Month: May 2022

Reading List

1. Andrew, B., 1994. An Opening: Graphic Design’s Discursive Spaces. Visible Language, 28, pp.205-217.

According to Blauvelt, if graphic design is seen as a cultural activity then it becomes subject to the history that shapes it. As such, the subjects and objects considered graphic design supersede individuals and speak to the larger, more complex, cultural cross-currents that created and influenced the design in the first place. The perspective of the historian becomes essential to the telling of the story, the limitations and positions inherent in their viewpoint influence the way in which the history is told. My work seeks to understand how cultural specificity can shape a visual style, and thus draws inspiration from Blauvelt’s perspective on the importance of moving beyond graphic design as simply a study in artifacts and designers, but rather a more in-depth analysis of the forces that shape it and why.

2. Colomina, B. and Wigley, M., 2016. Are we human?. Zurich: Lars Müller.

The authors posit that if the externalization of the human experience can be seen as shaping the evolution of thought and identity, then the artifacts produced by that externalization are a mirror of the society that created them. As such, the narratives and designs deliberately chosen by humans to identify and record the world, in turn shape the way those humans perceive themselves and the world. Furthermore, the ubiquity of design and its imprint on the human experience form an archaeological palimpsest of the world’s societies. Even when those societies no longer exist in the same form, the way they designed their lives and the products they created to mirror those designs, continue to exist as a cultural and anthropological influence. My work seeks to reshape the artistic and social references apparent in Latin American history and design, creating a new visual artifact that mirrors the specific history that forged the unique identity of the region.

3. Gitelman, L., 2014. Paper knowledge. Durham: Duke University Press.

According to Gitelman, every subgenre of the document is an evolution of another form, catalyzed by a historical change of context. For the Aztecs, the codices were integral to the way they viewed themselves, their history and their future. They are a record of their interpretation of the world and how they made sense of their knowledge; their truths and untruths are meticulously documented. They were also documents used to validate the Aztec Empire and control the people it conquered. Five hundred years later, the knowledge and worldview held within the codices are stopped in time and space; they did not evolve but rather stopped with the Spanish Conquest and the superimposition of a new culture and way of life. They are however, still documents, and their viewing and displaying as museum artifacts underscores the rigidity of their context. The content is suspended in time and space through their context as museum pieces. This project brings the form of storytelling of the Aztec codex to the modern era, and subverts the seriousness of their form and place in Aztec society.

4. Jencks, C. and Silver, N., 2013. Adhocism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

To Jencks and Silver the maxim “nothing can be created out of nothing” underscores their approach to understanding and creating design (Jencks & Silver, 39). For the authors, everything is derived from parts of an earlier version, parts that are then reconstituted into a new subsystem, which then undergoes a process of refinement until it stabilizes and becomes totalistic. This theory can be applied with a view to understanding style, and has informed the way this project has evolved. In essence, the Codex Borbonicus was a totalistic form of the illustrative and narrative expression of the Aztecs, representing the culmination of the pre-Columbian style of Aztec art. This project seeks to break down this totalistic form into its parts, and reconstitute them to create a new style with a new function. The ad hoc nature of that process is grounded in a thorough analysis and deliberate subversion of the evolution of those constituent parts.

5. Sontag, S., 1961. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. 1st ed. London: Penguin Books, pp.15-36.

According to Sontag, style is at the core of content, it is not merely decorative but rather works purposefully to elicit a particular response. Though the aspiration to purity of form is one that obsesses artists across disciplines, an artist can never be truly divorced from their work; content cannot stand alone but rather needs style to create it and give it meaning. Furthermore, she argues, art can be seen as a statement, but that statement is an emotional rather than intellectual one. Art does not create conceptual knowledge, it elicits sentiments, and through those sentiments creates a palpable response that becomes the experience of the work itself. The relevance of these ideas on this project are manifold. Style needs a purpose, otherwise it risks becoming a stylization, an affectation that renders the work ‘camp,’ and thus lacking in depth. One of the struggles in this project is transcend the use of Aztec art to create work that has style but not stylization. In this regard, it must be said that the project has not been entirely successful, but is still a work in progress. Once the aesthetic of the project is established, a more succinct and specific tone will emerge. This will in turn allow a stronger emotional connection to be established with the audience, encouraging an engaged experience with the work.

Outside Source

6. Rand, P., 2014. Thoughts on design. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

For Rand, design does not stem from a preconceived notion, but rather is a process of research, analysis, interpretation and formulation. A graphic designer acts as a synthesizing force, bringing together subjective material into a newly subjective product, but unlike an artist must take into consideration not just aesthetics but also purpose and audience. The communicative success of a product is what gives it its value, not its aesthetics, form, or experience, although all of those considerations impact the design. The point of view of Rand’s designer is much like that of Blauvelt’s historian, their perspective shapes and defines a design as much as the cultural influence of their source material. In my work I am following the process of design as outlined by Rand, bringing a deliberate and specific perspective the the analysis and synthesis of specific elements of the history, art and literature of Latin America. The hope is that the illustrative style that emerges from this process will possess both the individuality of my experience as well as a more broad yet culturally specific posture that is understandable, relevant, useful and successful in its communicative ability.

7. Garone Gravier, M., 2020. De la historia del libro a la historia del diseño gráfico en Mexico: reflexiones en torno a una bifurcación disciplinaria. In: V. Devalle and M. Garone Gravier, ed., Diseño latinoamericano: Diez miradas a una historia en construcción, 1st ed. Bogota: Editorial Utadeo, pp.21-69.

According to Gravier, the history of graphic design in Latin America has been largely ignored by historians of the discipline, who look to the United States and Europe as purveyors of the objects, trends and products that are deemed canon of the profession. The work that has been singled out for consideration from Latin America has been that which excels within the rubrics, aesthetics and purpose outlined by Western-centric critics, historians and designers, creating a self-referential bubble of work. Upon closer inspection however, it becomes apparent that there has been a culturally-specific evolution of work in the region, one that is heavily influenced by the modes of production, cultural sensibilities, and societal points of reference. In uncovering and elevating a body of work that is unique to a geographic perspective, it is possible to better understand the evolution, perspective and potential of multicultural design. In my work, I hope to explore design that has been marginalized or exoticized and use it purposefully as an influence in a newly conceived visual language.

8. Ayala Garcia, P., 2019. A Contemporary View of the Aztec Art Education and its Transformation After the Conquest. MA. Columbia University.

In her thesis, Ayala Garcia breaks down the way in which Aztec artists learned and developed their craft. Her thorough and insightful study illuminates the aesthetic of Aztec codices and clarifies specific stylistic choices and narrative tropes, becoming a reliable guide for the formal understanding of these documents. According to Ayala Garcia, codices are both the culmination of the Aztec artistic style and a lens through which to understand their culture and society. In this way they are both an art historical reference but also a historical document, the duality of their purpose allowing for a multiplicity of interpretations while still being grounded and specific to a time and place. The complexity of the visual, allegorical and factual aspects of the Aztec codices is one that I hope to translate to my work.

Individual Practice

9. Steven Harrington. 2022. Home – Steven Harrington. [online] Available at: https://stevenharrington.com/ [Accessed 9 May 2022].

Steven Harrington’s work embodies and reflects the skating subculture in California. His illustrations and designs are both specific in their cultural influence and message, while also possessing a universally pop aesthetic. His illustrations function much like the mirror referred to by Colomina and Wigley; they are both a product of the individual choices of the designer as well as a reflection of those who consume and identify with his work. The goal of my work is to find an expression that is both uniquely Latin American but also relevant and interesting to a contemporary audience, taking a page from the evolution and influences of Harrington’s style.

10. Wuerker, M., 2022. The Past 15 Years, in Political Cartoons. Politico, [online] Available at: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/23/matt-wuerker-15-years-cartoons-527625 [Accessed 29 May 2022].

Matt Wuerker’s political cartoons are a study in wit, symbolism and narrative. They capture the American political zeitgeist with sharp observations on the character of individual politicians and current events, employing a recognizable style that uses bright colors, strong lines and exaggerated caricatures. His work relies on symbolism to communicate complex messages, often borrowing from recognizable paintings and pop culture narratives to add nuance and depth. Wuerker’s focus on the minutiae of American politics over the past fifteen years at online magazine Politico has allowed him to develop a specific shorthand and style that makes his work complex without being esoteric, an is a good example of the types of narratives and visual economy that I would aspire to create.

11. Alcaraz, L., 2022. 2021: The Year in Cartoons – Lalo Alcaraz. [online] Lalo Alcaraz. Available at: https://laloalcaraz.com/2021-the-year-in-lalo-alcaraz-cartoons/ [Accessed 29 May 2022].

Lalo Alcaraz is a Mexican-American cartoonist whose work focuses on contemporary American politics and current events. He relies on simple compositions, strong lines, bright colors and short phrases to illustrate his thoughts on a myriad of issues of import in the media. Like Wuerker, he looks to broader pop culture imagery and narratives to inform his work, but is more obvious in his style and choices. The success of his work is the fact that it is specific and often unapologetic in its point of view, favoring overt messages over symbolism and nuance. While this approach is more brash than the tone of my project, it is nevertheless an interesting study in how to successfully push the boundaries of caricature to illustrate a political point.

12. El Pais. 2022. La vida y obra del artista Vicente Rojo, en imágenes. [online] Available at: https://elpais.com/elpais/2021/03/18/album/1616077749_999313.html#foto_gal_1 [Accessed 9 May 2022]._

Vicente Rojo was a graphic designer, fine artist and sculptor who is widely recognized as the father of graphic design in Mexico. His cover art for the first edition of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Cien anos de soledad, introduced his designs to millions of readers across the region, and showed how culturally-specific design could be distilled into a modern style. In my project I aspire to the subtlety and specificity of his work, as well as its ability to synthesize influences to create a singular aesthetic.

This Unit 2 project is informed by Mechanical, Natural and Critical Evolution, the fourth chapter of the book Adhocism by Charles Jencks and Nathan Silver, as well as the Codex Borbonicus, an Aztec book comprised of a divinatory calendar, a solar calendar, and illustrations of religious rituals and cultural ceremonies (Ter Minassian, 2014). The theory of adhocism as posited by Jencks and Silver, as well as their analysis of the evolution of objects and the real and hypothetical existence of chimeras, forms the intellectual basis of this work. In turn, the aesthetic and narrative content of the Codex Borbonicus forms the visual backbone of the endeavor.

The goal of this project is to use the theory of adhocism to generate a new configuration of the style and narrative of the Codex Borbonicus. In its first iteration, the outcome of this project is the creation of a new codex that begins to tell the story of Donald Trump, a modern day chimera, a figure of evocative symbolism whose existence both figuratively and literally brings into question what it means to be American, and questions what kind of future the country will have in light of Trump’s legacy and continued power within the Republican party.

In Adhocism Jencks and Silver argue that everything is interrelated or, simply put, “nothing can be created out of nothing” (Jencks and Silver, 2013). Each object is part of a subsystem, which in its inception was an “ad hoc combination of past subsystems” (Jencks and Silver, 2013). Each subsystem goes through a natural evolution and finally stabilizes in a form that is totalistic; it becomes an archetype that is no longer ad hoc but can be dissected and reconfigured to form another, separate subsystem (Jencks and Silver, 2013).

The Codex Borbonicus represents the culmination of the pre-Cortesian style of Aztec art, prior to the devastation of their civilization at the hands of the Spanish (Ter Minassian, 2014). Viewed through the lens of adhocism, it can be viewed as a totalistic form of the illustrative and narrative expression of the Aztecs; the final, stable form of their visual style. In order to find a path towards the evolution and use of this style, it becomes necessary to identify its constituent parts, which can then be reconfigured into a new whole. This process aligns with the core assumptions of adhocism, the idea that “dissectibility is the essence of adhocism and critical evolution.” (Jencks and Silver, 2013).

The visual style of the Codex can be broken down into a series of specific artistic choices: 1) thick, black outlines that contain each figure and symbol; 2) the use of bright colors in both a symbolic and decorative fashion; 3) the representation of figures in flattened perspective and in profile; 4) a deliberate lack of background; 5) a lack of shadows and planes to create a sense of dimensionality; 6) an exaggerated proportion of head to body in human forms; 7) a lack of overlapping figures (Ayala Garcia, 2019).

In terms of narrative style, the Codex relies on notations, glyphs and figures arranged on a flexible grid system. The pictorial language of the Codex is byzantine, relying on an understanding of Aztec symbolism within the context of their belief system and socio-political environment (Bowditch, 1900). The complex lexicon is made up of hundreds of different symbols that are either represented alone or in combination with another symbol, thereby creating a secondary meaning (Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2022).

Although an understanding of each symbol and figurative characteristic of the Codex is beyond the scope of this project, the essential character of the narrative style can be distilled as a universe of symbols, recognizable by those informed of the cultural and socio-political context of the story being told (Ayala Garcia, 2019). Furthermore, a specific understanding of the visual style of the Codex creates a framework to situate, evolve and experiment with each element to generate a new way of illustrating that remains grounded in the original archetype.

Following from the topic of style is that of content. Both are closely aligned in that style informs content, it is an integral part of what is communicated and how it is perceived by the audience (Sontag, 1961). The challenge of this project, once the visual language was understood, was to choose appropriate content to illustrate. The first half of the Codex Borbonicus is a tonalamatl, an astrological calendar used by Aztec priests to make predictions about future events (Bowditch, 1900). Each page depicts a deity surrounded by glyphs representing the thirteen-day week that made up their 260-day year (Bowditch, 1900). The second half of the Codex is comprised of a solar calendar, and scenes depicting rituals and ceremonies performed for the nine Lords of the Night, deities central to Aztec mythology (Young, 2000).

Throughout the Codex, gods are depicted wearing headdresses and adorned with animal furs, feathers and other regalia. Many of the gods were correlated with animals, which were used as figurative symbols to highlight a certain aspect of the deities’ character (Young, 2000). The rich imagery and psychology of this concept, essential to the representation of both humans and animals in Aztec codices, forms the basis of the visual character of this project. This concept dovetails with the account of chimeras in adhocism, and the symbolic power of their existence throughout human history. Jencks and Silver argue that modernity, through advances in science and society, has superseded the natural order allowing the very real existence of heretofore impossible hybrids (Jencks and Silver, 2013). Chimeras thus become a lens through which to understand modern phenomenons that were unthinkable in the past.

The choice of Donald Trump as a central character of this project is predicated on two ideas. The first is that he is himself a chimera. On the surface he is a man who represents a set of values and ideologies that are central to a conservative understanding of the American character. However, percolating below this mirage is a dogmatic hybrid of -isms and phobias: racism, ethnocentrism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and misogyny (Alterman, 2019). The schism in how Trump is perceived mirrors the polarity of the United States as a nation. He is at once a pugnacious demagogue and an affable leader, a racist fear monger or a truth teller, a dangerous lunatic or a “very stable genius.” (Diaz, 2018).

The second reason Donald Trump became the focus of this project is that his story has an affinity to the narrative intent of the Aztec codices. The codices were a document of the Aztec way of life, their beliefs, their mythology, their daily rituals (Ayala Garcia, 2019). Following the Spanish Conquest, very few codices remain, and those that do are preserved in museums around the world (Ter Minassian, 2014). The content of the codices is thus suspended in time and space through their context as museum pieces. This project brings the form of storytelling of the Aztec codex to the modern era, using Trump’s chimeric presence as a historical fact and an allegory of American power and politics, in much the same way Aztec artists used the codices to record life as they experienced it, as well using the stories of their gods to understand the world around them and divine future events (Ayala Garcia, 2019).

Using this project to illustrate the duality of Donald Trump as a way of understanding his broader effect on American culture and the future of American politics, is a goal that has crystallized after various iterations attempting to grasp a core focus and line of enquiry. While it is not entirely apparent in its current iteration, this is something that the author endeavors to further explore in the future. The goal of the project, as it stands, would be a retelling of the rise to power of Donald Trump, his years as President and his continued stranglehold on power within the Republican Party.

Given the time, it would be interesting to explore the formal qualities of political cartoons to further push the aesthetic created through a study of the Codex Borbonicus. This would also inform the way in which modern audiences read and respond to symbols, given the necessity of political cartoons to distill large amounts of information into pithy illustrations. Ultimately, the form of the project would be an illustrated, large format book, grounded in an aesthetic that combines Aztec illustration with political cartoons to understand how a homo monstrosus such as Donald Trump ever came to be and what it means to the future of the country.

Bibliography

Alterman, E., 2019. Making Sense of Trump’s Rise. The Nation, [online] Available at: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-did-trump-become-president/ [Accessed 29 May 2022].

Ayala Garcia, P., 2019. A Contemporary View of the Aztec Art Education and its Transformation After the Conquest. MA. Columbia University.

Aztecglyphs.uoregon.edu. 2022. Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs. [online] Available at: https://aztecglyphs.uoregon.edu/content/visual-lexicon-aztec-hieroglyphs [Accessed 26 May 2022].

Bowditch, C., 1900. The Lords of the Night and the Tonalamatl of the Codex Borbonicus. American Anthropologist, [online] 2(1), pp.145-154. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/658866 [Accessed 26 May 2022].

Diaz, D., 2018. Trump: I’m a ‘very stable genius’. CNN Politics, [online] Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/06/politics/donald-trump-white-house-fitness-very-stable-genius/index.html [Accessed 29 May 2022].

Jencks, C. and Silver, N., 2013. Adhocism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Sontag, S., 1961. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. 1st ed. London: Penguin Books, pp.15-36.

Ter Minassian, V., 2014. Aztec manuscript under the microscope. The Guardian, [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/codex-borbonicus-aztec-manuscript-date [Accessed 26 May 2022].

Young, K., 2000. “The Continuum of Life in Codex Borbonicus” by Karl Young. [online] Codex Borbonicus: Iconic Text and Commentary. Available at: https://www.thing.net/~grist/ld/bot/ky-ab.htm [Accessed 28 May 2022].

Line of Enquiry

The goal of my project is to explore how cultural specificity can be developed into a style of illustration. My initial iterations are inspired by the Coronel Aureliano Buendia, the main character of the novel Cien años de soledad by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

After losing 32 successive battles, the defeated Coronel retires and dedicates the rest of his life to making small fish out of gold. Each fish he makes he then melts down and remakes, in successive infinite iterations until he dies. My 100 iterations are 100 slightly different ways of drawing the same fish, using various textures, pens, lines, shadows, and effects. Based on these initial drawings, I began researching the history of design in Latin America, hoping to find a style of illustration that would communicate the same cultural specificity of the novel and capture the rich amalgamation of art and design tendencies that define the region.

In order to anchor my project in an authentic and culturally specific aesthetic, I began experimenting with the way in which pre-hispanic cultures illustrated their histories in both written and sculptural form. These initial iterations helped define specific forms, shapes, patterns and colors that are central to pre-hispanic designs and as such will form the basis of new iterations going forward.

Annotated Bibliography

Reading List

Andrew, B., 1994. An Opening: Graphic Design’s Discursive Spaces. Visible Language, 28, pp.205-217.

According to Blauvelt, if graphic design is seen as a cultural activity then it becomes subject to the history that shapes it. As such, the subjects and objects considered graphic design supersede individuals and speak to the larger, more complex, cultural cross-currents that created and influenced the design in the first place. The perspective of the historian becomes essential to the telling of the story, the limitations and positions inherent in their viewpoint influence the way in which the history is told. My work seeks to understand how cultural specificity can shape a visual style, and thus draws inspiration from Blauvelt’s perspective on the importance of moving beyond graphic design as simply a study in artifacts and designers, but rather a more in-depth analysis of the forces that shape it and why.

Colomina, B. and Wigley, M., 2016. Are we human?. Zurich: Lars Müller.

The authors posit that if the externalization of the human experience can be seen as shaping the evolution of thought and identity, then the artifacts produced by that externalization are a mirror of the society that created them. As such, the narratives and designs deliberately chosen by humans to identify and record the world, in turn shape the way those humans perceive themselves and the world. Furthermore, the ubiquity of design and its imprint on the human experience form an archaeological palimpsest of the world’s societies. Even when those societies no longer exist in the same form, the way they designed their lives and the products they created to mirror those designs, continue to exist as a cultural and anthropological influence. My work seeks to reshape the artistic and social references apparent in Latin American history and design, creating a new visual artifact that mirrors the specific history that forged the unique identity of the region.

Outside Source

Rand, P., 2014. Thoughts on design. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

For Rand, design does not stem from a preconceived notion, but rather is a process of research, analysis, interpretation and formulation. A graphic designer acts as a synthesizing force, bringing together subjective material into a newly subjective product, but unlike an artist must take into consideration not just aesthetics but also purpose and audience. The communicative success of a product is what gives it its value, not its aesthetics, form, or experience, although all of those considerations impact the design. The point of view of Rand’s designer is much like that of Blauvelt’s historian, their perspective shapes and defines a design as much as the cultural influence of their source material. In my work I am following the process of design as outlined by Rand, bringing a deliberate and specific perspective the the analysis and synthesis of specific elements of the history, art and literature of Latin America. The hope is that the illustrative style that emerges from this process will possess both the individuality of my experience as well as a more broad yet culturally specific posture that is understandable, relevant, useful and successful in its communicative ability.

Garone Gravier, M., 2020. De la historia del libro a la historia del diseño gráfico en Mexico: reflexiones en torno a una bifurcación disciplinaria. In: V. Devalle and M. Garone Gravier, ed., Diseño latinoamericano: Diez miradas a una historia en construcción, 1st ed. Bogota: Editorial Utadeo, pp.21-69.

According to Gravier, the history of graphic design in Latin America has been largely ignored by historians of the discipline, who look to the United States and Europe as purveyors of the objects, trends and products that are deemed canon of the profession. The work that has been singled out for consideration from Latin America has been that which excels within the rubrics, aesthetics and purpose outlined by Western-centric critics, historians and designers, creating a self-referential bubble of work. Upon closer inspection however, it becomes apparent that there has been a culturally-specific evolution of work in the region, one that is heavily influenced by the modes of production, cultural sensibilities, and societal points of reference. In uncovering and elevating a body of work that is unique to a geographic perspective, it is possible to better understand the evolution, perspective and potential of multicultural design. In my work, I hope to explore design that has been marginalized or exoticized and use it purposefully as an influence in a newly conceived visual language.

Individual Practices

Steven Harrington. 2022. Home – Steven Harrington. [online] Available at: https://stevenharrington.com/ [Accessed 9 May 2022].

Steven Harrington’s work embodies and reflects the skating subculture in California. His illustrations and designs are both specific in their cultural influence and message, while also possessing a universally pop aesthetic. His illustrations function much like the mirror referred to by Colomina and Wigley; they are both a product of the individual choices of the designer as well as a reflection of those who consume and identify with his work. The goal of my work is to find an expression that is both uniquely Latin American but also relevant and interesting to a contemporary audience, taking a page from the evolution and influences of Harrington’s style.

El Pais. 2022. La vida y obra del artista Vicente Rojo, en imágenes. [online] Available at: https://elpais.com/elpais/2021/03/18/album/1616077749_999313.html#foto_gal_1 [Accessed 9 May 2022]._

Vicente Rojo was a graphic designer, fine artist and sculptor who is widely recognized as the father of graphic design in Mexico. His cover art for the first edition of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Cien anos de soledad, introduced his designs to millions of readers across the region, and showed how culturally-specific design could be distilled into a modern style. In my project I aspire to the subtlety and specificity of his work, as well as its ability to synthesize influences to create a singular aesthetic.