MaM Final4

8/10/2019 MaM Final4

1/6

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UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSUA

MATERIALIZING MORALITY

S E E I N G T H R O U G H T H I N G S

D E S I G N I N G A C T I O N A N D P E R C E P T I O N

V I S I T O R N A R R A T I V E


2/6

Not sensing a designated circulation direction, she

self-navigates; turning left, she is drawn to the

immersive environmental display of the Utopian Design

exhibit.

She encounters another interpretive text panel, offer-

ing historical context to the displays.

Two walls, rounding to converge in the middle, display

the vastly different products of contrasting utopian

design movements. Furniture, materials, and architec-

tural and city plans and images elucidate the vernacu-

lar of each. Our visitor walks along the left wall, noting

the clean lines, geometric rationality, and machine

aesthetic unifying the artifacts and images. She stops

at the convergence, drawn to a set of media screens

highlighting the movements leaders. Nearby, stand-

ing kiosks offer libraries of archival materials offering

historical context; she puts on a headset and watches

a video, learning about post WWI Europe, Le Corbusi-

ers visions for a rational city, his completed apartment

complexes, and the death of modernism marked by

the destruction of St. Louis Pruitt-Igoe housing proj-

ect. Another kiosk plays an audio recording of a rousing

speech given by William Morris, professing his socialist

politics and ideologies regarding health and nature.

A longstanding motivation of designand one that is plain in recent developments in tech-

nology and design for sustainable behavioris the improvement of social well-being through

the designed world. This aim has inspired utopian design movements throughout history,

which have sought to improve society through built form, be it a rchitecture, furniture, or city

planning. The contrasting approaches of the Arts and Crafts Movement (1880s-1910s) and

the modernist movement (1920s-30s) illustrate the diverse interpretations of social better-

ment manifest through design. William Morris led the Arts and Crafts movement of the late

19th century in England; inspired by thinkers like Augustus Pugin and John Ruskin, Morris and

his followers sought to save the masses from the moral and physical toxins of industrial city

life, envisioning a utopia where urban ills were cured by the return of rustic, authentic, and

definitively un-industrial spaces and forms. Their designs thus privileged organic materials and

hand-craftsmanshipthe very opposite of Modernisms embrace of technology and scientific

form. Modernist design first flourished in the early-mid 20th century, led by designers like Le

Corbusier and Gerrit Rietveld. These designers conceived of their buildings, interiors, objects,

and cities as capable of rejuvenating a sickly society through a physical ma nifestation of

rationality and purity.

UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSUASIVE DESIGN


ENTRYDOORS


3/6

UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSU


Consciou

a long tab

a nearby w

intent.

The table

that visito

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Shape Up

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play on huitoring tec

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and conce

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She wond

were she

on her pho

wearing a

On a neighborhoring kiosk, she finds an interactive game

screen. The Choose Your Utopiainteractive invites her to find

out which utopian movement her aesthetic preferences align

with. At a station nearby, friends joke about one anothers

results and the implicated politics, while her own result (De Stijl)

prompts her to reflect on her own beliefs regarding order and

rationality.

Turning around, she encounters a hologram of a speed bump

positioned right in the middle of the gallery floor. Certainly a

peculiar sight in the middle of an exhibit, our visitor considers

its real-world function, as a tool for influencing driving behavior.

In the context of the exhibit, the speed bump is identified as a

product of persuasive intent, though our visitor hadnt previous-

ly even considered the speed bump an artifact of design. She

wonders if instinct will take hold of some visitors, causing them

to slow down when approaching the facsimile, but notes that

many avoid it all together. She makes a note to check the visitor

maps later for more insight.

UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSUASIVE DESIGN


ENTRYDOORS

Yes! Yes!Yes!Yes!


4/6

Another p

of catego

proper so

around he

cafeteria

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had that p

social ben

anti-home

accompan

UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSUASIVE DESIGN


ENTRYDOORS

Pondering these questions, she is drawn to a nearby

wall, where an image and media array displays larg-

er-scale examples of persuasive design in the built

environment.

She views a video on the speculative prototype,Poor

Little Fish, by designer Yan Lu. Designed to reduce

users water consumption, a sink is topped by a water

bowl holding a fish. This bowl appears to be the water

source for the faucet: when the tap is turned on, the

water level in the basin appears to decrease slowly.

Struck for a moment by the apparent barbarity of the

design, she soon identifies its persuasive and critical

intent: to encourage responsible water use by present-

ing an illusion (separate water sources are actually

linked to the basin and the fishbowl).

Beside this playful project, real-world examples include

spaces and forms she recognizes from her own life.

Case studies from New Yorks Center for Active Design,

which aids designers and urban planners in building

spaces to encourage physical activity are presented

via images and on-site video from the New School Uni-

versity Center and the Highline. She notes how never

before had she detected their p ersuasive design

strategies encouraging stair use and outd oor activity,

but has certainly felt their effect.


5/6

UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSUA


The divers

and seduc

station, st

responds

notes tha

reference

with histo

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and econo

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reads abo

ufacturer

the initial

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case, for t

beeping re

caught on

UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSUASIVE DESIGN


ENTRYDOORS

Considering how she might explore these tacit strate-

gies of urban exclusion for her next research paper, our

visitor turns to the left, drawn to the curious display

against the back wall of the gallery space. Here, she

encounters the Materializing Morality exhibit, where

four case studies are presented using a juxtaposition

of media screens and a small, scale model.

Presentations of imagery, video and historical mate-

rials relating to each model scroll across the screens,

while directional speakers above play accompanying

audio. Beside the small story-object model, a reader

rail holds brief interpretative info for passing visitors.

While there is no interpretive text introducing the

links between the apparently unrelated cases, our

visitor soon understands that each example features

design as symbolized morality. One model recreates

the low-hanging overpass implemented by Robert

Moses, while a media screen displays a short program

explaining the historical context and the accusations

of the designs excusion of poorer city residents from

accessing the beach by highway. Beside it sits a model

of Wonder Bread; somewhat perplexed, she looks to

the media program, which is playing early advertise-

ments, and an interview with cultural historian Aaron

Bobrow-Strain, who explains how Wonder Bread was

a designed manifestation of conditions of national

social and economic unrest, materializing the desire for

perceived purity.


6/6

soandso

soandso

likes

#desi

some countertop novelty, to a symbol of underground

delinquency and perversion. Our visitor finds herself

momentarily immersed in the plight of the machine

struck by the accusatory rhetoric and physical violence

directed towards the hunk of glass and wood.

After this last exhibit, she heads towards the exit, and

suddenly remembers the mapping device around her

neck. The attendant by the door asks her name, and

writes it down next to the number labeled on the back

of her device. She takes a card printed with the exhi-

bition website address and a prompt to share her own

sightings of design delegating action and morality.

Later that evening, she logs on to the site and locates

her visitor journey map. The bi rds eye view of her ownpath returns her immediately to the gallery space; as

a self-professed luddite, she is unsurprised to see a

shorter time spent at the technologies table, and a

more lengthy visit to the exhibits exploring the built

environment. She issomewhat surprised, then, to

see the lengthy time spent at the interactive kiosks.

Scrolling through the collage of hashtagged visitor sub-

missions, she is struck by the diversity of interpreta-

tionschurches, open stairwells, weighted bathroom

keys, anti-suicide railings, school cafeterias, reusable

grocery bags. She digs up her old school uniform and

snaps a photo.

UTOPIAN DESIGN

USVERSUSTHEM

PERSUASIVE DESIGN


ENTRYDOORS

1MIN 10MIN

FASTER SLOWER

Documents

MaM Final4