DD3016 History Paper

Given the purview of past design movements which flowed with changing contexts (social, political, economic, scientific, technological, philosophical, environmental, etc), what could be a potential emergent design manifesto, ethos, movements, styles, trends or directions, which you could creatively adopt for your FYP/Graduation Project?

Introduction

With the development of technology, human beings now are in an advantageous but also chaotic era like never before. It lets the call of art taking social responsibilities being unprecedently urgent in today’s context, because the technological development has led moral boundaries to become blurred in all fields, but also, encouraging people to rethink about social norms. Currently, the feminism movement has stormed across the world, and in fact, it already existed in the early 1960s. In my opinion, think there is a “renaissance” on emphasizing humanistic care and human rights, and also an apparent trend that the function of art is shifting from offering visual pleasure to provoke social changes. This paper will explore the relationship between art and social responsibilities, as well as incorporating feminism into my final year project.

Social Responsibility and Feasibility of Art

In my opinion, art can bring social changes, rather than merely being the reflection. In art history education, what we have been mostly taught is that art “reflects” social changes, or it is a reaction to specific events, for example, the Dada movement being the reaction to the Second World War. However, a question came to my mind, while art is taking a relatively “passive “role in society, why can’t it be proactive? I do not mean that art should “starts” the war, but at least art can be a catalyst to social changes, would that work? After researching, I found that designer William Morris already applied this idea in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Although this movement is also a reaction to mass production, the primary purpose is to use art as a means to educate people to appreciate the beauty of products, hence creating a friendlier and happier society (Marsden). It was proved to be effective because he influenced many designers, and the mass production was no longer purely focus on the production but also pay attention to aesthetics and details.

In Morris’ time, the main issues are the mass-produced “ugly” product and deprived joyfulness of workers (Marsden); now, the problem has changed to commercialism, AI ethics and laws, and deprived human rights by technology. However, the root is the same: new technology changed society; hence, more issues emerged. Equal human rights (for example, joyfulness mentioned by William Morris) is the issue that people have always been fighting for throughout human history. Now the human rights of workers have already been solved, but nowadays, women’s human right is under the risk. Having Arts and Crafts Movements happened in between the first and second industrial revolution, we are now in between the third and fourth industrial revolution. Both at the stage of inventing and adopting new technologies, the issues of inequality today are just as serious as the mass-produced products, and the arts and crafts movement has made a good precedent for today.With little artificial intelligent at Morris’ time, the art movement has already been very active, let alone the speedy technological development today. Therefore, it allows me to think about how to make use of technology, bringing more interactive ways to advocate feminism in the mean of art.

Why feminism?

Inequality has always existed because society is used to the status quo; stereotypes are seen as “natural,” hence, the real issue became “invisible.” (Nochlin). The development of technology has changed the social division, allocated more resources to women, just like how the industrial revolution offered more jobs, which encouraged women to work rather than being housewives. The first feminist art movement started in the 1960s. Its significant achievements include: the US Supreme Court gave women the right to use birth control; Title IX (federal civil rights law) gave women the right to educational equality, and in 1973, Roe v. Wade guaranteed women reproductive freedom. I was surprised that the educational right that I took for granted was not insured for women 50 years ago, which proves that there is still a long way to go for equal rights.

In today’s context, there are more and more new issues than birth controls; one of the most prominent ones is workplace sexual harassment, which later led to the #Metoo movement around the world. Nevertheless, the critical difference of the Metoo movement is that it not only takes the form of protesting on the street, but it also takes place online. For example, the hashtag #Metoo on Twitter and Instagram, more and more women are standing out to share their stories. The deeper reason is that the prevalence of the Internet allows women’s voices to be heard; sexual harassment happened in the workplace cannot be kept “inside” anymore. It is an excellent example of making use of new technology, and indeed, every movement is associated with technological development as the background, because it empowered the minority.

Case Study

There is a group of feminist artists who wear Guerilla masks called Guerilla girls. They established in 1985, the main goal is to challenge how museums only present male artists’ works (Milbrandt), but now they are still active and playing a part in the Metoo movement, too. The reason that I took them for inspiration is that they are very proactive, and the way of using the mask to grab visual attention and challenge social norms is creative; it also challenges the stereotype of girls being “beautiful” in an objective way. Also, the mask allows an anonymous form of free speech, making people focus on the issue itself rather than individual artists. They do not do street protests. However, they protest in a visual-attracting way, they re-created the museum label for an artist who was accused of sexual harassment in Metoo movement, I think this is much more effective and memorable for the public, and also, artwork exists forever.

Approach

I could take inspiration from the Guerilla girls, re-creating some objects to challenge social norms. I should also include new technology to make my work more interactive. For example, it could be an online game with strong visuals.

However, the associated issue is the Internet allows women’s voice to be heard but is that fair to those are computer-illiterate? I also need to consider this factor when designing the game.

Conclusion

Although with many the legislation made, the discrimination still exists between culture, race, and the list goes on. Nevertheless, what we can do is to keep fighting, I would use a quote from Emma Watson to conclude this paper:” If not me, who? If not now, When?”

Bibliography

Marsden, Gordon. “William Morris: Art and Idealism.” Marsden, Gordon. Victorian Values : Personalities and Perspectives in Nineteenth-Century Society. Routledge, 1998. 15-21.

Nochlin, Linda. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Nochlin, Linda. Women, Art, And Power And Other Essays. New York: Routledge, 1988. 145-169.

Milbrandt, Melody K. “Understanding the Role of Art in Social Movements and Transformation.” Journal of Art for Life (2010): 7-18.

William J. Norton, Jr. “Modern Art and Social Responsibility.” The Journal of Philosophy (Vol. 37, No. 12, Jun. 6, 1940): 325-332.

Chave, Anna C. “The Guerrilla Girls’ Reckoning.” Art Journal (Vol. 70, No. 2, SUMMER 2011): 102-111.

Week 8-Why is Courier commonly used in programming software?

Courier, a monospaced slab serif typeface, has been widely used in various software that related to programming language, you can see courier in python, web HTML, unity etc. While I was reviewing this week’s lecture, this question suddenly came to me,: Why is Courier commonly used in programming software?

History of Slab Serif

The definition Slab Serif is “slab serif(also called mechanistic, square serif, antique or Egyptian) typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs” given by Wikipedia. And they can be categorized into two types by the Serif terminals, one could be blunt and angular (Rockwell), or rounded (Courier).

From 1798–1801, Napoleon held The French campaign in Egypt and Syria. With the Ottoman-British victory, English typographer Robert Thorne decided to follow the trend and named his font as Egyptian, that is where the name came from. And later the name just followed. (On the positive side of the expedition, it eventually led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, creating the field of Egyptology).

In addition, the industrial revolution first started England, and it had significantly improved the efficiency of the printing industry, the access of printed stuff became widely open to everyone, hence boosted the raise of the advertising industry, and the need to have attention-grabbing font became crucial on poster and newspaper. The need of having elegant and readable fonts was decreased due to the excitement of technology and revolution, all people needed was the attention, therefore the poster-size typefaces became dominant in the market, and the boldness and thickness were added to grab people’s attention.

Later on, Robert Thorne’s biggest competitor Vincent Figgins introduced the slab serif typefaces into the commercial market, named Antique.

History of Courier

Courier was initially created for IBM’s typewriters, designed by Howard Kettler (1919-1999) in 1955. Because of the legibility and the readability, eventually, it became a computer font, and it was installed on most desktop computers by default, which is fair to say that it is the most famous one from the slab serif family. Another characteristic of Courier is that the typeface is monospaced, meaning that the spacing between each letter is equal, hence creating a very clean and standardized feeling. The name Courier was from “A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability.” by Kettler.

The Need

With the development of computer science, different programming languages and software were invented and became commonly used. As a coder, the essential need for using the language is a) to read the language(clarity, readability) and b) quickly process the language and interpret the meaning (legibility).

Therefore, they need a typeface that has larger punctuation marks (as they are far more important in programming than in daily use), stronger distinctions between similar character (for example, 0 and O, 1 and l), heavy but standard strokes for them to read, and monospace for coders to keep the codes aligned and well organized.

Here are some examples

And if we take a look at the full screen of the software, we will notice that it is easier to read compared to Sans Serif as well.

In addition, because Courier is so wide, it leaves a lot of space in between each letter to make everything clearer, which helps the coder to distinguish what the letter is. (Which also means that it will not have ligature to confuse the coders)

To conclude, personally I don’t think Courier is visually pleasing from the aesthetic perspective, however, I do agree that the functional value is much more important, and it plays a big role in coders’ daily life. I think it is the best one for programming.

To read more about Slab-Serif for Programming, see https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/30040/Font-Survey-42-of-the-Best-Monospaced-Programming

Week 7 Reflection

Before I studied Typo, I never realized how important the typeface it is and I never quite appreciate it. Previously in my life of being a student and reading a lot of textbook, I don’t think the choice of the type and the spaces, tracking, leading are playing a big role in reading, even the layout is not that perfect, it did not affect readers to get the content that much. Reading was not hard for me, and I always took the design of the text granted.

After reading the Crystal Goblet by Beatrice Warde, I did get her idea of having clear and readable text for books, but yet I am still a bit confused but why she emphasized so many times and the real importance of typography.

About two weeks ago, I learnt mass communication from the WKW school, and I started to do some research about the “Media Epoch Diagram” (1964)by scholar Marshall McLuhan. When I tried to connect these interdispline knowledge, I think it helps me to understand better.

McLuhan categorised the human history of mass communication into 4 epochs, and he stated that the invention of alphabets by Phoenicians marked the beginning of the literate epoch, which spread linear thinking.

It is such a significant invention to mankind because since then there’s less reliance on memory in communication, and sight became the dominant scene. When it came to the print epoch, the invention of the movable mass-produced printing by Johannes Gutenberg, brought people enlightenment. Because he has made printing more efficient and much cheaper, therefore helping to form a homogenious view.

After studying this diagram, I started to know how important the alphabet and the printing it is, if the mass printing was never existed in human history, the knowledge would just be open to the noble. It is the alphabets that make the linear thinking possible, because the writing process goes from one direction to another, writers start at one end of the page, and then goes to the other end of the page, and then turn to the second row. In this way, the writing process reflects the thinking process of the writer. The reason of mentioning the clarity and readability many times in Beatrice’s speech is to reproduce the linear thinking process of the writer, making the type as a magnifier, or at least a copier, instead of being a burden and interrupting readers from the process. It has to be a continuous experience, without any disruption due to the type. For example, if the text is too long, when readers turn to the next line, they will get lost very easily. If the tone of the whole page is too dense and dark, it would be hard for them to “start” the page, if the leading is too wide, and too many rivers, their eyes will be jumping around a few lines and they cannot focus.

Hence, I think typography is of significant importance to mankind. The process of reading is the experience of the reproduced linear thinking, and the reproduction heavily relies on typography in a quite invisible and unnoticed way.