Here's a bit of a
left turn (pun
intended) on the
visual thread.
Lately I've been
connecting the
study of
typography to
broader issues
of globalization
for an upcoming
anthology. That
research, and
this particular
thread, put me
in mind of
Bretton Woods
and the non-
visual design of
organizations
that have
created some
highly
deplorable,
visually evident
conditions: the
World Bank
and the IMF.
In an issue of
The Nation I
received this
month, Jack
Newfield recalls
the
photojournalism
of Jacob Riis,
who showed the
impoverished
side of NY life
in the relative
boom time of
1890. Newfield
traces Riis's
steps in a walk
through
present-day
New York to
find much the
same
conditions.
All this to say
that the visual
can, we know
well, fool us.
But it can also
ground us in the
harsh realities
that invisible
forces of design
may
create--and thus
expose these
methods and
agendas. The
Industrial
Revolution and
the atrocious
conditions in
London could
be another
example.
To submerge
the visual so far
below the
surface of
non-visual
design
considerations
is, in my
opinion, risking
a great deal.
--Michael
Michael
Schmidt
Associate
Professor,
Graphic Design
The University
of Memphis Art
Department
201 Jones Hall
Memphis, TN
38152
901-678-2953
p.
901-678-2735
f.
mschmidt@me
mphis.edu
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