CTS Seminar 7 - Deconstruction

TEXT

1. Text and typography in a critical way (whats its purpose and meaning?)
2. The philosophy of deconstruction.
3. Jacques Derrida deconstructivist graphic design

Deconstruction

• become the common in 1980's + 1990's
• people were more intellectual about the design not just designing for designs sake
• approach which comes out of post modernism
• Jacques Derrida
• Post modernism
• attitude of questioning conventions
• aesthetic of multiple techniques
• Deconstruct 
• synonym of being critical
• deconstructionism os not deconstructivism

(book, design, writing research (1996))

Cranbrook Academy of Art, US (pretty much invented deconstructivist graphic design

Deconstruction is not a style but a way of questioning design and work.

• its an approach to text (we call everything a text, TV, fashion, design)
• Jacques Derrida
• looking for the hidden meanings that exist around a text, looking at systems, ideas, ways of thinking that frame text.
• in the west they try to separate things into a binary system
• black and white
• form and content
• Jacques says its flawed to do this. There's more than two sides to these things.
• Writing is the inferior copy of speech
• writing
• allows redrafting
• gives advantages
• lasting
• writing does speak but may not communicate the way its meant to be read
• speech
• spontaneous
• can sound wrong
• momentary
• Books
• the content is the knowledge the book is giving you
• the form is text and image
• Form/Content - relates to the crystal goblet
• what are the conventions of writing/typography
• Form conveys just as much as content
• (deconstruction)
• Typography conveys
• grid
• spacing
• serif
• san serif
• type
• size/point

Essay - introduction to grammatology.

• Katherine Mccoy
• her text has many ways of being read
• birth of the user
• the juxtaposition of text and position reading brings meaning with each way its read.
• a text thats makes you read and look at form
• normal text force you to read
• this text doesn't force you to read but makes you read differently

Roland Barthes

Readerly text/writerly text

Death of the Author

Text and Work

Cranbrook Academy of Art - Students visual language deconstructing book on french philosophy.

Ed Fella - one of his aims was anti mmastery/smash the control of smart and slick designs. Works confuse and liberate the reader.

Allen Hori - Typography as discourse poster (1989) - start anywhere - liberated page

Barry Deck - Template Gothic slightly out of sync

David Carson - Ray Gun magazine - less scientific than the visible language book - stylistic apposed to Derridian

Peter Eisenman - Tokyo office book

Deconstruction is a way of constantly interrogating, to say deconstruction is 'this and that' defeats the purpose of it, it never has a closed idea but has many open ended ones.