The Ethics of Graphic Design Lecture

Richard Hollis and Ken Garland after the talk

First things first manifest by Ken Garland

The lecture that took place on Wednesday at UCL was utterly engaging. Although I was interested in all the projects mentioned by designers such as Annelys de Vet, Annelies Van Eycken and Silvia Sfligiotti, the most inspirational part was to see Ken Garland standing up and giving a 15 minute talk on professional ethics. 


Apparently there are two distinctions of professional ethics, which includes Separatism and Universalism. For example separatism includes doctors, solicitors etc, so we have people that are allowed to lie and act in ways that others in society are not permitted to for the sake of their clients. Universalism on the other hand is an unprejudiced behaviour with strong social manners that cannot exclude anybody. Here's a question: in which category can you have graphic design when a big part of it is manipulation? Since the media are ruling our so often called reality then how can you say graphic design is ethical?


The lecture had a great emphasis on the user or consumer if you like (according to Paul Rand.) The reason why graphic design is so important is because it represents notions, styles and fashions of society - it gives an idea of what the majority of our society is/wants. Now, if graphic designer could realise the great impact of their communication tools and turn their direction towards a more socially-concious programs, then that would be radical. Designers according to Silvia need to ask their target audience and listen carefully, not just make posters that would go into gallery spaces or that would aesthetically please, but speak to people. 


Unfortunately not many designers are supporting this idea, often because it needs more commitment and does not include a big fat salary like the guys in Mad Men. Well, at the end of the day, it depends of the morality of each person and as it shows from these lecture - there is a few that still have it. 


Interesting projects:


Penguin Draw your Own Cover // visit here


The Bubble Project // visit here


Subjective Atlas of Palestine // visit here


Tussen de regels // I can't find it in english but basically as Annelys explained in the lecture, in the Netherlands when a political building is being build the government provides the same amount of money for a public art project. Some phrases included in the project are: 


'THE NOBODY OF EVERYBODY'
'THE NARCISM OF REALITY'
THE SPEED OF OPINION'
'IRRATIONALITY OF ACTUALITY'
'THE EGO OF SILENCE'  
visit here


Expedition Francka // visit here


Beautiful Dirt // (very clever project) visit here

The Quintet of the Unseen

The Quintet of the Unseen, 2000
Video Instalation, colour video rear projection on screen mounted on wall
Duration - 15min 19sec

'In the four works that comprise the Quintet series (The Quintet of the Unseen, the Quintet of the Astonished, the Quintet of Remembrance and the Quintet of Silent) a group of five people are seen standing close together as they undergo a wave of intense emotion that threatens to overwhelm them. As the sequence begins, their neutral expressions begin to change as the emotion, different for each person, overtakes the group and builds to an extreme level. After some minutes it finally subsides, leaving each person drained and exhausted. 

The five individuals experience the rising emotional energy independently, with no aknowledgement or direct interaction with their companions, other than occasional physical contact due to their close proximity. The group stands before a neutral background with no suggestion of the outside world. In the course of the event they do not move from their original positions and no one leaves the frame. Extreme slow-motion playback makes visible the smallest details and subtle nuances of expression, creating a subjective, psychological space where time is suspended for performer and viewers alike.'

Viola, Bill (2004) The Passions. John Walsh ed., the J. Paul Getty Museum, LA p72

Image sourced from BlainSouthern Gallery

One of the best pieces of Bill Viola. I found the way the 'painting' analyses emotions astonishing. I observed the emotion starting, like a volcano, it slowly heats up, and burns until the explosion. As most things in this world, it builds up to a point that the only way possible from there is down, and so the emotion is being released leaving behind psychological scars that burn like a toxic acid.

Frottage Exhibition Miguel Abreu Gallery

Frottage, 2009
Installation view

Frottage, 2009
Installation view

Henri Michaux
Untitled, circa 1942-44
Graphite on paper
12 2/3 x 18 1/9 inches (32.2 x 46 cm) 

Henri Michaux
Untitled, 1944
Graphite on paper
10 1/2 x 15 ¾ inches (27 x 40 cm)

John Kelsey
Untitled, 2009
Graphite on paper
Sheet size: 11 x 8 ½ inches (28 x 21.6 cm)

'Frottage: “Who does it anymore? Who really did it ever?” These questions are posed in the press release for the exhibition simply titled, Frottage. Referring to the technique of creating marks through the rubbing of objects, frottage is a French term popularized by Max Ernst, and adopted by the surrealist movement. Beginning with Ernst, and moving into artists working today, this exhibition is an intelligent meditation on a process quite easily perceived as passé. The show is organized to function just as frottage itself does, to reveal hidden qualities, narratives, meanings of things we may take for granted, providing us with a framework for renewed appreciation.

Ernst had discovered that through creating rubbings of objects, he, as artist, functioned as a medium through which the underlying material expressed itself. (...) Histoire Naturelle speaks to the subjectivity of knowledge: one illustration is a direct mimicry of Dürer’s earlier fantastical, yet popularly accepted depiction of a rhinoceros (however this time facing the reverse way, a visual pun on the printing process). Also on view are individual drawings by Ernst: the elaborate images he builds from the rubbings are testament to the fertility of imagination granted to the artist by this process.

Some of the most captivating works in the exhibition are those by Henri Michaux, interspersed throughout the gallery, and contributing, along with Ernst, to the historical foundation for the more contemporary works. Michaux’s images, revealing human, animal, and ambiguously anthropomorphic forms, convey both a visceral randomness and ethereal quality. There is an apparent effortlessness combined with whimsy as if, through these rubbings, the artist has revealed some kind of strange and charmingly idiosyncratic spirit world.

Other artists in the show utilize frottage for a more deadpan reveal of seemingly ubiquitous materials. Upon first glance, John Kelsey’s rhythmically simple abstract images may be read purely for their aesthetic and formal strengths. On a closer look, they are in fact rubbings of bubble wrap, a material that consists of practically nothing but air. (...) On the bottom right corner, and in contrast to the direct rubbings, are facsimiles of the signatures of Picasso, Jacqueline Kennedy, Leonardo DaVinci and Shirley Temple (and one cut off and unreadable), meticulously hand-traced in graphite.

Although unified by a single technique, the intentions of the artists in the exhibition vary greatly. When considered as a whole, the method of frottage may be seen as a reference to the act of unveiling, to the investigation of the obscure, and to the artist’s desire to question and refresh our perception of the familiar.'

Images sourced from Miguel Abreu Gallery 2009-2010

Text sourced from Artslant by Michelle Levy

Frottage by Max Ernst

Frottage from Le Fascinant Cyprès (The Fascinating Cypress)
from Histoire Naturelle (Natural History)

Frottage from Le Fascinant Cyprès (The Fascinating Cypress)
from Histoire Naturelle (Natural History)

Frottage from Le Fascinant Cyprès (The Fascinating Cypress) from Histoire Naturelle (Natural History) 'Surrealist automatist technique developed by Max Ernst in drawings made from 1925. Frottage is the French word for rubbing. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil. The results suggest mysterious forests peopled with bird-like creatures and Ernst published a collection of these drawings in 1926 titled Histoire Naturelle (natural history).' Images sourced from MoMa Collection Text sourced from Tate Glossary Highly surreal work by artist, Max Ernst, which gave me a lot of food for thought. Today I  completed a series of rubbings on buildings in London. However, it never occurred to me that I could possibly use these textures as the base of the drawings and actually create forms around them instead of just having them as patterns. At the same time some of them work on their own and some just don't depict anything in particular. The rubbings will go on until next week the latest, as the book needs to be ready by end of March and I still need to letterpress the text, so updates will follow hopefully s o o n.

Extracts of Local Distance

Kunsthalle Hamburg

Kunsthalle Hamburg (detail)

'Countless fragments of existing architectural photography are merged into multilayered shapes. The resulting collages introduce a third abstract point of view next to the original ones of architect and photographer.

Digital scans of analogue architectural photography form tiny pieces of a large resulting puzzle. The original pictures are being analysed and categorised according to their vanishing-points and shapes. Based on this analysis, slices are being extracted from the source image. These slices retain the information of their position corresponding to their original vanishing-point and thus form a large pool of pieces, ready to be applied to new perspectives and shapes.

Using the extracted image segments, it is now possible to form collages of originally different pictures with a new common perspective. In order to compose a collage, a perspective-grid is defined and a lining of matching image segments is being applied. The segments are not altered to match the frame but fitting ones are chosen from the sheer mass of possible pieces. By defining additional keywords which describe the content of the original photographs, the selection of segments used for the final composition can be influenced. Thus a contextual layer is added through the semantic linking with the source material.

The recompositions mix and match the views and perspectives of both the architect and the photographer with a third, newly chosen frame. The resulting fine-art prints are entirely unique each time.'

Images and Text sourced from Local Distance website.

The idea is irresistible, especially if you click on the process when you can have a clear indicative explanation on how the perspectives are being generated. Vanishing point is the key term I would be looking at as it reflects on the idea of Horizontal/Vertical project.

As the project is being labelled 'work in progress' it makes me wonder what other outcomes can it have apart from fine art prints. Could it be that it gets physically projected on an area with the same perspectives or maybe that it could be applied when physically building an outdoor space? Anyhow, I can't wait to see more outcomes. Excellent reference point from fellow student Felix Manuel.