images, there is in fact no live commentary on what a theatre or cinema audience is seeing (the time for discussion comes after the show).

At an exhibition, in contrast, there is always the possibility of an immediate – in both senses of the term – discussion, even when the forms on show are inert: i see, comment and move around in one space-time.

Art is a site that produces a specific sociability; what status this space has within the range of ‘states of encounter’

proposed by the Polis remains to be seen. how can an art that is centred

on the production of such modes of conviviality succeed in relaunching the

modern project of emancipation as we contemplate it? how does it allow

us to define new cultural and political goals?

Before turning to concrete examples, it is important to take a new

look at where artworks are situated within the overall system of the

economy – symbolic or material – that governs contemporary society: quite

apart from its commodified nature or semantic value, the artwork represents,

in my view, a social interstice. the term interstice was used by karl marx to

describe trading communities that escaped the framework of the capitalist

economy: barter, selling at a loss, autarkic forms of production, and so on.


Design is a function of the power of

imagination: The designer looks at the

world not just as a field of facts but first

and foremost as a field of possibilities.

Design is built on an existing state of

affairs but tries to change it. The design

process is a path from a given fact to a

desired situation. As such, design is an

expression of the power of imagination,

to which, since the Romantic period,

almost demiurgical potency has been

ascribed. However, human imagination

is not a matter of creation ex nihilo.

Design is almost always a variation on

existing models and forms, and in only

a few cases is it true innovation.


Design is a form of practical reason:

Design takes place in the social

interaction between the client, the

designer and the user.

The designer is in the middle of social

reality. He plans and effects real

interventions in the real world.

[papanek, 1972].

His designs are produced and

reproduced in series of varying

sizes. Tangible material interests

assume concrete shape both during

the design process and in the result

of that process. The client-designer

relationship is a business arrangement

and is usually regulated on a contract

basis.


49

An interstice is a space in social relations which, although it fits more or less harmoniously and openly into the overall system, suggests possibilities for exchanges other than those that prevail within the system. exhibitions of contemporary art occupy precisely the same position within

the field of the trade in representations. they create free spaces and periods

of time whose rhythms are not the same as those that organize everyday

life, and they encourage an inter-human intercourse which is different to the

‘zones of communication’ that are forced upon us.

the contemporary social context restricts opportunities for interhuman

relations in that it creates spaces designed for that purpose. superloos were

invented to keep the streets clean. the same line of thinking governed the

development communicational tools while the streets of our cities were

being swept clean of all relational dross. the result is that neighbourhood

relations have been impoverished.

the general mechanization of social functions is gradually reducing our

relational space.

...

the Atm has become the transit model for the most basic social functions,

and professional behaviours are modelled on the efficiency of the machines

that are replacing them. the same machines now perform tasks that once

represented so many opportunities for exchanges, pleasure or conflict.

contemporary art is really pursuing a political project when it attempts to

move into the relational sphere by problematizing it.

...

gabriel orozco’s Ping Pond Table from 1998

creates a new way of relating to the table

itself, the other players, and to the gallery

space. it suggests possibilities for exchange

other than the prevailing ones of gaming or

the gallery.

50

An exhibition is a privileged place where instant communities like this can be established: depending on the degree of audience participation demanded by the artist, the nature of the works on show and the models of sociability that are represented or suggested, an exhibition can generate a particular ‘domain of exchanges’.

And we must judge that ‘domain of exchanges’ on the basis of aesthetic

criteria, or in other words by analysing the coherence of its form, and then

the symbolic value of the ‘world’ it offers us or the image of human relations

that it reflects.

Within this social interstice, the artist owes it to himself to take

responsibility for the symbolic models he is showing: all representation

refers to values that can be transposed into society (though contemporary

art does not so much represent as model) and inserts itself into the social

fabric rather than taking inspiration from it). Being a human activity that is

based upon commerce, art is both the object and the subject of an ethics: all

the more so in , that, unlike other human activities, its only function is to be

exposed to that commerce. Art is a state of encounter...

c o n v i v i a l i t y a n d e n c o u n t e r s

A work can function as a relational device in which there is a degree of

randomness. it can be a machine for provoking and managing individual

or collective encounters. to cite a few examples from the last two

decades, this is true of Braco dimitrijevic’s casual Passer-by series, which

disproportionally celebrates the names and faces of anonymous passers-by

on posters the size of those used for advertisements, or on busts like those

of celebrities. in the early 1970s, stephen Willats painstakingly charted the

relationships that existed between the inhabitants of a block of flats. And

much of sophie calle’s work consists of accounts of her encounters with

strangers: she follows a passer-by, searches hotel rooms after getting a

job as a chamber maid, asks blind people how they define beauty, and then,

after the event, formalizes the biographical experiments that led her to

‘collaborate’ with the people she met. We could also cite, almost at random,

on kawara’s i met series, the restaurant opened by gordon matta-clark

in 1971 (food), the dinners organized by daniel spoerri or the playful shop

opened by george Brecht and robert filliou in villefranche (la cedille qui

sourit)...

in on kawara’s I Met project, he wrote

down the name of each person he

met with from may 10, 1968 through

september 17, 1979. this bound series of

books keeps records of encounters with

others as a document his relationships.


51

nancy dwyer’s Multiple Choice

installation at Port richmond high

school on staten island creates benches

in the school’s courtyard. the words can

be read from the classrooms above.

the courtyard becomes a micro-utopia.

social utopias and revolutionary hopes have given way to day-to-day micro-utopias and mimetic strategies: any ‘direct’ critique of society is pointless if it is based upon the illusion of a marginality that is now impossible, if not regressive.

52

Almost thirty years ago, felix guattari was already recommending the neighbourhood strategies on which contemporary artistic practices are based:

‘Just as i think it is illusory to count on the gradual transformation of society so i believe that microscopic attempts – communities, neighbourhood committees, organizing creches in universities – play an absolutely fundamental role.’ traditional critical philosophy (and especially the frankfurt school) can

no longer sustain art unless it takes the form of an archaic folklore, or of a

splendid rattle that achieves nothing.

the subversive and critical function of contemporary art is now fulfilled through the invention of individual or collective vanishing lines, and through the provisional and nomadic constructions artists use to model and distribute disturbing situations.

...

the Gift

furthermore, when gifts circulate

within a group, their commerce leaves

a series of interconnected relationships

in its wake, and a kind of decentralized

cohesiveness emerges.


53

other artists suddenly burst into the relational fabric in more aggressive

ways. the work of douglas gordon, for example, explores the ‘wild’ dimension

of this inte(action by intervening in social space in parasitic or paradoxical

ways: he phoned customers in a cafe and sent mUltiple ‘instructions’ to

selected individuals.

the best example of how untimely communications can disrupt

communications networks is probably a piece by Angus fairhurst: with the

kind of equipment used by pirate radio stations, he established a phone

link between two art galleries. each interlocutor believed that the other had

called, and the discussions degenerated into an indescribable confusion. By

creating or exploring relational schemata, these works established relational

microterritories that could be driven into the density of the contemporary

socius; the experiences are either mediated by object-surfaces (liam

gillick’s ‘boards’, the posters created in the street by Pierre huyghe, eric

duyckaerts’ video lectures) or experienced immediately (Andrea fraser’s

exhibition tours).

t h e s u B j e c t o f t h e a r t w o r k

every artist whose work derives from relational aesthetics has his or her own

world of forms, his or her problematic and his or her trajectory: there are no

stylistic, thematic or iconographic links between them.

What they do have in common is much more determinant, namely the fact that they operate with the same practical and theoretical horizon: the sphere of interhuman relationships.

their works bring into play modes of social exchange, interaction with the

viewer inside the aesthetic experience he or she is offered, and processes

of communication in their concrete dimensions as tools that can to be used

to bring together individuals and human groups. they therefore all work

within what we might call the relational sphere, which is to today’s art what

mass production was to Pop and minimalism. they all ground their artistic

practice in a proximity which, whilst it does not belittle visuality, does

relativize its place within exhibition protocols. the artworks of the 1990s

transform the viewer into a neighbour or a direct interlocutor. it is precisely

this generation’s attitude towards communication that allows it to be defined

in relation to previous generations: whilst most artists who emerged in the

1980s (from richard Prince to Jeff koons via Jenny holzer) emphasized the

visual aspect of the media, their successors place the emphasis on contact

and tactility.

in June 2008, candy chang, an artist

and designer in new york city, used

post-it notes arranged in the shape of

a house on a store window to create

new relationships. her project, I’ve

Lived, asks neighbors to anonymously

contribute information about the size

of their apartments, the length of time

they have lived there, and the rent they

pay. While the project collects assorted

data, it is also mapping the relationships

of neighbors to one another. the project

creates a place on the street where

neighbors can contribute to the data

set, see what others pay, or start a

conversation with a stranger.

54

they emphasise immediacy in their visual writing. this phenomenon can

be explained in sociological terms if we recall that the decade that has

just ended was marked by the economic crisis and did little to encourage

spectacular or visionary experiments.

...

When we look at relational artists, we find ourselves in the presence of a group of artists who, for the first time since the emergence of conceptual art in the mid-1960s, simply do not take as their starting point some aesthetic movement from the past.

relational art is neither a ‘revival’ of some movement nor the return of a style.

it is born of the observation of the present and of a reflection on the destiny

of artistic activity. its basic hypothesis - the sphere of human relations as

site for the artwork - is without precedent in the history of art, even though

it can of course be seen, after the event, to be the obvious backdrop to all

aesthetic practice, and the modernist theme par excellence.

Anyone who needs to be convinced that interactivity is scarcely a new notion has only to reread marcel duchamp’s 1957 lecture on ‘the creative act’. the novelty lies elsewhere. it resides in the fact that for this generation of artists, intersubjectivity and

interaction are neither fashionable theoretical gadgets nor adjuncts to

(alibis for) a traditional artistic practice. they are at once a starting point and

a point of arrival. or in short the main themes that inform their work.


55

the space in which their works are deployed is devoted entirely to interaction. it is a space for the openness (georges Bataille would have called it a ‘rent’) that inaugurates all dialogue.these artists produce relational spacetimes, interhuman experiences that

try to shake off the constraints of the ideology of mass communications;

they are in a sense spaces where we can elaborate alternative forms of

sociability, critical models and moments of constructed conviviality.

it is, however, obvious that the day of the new man of the future-oriented

manifestos and the calls for a better world ‘with vacant possession’ is well

and truly gone:

utopia is now experienced as a day-to-day subjectivity, in the real time of concrete and deliberately fragmentary experiments. the artwork now looks like a social interstice in which these experiences

and these new ‘life possibilities’ prove to be possible. inventing new relations

with our neighbours seems to be a matter of much greater urgency than

‘making tomorrows sing’.6 that is all, but it is still a lot. And it at least offers a

welcome alternative to the depressive, authoritarian and reactionary thought

that, at least in france, passes for art theory in the shape of ‘common sense’

rediscovered. And yet modernity is not dead.

56

if we define as ‘modern’ meaning a taste for aesthetic experience and

adventurous thinking, as opposed to the timid conformisms that are

defended by philosophers who are paid by the line. neo-traditionalists (the

ludicrous dave hickey’s ‘Beauty’) and militant passeistes like Jean clair.

Whether fundamentalist believers in yesterday’s good taste like it or not.

contemporary art has taken up and does represent the heritage of the

avant-gardes of the twentieth century, whilst at the same time rejecting their

dogmatism and their teleology. i have to admit that a lot of thought when into

that last sentence: it was simply time to write it.

Because modernism was steeped in an ‘oppositional imaginary’, to borrow

a phrase from gilbert durand, it worked with breaks and clashes, and

cheerfully dishonoured the past in the name of the future.

it was based on conflict, whereas the imaginary of our period is concerned with negotiations, links and coexistence.

We no longer try to make progress thanks to conflict and clashes, but by discovering new assemblages, possible relations between distinct units, and by building alliances between different partners.


57

like social contracts, aesthetic contracts are seen for what they are: no

one expects the golden Age to be ushered in on this earth, and we are quite

happy to create modus vivendi that make possible fairer social relations,

more dense ways of life, and multiple. fruitful combinations of existence.

By the same criterion, art no longer tries to represent utopias; it is trying to

construct concrete spaces

t h e c r i t e r i o n o f c o e x i s t e n c e ( w o r k s a n d i n d i v i d u a l s )

gonzalez-torres’ art gives a central role to negotiation and to the

construction of a shared habitat. it also contains an ethics of the gaze. to

that extent, it belongs within a specific history: that of artworks that make

the viewer conscious of the context in which he or she finds himself/herself

(the happenings and ‘environments’ of the 1960s, site-specific installations).

At one gonzalez-torres exhibition, i saw visitors grabbing handfuls of sweets

and cramming as many of them as they could into their pockets: they were

being confronted with their own social behaviour, fetishism and acquisitive

worldview ... others, in contrast. did not dare to take the sweets. or waited

until those next to them took one before doing likewise.

the ‘candy spill’ works thus raise an ethical problem in a seemingly anodyne form: our relationship with authority, the use museum attendants make of their power, our sense of proportion and the nature of our relationship with the artwork.

to the extent that the latter represents an opportunity for a sensory

experience based upon exchange, it must be subject to criteria analogous

with those on which we base our evaluation of any constructed social reality.

the basis of today’s experience of art is the co-presence of spectators before

the artwork. be it actual or symbolic.

the first question we should ask when we find ourselves in the presence of an artwork is: does it allow me to exist as i look at it or does it, on the contrary, deny my existence as a subject and does its structure refuse to consider the other?

fritz haeg’s edible estates project

encourages people to tear out their

traditional lawns of grass to plant

gardens from which they can eat. he

builds alliances between neighbors and

other community members by reshaping

the urban and suburban landscape.

58

does the space-time suggested or described by this artwork, together with

the laws that govern it, correspond to my real-life aspirations? does it form

a critique of what needs critique? if there was a corresponding space-time

in reality, could i live in it? these questions do not relate to an excessively

anthropomorphic vision of art. they relate to a vision that is quite simply

human; to the best of my knowledge, artists intend their work to be seen by

their contemporaries, unless they regard themselves as living on borrowed

time or believe in a fascist-fundamentalist version of history (time closing

over its meaning and origins). on the contrary,

those artworks that seem to me to be worthy of sustained interest are the ones that function as interstices, as space-times governed by an economy that goes beyond the prevailing rules for the management of the public.

the first thing that strikes me about this generation of artists is that they are inspired by a concern for democracy. for art does not transcend our day to day preoccupations; it brings us face

to face with reality through the singularity of a relationship with the world,

through a fiction.

Andrew sloat’s project Article II shows

citizens spelling out part of the second

article of the consitution, which created

the executive branch. this section of the

article is the oath of office for President

of the United states.


59

no one will convince me that an authoritarian art can refer its viewers to any

real–be it a fantasy or an accepted reality–other than that of an intolerant

society. in sharp contrast artists like gonzalez-torres, and now Angela

Bulloch, carsten holler, gabriel orozco or Pierre huyghe,

bring us face to face with exhibition situations inspired by a concern to ‘give everyone a chance’ thanks to forms that do not give the producer any a priori superiority (let’s call it divine-right authority) over the viewer, but which negotiate open relations that are not pre-established.

the status of the viewer alternates between that of a passive consumer, and that of a witness, an associate, a client, a guest, a co-producer and a protagonist. so we need to pay attention: we know that attitudes become forms, and we

now have to realize that forms induce models of sociability.

And the exhibition-form itself is not immune to these warnings: the

spread of ‘curiosity cabinets’ that we have been seeing for some time now,

to say nothing of the elitist attitudes of certain actors in the art world,

which reveals their holy terror of public spaces and collective aesthetic

experimentation, and their love of boudoirs that are reserved for specialists.

60

making things available does not necessarily make them banal. As with one of gonzalez-torres’ piles of sweets, there can be an ideal balance

between form and its programmed disappearance, between visual beauty

and modest gestures, between a childlike wonder at the image and the

complexity of the different levels at which it can be read. [ ... ]

the Behavioural economy of contemporary Art

‘how can you bring a classroom to life as though it were an artwork?’ asks

guattari. By asking this question, he raises the ultimate aesthetic problem.

how is aesthetics to be used, and can it possibly be injected into tissues that have been rigidified by the capitalist economy?

everything suggests that modernity was, from the late nineteenth century

onwards, constructed on the basis of the idea of ‘life as a work of art’.

As oscar Wilde put it, modernity is the moment when ‘art does not imitate

life; life imitates art’. marx was thinking along similar lines when he criticised

the classical distinction between praxis (the act of self-transformation) and

poiesis (a ‘necessary’ but servile action designed to produce or transform

matter). marx took the view that, on the contrary, praxis constantly becomes

part of poiesis, and vice versa.

georges Bataille later built his work on the critique of ‘the renunciation of

life in exchange for a function’ on which the capitalist economy is based. the

three registers of ‘science’, ‘fiction’ and ‘action’ destroy life by calibrating it

on the basis of pre-given categories.guattari’s ecosophy also postulates

that the totalization of life is a necessary preliminary to the production of

subjectivity. for guattari, subjectivity has the central role that marx ascribes

to labour, and that Bataille gives to inner experience in the individual and

collective attempt to reconstruct the lost totality.

‘the only acceptable goal of human activities,’ writes guattari, ‘is the

production of a subjectivity that constantly self-enriches its relationship

with the world.’


61

felix gonzalez torres’ “Untitled”, 1991 provides endless copies of his prints at the Walker Art center. he turns the gallery into an

interaction between the viewers and the piece itself. Although the prints are available, the power and desirability of their form is not lost.

62

his [guattari’s] definition is ideally applicable to the practices of the contemporary artists who create and stage life-structures that include working methods and ways of life, rather than the concrete objects that once defined the field of art.

they use time as a raw materiai. form takes priority over things, and flows over categories: the production of gestures is more important than the production of material things.

in gonzalez-torres’ “Untitled” (Placebo) candy spill, viewers can take candy from the installation once they

decide to cross the line between their space in the gallery and that of the work itself. these works are as much

about the interaction created as they are about the art objects themselves.

rules for radicals

64

from The New York Times Week in Review

Know Thine Enemy August 22, 2009

By NOAM COHEN

Saul Alinsky, the Chicago activist and writer whose

street-smart tactics influenced generations of

community organizers, most famously the current

president, could not have been more clear about

which side he was on. In his 1971 text, “Rules for

Radicals,” Mr. Alinsky, who died in 1972, explains

his purpose: “What follows is for those who want

to change the world from what it is to what they

believe it should be. ‘The Prince’ was written by

Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power.

‘Rules for Radicals’ is written for the Have-Nots on

how to take it away.”

It is an irony of the current skirmishing about

health care that those who could be considered

Mr. Alinsky’s sworn enemies — the groups, many

industry sponsored, who are trying to shout

down Congressional town hall meetings — have

taken a page (chapters, really) from his handbook

on community organizing. In an article in The

Financial Times last week, Dick Armey, the

former Republican House majority leader, now

an organizer against the Democrats’ proposals on

health care, offered his opinion: “What I think of

Alinsky is that he was very good at what he did but

what he did was not good.”

The disruption of the town hall meetings has many

Alinsky trademarks: using spectacle to make up for

lack of numbers; targeting an individual to make a

large point; and trying to use ridicule to persuade

the undecided.

President Barack Obama read

this text by Saul Alinsky when

he was doing community

organizing work in Chicago

in the 1970s. It was a seminal

text for many progressive

leaders in the making.

Much of the writing about

comm-unism and socialism

is rooted in another time

and context, but the rules

themselves are timeless.

RFR is a set of basic principles

about human behavior and

how to shape public opinion.

rules for r

adicals65

What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.

...

In this book we are concerned with how to create mass

organizations to seize power and give it to the people; to

realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace,

cooperation, equal and full opportunities (or education, full

and useful employment, health, and the creation of those

circumstances in which man can have the chance to live by

values thai give meaning to life. We are talking about a mass

power organization which will change the world into a place

where all men and women walk erect, in the spirit of that

credo of the Spanish Civil War, “Better to die on your feet than

to live on your knees.”

This means revolution.

First things First

in common with an increasing

number of the general public, we

have reached a saturation point at

which the high pitched scream of

consumer selling is not more than

sheer noise. We think that there

are other things more worth using

our skill and experience on. there

are signs for streets and buildings,

books and periodicals, catalogues,

instructional manuals, industrial

photography, educational aids,

films, television features, scientific

and industrial publications and all

the other media through which we

promote our trade, our education,

our culture and our greater

awareness of the world.

rules for r

adicals67

The significant changes in history have been made by revolutions.

There are people who say that it is not revolution, but

evolution, that brings about change–but evolution is simply

the term used by nonparticipants to denote a particular

sequence of revolutions as they synthesized into a specific

major social change. In this book I propose certain general

observations, propositions, and concepts of the mechanics

of mass movements and the various stages of the cycle of

action and reaction in revolution. This is not an ideological

book except insofar as argument for change, rather than for

the status quo, can be called an ideology; different people, in

different places, in different situations and different times will

construct their own solutions and symbols of salvation for

those times...

The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt

whether we are right, while those who believe with complete

certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and

darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice...

To diminish the danger that ideology will deteriorate into

dogma, and

to protect the free, open, questing, and creative mind of man, as well as to allow for change, no ideology should be more specific than that of America’s founding fathers: “For the general welfare.”


Because modernism was steeped

in ‘oppositional imagery,’ to borrow a

phrase from gilbert durand, it worked

with breaks and clashes, and cheerfully

dishonoured the past in the name of the

future. it was based on conflict, whereas

the imaginary of our period is concerned

with negotiations, links and coexistence.

We no longer try to make progress

thanks to conflict and clashes, but by

discovering new assemblages, possible

relations between distinct units, and

by building alliances between different

partners.

like social contracts, aesthetic

contracts are seen for what they are:

no one expects the golden Age to be

ushered in on this earth, and we are

quite happy to create modus vivendi that

make possible fairer social relations,

more dense ways of life, and multiple,

fruitful combinations of existence. By

the same criterion, art no longer tries

to represent utopias; it is trying to

construct concrete spaces.


This book focuses on a designer who

has succeeded in avoiding the dilemma

of autonomy and dependence.

Evidently it is possible to be a practising designer in a way that credibly combines relative autonomy, originality and social relevance...

The prerequisite for this turns out to

be a not easily achieved position of

equality with clients with whom one

shares certain values. This designer

moves between the state and the market

in a socio-cultural field whose dynamic

allows the repeated creation of new

alliances.

Kirsten Mosher’s Ball Park Traffic

transforms the crossing of 22nd

Street and 9th Avenue into a

baseball park. She has intervened

in the streetscape by adding a

backstop, bases, and home plate.

This urban intervention engages

with our creative selves and

creates a small revolution in our

rushing, workaday lives.

68

Niels Bohr, the great atomic physicist, admirably stated the

civilized position on dogmatism: “Every sentence I utter must

be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.” I will

argue that man’s hopes lie in the acceptance of the great law

of change; that a general understanding of the principles of

change will provide clues for rational action and an awareness

of the realistic relationship between means and ends and how

each determines the other.

I hope that these pages will contribute to the education of

the radicals of today, and to the conversion of hot, emotional,

impulsive passions that arc impotent and frustrating to

actions that will be calculated, purposeful, and effective.

Our enthusiasm for the sacred right of revolution is increased

and enhanced with the passage of time. The older the

revolution, the more it recedes into history, the more sacred

it becomes. Except for Thoreau’s limited remarks, our society

has given us few words of advice, few suggestions of how to

fertilize social change.

To the status quo concerned about its public image, revolution

is the only force which has no image, but instead casts a dark,

ominous shadow of things to come.

When, in the throes of their revolutionary fervor, the Have-

Nots hungrily turn to us in their first steps from starvation to

subsistence, we respond with a bewildering, unbelievable, and

meaningless conglomeration of abstractions about freedom,

morality, equality, and the danger of intellectual enslavement

by communistic ideology! This is accompanied by charitable

handouts dressed up in ribbons of moral principle and

Occasionally we will accept a revolution if it is guaranteed

to be on our side, and then only when we realize that the

revolution is inevitable. We abhor revolutions. We have

pennitted a suicidal situation to unfold wherein revolution

and communism have become one. These pages are

committed to splitting this political atom, separating this


In the political sphere there is a

permanent struggle to gain entry

to the centres of power and the agenda

of political decision-making. In no

period has that struggle been more

vehement than in the second half of

the nineteenth centure and the first half

of the twentieth. The main line of this

history–it ahs continued to this day–

is the modernization and rationalization

of the political and economic system.

Civil society came to be politicized and

polarized into two camps, capitalism

and labour, and the two sides were

kept apart by the political ideologies

of liberalism and socialism.

rules for r

adicals69

identification of communism with revolution. If it were

possible for the Have-Nots of the world to recognize and

accept the idea that revolution did not ineVitably meaD

hate and war, cold or hot, from the United States, that alone

would be a great revolution in world politics and the future

of man. This is a major reason for my attempt to provide a

revolutionary handbook not cast in a communist or capitalist

mold, but as a manual 101” the Have-Nots of the world

regardless of the color of their skins or their politics.

My aim here is to suggest how to organize for power: how to get it and to use it.

I will argue that the failure to use power for a more equitable

distribution of the means of life for all people signals the end

of the revolution and the start of the counterrevolution...

All of life is partisan. There is no dispassionate objectivity.

THE IDEOLOGY OF CHANGE

An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma. To begin with, he does not have a fixed truth–truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing.

He is a political relativist. He accepts the late Justice Learned

Hand’s statement that “the mark of a free man is that ever-

gnawing inner uncertainty as to whether or not he is right.”

The consequence is that he is ever on the hunt for the causes

of man’s plight and the general propositions that help to make

some sense out of man’s irrational world.

He must constantly examine life, including his own, to get

some idea of what it is all about, and he must challenge and

test his own findings.


...social utopias and revolutionary

hopes have given way to day-to-day

micro-utopias and mimetic strategies:

any ‘direct’ critique of society is

pointless if it is based upon the illusion

of a marginality that is now impossible,

if not regressive. Almost thirty years

ago, felix guattari was already

recommending the neighbourhood

strategies on which contemporary

artistic practices are based:

‘Just as i think it is illusory to count on the gradual transformation of society so i believe that microscopic attempts – communities, neighbourhood committees, organizing creches in universities – play an absolutely fundamental role.’

‘the only acceptable goal of human

acitivities,’ writes guattari, ‘is the

production of a subjectivity that

constantly self-enriches its relationship

with the world.’

the subversive and critical function of

contemporary art is now fulfilled through

the invention of individual or collective

vanishing lines, and through the

provisional and nomadic constructions

artists use to model and distribute

disturbing situations.

70

Irreverence, essential to questioning, is a requisite. Curiosity

becomes compulsive. His most frequent word is “why?”

Does this then mean that the organizer in a free society for

a free society is rudderless? No, I believe that he has a far

better sense of direction and compass than the c1osedsociety

organizer with his rigid political ideology. First, the free-

society organizer is loose, resilient, fluid, and on the move in a

society which is itself in a state of constant change.

To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he

can respond to the realities of the widely different situations

our society presents.

In the end he has one conviction–a belief that if people have

the power to act, in the long run they will, most of the time,

reach the right decisions...

Believing in people, the radical has the job of organizing them

so that they will have the power and opportunity to best meet

each unforeseeable future crisis as they move ahead in their

eternal search for those values of equality, justice, freedom,

peace, a deep concern for the preciousness of human life, and

all those rights and values propounded by Judaeo-Christianity

and the democratic political tradition.

Democracy is not an end but the best means toward achieving these values...

Optical scan ballots3.51

Precinct 0001 Ward 0002 Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ _______English / Spanish

Offi cial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfi eld County, NebraskaTuesday, November 07, 2006

Papeleta Ofi cial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfi eld, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006

Do not fold the ballot.No doble la papeleta.

Fill in the oval to the left of the name of your choice. You must blacken the oval completely, and do not make any marks outside of the oval. You do not have to vote in every race.

Rellene el óvalo que está a la izquierda del nombre de su preferencia. Deberá rellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene que votar en todas las contiendas.


Do not cross out or erase, or your vote

may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nueva a uno de los trabajadores electorales.

1 / 8




Daniel CourtandAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura







or write-in o por escrito:





Victor MartinezPink / Rosa





President andVice-President of the United StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos

Vote por 1 par










To add a candidate, fi ll in the oval to the left of “or write-in” and print the name clearly on the dotted line.

Para agregar un candidato, rellene el óvalo a la izquierda del espacio designado ‘o por escrito’ y escriba claramente el nombre de la persona en la línea punteada.

Insert the completed ballot into the ballot sleeve. Hand in the ballot to be counted.Cuando termine de votar, introduzca la papeleta en la funda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.


Turning in the ballotEntregue la papeleta

Vote for 1 pair

A noisreVselpmaS Two languages

rules for r

adicals71

Optical scan ballots3.51

Precinct 0001 Ward 0002 Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ _______English / Spanish

Offi cial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfi eld County, NebraskaTuesday, November 07, 2006

Papeleta Ofi cial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfi eld, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006

Do not fold the ballot.No doble la papeleta.

Fill in the oval to the left of the name of your choice. You must blacken the oval completely, and do not make any marks outside of the oval. You do not have to vote in every race.

Rellene el óvalo que está a la izquierda del nombre de su preferencia. Deberá rellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene que votar en todas las contiendas.


Do not cross out or erase, or your vote

may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nueva a uno de los trabajadores electorales.

1 / 8




Daniel CourtandAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura












Victor MartinezPink / Rosa





President andVice-President of the United StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos

Vote por 1 par










To add a candidate, fi ll in the oval to the left of “or write-in” and print the name clearly on the dotted line.

Para agregar un candidato, rellene el óvalo a la izquierda del espacio designado ‘o por escrito’ y escriba claramente el nombre de la persona en la línea punteada.

Insert the completed ballot into the ballot sleeve. Hand in the ballot to be counted.Cuando termine de votar, introduzca la papeleta en la funda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.


Turning in the ballotEntregue la papeleta

Vote for 1 pair

A noisreVselpmaS Two languages

The basic requirement for the understanding of the politics of change is to recognize the world as it is. We must work with it on its terms if we are to change it to the kind of world we would like it to be.

We must first see the world as it is and not as we would like

it to be. We must see the world as all political realists have,

in terms of “what men do and not what they ought to do,” as

Machiavelli and others have put it.

It is painful to accept fully the simple fact that one begins

from where one is, that one must break free of the web of

illusions one spins about life.

Most of us view the world not as it is but as we would like it to

be. The preferred world can be seen any evening on television

in the succession of programs where the good always wins–

that is, until the late evening newscast, when suddenly we are

plunged into the world as it is.

We live in a world where “good” is a value dependent on whether we want it.

In the world as it is, the solution of each problem inevitably

creates a new one. In the world as it is there are no permanent

happy or sad endings. Such endings belong to the world

of fantasy, the world as we would like it to be, the world of

children’s fairy tales where “they lived happily ever after.”

Design for Democracy pairs

designers with local election

authorities to work on ballots

and explanatory materials.

This redesigned ballot uses

illustration to explain how

to fill it out. It also shows a

redesigned voting area to

clarify which candidate a voter

is choosing.

72

In the world as it is, the stream of events surges endlessly

onward with death as the only terminus. One never reaches

the horizon; it is always just beyond, ever beckoning onward;

it is the pursuit of life itself.

This is the world as it is. This is where you start. It is not a world of peace and beauty and dispassionate rationality, ...

Disraeli put it succinctly: “Political life must be taken as you

find it.”

Once we have moved into the world as it is then we begin

to shed fallacy after fallacy. The prime illusion we must rid

ourselves of is the conventional view in which things are seen

separate from their inevitable counterparts.

We know intellectually that everything is functionally

interrelated, but in our operations we segment and isolate all

values and issues. Everything about us must be seen as the

indivisible partner of its converse, light and darkness, good

and evil, life and death.

From the moment we are born we begin to die. Happiness

and misery are inseparable. So are peace and war. The threat

of destruction from nuclear energy conversely carries the

opportunity of peace and plenty, and so with every component

of this universe; all is paired in this enormous Noah’s Ark of

life. Life seems to lack rhyme or reason or even a shadow of

order unless we approach it with the key of converses.

rules for r

adicals73

Seeing everything in its duality, we begin to get some dim clues to direction and what it’s all about. It is in these contradictions and their incessant interacting tensions that creativity begins.

As we begin to accept the concept of contradictions we see

every problem or issue in its whole, interrelated sense. We

then recogni7..e that (or every positive there is a negative,·

and that there is nothing positive without its concomitant

negative, nor any political paradise without its negative side.

Niels Bohr pointed out that thc appearance of contradictions

was a signal that the experiment was on the right track:

“There is not much hope if we have only one difficulty, but

when we have two, we can match them off against each other.”

Bohr called this “complementarity,”

The [Condensed] Rules of Power Tactics

1

Power is not only

what you have but

what the enemy

thinks you have.

2

Never go outside the

experience of your

people.

3

Go outside of the

experience of the

enemy. Cause

confusion, fear, and

retreat.

4

Make the enemy live

up to their own book

of rules.

5

Ridicule is the most

potent weapon.

6

A good tactic is one

that your people

enjoy.

7

A tactic that drags on

too long becomes a

drag.

8

Keep the pressure

on, with different

tactics and actions,

and utilize all events

of the period for your

purpose.

9

The threat is usually

more terrifying than

the thing itself.

10

The major premise

for tactics is the

development of

operations that will

maintain a constant

pressure upon the

opposition.

11

If you push a

negative hard and

deep enough it will

break through into

its counterside;

this is based on the

principle that every

positive has its

negative.

12

The price of a

successful attack

is a constructive

alternative.

13

Pick the target, freeze

it, personalize it, and

polarize it.

74

tactics

Tactics means doing what you can with what you have. Tactics are those consciously deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them.

In the world of give and take, tactics is the art of how to take

and how to give. Here our concern is with the tactic of taking;

how the HaveNots can take power away from the Haves.

For an elementary illustration of tactics, take parts of your face

as the point of reference; your eyes, your ears, and your nose.

First the eyes; if you have organized a vast, mass-based people’s organization, you can parade it visibly before the enemy and openly show your power.

Second the ears; if your organization is small in numbers... conceal the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does.

Third, the nose;if your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.

Walid Raad’s project, The Atlas Group, has

created a story about its existence and has

justified its actions through documentation

and showing of artifacts. The Atlas Group

ostensibly ‘locates, preserves, studies,

and produces audio, visual, literary, and

other documents that shed light on the

recent history of Lebanon.’ The artist uses

traditional forms to build credibility that a

full organization produces the work.

AdditionAl reAdings of interest

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77

further reading suggestions on doing work for the common good and design intervention in public space1941 let Us now Praise famous men by James Agee and Walker evans

1964 First things First

1971 Rules for Radicals

1973 small is Beautiful: economics as if People mattered by e.f. schumacher

1997 the Power of Place: Urban landscapes as Public history by dolores hayden

2000 First things First

2002 surpassing the spectacle by carol Becker

2002 relational aesthetics by nicolas Bourriaud

2002 rural studio: samuel mockbee and an Architecture of decency by Andrea oppenheimer dean and timothy hursley

2003 citizen designer by steven heller and veronique vienne

2004 Plop: recent Projects of the Public Art fund by susan k. freedman, tom eccles, dan cameron, katy siegel, Jeffrey kastner, and Anne Wehr

2005 the interventionists: Users’ manual for the creative disruption of everyday life by nato thompson, gregory sholette, and Joseph thompson

2006 Participation ed. by claire Bishop

2006 What is graphic design for? by Alice twemlow

2007 The Gift by Lewis hyde

2007 looking closer 5: critical Writings on graphic design by michael Beirut, William drenttel, and steven heller

2008 A guide to democracy in America by yates mckee, Anne Pasternak, gregory sholette, and liam gillick

2008 droog event 2: Urban Play by droog

2008 My work is not my work: Pierre Bernard–Design for the public domain by Hugues Boekraad

2009 design revolution: 100 Products that empower People by emily Pilloton

78

the Gift

That art that matters to us– which moves the heart, or revives the soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we choose to describe the experience–that work is received by us as a gift is received.


...contemporary artists

... create and stage life-

structures that include

working methods and

ways of life, rather than

the concrete objects

that once defined the

field of art. they use

time as a raw materiai.

form takes priority

over things, and flows

over categories: the

production of gestures

is more important than

the production of

material things.

read like you g

ive a dam

n

79


Evidently it is possible to be a practising designer in a way that credibly combines relative autonomy, originality and social relevance...

Pierre Bernard’s work for the French

parks system uses silhouettes from

nature to create a system of symbols.

Turning natural elements into graphic

symbols, he creates an identity sytem

for the place we find the origins of the

symbols–the parks. This inventive

identity system for a non-commercial

client shows Bernard’s values at work.

the new York times’ Year in ideas issue

highlights the most innovative, most

groundbreaking ideas of each year. it is an

editorial project that uses design to further

illuiminate new areas of thought. it expands

the scope of debate.

80


We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand.

read like you g

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81

rules for radicals

What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.


‘Just as i think it is

illusory to count

on the gradual

transformation of

society so i believe

that microscopic

attempts –

communities,

neighbourhood

committees,

organizing creches

in universities –

play an absolutely

fundamental role.’

read like you g

ive a dam

n

83


Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.

read like you g

ive a dam

n

85


...social utopias and

revolutionary

hopes have given way to

day-to-day micro-utopias

and mimetic strategies:

any ‘direct’ critique of

society is

pointless if it is based

upon the illusion of

a marginality that is

now impossible, if not

regressive. Almost

thirty years ago, felix

guattari was already

recommending the

neighbourhood strategies

on which contemporary

artistic practices are

based.

86

Andrew sloat’s project Article II shows

citizens spelling out part of the second

article of the consitution, which created

the executive branch. this section of the

article is the oath of office for President

of the United states.

read like you g

ive a dam

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87

read like you g

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89

gabriel orozco’s Ping Pond Table from 1998

creates a new way of relating to the table

itself, the other players, and to the gallery

space. it suggests possibilities for exchange

other than the prevailing ones of gaming or

the gallery.

90

the Gift

Furthermore, when gifts circulate within a group, their commerce leaves a series of interconnected relationships in its wake, and a kind of decentralized cohesiveness emerges.

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Using the tools of graphic design for a

different message, John Briggs makes a

modest suggestion in his 2008 project with

stefan sagmeister’s Things I Have Learned in

My Life So Far workshop project.

read like you g

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95


...contemporary artists who create

and stage life-structures that include

working methods and ways of life, rather

than the concrete objects that once

defined the field of art. they use time as

a raw materiai. form takes priority over

things, and flows over categories: the

production of gestures is more important

than the production of material things.

96


In the political sphere there is a permanent struggle to gain entry to the centres of power and the agenda of political decision-making. In no period has that struggle been more vehement than in the second half of the nineteenth centure and the first half of the twentieth.

coloPhon

Chapparal Pro The Gift by Lewis Hyde

Prensa My work is not my work: Pierre Bernard–Design for the public domain by Hugues Boekraad

Chronicle First things First

Akkurat relational Aesthetics by nicolas Bourriaud

Caecilia Rules for Radicals

then DESIGN FOR THE COMMON GOOD

READ LIKE YOUGIVEA DAMN

Excerpts for designersedited by LINDSAY KINKADE

VO

LU

ME

1

1

0001 Ward0002 Split

Offi cfi cfi ial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfield County, ty, ty NebraskaTuesday, ay, ay November 07, 07, 07 2006

Papeleta Ofi cOfi cOfi ial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfield, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006

not fold the ballotdoble la papeleta


Do not cross out orerase, or your vote

may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nuevaa uno de los trabajadores electorales.

1/ 8




Daniel CourtanddAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura












Victor MartinezPiPinknk / / RosaRosa





President andVice-President of theUnited StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos

Vote por 1 par










a candidate, filloval to the left of

write-in” and printname clearly on the

line.

regar un candidato, el óvalo a la izquierda

espacio designado ‘o por y escriba claramente

nombre de la persona enpunteada.

the completed into the ballotHand in the ballot

counted.Cuando termine de votar,introduzca la papeleta en lafunda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.


rning in the ballotgue la papeleta

Vote for 1 pair

Precinct00

Do No

To add in the ov“or writthe name dotted

Para agrerellene el del espacio escrito’el nombrla línea pu

Insert tballot into sleeve. to be coCuando termine de introduzca la papeletfunda protectora y entré-guela para ser cont

Turning Entregue

Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ ________ ________ ______English / Spanish

ballot.ta.

funda protectora y entré-ada.

Fill in the oval to the left ofthe name of your choice.You must blacken the oval completely, tely, tely and do notmake any marks outside of the oval. You do nothave to vote in every race.

Rellene el óvalo que estáa la izquierda del nombrede su preferencia. Deberárellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene quevotar en todas las contiendas.

Do ot out

READ LIK

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Read Like You Give a Damn

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