Utility Reassessed
Utility Reassessed

Author: Judy Attfield

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780719058448

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This collection of essays both defines and reassesses the concept of utility. In considering the place of ethics in the recent history of art and design, the text offers a way into the issues which concern design decision-makers today.The text presents topics such as the investigation in to hitherto undiscovered designs for a utility vehicle, it gives a perspective on the philosophy behind the concept of utility as a design theory and offers a critique of the dangers of good design. The text approaches the subject as a continuing history that has attempted to improve the human condition, through a process of rational thought in the construction of the material world. Using the history of Utility as a design theory, the text suggests ways in which the past can teach us something of the present, and reveals why, on the cusp of the new millennium, Utility is important.

A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945
A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945

Author: Anne Massey

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2019-02-22

Total Pages: 485

ISBN-13: 111911120X

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A critical overview of contemporary design and its place within the broader context of art history A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945 introduces readers to a collection of specially commissioned essays exploring the complex areas of design that emerged through the latter half of the twentieth century, design history, design methods, design studies and more recently, design thinking. The book delivers a thoughtful overview of all design disciplines and also strives to stimulate inter-disciplinary debate and examine unconsidered convergences among design applications in different fields. By offering a new perspective on design, the articles assembled here present a challenging account of the boundaries between design history and its cognate disciplines, especially art history. The volume comprises five sections—Time, Place, Space, Objects and Audiences—that discuss environments for design and how we interact with designed objects and spaces. Notable features include: 24 new essays reflecting the current state of design history and theory, and examining developments on a global basis Contributions by eminent scholars and practitioners from around the globe Enriched throughout with illustrations A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945 provides a new and thought-provoking revision of our conception and understanding of contemporary design that will be essential reading for students at both undergraduate and graduate levels as well as researchers and teachers working in design history, theory and practice, and in related fields.

Dressing for Austerity
Dressing for Austerity

Author: Geraldine Biddle-Perry

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-04-30

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1786731975

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A new look for Austerity...The coldest winter on record, rationing, successive economic crises, bombed out towns and cities; with some justification 'Austerity Britain' in the late 1940s is coloured in the popular imagination in tones of drab. Dressing for Austerity shines a light on alternative visions of post-war optimism and aspiration. It traces how, set against the Labour government's philosophy of 'Austerity by design' in a climate of post-war idealism, the desire for affordable fashionable clothing, access to leisure, and the health, time and money to enjoy them became totemic symbols of post-war ambition that impelled new strategies of state control and consumer agency. The book examines the immediate post-war period - its politics, its fashions and its people - in new ways and on its own terms as a critical tipping point in the making of modern Britain.

An Affluent Society?
An Affluent Society?

Author: Lawrence Black

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-28

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1351959174

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During an election speech in 1957 the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, famously remarked that 'most of our people have never had it so good'. Although taken out of context, this phrase soon came to epitomize the sense of increased affluence and social progress that was prevalent in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Yet, despite the recognition that Britain had moved away from an era of rationing and scarcity, to a new age of choice and plenty, there was simultaneously a parallel feeling that the nation was in decline and being economically outstripped by its international competitors. Whilst the study of Britain's postwar history is a well-trodden path, and the paradox of absolute growth versus relative decline much debated, it is here approached in a fresh and rewarding way. Rather than highlighting economic and industrial 'decline', this volume emphasizes the tremendous impact of rising affluence and consumerism on British society. It explores various expressions of affluence: new consumer goods; shifting social and cultural values; changes in popular expectations of policy; shifting popular political behaviour; changing attitudes of politicians towards the electorate; and the representation of affluence in popular culture and advertising. By focusing on the widespread cultural consequences of increasing levels of consumerism, emphasizing growth over decline and recognizing the rising standards of living enjoyed by most Britons, a new and intriguing window is opened on the complexities of this 'golden age'. Contrasting growing consumer expectations and demands against the anxieties of politicians and economists, this book offers all students of the period a new perspective from which to view post-imperial Britain and to question many conventional historical assumptions.

Redefining British Politics
Redefining British Politics

Author: L. Black

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2010-02-24

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0230250475

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A history of 1950s and 1960s British political culture, Redefining British Politics interrogates ideas, movements and identities bordering social and political change: consumer organisations; campaigns about TV, morality and culture; Young Conservatism; and how party politics used media like TV and was represented in popular culture.

Turning Houses into Homes
Turning Houses into Homes

Author: Clive Edwards

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 495

ISBN-13: 1351877275

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From the earliest times, people have striven to turn their houses into homes through the use of decoration and furnishings, stimulating in turn a major commercial sector dedicated to offering the products and services essential to feed the ever-changing dictates of domestic fashion. Whilst there is plentiful evidence to show that these phenomena can be traced to medieval times, it is arguable that the eighteenth century witnessed the birth of a widespread and sophisticated consumer society. With a comparatively wealthy and socially mobile society, eighteenth-century Britain proved to be a fertile ground for ideas of home improvement and beautification, which were to persist to the present day. Turning Houses into Homes not only maps the history, changes, development and structure of the retail furnishing industry in Britain over three centuries, but also examines the relationships between the retailer and the consumer, looking at how retailers helped stimulate and shape the demand of their customers. Whilst work has been done on specific aspects of the home, very little has been written on the interaction between the retailer and consumer, and the pressures brought to bear on them by issues such as gender, education, status, symbolism, taste, decoration, hygiene, comfort and entertainment. As such, this book offers a valuable conjunction of retail history and consumption practices, which are examined through a multi-disciplinary approach to explore both their intimate connections and their wider roles in society.

Eternally Yours
Eternally Yours

Author: Ed van Hinte

Publisher: 010 Publishers

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 9789064505492

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This book aims to map out ways of designing and planning products so that their value is sustained and they can be kept in use for a longer time. It tells the story of Vivian, a name that represents any product. The life oF Vivian is traced from preconception, through development, purchase and long period of use, right up to oblivion. Vivian's story is embedded in the information and experiences that the Eternally Yours Foundation has gathered over the past years, culminating in the 'Time in design' conference organized in October 2003 in cooperation with the Long Now Foundation. This book includes most of the lectures by, among many others, Ezio Manzini, Brian Eno, Gustaf Beumer and John Thackara - introduction.

The Design Collective
The Design Collective

Author: Laetitia Shand

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2012-12-21

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1443844578

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The rise of social networking and open-source technology, the return of community-focussed activities (e.g. gardens, knitting groups, food cooperatives) and creative collectives across the fields of design and the visual arts have reawakened the discourse around human capital, flat structures and collectives as a means for ‘making’ the things of everyday life. As the essays presented in this collection illustrate, there is an emerging field of discourse about the potential of the collective as an organising and generative community structure that links creativity, social change and politics. Furthermore it is clear that in this developing context there are a number of issues central to design practice, such as authorship, agency and aesthetics that are in the process of re-evaluation and critique. Bringing together views of practitioners, historians and theorists, this volume examines the etymology, boundaries and practices that the idea of the collective affords. It is broadly organised into sections on architecture, digital technologies and counter-cultural practices and includes historical and contemporary accounts of design collectives from a range of disciplinary viewpoints.

Wild Things
Wild Things

Author: Judy Attfield

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-08-20

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1350070726

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What do things mean? What does the life of everyday objects reveal about people and their material worlds? Has the quest for 'the real thing' become so important because the high-tech world of total virtuality threatens to engulf us? This pioneering book bridges design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations. The act of consumption is only the starting point of object's “lives”. Thereafter they are transformed and invested with new meanings and associations that reflect and assert who we are. Defining designed things as “things with attitude” differentiates the highly visible fashionable object from ordinary aretefacts that are too easily taken for granted. Through case studies ranging from reproduction furniture to fashion and textiles to 'clutter', the author traces the connection between objects and authenticity, ephemerality and self-identity. Beyond this, she shows the materiality of the everyday in terms of space, time and the body and suggests a transition with the passing of time from embodiment to disembodiment.