OUGD501 Context of Practice 2 Pastiche and Deconstruction Study Task 03

Deconstruction:

Jaques Derrida observed a tendancy in western philosophy and critical theory to create dualistic opositions and install each dichotomy (presence before absence, speach before writing and so on, Reynolds IEP)

Deconstruction is a mode of questioning these assumed hierarchies- i.e. feminism is deconstructing the patriachal structure of society.

(idea that we look at things in binary terms.) In the 1970-80s an as deseminated through universities and art schools.

'Design writing research' Lupton, Miller 1996- discusses deconstruction in great detail. This is very much the authors in terpritation of deconstruction, however, but it is applicable to graphic design. This specific interpritation is impotant because the original texts are often quite dense in order not to dictate the readers interpritation of the ideas.

Key Ideas:

We should not focus on the thing its self but also the context of the design.

Reality is one binary oposition that is very applicable to graphic design. We generally believe that reality is more important than representstion. However, Lupton deconstructs this accepted preference by pointing out that representation in fact exists with relity and therefore to see and evaluate them as separate entities is pointless. Representation informs reality.

Speach and Writing is another binary oposition that is applicable to graphic design. Speach is generally valued over writing because of the inherrent depth of expression that people percieve. "writing is dead and abstract". However, writting exists as part, or a version of speach, it is just as much a syste of symbols that we learn, we are not born knowing them. A deeper set binary oposition is writing and typography- the modernist theories surrounding typography are most representative of this (invisible type).
Typography has moved even further away from speach- However, we as designers know that they 'speak' in many ways- stylistically communicating message and tone of voice, possibly brining writing closer to speach in its levels of communication.

We then looked at a poster design by Alan Hori.

Once again this is an example of how typography is not in oposition to text but is rather found within it. 

 We then looked at Glass by Jaques Derrida designed by Richard Eckersly. The layout communicates balance in its layout design. different fonts and opposing collumns are used to highlight the different points of view and the different modes of writing.

 House of Leaves by Danielewski is a novel that uses layout to inventively inhance and communicate meaning as well. The foot notesa rea everywhere and the two different narrators have different type setting and layout.

Pastiche:

Frederick Jamerson first outlined the idea of the pastiche as a lack of a link to our history through a facination with the present. This is the re-use of design styles that reference certain eras, removed from thier context they are hollow and make the times they were taken from seem distant and unimportant. This is however a marxist critique of a capitalist system, so Jamersom most dissagrees with it because of the way it is used to sell things. As is shown below with the victoriana aesthetic.

 We then went on to discuss pastiche graphic design and came up with samples such as art deco architecture and the revival of the kitch 1950s aesthetic.

Pastiche, in our view, is a tool for communication to a specific audience. It is not a copy but a visual referenc, in the same way you would refernce in an essay. It helps to communicate a much greater depth of ideas, especially where branding is concerned.

Context of Practice 02 Question Exercise:

We were then asked to answer a few questions to help us start to think about our cop essays and what questions we wanted to answer.
-What is the general theme?
-What are the crrent contextual/historical issues of the general theme?
-What do I want to know or be able to do in regard to this theme?
-How does this relate to you extremely specialist prcatice?

1) Typography
2) 

3) I want to improve my hand drawn type and learn more about the limitations of our alphabet system.
4)I use typography throughout all my work and a deeper understanding would be useful. However I am also interested in the area of typography in realtion to pastiche and how there doesn't seem to be any font that really pulls away from the limitaions of past production processes. I would like to try and produce a completely pasticheless type face.