Transmission #16: Democratic Design, Purple Tomatoes, Doomsday Prepping and the Executive Decision Maker.
Design, ideas and other flotsam
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This is Transmissions by me, Martin Brown. Father. Husband. Design Lead at Craig Walker and lecturer at RMIT. Marty to most.
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Design
The Communist Designer, the Fascist Furniture Dealer, and the Politics of Design
Glenn Adamson, The Nation
A whistle-stop tour of how design and politics have intertwined across the 20th century. From Gropius to Sottsass and back again, to a kind of neo-modernism, as espoused in a 2017 manifesto. It explores the inherent tensions between design and capitalism through two radical visions of 20th century design democratisation, exemplified via two approaches to bookshelves: the Ivar by IKEA, and Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione.
How is it possible that two bookshelves, all but identical in appearance and construction, can exemplify both left-wing critical design and the world’s most successful capitalist furniture-manufacturing strategy?
One now sells for upwards of $22,500, the other for around US$100. Which, depending on your viewpoint, is either a triumph of capitalism, or its failure.
Ideas
Learning to Love G.M.O.s
Jennifer Kahn, The New York Times
Questioning the sometimes reflexive narrative of ‘big, complex = bad; small, natural = good’. Exploring the struggle and the science of bringing G.M.O. foods to market:
"It’s ironic. The activists that first objected to G.M.O.s did it because they didn’t trust big agribusiness. But the result now is that only big companies can afford to do it.”
The Future Dystopic Hellscape is Upon Us: The Rise and Fall of the Ultimate Doomsday Prepper
Sam Biddle, The Intercept
I must admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for doomsday preppers. On one level, I get where they’re coming from.
As a design student in the early aughts, I was asked by my professor to do a project to design for a world after ‘Peak Oil.’
Peak Oil was the doomsday theory-du-jour. It posited that we had effectively extracted all the easy-to-access fossil fuels, and that demand would inexorably rise while supply would shrink. Cue energy wars and all sorts of bad happenings.
The concept of civilisational collapse that the Peak Oilers somewhat gleefully anticipated frightened the bejesus out of me. So I started prepping. I bought a few books. I made a mental note of the survival skills possessed by my friends and family, and from that drew up a shortlist of who would be most useful should the worst come to pass.
It clearly didn’t. I’m still somewhat surprised and genuinely relieved by this. And in a strange way, our non-collapse awakened in me a powerful optimism. Society was much more resilient than I’d imagined. Challenges can be overcome. People are ingenious. I still have the books though.
We Will Curse You
Caroline Wazer, Lapham’s Quarterly
Eyebrow-raising account of what sporting rivalry looked like in Roman times. The article contains yet more proof that very little has changed in human nature over the millenia. Historians had liked to cast ancient sporting rivalries as class struggles, between the establishment on one side, and the workers on the other. but no. “Historians have increasingly rejected the idea that Roman or Byzantine chariot-racing fans went to the Hippodrome to express political views. Cameron concluded, “The truth is (of course) that Blues hated Greens, not because they were lower-class or heretics—but simply because they were Greens.””
Quotes
"Money buys happiness in the same way drugs bring pleasure: Incredible if done right, dangerous if used to mask a weakness, and disastrous when no amount is enough."
– The Highest Forms of Wealth, Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund
Chart of the Week
"Imagine if, one day, you saw a burning building, kicked the door down, ran in and rescued a small child. You'd feel like a hero – it would be one of the most important days of your life... Well, you can do that, every one or two years, for the rest of your working life." Link
Enjoying this? Why not…
Other
🎲 Rewatching Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil over the weekend, I noticed this incredible contraption and fell down an internet wormhole about it. The Executive Decision Maker, as it’s come to be known, was designed and made specifically for the film. It’s impossible to get a hold of. But, of course, someone has decided to rebuild the thing, and thankfully posted instructions on how to do it. Fire up the laser cutter.
🛸 Seven years ago, a self-described alien abductee predicted that ‘something big’ was going to happen on July 18, 2021. Needless to say, it didn’t.
🐙 A big week for pictures of clear octopi. Who needs aliens?
🛠 Epic thread of how people misappropriate tools to serve ends they weren’t designed for. Desire paths are everywhere. Link (ht @poisontofu)
🎬 The incredible world of hand-painted Ghanaian movie posters. Link