Design Critics

Code:

CD211

Acronym:

CD

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Arts

Instance: 2017/2018 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Design
Course/CS Responsible:	Communication Design

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
DC	59	Plano Oficial do ano letivo 2017	3	-	3	30	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Objectives: Students will develop an operating knowledge of the current criticism of graphic design as well as its history.
Skills: writing and critical argumentation about design.

Learning outcomes and competences

Results: It is expected that the student knows fluently trends and the history of criticism of the design as well as their methodologies, managing to apply this knowledge in a dynamic way as a designer, researcher, editor or commissioner.

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. Functions of Design Criticism

What is design criticism? Who produces it? Who consumes it? This introduction will treat the critical discourse of design as the public discussion of design: a discourse that precedes, accompanies and continues project-oriented practice. It will treat the discourse on design produced internally by designers and externally by other stakeholders. It will be argued that, if design has interest beyond its core practitioners, it will necessarily be discussed by more people. It will be argued that the quality of a discussion on design will reside primarily in the quality of the used arguments. We will provide an operational definition of criticism as external and internal discourse on design. Bothe the designer and the critic will be framed in the organic intellectual Gramscian concept. Instances structural anti-intellectualism in design will be discussed.

Bibliography:

On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
On (Design) Bullshit, Michael Bierut
Raging Bull, Rick Poynor
The Prison Notebooks - The Intellectuals, Antonio Gramsci
Representations of the Intellectual, Edward W. Said (excerpts)

2. General History of Criticism (Literary, art, design)

An introduction to criticism as a discipline through a parallel history of literary criticism and art criticism. We will present the different functions that criticism played, some of its doctrines and methodologies, and formats and contexts where it was produced. This general history of criticism will serve as a starting point to establish which is the specificity of a critical design.

Bibliography:

An Introduction to Art Criticism: Histories, Strategies, Voices, Kerr Houston
The Function of Criticism, Terry Eagleton

3. How do the history of design is decided - Canons

It is customary to design criticism to support its arguments on the history of the discipline, leaving history itself out of critical scrutiny. In this section we will make a critical analysis of the history of design - what are its functions? Who produces it and for what? To this end, we will analyze the debate about the existence or not of a canon within graphic design. If, as advocated Martha Scotford, "critical selection is what makes a canon", what criteria support this selection?We will amalyze the limits and omissions of the canon regarding geographical, historical, techniques and gender.

Bibliography:

Is There a Canon of Graphic Design History, Martha Scotford
Absolutely the "Worst", Rick Poynor
The Silence of the Swastika: Erika Nooney

4. Politics of form

The first temptation of design criticism is to limit its scope to the evaluation of the relationship between the form and function of an object - their mutual suitability, its dissonances. However the separation between form and function is porous. Neither function is absent of form; nor form is pure sensitive game. Each is a cultural artifact - the same can be said of the opposition between form and content, of course. This section will try to perceive form as politics, style as substance, surface as identity. We will try to find out how the very separation of form and content or function is itself political. We will go over different ways how the binomial form / shape or function / content were interpreted over time with very different consequences. It will be argued that form is not a mere shell or neutral reflection for content or political function. The style or decoration are not accessories but disputed or imposed limited resources. The way design manages form / function or form / content is political, encoding and supporting different social systems, different hierarchies, etc. We will use the concept developed by Jacques Rancière of "distribution of the sensible" to frame the policy of formal choices as well as their separation function / content.

Bibliography:

The Crystal Goblet, Beatrice Ward
Graphics Incognito, Mark Owens
The Politics of aesthetics (excerpt), Jacques Rancière
Art Under plutocracy, William Morris
Ornament and Crime, Typographers: Adolf Loos
The Author as Producer, Walter Benjamin

"Good Design is Goodwill," Paul Rand
The Form of the Book - An Essay On The Morality of Good Design, Jan Tschichold

Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects (excerpt)
Subcultures, Dick Hebdige (excerpt)

5. Politics of Design

Buiding on the previous section, we will try to find out what may be the very political nature of the design, how it treats politics as a theme and how itself is political.

Bibliography:

No Logo, Naomi Klein. (excerpts)
Art Under plutocracy, William Morris
The Work of Art In the age of Its Technical Reproduction The Author as Producer, Walter Benjamin
Ways of Seeing, John Berger
This Is Not A Pipe, Michel Foucault.

6. Authorship and Design

Identity politics in design. Criticism of the biographical model of criticism and history. The design and production of identities (including the designer himself): gender, politics and design.

Bibliography:

The Designer As Author, Michael Rock.
The Designer as Producer, Ellen Lupton
The Designer as Entrepreneur, Steven Heller

The Death of the Author, Roland Barthes
What is an Author? Michel Foucault
Plato, Ion (excerpt)

7. Geography, Identity and Design

Critical of universalist model inherited of modernist design. Design, center, periphery and postcolonialism.

Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy (Excerpt)
Edward W. Said, Orientalism; Culture and Imperialism (excerpts)
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (excerpt)

Mandatory literature

Houston Kerr; An Introduction to Art Criticism, Pearson Education, 2012. ISBN: 9780205835942
Johanna Drucker, Emily McVarish; Graphic Design: a Critical Guide, Pearson Prentice hall, 2009. ISBN: 9780132410755
Frankfurt Harry K. ; On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780691122946
Said Edward W; Representations of the Intellectual, Random House, 1996. ISBN: 9780679761273
Gramsci Antonio; Prison Notebooks, Columbia University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780231157551
Eagleton; The Function of Criticism, Verso Books, 2006. ISBN: 9781844670550
AA VV; Looking Closer: Bk. 4 : Critical Writings on Graphic Design, Allworth Press,U.S., 2002. ISBN: 9781581152357

Teaching methods and learning activities

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	50,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Eligibility for exams

Calculation formula of final grade

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Exam

Classification improvement

Exam

Observations