RESEARCH PRESENTATION: Critique Studio II

Hi...

Just kidding.

Do these methods (diagramming, media translation) work

with strangers? Yes, with guidelines, convergent thinking requiredWhat OTHER methods or themes will help graduate stu-

dents break down disciplinary walls? Food, socialinteraction (potential friendship), projects, manual tasksIs there an exit point for me, as the designer? PossiblyIs this process (re)packageable? YesIf so, what is that form? Handbooks, Toolkits,Instruction sets, Training others

QUESTIONS ANSWERS

SYSTEMATIZING PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS

THEMES

THINGS

INTERACTION

PATHOS (ME)

ETHOS (EMOTION)

STORIES

VALUES

Authenticity

The Spoken Word

Performance

Bizarre/Weird/Odd

Humor

Events

Unfinished

Narration

The Written Word

Artifact

Surprise

Fictions

Dignity

Nostalgia

Everyday Objects

Intimacy

Histories

Humility

Towns

Nourishing

MORPHOLOGICAL CHART / PROJECT EVALUATIONS

Rhetorical Dimensions of Typographic Signagein Historic Architectural Restoration

OR

Dream of Wholeness: Restored Signs andFractured Communities

Robin McDowellRhetoric & Social Style – Prof. Barry Brummett

Adapted from a presentation given April 23, 2014

WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR:

Commercial signage on significant structuresin fractured communities that have fallen intodecay or disrepair, then restored or renovated under private or civic auspices. These sites donot necessarily have to be completely overhauled.

MY ARGUMENT/HUNCH:

How typographic signs are treated during thearchitectural renovation/restoration process…

a) Tells us about the values of a designer/architect business owner.

b) Demonstrates that style is a powerful force in reconstructing fractured communities.c) Can be used by community members to enunciate social identity and agency.

BACKGROUND INFORMATIONOriginal Structures: 1850-1950Restorations/Renovations: 1997-2014

Proximity Environments: semi-public shared spaces such as neighbourhoods, parks and work environments*

Typographic Landscape Category: Commercial*

Sub-Categories: Honorary, Artistic, Accidental

Anna Paula Silva Gouveia, Priscila Lena Farias and Patrícia Souza Gatto. “Letters and cities: reading the urban environment with the help of perception theories,” Visual Communication Vol. 8 (2009), 339-349.

“In order to describe signage in an urban space, we have to go beyond a descriptionof the graphic features of material production, recover the historical and cultural models of spatial order within which signage functions, and then we must include discussion of signs as a part of a system of enunciation. In other words, any instance of language in thelandscape enacts social relations.”

Drucker, Johanna. “Writing Spaces, Species of Éspaces, or Models of Signage as Enunciative Systems.” for LogoCities, Montreal, May 5, 2007.

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW/WHERE I MIGHT INTERVENE:

What happens to the sign?Who is involved? Why?Who decides? How?

FINDINGS SO FAR:

US Department of the InteriorTexas Historical CommissionCity of New Orleans Historic District CommissionVieux Carré Commission...

DO NOT HAVE COMPREHENSIVE (PUBLISHED)TYPOLOGIES OR CASE STUDIES FOR TREATMENTOF HISTORIC SIGNS...

Brief Citations“Keeping the old sign is often a good marketing strategy. It can exploit the recogni-tion value of the old name and play upon the public’s fondness for the old sign. The advertising value of an old sign can be immense.

Signs often become so important to a community that they are valued long after their role as commercial markers has ceased...They no longer merely advertise, but are valued in and of themselves. They become icons.”

Auer, Michael J. “The Preservation of Historic Signs” in Preserving Historic Architecture: The Official Guidelines, U.S. Department of the Interior. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2013. pp.275-286

City of New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission. “Guide-lines for Commercial Buildings.” August 2012. Accessed April 22, 2014.

Treatment of a historic sign during a typicalrestoration or renovation project is determinedLAST, many times by a third party graphic designeror marketing agency.

Signage is not typically included in the applicationfor National Historic Place statusor project budget.

“New businesses used to have sign-raisings. Like barn raisings. The whole town would come. No one does that anymore.”

Remarks from Norma Jeanne Maloney of Red Rider Studios, Austin. April 30, 2014.Review of Preservation Worksheets from Irwin, J. Kirk. Historic Preservation Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

I took a stab at a typology based on observation, archival research, and first person accounts...

RESURRECTIONCircle Food Store

PRESERVATIONArtEgg Studios

Preservation HallRice Mill Lofts

American Can Apartments

REINVENTIONMorning Call Coffee Stand

The Victory Grill

APPROPRIATIONQuickie PickiePagoda Cafe

1. RESURRECTION

original signage is:- Damaged- Destroyed- Removed

Signage is reproduced and re-installed in exactimage of the original in the original location.

the function of style:- Social cohesion- Denotes arena for community activities- Space becomes Place/Landmark*

*Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960. Lippard, Lucy. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. New York: The New Press, 1997.

Example 1: CIRCLE FOOD STORESt. Bernard Avenue, New Orleans

2. REINVENTION

original signage could be:- Damaged- Destroyed- Removed- Intact

New signage, inspired by the original, is produced and installed at original or new location.

the function of style:- Space becomes Place/Landmark (Lynch, Lippard)

- Cultural and Geographic (Re)Orientation- Authenticity of operation and structure

Example 2: MORNING CALL COFFEE STAND1870–1976: French Market, New Orleans1976–2005: Metairie2013: City Park, New Orleans

VICTORY GRILL11th Street, Austin, TX1998: National Register of Historic Places

3. PRESERVATION

original signage could be:- Damaged- Intact

Signage is restored to its original image or saved in situ with original materials intact.

the function of style:- Colonial or community concession- Demonstration of “Fitness”- Authenticity through narrative

Example 4: ARTEGG STUDIOSBroad Street, New Orleans

Example 7: RICE MILL LOFTSBywater, New Orleans

4. APPROPRIATION

original signage is:- Removed

New signage is invented, produced, and installed that is inspired by other historic signage, but not specifically associated with the particular building, landscape, or historic period.

the function of style:- Associates site with cultural values of displaced location, community, or time period. - “Virtual Nostalgia”Xue, Haian and Pedro Carvalho de Almeida. “Nostalgia and Its Value to Design Strategy: Some Fundamental Considerations.” Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Tsinghua-DMI International Design Management Symposium 2011 Hong Kong.

Example 8: QUICKIE PICKIE11th Street, Austin, TX

Example 9: PAGODA CAFÉBayou Road, Treme, New Orleans

“This ‘dream of wholeness,’ implies a sense of partialness and fragmentation that resides just beneath the surface. The appeal of style in twentieth-century cultures cannot be separated from the conditions of the human subject it addresses.”

- Stuart Ewen, All-Consuming Images

“And signs, for aught we know, may be but the sympathies of Nature with man.”

- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

CONCLUSIONS + NOTES

This project/paper is NOT focused on:- Branding/logos/designing branded experiences- Critiques of gentrification- How to salvage/preserve materials- Historic Preservation Law- Prescriptive graphic design- Exclusively positivist accounts of rebuilding- Exclusively post-Katrina rehabilitation projects

What this project/paper COULD BE about...

Typology for Architects, Preservationists and Planners with Aesthetic, Historic, Technical, and Social Dimensions?

Full Case Studies? Focus on One?

Community/Public InterestDesign Project?

IO NON SONO IN VIAGGIO PER L’ITALIADoing Public Scholarship Seminar (June 5-25)Prof. Randy Lewis, American Studies

Independent Study 1: Reading Seminar (Gloria)American Commercial Signage, Urban Studies Foundations

Independent Study 2: Field Research (Gloria)Austin, TX & New Orleans, LA

Bye!