Study Task 4: Triangulating & Harvard Referencing

The manifesto 'FUCK COMMITTEES' is an outlet of Kalman's frustration towards the corporate culture in America, in which many designs that have been realised, are sanitised and trivialised to instill corporate servitude. Kalman (1998) is concerned to the creative people who are now 'working for the bottom line', such that the outcome of their work is predetermined the efficacy set by the corporate authorities to fit into the corporate system and generate revenue. Hence, unlike in authentic culture, there is no room for 'idiosyncrasies' in today's popular culture. The popular culture will not stimulate the people's mind to internalise this 'idiosyncrasies', while they ended up giving instant gratification by using pseudo-individualisation to represent their products. Therefore, integrating the society into a seemingly flawless capitalist system where they are unconsciously controlled by the corporate elites. On the other hand, Kalman (1998) still believes that there is a solution to this issue if designers can find the 'very few lunatic enterpreneurs' who understand that 'wealth is means, not an end', and work hand in hand with them to create a positive social change. 

Other collectives, such as Experimental Jetset and the Vignelli Associates, have made manifestos which identify the same problem raised by Kalman in FUCK COMMITTEES. In Disrepresentation Now!, Experimental Jestset (2001) argues that the paradigm shift from presentative to representative design process causes socio-political problem. In The Vignelli Canon, the Vignelli Associates (2010) supports the argument through identifying the problem of the shift, such that it would encourage designers and marketing people to use crude designs intended to instill consumer passivity to the audience. Hence, people, including designers, unconsciously measure value in works of art according to the standard imposed by the culture industry, not based their own opinion. As a result, designers work according to the efficacy set by the corporate system, such that the outcomes are strictly standardised to maintain the iron grip of social authority, defying the real purpose of a piece of 'design as a functional entity' (Experimental Jetset, 2001). In other words, they think of design as a 'particular style', although 'design is a discipline, a creative process with its own rules, controlling the consistency of its output towards its objective in the most direct and expressive way' (Vignelli Associates, 2010).

Animation is perceived as a particular style, which made it no different than these representative designs as the animation industry made animated films to entertain the people, and ultimately appeal to the masses using doughball-shaped cartoon characters. Although more animation artists have perceived Animation as a discipline nowadays, publicity still favours Animation as kitsch fabricated from authentic folklore. Fortunately, there are animation artists like Chuck Jones who made use of this situation to prove that such ''appropriation' when appropriate, could be done - just another way of solving a problem or expressing creativity' (Vignelli Associates, 2010). In his stylised animation titled The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, Chuck Jones evidenced what the Vignelli Associates (2010) describes as good design: 'an expression of creative strength bringing forward clear concepts expressed in beautiful form and colour, when every element expresses the content in the most forceful way'. He successfully uses animation to make the mathematical puns obvious in the animation. For instance, when the author described the Dot as 'perfect', and the diameter of the Dot shows a consistent value as it is being measured using micrometer screw gauge from various angles.

In addition, Jones demonstrated that, with effective mis-en-scene, even limited animation on basic shapes could effectively communicate their character traits to the audience. Overall, all the components of design shows high level of consistency as all components are worked towards the clarification of the moral of the story, which is 'To the vector belongs the spoil' referenced from an old saying 'to the victor belongs the spoils.' Despite all these evidence of a powerful design, the absence of creativity in streamlined production of animation is still apparent to a certain extent. The sound effect in the animation is highly suggestive of the stereotypes that prevails at the time when the animation was made. The content is sanitised by the authority, such that intellectual elegance in designs made by individuals is reduced to crude and vulgar design for the sake of 'carrying out corporate strategies' (Kalman, 2008). The rock and roll melody used to represent the Squiggle would make the audiences associate people who listens to such music to have rowdy personality.

Such representation is regarded by Experimental Jetset (2001) as 'highly anti-revolutionary' because it made idea that 'constantly dissolves its physical appearance, in order to describe and represent appearances other than itself.' They advocate 'abstraction' can get the masses away from the control of corporate authority, as it is the 'ultimate form of engagement'. However, such remarks is rather pretentious because, in reality, the majority of the masses perceive 'abstraction' as kistch. With that kind of mindset, it is difficult to forcefully make these people appreciate 'abstraction' as authentic culture. Furthermore, by doing so, creatives are setting up standard just like what the corporates do. In The Vignelli Canon, the Vignelli Associates (2010) proposes a more objective idea of creating a responsible design to counter the retrogressive traits of the representative designs. Anything could be a successful design so long as the design process is done with careful consideration of the need of the designers, the clients and the public at large. In doing so, 'it is important to understand the starting point and all assumptions of any project to fully comprehend the final result and measure its efficiency' (Vignelli Associates, 2010). Hence, we, designers need to synthesise the meaning of the project by doing thorough and accurate research , and come up with a design that shows 'syntatic consistency' (Vignelli Associates, 2010) to ensure that it could clearly communicate the message to the audience.

Bibliography:

Manifestos

[internet] Available <http://www.manifestoproject.it/> [accessed 23/04/2016]

• Kalman, T. (1998) 'FUCK COMMITTEES'
• Experimental Jetset (2001) 'Disrepresentation Now!'
• Vignelli Associates (2010) 'The Vignelli Canon'

Animation

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (1965) Dir. Chuck Jones and Dir. Maurice Noble [animation] USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 10 min, Available <https://youtu.be/OmSbdvzbOzY> [accessed 23/04/2016]