Post-Modernist Design Theory - Lecture 30/11/2016

1970s - established as term (Jencks)
1980s - recognisable style
1990s - dominant theoretical discourse
Now - tired & simmering

Jean Francois Lyotard - The Postmodern Condition (1979)

Incredulity towards meta-narratives (Modernism, Marxism, Christianity, Science, etc)

Homogenising forces give way to heterogeneity - Result: CRISIS IN CONFIDENCE - not knowing where society is headed
Modernism is largely driven by white men

Postmodernism is more broad:
Phillip Johnson - The AT&T Building


Memphis Group

Ettore Sottass



Masanori Umeda

Postmodernism questions the supposed neutrality of universalism that Modernism claimed to strive for

Patriarchy is still very much in power - more subtly today through ingrained ideas and attitudes
The Story of Art - E.H. Gombrick - didn't mention a single woman in the history of ALL art
History is largely built with a patriarchal bias
Postmodernism strives to destroy this bias

Jacques Derrida - Of Grammatology - suggests that all of philosophy and history up to now has been flawed because it has been focused on setting up binary opposites within everything - Man v Woman, Black v White, Good v Bad - the world is more complex
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these binaries are set up to make one seem more appealing than the other
Man     :    Woman
White   :    Black
Speech :    Writigng
Voice   :    Silence
Culture :    Nature
West     :    East
Present :    Past

All these binaries work to make the second one seem inferior, e.g the connotations of white vs those of black

Logocentrism - tipping the favour of a comparison - one is suggested to be superior

Derrida, J (1974) - Glas - the strange structure of the book makes the reader responsible for connecting the dots and authoring the book themselves


Cranbrook Academy- 1975-1991 - Director Katherine McCoy


David Carson-Raygan (1994) - Interview with Bryan Ferry printed in incomprehensible Wingdings font because he thought Ferry was boring, so why would anyone want to read the interview

Martin Margiela (2003) - Tweed blazer with lining showing: deconstructive=little rebellions - a jacket that turns itself inside out when you put it on - rebellious, but not collapsing social boundaries


St Martins Fashion Show - deconstructive fashion



Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body - the opposite of necessity & Modernism's desire for ultra-sleek everything to make life easier - clothes that wear you: goes directly against Form Follows Function



Issey Miyake (1999) - A Piece Of Cloth - feels like a mockery of Modernism, deconstructing the single material foundation of Modernist design


Helene Cixous (1967) - The Laugh of the Medusa

Man       :   Woman

Active   :   Passive
Sun        :   Moon
Rational :  Irrational
Culture  :  Nature
Head     :  Heart
Father   :   Mother
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Logocentrism - all the privileged concepts are made out to be male
Phallogocentrism - Still tipping the favour but very much towards the male dominated elements

Edward Said (1978) - Orientalism - STILL tipping the favour towards males, but very much towards western males - the East is described as less dominant, as women are
West      :    East
Familiar :    Exotic
Safe        :    Dangerous
Moral     :    Amoral
Rational  :   Irrational
Head       :   Heart
Culture   :    Nature
Science   :    Myth

All these things become ingrained and become justifications for colonialism, racism, sexism etc
Not even technically propaganda because its SO ingrained in peoples minds its almost an involuntary thought process for most people
This isn't how things are - women are not genetically inferior, eastern culture isn't magical - its BIAS enforced by the patriarchy - Postmodernism's desire is to uncover and expose this
The bias doesn't really stand up to scrutiny - the continuation of the patriarchy and powerful white men controlling everything depends on normal people telling themselves they belong at the bottom- the most effective prison is that in which the prisoners exist willingly

Pastiche - Stagnation - no change happens and nobody cares about it
Depthlessness = nostalgia for false past - false realism

Hopelessly commercial - there's no way for you to be outside of anything - everything is collapsed in together
Memphis Design - Has now become capitalised and has no real content - just meaningless patterns design for production and sale

Nirvana shirts being recycled on the high street - no understanding or respect for the anarchist context that symbol was born in, and what its creators were saying - this is how all these biases are produced - through laziness and ignorance, retro without context, content without substance, lack of grounding
Affirmative Culture - affirms and conceals the real conditions of social existence

The solution to hegemony is deconstruction - show people what is really there
All these rebellious images and phrases are everywhere but the public don't know why and don't care why, so it means nothing

Man depends on woman to stay in the place they have assigned them to ensure the continuation of the patriarchy
Writing is more permanent than speech
The resources of the East are depended on by the West
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DECONSTRUCTION OF BIAS

Sonia & Robert Delawney - Both have the same style of working:
Robert said to have a systematic understanding and approach to colour
Sonia said to have a 'feeling' for colour
Subtle Sexism

76% of us in LCA are women, going into an unstable(ish) arts industry
94% of engineering students are male, going into a secure, constant, well paid industry
The opportunities need to be readily available to all or the stagnation will continue

Deconstruction is the key