decon graphics lecture

Deconstructivism The Topics

1. What it is.

2. Where it comes from.

3. Decon’s history.***

4. In architecture***

5. In graphic design***

Deconstructivism What it is

From this: 19th century >>>To This: Modern design

Deconstructivism What it isModern Design emerges in the 1920s in Architecture,

Graphics and Product Design.

NOTE THE DATES:

Early Modernism (1917-1950): The Bauhaus Modernism (1950-1970): The International Style Postmodernism (1970-Now): Postmodernism

Deconstructivism is part of the Postmodern period


Modernism:A single theory or explanation for many

different events. A belief in

Science, Progress, OrderLogic and calculation

Analysis and Functionalism

Reducing experience to small fragments easily understood by

science

Rejection of the importance of Personal experience


Modernism standardizes people, societies, processes and shapes them into a ‘one size fits all’

– rejecting the real complexity of things

Deconstructivism - along with other movements - is arejection of this mass society


The Modern Image The Postmodern image

By the 1970s there was a reaction against Modernist ideas of order and functionalism – towards COMPLEXITY

This was called the Postmodern period


Postmodernism

Towards diversity & Complexity

of opinions, explanations and ideas

different ways of doing the same thing

Towards identity, ethnicity, feminism, anti-science,

individuality & subjectivity


By the 1970s Modernism had split up into a series of different styles – those it had REPRESSED in the

past:

Regionalism (cultural identity)Historicism (Memory)

Pop (familiar-popular images)Hi Tech (Technological fetishism)

Eclecticism (Mix ‘n match)

Deconstructivism (reveals complexity)


Deconstructivism tries to reveal the complexity and multiplicity of things that lies under the smooth,

integrated surface of things.

********I AM MULTITUDE********

Where did this idea come from ?

Deconstructivism From Psychology

Origins in Psychology

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

And his

Theory of REPRESSION


Freud’s Theory suggested the existence of a:

Conscious mind and Unconscious mind

plus

Repression:

In order to live in society

Repression excludes ‘unacceptable’ ideas and instincts from the conscious mind

Deconstructivism From Psychology Repression of unconscious thoughts and desires allows an individual to produce

an ‘acceptable’ image in public.

But……….

Distorts the real identity – all the memories, the feelings, the dreams, the loves, the hates….

maybe leading to sickness

Deconstructivism From Psychology Psychoanalysis requires:

opening of the unconscious mind to find repressed and buried thoughts

What is the patient hiding? In their:

Slips of the tongue, Avoidance of certain subjectsNervous gestures, strange behaviour


By psychoanalysisFreud

Deconstructs the public image of the

person to find the repressed reality

What the patient excludes from their

normal perfect image

Deconstructivism Towards Philosophy

Jacques Derrida (b. 1930)

Philosopher Applies Freud’s

‘Deconstructivism’ to

Writing and Philosophy

How can these texts pretend to be perfect and true?What are they hiding?

Deconstructivism Towards PhilosophyDerrida coined the term:

Deconstructivism

The real TRUTH of the text is that it is made up of:

many ideas, associations,slipsof the tongue, exclusions,

emphases, mistakes, biases and corrections….

IT LOOKS SMOOTH AND UNIFIED -- But it isn’t REALLY!

Deconstructivism REMEMBER

Deconstructivism means:

Open up the form to reveal, identify and magnify:

The sources, the identities and the marginal elements of the

smooth, integrated final image.

Reveal the TRUTH of this thing, this form…..

And the Truth is many things

Deconstructivism In Design

Deconstructivism was one reaction to ModernismAnd a philosophical approach to truth. BUT…

What does it have to do with Design?


DESIGN IS A LANGUAGEIt involves

Selection and CombinationOf forms

To Represent a group of functionsSometimes these functions are complex and

the forms chosen have to express that.

Merging different forms is Design


Different Forms have different AssociationsTo mix forms is to mix and overlap associations

By DESIGN or By ACCIDENT


DeconstructivismEnters

DESIGN****

Modern Design

has reached the end of its cycle

Deconstructivism In Architecture

Deconstructivism was introduced into architecture in

the 1980s

WHY?

There was a feeling that Modern Architecture

Had failed –

International Modern >Is this all it had to offer?


The new Modern Architecture was rational, functional and perfect.

To be that, it had to REPRESS its many sources and complexities. What were they?

Deconstructivism To Architecture

Modern architecture represses

COMPLEXITY

Simplifying and isolating functions to make them easy to

manage

Using Functionalism &GRID


1. Modern Architecture integrates (represses)different functions into a single perfect whole (controlled by the grid)

2. Deconstructivism emphasizes the DIFFERENCE between different FUNCTIONS

3. Deconstructivism tries to reveal the actual complexity of things interacting with one another

4. Deconstructivism tries to reintroduce joy, sensuality and pleasure into architecture


Examples of Deconstructivist

Architecture

The BoxCulver CityCalifornia

Eric Owen Moss


Bernard Tschumi Parc La Villette Paris 1980s


Coop Himmelbau Attic Office Addition 1980s


Disorientation?Distortion? Thedesign issue is nolonger practical butsemantic.

L) Eisenman Housing BerlinR) Eisenman Office Berlin


A new Architectural icon in Spain

Frank Gehry’s

GuggenheimMuseumBilbao

Spain 1999


Any angle BUT the REPRESSIVE

Right Angle of the Modern Grid

Frank GehryAircraft Museum

USA

Deconstructivism In Graphic Design

Deconstructivism entered Graphic

Design in the 1980s

For the same reasons as architecture

An attempt to overcome the smooth integrated standard

image


Is this text or image?Or Both?

The monks who copied this book played with the text and

images

The Book of Kells

9th century Celtic manuscript

Deconstructivism In Graphic design

Text becomes graphicGraphic is a text

Functionalism is not the issue here

Even in a list, like this, the overall image is

Is one of the Presence of the TEXT


Where text is graphic image

Not just a functional means of

communicationTEXT HAS IDENTITY

Chinese text with a Japanese commentary

Deconstructivism

Typical Concepts:

1. Changing type sizes and fonts (Diversity)2. Unusual or custom fonts (Individuality)3. Richly cluttered pages (Complexity)4. Stripped down pages (No overall order)5. Mistakes revealed (Truth & Authenticity)



Deconstructivism

More Typical Concepts:

6. No Grid (Freedom as against Order)7. Big Ideas (Beyond Functionalism)8. Accepting the Ambiguous (the Unsaid)9. Possibility of Other Meanings (Uncontrolled)10. Multiple Messages (Plurality)


Text becomes a independent elementNeville Brody


Text - communication at two levels: shape & meaning. David Carson


Deconstructivist Techniques:

1. Clash (of images and text types)2. Collision and overlap (of sub grids & elements)3. Disruption (of assumptions and stereotypes)4. Disintegration (of overall image & viewpoint)5. Fracturing (of wholeness & unity)6. Each element is an independent reality7. Each element reveals what it really is8. Free-floating elements within the frame


The Palimpsest

An Example of multiple overlaid

images and meanings

Text on textMeaning on meaning

Image on image


The torn and faded poster

Meanings lost or partially understood

Fragments of messagesSuperimpose one on the

other

So many associations

Deconstructivism In Graphic DesignDeconstructivist attitudes:

1. Play…….. the creative search – the random

2. Humour…the clash of assumptions3. Irony……. the double meaning

4. Parody….. exaggeration of character5. Pastiche... The obvious fake – (humour)

6. Contention..Challenging the stereotypes

7. De-Centering..No dominant message8. Ambiguity & complexity…reality


Text has form – it can define the whole imageDavid Carson


Communication isn’tThe production of

simple clear messages

The whole image delivers the

message

David Carson


“…Against those columns of text, neatly boxed pictures, steady relationships of headline, body copy and captions, numbered leaves…..

These free form inked sheets are more akin to paintings than publication design.

The reliable features that dominate our daily diet of print are here:

questioned, played with, broken or ignored…”


Imagination

Shock

You can’t hang this on your mother’s

Living Room Wall

David Carson


Text as Independent Pattern David Carson


Nike Advert David Carson


Look, Mum: ‘No grid’! David Carson


Fragments together make up the messageThe torn poster David Carson


Overlaid messages like memories


Text Freedom David Carson


Have you gone mad?I can’t read what it

says.(Jim Smith, Aged 87)

Text explosion

Davis Carson


David Carson


The Impact of Negative Space David Carson


Beyond Functionalism Davis Carson


Cuniform Middle East 2600 BC


Text and Graphics Egypt c. 2000BC


Layers and multiple meanings


David Carson


Layers of Text David Carson

Deconstructivism

That’s It!

Thank you for your attention

Have a nice day!

Alex Brown