Unit 2 Symposium presentation

Symposium Script

To begin unit 2 I picked up from unit 1 explorations on the male gaze and began to consider what it means to conform to a male dominated world – in the workplace, as a student, in everyday life

The concept of womanliness as a masquerade as explained by joan riviere is a sort of hiding of the true self to conform to a patriarchal world and not impose on the man 

• In today’s society, many of us likely put on a mask of sorts to conform to a certain environment and fit in with societal norms – especially within the workplace.

As I began to consider further the workplace and more specifically within the design industry, I came across the UK design councils ‘the design economy 2018’ – a report on the state of design in the UK

• As I flipped through pages I found between cherry picked statistics and a pull quote from a prominent white male architect a page with extremely small font highlighting what is called the design diversity challenge. This highlights glaring statistics on the highly inequitable landscape of the design economy. 

So with this newfound data I set out to explore gender inequity within the design industry and considered how I could utilize graphic design to amplify these hidden statistics 

First I explored designing adverts to display the stats from the design council report 

• Taking the data and turning it into a highly visual representation of data – using designs that relate to the industry 
• But this felt a bit removed and intangible 

So instead I decided to explore communicating industry statistics through a publication. Using the design council report statistics and utilizing form to explore how I could expose hidden realities of being a woman in a male dominated industry through interactive elements and data graphics. 

• I took some of the design decisions from my previous exploration and reworked them into an expandable book with each statistic requiring a reveal. 
• Still, this felt too small for such hugely important and unseen data.

From there I took a step back and considered what it means to design for resistance, for change. 

I began exploring other artists such as the group, Guerilla Girls – using them as inspiration for considering how to design to resist inequality with the design world specifically 

This lead me to an exploration on re-designing adverts for shock value – in a similar style to Guerilla Girls, exploring disruptive resistance based design

• While this was a fun exercise in flipping historically famous posters on their head, it felt too removed and I was still struggling to understand what my position was exactly.

And so from there I took to new references – exploring how to design through a feminist and inclusive lens – starting with reading extra bold.

I also focused on exploring deeper the history of women in graphic design through Baseline Shift and really like the concept of messy history discussed in the book. 

From this point a common theme kept appearing – intersectionality – so I decided to dive into exploring what that meant in the design world

I was really interested in the chapter on intersectionality in extra bold and I began to see a visual and contextual correlation between intersectionality and weaving. 

The concept of weaving and intersectionality melded with the book made in patriarchy where there is a strong focus on the forgotten and hidden everyday craft and design made by women that has been continuously pushed to the background by our historically patriarchal society.

With this at the forefront of my enquiry, an open letter to mary daly by audre lorde, made me step back and consider who am I designing for? I previously focused on gender in an effort to narrow and specify my scope but at the same time this alienated an entire marginalized community that experiences even deeper levels of inequity. 

Thus the concept of weaving intersectionality solidified and I set out to explore how I could merge the intersectional nature of inequity within the design world with the highly undervalued craft and design of weaving. 

Why weaving?

• Historically weaving has been undervalued and deemed ‘a womanly pastime’ by the patriarchal society – but really it is its own form of design with a rich history – especially in story telling
• Dichotomy between its strength and fragility – on one hand a tightly knit tapestry holds incredible strength yet on the other hand one pull of a thread could unravel the entire thing
• Can be messy! Especially for myself as a learned this craft that was entirely foreign to me
• Double sided representing two sides to a story
• It is in its nature intersectional 
• Opportunity for collaboration and intertwining of collective stories as well as for it to be a wearable piece

Considerations

• I chose to utilize the data from the design economy report which I had used this early on in unit 2 but only focused on gender – now I am expanding to include racial inequities 
• The material I am using is a cotton yarn which is purely due to financial limitations
• The design is influenced by the publication I made earlier as well as W.E.B Dubois infographics. Additionally the unfinished style of the piece showcases both my learning curve in the art of weaving as well as the concept of a messy history of design that does not cover up flaws and avoids only focusing on the perfect cookie cutter ideas of “good” design
• Weaving as done on my makeshift loom was chosen as an approachable, sometimes messy craft rich in female history and storytelling. 

Work in progress

Statistics 

I did some additional experimenting with adding metal weights wrapped in the same cotton as the scarf to combat the softness of a woven piece and represent the weight of the data as it rest on ones shoulders – physically and metaphorically. However in the end this felt distracting from the data being represented and the weaving itself. 

And so depicted here is the finished product of the scarf – with the messy ends left exposed to physically represent the frayed and messy history of female designers.

I would like to end on this quote from Cheryl Buckley that reads “The tide always turns and the waves that crash against us can also carry us forward. May they also inspire us to see design not merely through its celebrated objects but as an insurgent, living, and collective force.”

This speaks to the way in which I want to carry this exploration further – bringing in a collective and participatory element through workshops or more expansive data collection that showcases others perspectives and lived experiences. Through this and further experimentation with weaving I hope to continue to explore, learn, grow, and add to the ever-evolving tapestry of my work.