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sabotabbyI finally got around to seeing Massive Change at the AGO today -- something I've been squirming to see since I first heard it was coming. It's rare that I'm this excited to see a show by someone I utterly loathe. Bruce Mau has a spot of talent, but he embodies everything I hate about the design world, and besides, I'm still unclear as to what input he had into making this show. The word "guru" is so wonderfully vague.
Background: This show was actually created by Bruce Mau's students, each of whom paid$1600 $16,000 to do his work for him. In any other industry, this would make Mau a big ol' cheater. In the upside-down world of design, this makes him a visionary. The role of the designer in industry discourse, it seems, has shifted to that of an art director -- you can come up with a grandiose concept and foist the work on your faithful minions.
Oh, did I mention that I really, really hate this guy?
So yes, the show. Stripped of its lofty language, Massive Change aims to describe how design is making the world a better place. As you walk in, giant letters proclaim that just by attending the show, you are contributing to the project. As soon as I read that, I knew that it wouldn't disappoint: This was, as I had so hoped, the most pretentious exhibit to ever find its way into the AGO.
Mau says: "Design has emerged as one of the world's most powerful forces. It has placed us at the beginning of an new period of human possibility, where all economies and ecologies are becoming global, relational, and interconnected." It sounds just like one of the lectures I was forced to endure when I was studying graphic design, but it's actually so much better than that: There was not a single work of graphic design to be seen. Instead, Mau, a graphic designer, addresses such matters as military technology, urban planning, material manufacturing, and how branding is making the Third World a happier, richer place.
You read that right. Mau, the guy who designed the original (and lovely) cover for Naomi Klein's No Logo, seems to believe that by slightly rearranging the dynamics of consumer capitalism, global inequalities can be fixed. Just like that! All hail the power of design. I don't think he actually read No Logo, which is really a pity.
So, no art at the art gallery, no graphic design, and not really much in the way of product design. Lots of text, though. Fellow editorial and literary types in Hogtown are very much encouraged to attend this show and see what happens when you commission a 12-foot high poster and don't proofread it first. My mum and I played "count the typos" all through the exhibit. It's not like said text was informative, anyway; Mau is a master of empty rhetoric.
Lame attempt at social commentary. The entire room had statistics about who spends what on which things, and how poverty can somehow be eliminated. Then there were these giant silvery balloons. I wanted to pop them.
Essentially, Massive Change is a paean to the evangelical power of consumer culture. Mau recognizes the issues and quotes the same statistics as Klein and everyone else on the Left. His solution (and I think he's been smoking the same drugs as Adbusters' Kalle Lasn) is to rectify the problems of the past 500 years by continuing the process that created those problems -- fight the excesses of capitalism through more capitalism. We'll have green capitalism, warm fuzzy capitalism, "sustainable" capitalism (never mind the inherent contradiction; like every high school senior knows, capitalism works through expanding markets -- it's unsustainable by definition)...now here are the cool new toys you can have! And you'll feel better, because it's made out of recycled plastic. Now buy, buy, buy!
Case in point: Electric cars, built for one or two people. They solve the superficial problem of excessive gas consumption, but not of piss-poor urban and suburban planning and not the vast amount of resources wasted through production of vehicles meant for personal use only. Electric cars are still not ecologically sound; I'm not a scientist, and I even know that.
Mau's relentless optimism is based on his egotistical conception of the Designer as Renaissance Man. Quoth my step-brother: "Leave urban planning to the urban planners." Designing better modes of capitalism will not balance out a fundamentally imbalanced global economy. Designing better weapons will not end war.
There were, admittedly, some neat bits; the section on biology and genetic engineering had a system where an issue -- stem cell research, GM foods, genetic manipulation of animals -- was discussed via a very simplistic rundown of pros and cons, and the viewer was able to vote on the question, "Should we be doing this?" The voting was set up so that you could actually see the results, and there was a striking level of consensus in the responses. And the military geek in me loved the section on weapons; it was like DefCon without the need to sneak in and get arrested.
Passersby check out freakish Israeli featherless chicken. What was that about making the world a better place?
But my final assessment? So bad it was good. I had a delightful time finding incorrect facts and giant holes in each one of his arguments, and my contempt for the Diva of Design was completely vindicated. I'd like to thank Mr. Mau for giving me the most entertaining afternoon I've had in ages.
Background: This show was actually created by Bruce Mau's students, each of whom paid
Oh, did I mention that I really, really hate this guy?
So yes, the show. Stripped of its lofty language, Massive Change aims to describe how design is making the world a better place. As you walk in, giant letters proclaim that just by attending the show, you are contributing to the project. As soon as I read that, I knew that it wouldn't disappoint: This was, as I had so hoped, the most pretentious exhibit to ever find its way into the AGO.
Mau says: "Design has emerged as one of the world's most powerful forces. It has placed us at the beginning of an new period of human possibility, where all economies and ecologies are becoming global, relational, and interconnected." It sounds just like one of the lectures I was forced to endure when I was studying graphic design, but it's actually so much better than that: There was not a single work of graphic design to be seen. Instead, Mau, a graphic designer, addresses such matters as military technology, urban planning, material manufacturing, and how branding is making the Third World a happier, richer place.
You read that right. Mau, the guy who designed the original (and lovely) cover for Naomi Klein's No Logo, seems to believe that by slightly rearranging the dynamics of consumer capitalism, global inequalities can be fixed. Just like that! All hail the power of design. I don't think he actually read No Logo, which is really a pity.
So, no art at the art gallery, no graphic design, and not really much in the way of product design. Lots of text, though. Fellow editorial and literary types in Hogtown are very much encouraged to attend this show and see what happens when you commission a 12-foot high poster and don't proofread it first. My mum and I played "count the typos" all through the exhibit. It's not like said text was informative, anyway; Mau is a master of empty rhetoric.
Lame attempt at social commentary. The entire room had statistics about who spends what on which things, and how poverty can somehow be eliminated. Then there were these giant silvery balloons. I wanted to pop them.
Essentially, Massive Change is a paean to the evangelical power of consumer culture. Mau recognizes the issues and quotes the same statistics as Klein and everyone else on the Left. His solution (and I think he's been smoking the same drugs as Adbusters' Kalle Lasn) is to rectify the problems of the past 500 years by continuing the process that created those problems -- fight the excesses of capitalism through more capitalism. We'll have green capitalism, warm fuzzy capitalism, "sustainable" capitalism (never mind the inherent contradiction; like every high school senior knows, capitalism works through expanding markets -- it's unsustainable by definition)...now here are the cool new toys you can have! And you'll feel better, because it's made out of recycled plastic. Now buy, buy, buy!
Case in point: Electric cars, built for one or two people. They solve the superficial problem of excessive gas consumption, but not of piss-poor urban and suburban planning and not the vast amount of resources wasted through production of vehicles meant for personal use only. Electric cars are still not ecologically sound; I'm not a scientist, and I even know that.
Mau's relentless optimism is based on his egotistical conception of the Designer as Renaissance Man. Quoth my step-brother: "Leave urban planning to the urban planners." Designing better modes of capitalism will not balance out a fundamentally imbalanced global economy. Designing better weapons will not end war.
There were, admittedly, some neat bits; the section on biology and genetic engineering had a system where an issue -- stem cell research, GM foods, genetic manipulation of animals -- was discussed via a very simplistic rundown of pros and cons, and the viewer was able to vote on the question, "Should we be doing this?" The voting was set up so that you could actually see the results, and there was a striking level of consensus in the responses. And the military geek in me loved the section on weapons; it was like DefCon without the need to sneak in and get arrested.
Passersby check out freakish Israeli featherless chicken. What was that about making the world a better place?
But my final assessment? So bad it was good. I had a delightful time finding incorrect facts and giant holes in each one of his arguments, and my contempt for the Diva of Design was completely vindicated. I'd like to thank Mr. Mau for giving me the most entertaining afternoon I've had in ages.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 05:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 05:39 am (UTC)And how is it connected with Israel?
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:18 pm (UTC)A strain of featherless chickens has been bred - with the wonderful benefit of not having to be plucked after they are killed. Hand-plucking is hard work, so the quality of lives of chicken pluckers can be improved dramatically by putting them out of jobs.
Of course, the naked chickens have to be raised in a climate controlled environment, because they really can't survive outside. I foolishly presume the cost of the energy and equipment for climate control outweigh the cost of chicken pluckers. And why have self-insulating chickens when you can expend energy to do the job?
Isn't this miraculous progress?
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 06:14 pm (UTC)I have no words.
I understand this (if one can understand such a thing) because in order to keep chickens kosher you can not put them in boiling water to help remove the feathers (or something like that).
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 07:29 am (UTC)thanks girl!
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 10:13 pm (UTC)