VA: Week 5 Readings

Towards Critical Autonomy

My understanding of this article is that there has been a shift in the nature of design. We've passed this era of being mostly concerned with originality as defined by personal expression to being dedicated to inventive contextuality.

Question
What does Andrew Blauvelt mean by inventive contexuality in this day and age? (not completely sure myself what he means)

Designer as Catalyst

This reading discusses similar ideas and concepts to some of the other articles we've read. We're at a point in time where design has moved beyond the traditional designer as an instrument of commercialism with the only purpose of communicating the message of the client. Instead, Max Bruinsma describes two different operative strategies, sedate consumers or to activate citizens. I believe, the former shares similar qualities to the latter. The biggest difference is that the system is more of a back and forth dialogue then one to one communication. Design as catalyst is about working within a frame, identifying and taking a stance on an issue, then making that known within the frame to initiate a dialogue.

Question
Do you think the tradition strategy, designer as an instrument of commercialism, can be applied to visual advocacy if we look the people/world as our client?

"Massive Change" Intro

As much as I love being a designer, I'm aware that some of the skills we're learning aren't completely unobtainable to others or always unique to our discipline. We do in fact share a large amount of skill sets with other disciplines, its a matter of practice, context, and the nature of our field. This idea of Massive Change will that Bruce Mau is relevant and I agree with his statement that "Massive Change is obviously ambitiously positive, and might be misunderstood as Utopian at first glance. But it is not futuristic. It is about what is already happening. I think people are being to understand more and more the value of design. We shouldn't be looking at the classical concepts of our disciplines anymore, we need to exchange ideas for goals through the context of our educations. However, I will say that I believe design is the glue that's connecting the other disciplines to shape this larger collaborative initiative right now.

Question
In a sense Mau is suggesting that we blur the lines of our disciplines. Do you think people will do so with ease and if they don't will it then slow down our ability to solve larger issues?