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Reflection

I have really enjoyed this paper; it has made me think about the kind of design i would like to incorporate into my projects next year. I really enjoyed being able to weave academic research into my design and I wish I had allowed more time to do more practise-led design. Although come to think of it, I have been actually making images on a lot of the same themes for my studio paper - as seen below on my visual essay about mum’s garden. Mum is the biggest eco-feminist I know! She really enjoyed reading my essay and is all about regenerative design/ecology. 

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The process for my final image. I liked the doodles I was doing before, but wanted to have the colour scheme a little more nature oriented - as a nod to the ecology element of my essay. 

The meaning behind the 7 faces references the 7 generations principle (that one should protect the earth for 7 generations to come).

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Conclusion Planning

Main points

Design school has very homogenous examples of what good design is

Kruger plays with the dichotomies of subject/viewer, man/woman, culture/nature to criticise capitalism and patriarchy (my anti-capitalist/patriarchal work is to platform those who lie outside the dominant narrative)

Guerilla Girls use collectivist approach to deconstruct the idea of authorship, whilst being guilty of simply asking for a seat at the table rather than the more radical act of removing the table all together (I platformed collectivist approaches)

Guerilla Girls subvert beauty standards and expectations placed upon women (I illustrated the matriarchs of my village to celebrate their gravitas)

My work is informed by the organic forms of the natural world

Regenerative Design: 7 generations, co-designing (all principles I want to adhere to in my design next year)

women and nature are undervalued in a patriachal, capitalist society

Collective autonomy, as well as redefining the notion that we are somehow ‘seperate’ to our environment are important in indigenous environmental feminism.

I want to continue and expand my Matriarchs of My Village series

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Abstract Planning

Key words:

Feminism

Hegemony

Ecology

Subversion

Environmental feminism/eco-feminism

Capitalism

Main Points

my work and methods are contextualised in feminism

my work and methods are contextualised in ecology

I’d like my work and methods next year to be at the intersection of the two

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As I am diverging a little from the structure suggested in the template, I thought I’d just clearly lay out the parts of my essay that are discussing methods (green) and context (red), both for myself and the marker, to ensure I’m discussing both in equal amounts. I think it makes sense to weave methods and contexts together as I believe in reality, they are almost inseparable. There are at least 500 words of each!

In the words of Robin Adèle Greeley, “To investigate this history of design, without acknowledging the complexity of the human social relations in which that history develops is to strip it of it’s deeper political significance, and to undermine any informed understanding of design praxis in it’s full sense” (p 29)

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playing around with ink/mosaic - I like the mosaic + it’s very fun to do with the brush (a satisfying method) - a more two dimensional nod to gaudi’s Trencadis method. the method of lots of little marks making up a whole speaks to the context of collectivism in indigenous environmentalist feminism.

going forward: I like the idea of the 7 generations principle (”the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future”) being reified through the faces of generations of women (bringing in the feminist thought)

colour scheme more refined into greens/blues to reflect natural environment

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Thinking about imagery for A2 image, drafting ideas in final image.... probably wont stick with such a twee colour palette but the visual brainstorm felt soft and feminine :) not necessarily in this style or composition, just getting down ideas for form and content

key words: 

collective

organic

matriarch

sinuous

botany

wai/water

lifeforce/mauri

Inspiration

art nouveau 

butterfly wings

gaudi/mosaic

portaiture

Next steps: play with ink/more imagery of mum

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Reading notes

Guzman, Zita Carolina Gonzalez, and Raquel Gomes Noronha. "Autonomous design and sustainability through resistance, indigenous ecology and environmental feminism." MIX Sustentável 5, no. 5 (2019): 41-52.

“we agree that it is not a dichotomy, but a complex context in which designers have to act when deciding to rethink the production and value chains with craftpeople” 42 (is this translated weirdly???)

relationship between indigenous ecology and environmental feminism

about autonomy and communitiy, collective autonomy

“things (that we can call as design) made by indigenous people can contribute to sustainability, triggering environmental feminism and resistance for an indigenous ecology” 42

“the resistance as a path to sustainability” 42

“the problems and solutions of sustainability are entangled with the values of those that determine those problems and solutions.” 42 (our capitalist overlords lmao)

ecofeminsim “helps to create a common quality of life for your community” 45

secondary quote: “That is why the different ecofeminist currents seek a profound transformation in the ways in which people relate to each other and to nature, substituting the formulas of oppression, imposition and appropriation and overcoming anthropocentric and androcentric visions. (PASCUAL; HERRERO, 2010, p.6)”

there is a shared invisibility of both women and nature

“the role of [indigenous] woman within the community is at the same time another type of resistance generated from home. Carrying it out in a peaceful and individual way, from the bosom of her home, in the day by day.” 46 - not sure if this applies so much to our western/capitalist world where our goal of feminism is equality with men and apparently therefore just as much time in the public sphere (away from the domestic sphere)... not saying this is necessarily good or bad - just different contexts: indigenous society/colonial society

“buen vivir“ indigenous concept of collective wellbeing that underpins indigenous environmental feminism 46

in design: “For a solution to obtain clean water without difficulties in the transport of the liquid and implications of the time it takes to obtain the vital resource; Catalina created a rainwater collection system through the sheet roof of her house... the adaptation of techniques, ways of doing and handling the materials found in her community was the ideation and creation of the community and at the same time of Catalina, solving the problem by means doing things that she creates” 47

the below table talks about how catalinas environmental, indigenous methods differed from traditional design methods - about using local knowledge to inform design “Catalina's way of design brings us closer to understand that the autonomous design that she executes for herself and her community leads to exercising her autonomy to face paths where sustainability and traditional ways of doing are intertwined. “ p48

collective ‘co-designing’ (p49) really goes against hegemonic understandings of the lone graphic designer

“The role of designer goes beyond projecting is also a communicator and mediator between groups with different values and criteria of quality of life, especially if we speak of groups in resistance and struggle for sustainability. More than product makers, designers can make visible the invisibility of the people in struggle situations, drawing with them, collaboratively ways to imagine future possibilities” p49

^ something myself and my contemporaries are grappling with these days - should our goal be a specific job title and salary (the narrative pushed in design school)? or should it be work life balance, joy?

“Autonomy could be the key to the understanding, respect and agreement of values and criteria of quality of life (and 'buen vivir' for communities) that lead to sustainability in different social groups.”

reflection: what a great article! I wish it was more to do with visual design, not just product design but a great reminder to centre indigenous scholars/knowledge in my research

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Potential academic research directions:

Kwaymullina, Ambelin. "You are on Indigenous land: Ecofeminism, Indigenous peoples and land justice." In Feminist ecologies, pp. 193-208. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018.

Wilson, Kathi. "Ecofeminism and First Nations Peoples in Canada: Linking culture, gender and nature." Gender, Place & Culture 12, no. 3 (2005): 333-355.

Gaard, Greta. Critical ecofeminism. Lexington Books, 2017.

Guzman, Zita Carolina Gonzalez, and Raquel Gomes Noronha. "Autonomous design and sustainability through resistance, indigenous ecology and environmental feminism." MIX Sustentável 5, no. 5 (2019): 41-52.

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/104586/1/2020_Final_Article_3.pdf (about the nexus of capitlaism, colonialism and hegemony)

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Notes on “Women’s Work: An Eco-Feminist Approach to Environmental Design”

https://averyreview.com/issues/27/womens-work

N. Claire Napawan, Ellen Burke, and Sahoko Yui —

secondary source“Warren’s seminal text Ecofeminist Philosophy (2000) suggested that “women and nature have been constructed as Other in patriarchal societies” and that the dichotomies of man-woman, culture-nature, mind-body, and reason-emotion in Western society have led to a dominance of supposedly “male” characteristics.” succinctly put description of the content i’ve been grappling with

“Landscape architect Elizabeth Meyer has developed this argument more closely in relationship to the built environment, observing that “the continuation of the culture-nature and man-nature hierarchies by designers when they describe the theoretical and formal attributes of their work perpetuates a separation of human life from other forms of life, vegetal and animal. This separation places people outside the ecosystems of which they are a part and reinforces a land ethic of either control or ownership instead of partnership and inter-relationship.”14 Reformulating our relationship with nature is central to a feminist critique of contemporary sustainability discourse: by locating ourselves “outside” of our ecosystem, we no longer perceive that we rely on it for our daily domestic needs but rather imagine that we satisfy those needs through our own invention and technological mastery.“

“The term ecofeminist was first introduced by French activist Francoise d’Eaubonne in A Time for Ecofeminism (1974).” - essentialism critiques

we’re too focused on technology in the design world as the solution to sustainability; “ What, then, might environmental designers do to work from a place within the ecosystem, instead of from a position of mastery and dominance that relies on large-scale technological solutions?”

“Public engagement: By engaging community members in the design process, environmental designers simultaneously create opportunities for design to be informed by the patterns and habits of everyday life and to educate the public about the potential for more sustainable patterns and habits.”

“Monitoring and maintenance... This calls for innovations in how we invite maintenance personnel to participate as co-designers and as long-term stewards of our designed environments and how we value innovations in maintenance practice and education.”

“Communication: The writers and artists surveyed here recognized that the innumerable daily actions of anyone caring for their home, their family, or themselves were acts of maintenance. To engage the informal and dispersed maintenance of the designed environment, designers might begin to see their work as grounded in communication about the environment, as much as design of physical environments. Through public workshops and communications campaigns, designers can communicate the ways in which people and the environment are connected and address sustainability issues from within our existing infrastructure by changing habits and patterns of consumption and waste.”

“The intertwined threads of desire, culture, gender, class, sustenance, ritual, maintenance, technology, and economics are far more complex and require far more careful study and discussion than can be addressed through a revolving series of the next best “innovative” solutions. True sustainability will require a cultural revolution, not merely a technological one.”

I like the solution oriented ending - in many of these subject areas I am interested in, there is a much more nihilistic focus on everything that is wrong rather than an action-oriented approach

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Notes on Val Plumwood’s ‘Feminism and the Mastery of Nature’

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/first/en122/lecturelist2017-18/plumwood.pdf

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Thoughts on ‘ecofeminism’ after some research

Essentially from what I understand, ecofeminists suggest that women and nature are seen as the ‘other’ in a patriarchal society. This is perhaps what I think Barbara Kruger was referring to in the work from one of my cards:

Upon reflection, even though her work is generally light on environmentalism, Kruger is a great example of a woman to look to in design that is unafraid to be political and generally holds similar beliefs as me.

The split:

Britanica has a good article defining ecofeminism, outlining that “By the late 1980s ecofeminism had begun to branch out into two distinct schools of thought: radical ecofeminism and cultural ecofeminism. Radical ecofeminists contend that the dominant patriarchal society equates nature and women in order to degrade both.... Cultural ecofeminists, on the other hand, encourage an association between women and the environment. They contend that women have a more intimate relationship with nature because of their gender roles (e.g., family nurturer and provider of food) and their biology (e.g., menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation).”

Various examples of women in art who have touched upon this theme

Judy Chicago with her piece ‘The Dinner Party’, which has been criticised for essentialist feminism, but when situated in its social and political context in history, was still a radical feminist work. It certainly provoked conversation and controversy, but very much falls under second wave white feminism.

Frida Kahlo frequently used botanical imagery in her portraits (an illustrative vehicle I am interested in for portraying people), which for her was an appreciation of the culture of her region.

Robyn Kahukiwa’s ‘Hinetitama’ features the the goddess in her transition from an earth dweller to the goddess of death upon realising her husband Tane was also her father. It is often seen as a feminist reading of Māori mythology, integrating both western and Māori styles and symbolism. 

Discussion with my flatmate

Artist Nuanzhi Zheng who read on ecofeminism for her honours year at elam; said that she thinks “[drawing comparison between women and nature] softens and cheapens both nature and womanhood”. In her honours dissertation (unpublished), Nuanzhi critiques the Guerilla Girls demand for inclusion in the white male art world as “outdated dualism” and quotes Julie Zhu’s essay in Pantograph Punch “Are we actually upholding and legitimising white supremacy by constantly asking to be let into the system that continues to oppress us? Sometimes I think we forget the real battle is to tear down the institution, not to demand a place in it.” Nuanzhi further writes, “Dilution and dishonesty in this neoliberal framework sees representation not as a way to repair legacies of hurt, but to further objectify minority groups into taglines and t-shirts and sell ourselves right back to us.”

A bit of a tangent... but good critical thinking to reflect on my choice of works to discuss on the cards to do with feminism!

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Notes from feedback session with Sue

Main take aways:

1. look into ecofeminism

2. streamline/trim ideas

3. look into the significance of portraiture

4. develop MY design ethos

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colour coding methods and contexts to ensure I am speaking about them in roughly equal amounts, as I’d like to structure my essay thematically, rather than just listing methods and contexts (if Sue confirms this is okay)

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Thematically collating raw critical commentary from blog

Potential directions/titles:

“The Matriarchs of my Village: Disrupting hegemony in design” - this feels a little bit twee/#woke... will have to worskhop it but I like the general idea

I endeavour (and am yet to truly achieve) to “challenge dominant tactics of cultural hegemony, bringing the peripheral into critical contact with the center, and offering a concept of deign praxis based on strategic maneuvering within visual, textual and social fields” p. 34. - gorgeous

Grouping critical thought thematically using key words:

(Further routes of exploration in essay are bolded below)

Feminism - Plenty on this & clearly informs my work

Guerilla Girls: their work is now exhibited in the very galleries they critiqued - I don’t know if this is progress or irony. for example this was shown in the met

Guerilla Girls: By wearing something grotesque, they intentionally reject patriarchal expectations of beauty

Hanna Hoch: published a magazine on ‘women’s crafts’.... which wouldn’t be reclaimed until the 70s in the second wave of feminism

Although I can’t seem to find any solid evidence, the phrase “we wont play nature to your culture” seems to be in reference to Sherry Ortner’s  "Is female to male as nature is to culture?." essay claiming that part of women’s subordination to men is that they have been perceived as somehow ‘closer to nature’ because of biological functions, and that therefore men are more ‘free’ to explore and create culture . Ortner, Sherry B. "Is female to male as nature is to culture?." Feminist studies 1, no. 2 (1972): 5-31.

Critical Thinking: even though Ortner’s essay is critiquing gender essentialism, am I communicating a cisgendered, binary understanding of gender by choosing this work to laud this work above others? Although not explicitly, upon delving into the meaning behind “we won’t play nature to your culture”, it seems a little trans-exclusionary. Perhaps for my summative I will still choose a Kruger work but a different one?

Sharon (2021) is an oil pastel portrait of my stepmother, Sharon. The medium of oil pastel encourages a loose treatment of form, creating a sense of movement in the image. Multiple preparatory sketches, also with pastel were done to plan colours and to become familiar with the subject. The painterly use of pastel is reminiscent of the work of the Impressionists, who endeavoured to capture light and movement in everyday scenes. The emphasis on the subject’s age through the use of delicate black lines to delineate wrinkles celebrates the beauty in her age.: Critical thinking - could this one (+ Sarah risograph) work as a contexts to do with subverting sexist/ageist beauty standards

Ecology - Not so much research on this, but does clearly inform my work, especially my methods

Adobe: I see the influence of the fluid, organic forms in my work - I tend to gravitate toward soft lines and curved forms, rather than harsh brutalism

Gaudi: The architecture is not only beautiful, but functional - the dragon form collects rainwater which is used to irrigate the park. Ecological! Regenerative Design!

Queer - not much on this, and doesn’t clearly inform my work. AXED!

Hoch: “Höch's early work was mainly political. Photomontage was the aesthetic of liberation, revolution, protest.” - reflexive thinking: perhaps I see myself in Hanna as a young politically minded queer woman myself?

Postmodernism - Perhaps postmodern thought can just be woven throughout the essay, it’s not necessarily content

Guerilla Girls: all members wear masks - I wonder if this is questioning authorship - a very postmodern idea. the masks are very intriguing to me - there is no leader or single individual that takes credit for the work - very decolonised, collectivist effort - perhaps subverting the pervasive idea of the artist as egocentric, individualist and male-dominated.

Hoch: in this article, Wylder writes that Hoch was forgotten by art history, as a dominant male centric narrative prevailed - it wasn’t until postmodern, revisionist works such as this one that she began to get recognition for her ideas that were remarkably ahead of her time

Leftist Politics - Absolutely a running theme here, will inform the contexts element of my essay

Postmordern thought: Hegemony in design: the author defines this era of design (arguable if we are still in this space, post social media - or if the noticeable swing to the right globally has took us a few steps backward) as a) a breakdown of European notions of ‘High Art’, b) mainstream, mass produced, American hegemony and c) decolonized cultural sensibilities

Postcolonialism as a field of thought was late to enter the design realm, and this author argues the importance of “incorporat[ing] rather than shun[ning] the multiplicity, ambiguity, flexibility and fluidity of cultural practises” p 30 - note for diary: is this author white? A man or a woman? Can I decolonize not only the design works I’ve chosen (done a poor job at this so far, but perhaps for summative), but also the scholars I choose to quote/reference/research into??? - link into critical thinking/alternative narratives lectures

Graphic design critique “involves a comprehensive understanding of the medium’s position within late twentieth century capitalism” (and I would argue to apply this statement to 2021, it requires understanding the medium’s role in late stage capitalism full stop - see: canva design/millennial facebook people illustrations) “It entails a thorough investigation of who disseminates/communicates what kind of information to whom under what social and cultural circumstances.” P.25

“To investigate this history of design, without acknowledging the complexity of the human social relations in which that history develops is to strip it of it’s deeper political significance, and to undermine any informed understanding of design praxis in it’s full sense” - p29 (great quote for essay/card? Might have to abbreviate a little lol - relationship ebtween contexts and medium when discussing the politics of design

Gaudi: Reflecting social reforms of the day that Karl Marx was working under, in that the park was never intetnded to be private. Was intetnded to be a housing estate, but never eventuated.

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Hiatus

Just thought I would reflect on the multiple week long gap in posts. I stagnated a little in my thinking after the break and mistakenly assumed that the cards would just be merged together into an essay. I hadn’t really realised it was so much to do with our own practice. Time to get into gear and warp speed whip up a draft!

Thoughts on practice for 2022: I want to continue on with the Matriarchs of my Village theme that I explored in the first few weeks of this semester in my studio paper. It was for a purely image based assignment but I enjoyed the weight that the theme had behind it and I came a away from the assignment feeling like it was only half-baked. Hopefully I can incorporate this into my essay

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Key Words

After lots of research, the words that keep popping up are

Feminism

Ecology

Queer

Postmodern

Indigenous

A sneak peak into my politics perhaps! These are all very context heavy - I think my methods paragraphs are lacking... not sure how to critically analyse Methods without bringing in context - because I truly believe you cannot separate any creative act from it’s social and political contexts.

Note: I think I need to have either ‘Sarah’ or ‘Sharon’ be recategorised into contexts - or perhaps written about for both, as I think these works are very clearly influenced by Kruger, Guerilla Girls etc. and have political context that reflect all this research quite well (uplifting the matriarchs in my life in rejection of the pervasive beauty standards for women). I didn’t know how to write about either in this blog.... Perhaps for the Summative :)