A good call to action from Victor, in terms of examining the major design
thinkers.
And I am happy that he included his namesake Victor Papanek. We in New
Zealand have a fondness for Papanek and his thinking. He was generous in
coming to New Zealand twice under the auspices of our students associations
(due to design students being student presidents), and of some lecturers in
Interior Design. Those of us who were/are interested in social concern
aspects of design discussed his theories (in the 70s) and carried the
philosophy into practice as we moved through.
I am relieved that many very interesting thinkers are being re-examined (and
the base-material is all there in the design journals), and I believe there
is even a Papanek initiative.
I may have mentioned this before off-list, but when he first came to New
Zealand, Victor Papanek was willing to also talk to New Zealand designers‹in
Auckland‹for free, and wished to be made a member of our design society (he
had a particular interest in the indigenous people of New Zealand). But New
Zealand (population around 3.25 million at that stage) was above the Victor
Papaneks of this world and didn't invite him as they had been told by
American colleagues that he was a charlatan. He had attacked designers! Made
them think and defend themselves! An author whose books remain in print some
40 years after their first publication, and published in many languages,
could be dismissed by a design society so small that most people never knew
it existed!
Sally Hollis-McLeod
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