Audiovisual – Motion Graphics
Editorial
Photography
Livres et théories
Débats théoriques d'ampleur
Books and theories include Uta Brandes, Sonja Stich and Miriam Wender’s Design by use, Jencks and Silver’s Adhocism, Jane Fulton-Suri’s Thoughtless acts, to the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour or more alternative publications with The use of Books.
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1. The Use of Books
In The use of Books (L’Uso di Libri, 2016), Matthias Hübner and Brad Downey document through photographs the different uses of books. In their introduction, they make an analogy with how words can be given new meanings through use and perform different tasks. If we can use the same words in a way and in another completely different, the same could happen with any object and why not books? As the authors put it, “Not all books are holy. Some fill holes. Some bridge gaps, some balance objects, hide things, make good kindling.” The pages that follow are satirical and imaginative as they show books in unexpected situations. Scenes are created and it becomes interesting to analyse them in categories: (1) what the book replaces (2) what function it entails (3) the main reasons for using a book (4) the context of its use (5) the degree of viability for such scene to happen based on ergonomics and (6) the number of books needed to carry such action. The following table is an attempt to classify such data.
Publié: 18 avril 2023
2. Telling about society, Howard, S. Becker, 2007, p.70
In late 2024, I was re-reading Becker's book and even if it largely discusses how different ways of telling about society exist beyond the conventions of the sociological field, he also delves into the tension between makers and users of these representations:
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So? The work of making representations is divided among makes and users. The work that makers do is there for users to use. What makers don't do, users must do. They may not all know enough to do what the makers want and require, they may know how to do it but not do it consciously, or they may do it differently. When they do it in their own way, they may well produce results different from what the makers had in mind. Different worlds of representation making divide the work quite differently. What seems inescapably the work of the makers in one world–labeling the rows and columns of the analytic table, for instance– becomes the ordinary work of users in the world of documentary photography. Every kind of representation offers the possibility, and probably the fact, of a different way of dividing up the work, with consequences for the look of what's made and for the fact of what's made of it.
3. Fantasy, Bruno Munari, 1977, p.22
From a design perspective, Munari in his books and Tati in films like Mon Oncle and Playtime are masters at exploring the associations between ideas through the shape and function of objects and spaces. In Fantasia, Munari describes this mental process by showing how anyone can perceive a thorn as a sharp object, recognise its ability to prick, and ultimately envision it as a potential weapon.
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Operations of Intelligence
> A thorn in nature (visual observation).
> The thorn pierces from the pointed end (tactile observation).
> All sharp things prick (deduction, verification).
> Sharp things can cause injury (elaboration).
> A sharp weapon (invention): the point is used to wound.
