 |
 |
I'm interested and slightly tickled to come across a discussion of the 'canon' as soon as I sign up to this mailbase. Here is a thought to add to the discussion::: Of course Pevsner's 'Pioneers' text is the one we all love to hate and yet successive attempts to bury it deep with a stake through its heart have failed. Much design publishing is still devoted to producing and mediating the 'design classic' idea and many designers are still devoted to getting themselves published in them -- the worst thing possible. This conspires to homogenize the system of representation of design, from the way that design artefacts are photographed to the narrow scope of products deemed worthy of entry into this canon. In particular, this is driven by a particular notion of (technocratic) modernity. Meanwhile, we have a design industry that is devoted to differentiation. This is not only in the way that it strives to make its artefacts different in commercial terms, but also in the way that designers and design consultancies distinguish themselves from each other in order to position themselves in the market. To an extent, this requires them to curate themselves -- consultancy websites, monographic publications, press releases etc.. So there is an interesting contradiction going on here. On the one hand, design publishing -- for the most part judging by the titles on the shelves at my local bookstore -- is still committed to a Pevsnerist canon and many designers still support this means of representation. On the other, designers, in practice, are constantly disembedding themselves from normative systems and structures. In this climate, there can be no 'core' discourses, only lots of interconnected ones. Design historians have devoted a lot of energy to dismantling the Pevsnerist canon, but to date, they don't seem to have grasped a way of dealing with the differentiating character of design practice in what has been called 'disorganized capitalism' (by Claus Offe). There again, I haven't met many design historians who are particularly interested in the here and now... So in the spirit of design practice itself I'd say: forget the canon and just read anything... critically. Guy Julier School of Art, Architecture and Design Leeds Metropolitan University Calverley Street Leeds LS1 3HE %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%