1. Project Statement
This project is an exploration of how the relationship between design objects and their various users can be communicated to and perceived by contrasting audiences. Specifically, we were interested in the juxtaposition that arose from the V&A’s curatorial decision to pair our selected object, the architectural spikes, with a braille tactile paving block, presenting two similar pieces of design infrastructure that communicate their specific functions to their intended users, yet are easily ignored by those who do not rely on them or can ‘decode’ them (both within London’s urban landscape and the context of the exhibition). These ideas of contrast and communication drove our explorations, as we translated the physical spikes into digital 3D models and then once more into a physical product catalogue of stainless steel defensive architecture, all produced by the same manufacturer of the original spikes, Kent Stainless. Visually, the catalogue is a fetishized representation of these products, but offers an alternative tactile reading experience as well, through overlaying braille messaging on pages. Running your fingers over the pages reveals contrasting positions to these gleaming steel products, formed during the #AntiHomelessSpikes outcry in 2014.
2. Annotated Bibliography
2 x Reading List:
Laranjo, F. (2014) Critical Graphic Design: Critical of What? Available at: https://modesofcriticism.org/critical-graphic-design/
(Accessed: 15 February 2022)
We read this text as a group at the beginning of the brief, to better understand what ‘criticality’ meant to each of us and how to ‘consciously’ approach the spikes in a manner that wasn’t totally reductive. Our intention was less about being critical of the anti-homeless spikes from a moral or ethical perspective (though this, as a position, is inherently conveyed through the enquiry) and more focussed on re-contextualising the object at the centre of an ongoing conversation that it, and its pairing with the braille paving, evokes between different users and ‘third party’ audiences – i.e. those that aren’t directly impacted by or engaging with the object itself; bystanders of sorts. We resonated most with design researcher Ramia Mazé’s third form of criticality, “not targeted at a designer’s own discipline, practice or even at design in general, but at social and political phenomena” (Laranjo, 2014), which in this case is the effect of defensive architecture on public space. That said, Mazé also explains that design practice is the overlaying of three forms of criticality, and as we developed our work, we noticed this layering in our critique as well, which initially began with the spikes as a form of antisocial communication, and eventually expanded to include the format of the industrial product catalogue as a medium.
DiSalvo, C. (2012) Adversarial Design. MIT Press: Cambridge. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. (Accessed 21 February 2022).
Our project could be considered as a form of adversarial design as inquiry, defined in this reading as the process of giving form to problematic situation, but also an expression of a political condition, “comprised of a diversity of actors and objects, each with multiple agendas and effects, which often seem incongruent” (DiSalvo, 2012). It is the latter definition that has specifically led us in our enquiry, as we have attempted to illustrate the diverse set of users and audiences that revolve around the architectural spikes, both directly and indirectly. Placing the spikes within the context of an exhibition renders these groups of people vague, another characteristic that adversarial design inquiry seeks to address, but through the catalogue we have tried to reflect the positions of the manufacturer, the client, anti-spike activists and ourselves as the designers taking a political stance while undertaking this enquiry. Incorporating braille in contrast to the rendered and stylised imagery was a method of communicating these diverse perspectives and highlighting the social exclusion that defensive architecture creates. We have reflected, however, that to transition from a.d as inquiry to a.d. as practice will require a more participatory approach that includes those whom the spikes seek to exclude, as well as audiences to circulate the catalogue amongst, so that this political condition can be acted upon, as is the purpose of adversarial design.
2 x Non-Reading List:
Lupton, E. and Philips, J. (2015) Graphic Design: The New Basics, Second Edition. Princeton Architectural Press: New York
This reference discussed the use of “spatial layering” and framing to establish visual relationships, as well as the presentation of three-dimensional space in a flat format. Layering is a key method we used throughout the catalogue, which functions on a few levels. Each of the product collages layer a combination of digital renders, technical drawings, and photography in order to position each stud within its urban context, while also alluding to the various social groups that it relates to. Similarly, the decision to layer braille on top of certain text and imagery allowed an alternative means of reading the catalogue, as well as a hidden counter narrative to the one that the images convey. The reference also touches on creating depth and texture through the flat surface of a page, which we thought was particularly important, given that we were working with a spatial object. As such, the braille makes the catalogue more of a physical object rather than a solely visual one, since it physically extrudes the paper while also referring to the extrusions of the spikes themselves.
Maldonado, T. (2019) Design, Nature & Revolution: Toward a Critical Ecology. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis.
Relevant to our enquiry is the correlation between human consciousness and the creation of an environment, and as such, the intentionality behind a designed object. Maldonado argues that a consciousness “disjointed, enfeebled, and even humiliated by alienation” (Maldonado, 2019) will naturally result in an environmental reality that is only understood through that very alienation. Framing our object through this argument reflects the societal preoccupation with deterring “undesirable” engagement with and occupation of public space, which as a result may further alienate those that perhaps already feel isolated. Alienation is also a sort of hidden subtext that the V&A display hints at. The caption accompanying briefly explains what the spikes are used for but seeing them displayed as they were, they seemed rather unassuming. The caption aside, this connection between intention and the consequences a design has on creating and perceiving a human environment isn’t immediately apparent and was something we tried to explore further with the contrasting forms of communication within the catalogue.
2 x Design Practices/Projects:
Grubić, I. (2013). East Side Stories [Video installation]. Tate Modern, London.
The juxtaposition of the braille paving block with the architectural spikes was what immediately struck us about how the V&A presented these design objects, something we wanted to explore from the beginning. Like this pairing of two infrastructures that communicate opposite attitudes, Igor Grubić’s film presents footage of homophobic physical and verbal abuse aimed at Gay Pride marches in Serbia and Croatia, alongside interpretive dance inspired by those attacks and filmed in the same public spaces. Seeing the two alongside each other informs and manipulates the understanding of the other; at times, the harrowing footage of the attacks seems to be pacified by the dancers’ movements, while the violence of the former accentuates the later at other moments. By overlaying corporate text descriptions and braille snippets quoting anti-spikes activists, we wanted to explore this idea of harsh contrast in relation to an issue social injustice and manipulate the understanding of the various spikes. Similar to Grubić’s work, our project also seeks to challenge intolerance, albeit in a more implicit manner. It would be interesting to see how the catalogue could be used as an intervention in public space, if distributed in the very sites where the spikes are still found, much like how the video sees the dancers returning to the original sites.
Dellaporta, R. (2005) Antipersonnel. Rome: Punctum Press.
One of our points of discussion after visiting the V&A was how the exhibition manipulated the perception of the spikes and paving block by presenting them as ‘design objects’ seen outside of their functional context. Raphäel Dellaporta’s photobook Antipersonnel offered another example of this manipulation, but as critique. We had already decided on translating the physical objects into a printed catalogue, but Antipersonnel challenged us to be more explicit and intentional about how the objects would be conveyed in print. We took inspiration from the commercial and somewhat glossy feel of the book, which divorces a series of landmines from their destructive function and instead captures them as examples of glorified design and craft. This idea of glorification became a key theme across the style of the collages and renders, as conveying the position or attitude of a certain audience or group of people in relation to the studs, be them the manufacturers themselves or members of the general public that support this explicit delineation between public and private space.
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Unit 1: Methods of Contextualising – Feedback
What’s working:
- The catalogue is effective in conveying our position as designers (not neutral as we had perhaps assumed)
- Braille connects the project the broader context of the anti-spike movement
- A physical catalogue mimics the actual product catalogues these types of companies have and can be mailed out
What’s not working:
- Without a key, the braille’s meaning can be lost given that most people cannot read it – could potentially be an digital catalogue and achieve a similar effect
To develop this further/in future projects:
- Use the catalogue as a means of public engagement – hand it out to the public to see how it is received, to further test the audience
- Pushing the materiality further with the use of etching and silver paper
- Exploring the format of a pop-up book