maybe a little early, but…
it makes sense for my final crit to be all the things that did not work, or that are not currently working. Final crit is basically a pat on the back for the things you have done rather than being an actual critique of any work.
(start with error screen with title. go to leaky faucet (or whatever video it is when i begin to talk))(saying this to show an awareness of what i am doing-see kinross article in dot dot dot 2 to understand why) Failure is all around us. Usually, we try our hardest to avoid it. Ideally, we take alternate routes to avoid traffic, (show a traffic pileup and a car on a open road wind blowing in hair, smile on face) we don’t carry too many items to avoid dropping them, (show a person loaded down with crap and dropping it and one not loaded down) and in design, we sketch and discard those options that fail to communicate as we intend.
We have intentions and plans about the way things should go and failures simply distract from that. For example, if you only allow that an image has one form-the one you intended when you captured it (show yoda image here. would be good to have something later to show that has been made from a timeout like error happening as with the wine stain) then a timeout error while uploading a picture has no intrigue. A red wine stain is something to pour soda water on immediately to remove it. (show a general wine stain here. show wine stain broaches later from RE:FORM book in contrast.) And a moire pattern in a printed piece is something the printer better damn well deal with in pre-press or they are printing it again at their cost. (show a general moire pattern in a printed piece and contrast that to a Karel piece later that uses a moire pattern purposefully)
(The examples in this paragraph are actually anticipated)
Some degree of failure is actually expected. We have rubber stamps (show rejected stamp here) with words like “rejected” and stencil letters (need this word to distinguish from pictoral stencils) which can be configured to send any message to redefine an object’s function as different from its form. (droog design does this, but I want a primary source “not designed”) The image element in html has an alt attribute which is there in case the image does not load-and for people whose eyesight has failed them. (show img tag syntax and img tag syntax with alt highlighted and an example of it in the browser when an image does not load.)Test patterns anticipate the failure of image rendering devices. (use test patterns here since they anticipate failure occurring and show my patterns with this.)
(The examples in this paragraph are not anticipated)
However, no matter how much design, planning and anticipation of failure occurs-every need cannot be accounted for over time, and this leaves room for more failure and, thus, for more innovative ways to achieve a solution. (show image of dirt path here)Dirt paths where there are predefined walkways demonstrate the need to adapt a structure in unanticipated ways.
However, those failures are things. and although they do not work for the current situation, that does not mean they are not generative.
Failure is viewed as a dead zone within the scope of the current intent-a place you do not want to be (that previously just sort of restated what i said in the second sentence) because you have an ideal in mind and the reality does not meet that expectation.
As something to be avoided, failure is a relatively untapped resource.
I want to show some images that represent things not going according to plan. Some, we are familiar with and some are from my own work. We could call them failures or malfunctions or errors, but that implies they have no use-they are a dead end-an unwanted result. However, each of these images, to me, represents potential.
failure is untapped. (then focus on these failures as opportunities)
One way to utilize failure is through reinvention (this term involves having a base element but changing some or all things involved with that base element so that it exists in a new space.) Karel reinvented defective washers that a shopkeeper gave him as printing somethings(what would these be called?) Paul reinvented discarded mechanical parts as an ever expanding typeface. The butcher bar was a butcher first and without any alteration to the premises became a bar. And my favorite example is Prince. Yes, his career was not doing so well, but by reinventing himself as a symbol or maybe we could call it a logo-with a name that nobody could remember-he generated more buzz than his best album he ever made. (is there a piece of mine that would work here?)
Another way to utilize failure is through repurposing. Abake took a common mistake in photography and utilized it to show the differences in styles of a particular Martin Margiela collection. Tim Davies has used the flash of his camera to prposefuly obscure the subject’s faces in paintings. (this does not really utilize the blur for any purpose) Work in Progress utilized an out of focus image for a hussein chalayan campaign. (all three of these are obstructions, is there somethign different?)
(show pie in the face)Why is this funny? It relies on using an object in an unexpected way to achieve a new interpretation of that object. Tibor did this with his AIGA poster.
(talk about test patterns with my patterns rgb)
(end with failure blog b/c it generates a lot of questions whereas I have made a lot of statments)
Other potential sentences:
My favorite part of the energy usage web page is when you click on a country and the entire page goes white.
I am thinking i do not want a total narrative coherence. It is too perfect and dishonest. Use failure in presentation to show the cracks.
(start with error screen with title. go to leaky faucet (or whatever video it is when i begin to talk))(saying this to show an awareness of what i am doing-see kinross article in dot dot dot 2 to understand why) What I want to show you tonight is a set of images that have been culled from the web-google searches mainly-from books, and from my own work and photographs and edited down again and again into these remaining images. I am interested in them because in some way they represent things not going according to plan. We could call them failures or malfunctions or errors, but that implies they have no use-they are a dead end-an unwanted result. However, each of these images, to me, represents the potential for something to (improve, evolve, do something, what is it?).
In many ways, I am a failed designer. I rarely finish projects, here is an example (show humiditiy project for dan’s class) and when I do finish, the projects are more about me than they are about the content or any sort of message. But, that is why I am here at Yale. I believe we are all failed designers, and if you do not believe that then I wonder why you are spending $80,000 here when you could be making that amount working elsewhere. But, in being a failure, it opens up the potential for one to fail. And when you are able to fail the horizon of possibilites is limitless. If you only allow that an image has one form-the one you intended when you captured it (show yoda image here) then a timeout error while uploading a picture has no intrigue. (show forbidden web page here) A web page in which the facade between user and server is dropped is only a frustration. (show moire pattern here) And moire pattern is simply a failure of the dot pattern to render properly. However, people like Karel took this pattern and made it a part of their work.(maybe-Karel’s parliment stamp or other moire pattern thing he did).
Some degree of failure is actually expected. We have rubber stamps (show rejected stamp here) to pound onto anything deemed unworthy. In the same way, the stencil implies the purpose of the object is equally as functional redefined as something else. And, the image element in html has an alt attribute which is there in case the image does not load.
(show image of dirt path here)However, no matter how much design, planning and anticipation of failure occurs-every need cannot be accounted for over time, and that will leave room for more failure and, thus, for more innovative ways to achieve a solution.
One way to utilize failure is through reinvention (this term involves having a base element but changing some or all things involved with that base element so that it exists in a new space.) Karel reinvented defective washers that a shopkeeper gave him as printing somethings(what would these be called?) Paul reinvented discarded mechanical parts as an ever expanding typeface. The butcher bar was a butcher first and without any alteration to the premises became a bar. And my favorite example is Prince. Yes, his career was not doing so well, but by reinventing himself as a symbol or maybe we could call it a logo-with a name that nobody could remember-he generated more buzz than his best album he ever made.
Another way to utilize failure is through repurposing. Abake took a common mistake in photography and utilized it to show the differences in styles of a particular Martin Margiela collection. Tim Davies has used the flash of his camera to prposefuly obscure the subject’s faces in paintings. Work in Progress utilized an out of focus image for a hussein chalayan campaign.
(show pie in the face)Why is this funny? It relies on using an object in an unexpected way to achieve a new interpretation of that object. Tibor did this with his AIGA poster.
Stamping over existing thing
Stencil over existing thing
an large quantity of a particular item available for less than or around the cost to produce
a missing crucial part
form negating function (square wheels)
test patterns for tv monitors, photocopiers, computer monitors, projectors
Time is an important part of my thesis. For there to be failure, there must be an effort at success and a resultant that is deemed unsuccessful. This requires a certain amount of time.
Asking for help.
Knowing what works and why. There is usually not just one solution, but a range. One example is step height. Steps can be a range of heights, but there is a range that will work for the range of motion of people (and, of course for the space that needs to be spanned). Anything beyond the comfortable range will discourage people from using it. If that is the purpose, then it is a success.
Letting go of control. There are so many things out of one’s control. This must be dealt with and in fact embraced as the route to new possibilities.
Nothing is perfectly successful. The Mini capitalized on the fact that larger cars-while perceived to be safer-use a lot more gas, and in that way fail in the current system of rising gas prices.
Reinvention. As a graduate student, this is something very relevant to me at this moment. We have a three-year program in addition to the two-year MFA specifically for people who want to reinvent themselves as designers. And, the two-year program is filled with people who want to take their design to a different place that it could not go while practicing in the “real world.” Prince has been a very successful example of this when he changed his name from Prince to a symbol (or a logo-what’s the difference? That is a study for later.) Without really doing anything but a rebranding, he became a completely new thing (this is a bad description-working on it…).
Retrofitting/adaptive reuse/repurposing. How can something that did not work as X work as Y? Film outtakes are an example of this-did not work in the larger scheme of the film, but work on their own as mini-film (some work better than others-and anything works better than showing the actors continually just laughing in one scene).
Authenticity. This one seems to work both ways. If you are inauthentic, you can fail because you not are representing the subject in its true form. But, on the other hand, if you are authentic, you run the risk of being rejected for what you are actually communicating. Politics seems to play this game a lot. The politicians know that if they represent something in its true form, it will be rejected, so they are in authentic to sell their idea.
What is the best forum for failure-on the computer or off?
Need to combine things that do not seem to go together to see what results.
Mechanical (analog) things have limitations that can be seen and understood as a physical thing. Digital things are maybe too complex to comprehend so need to set limitations. When you can manipulate an image to represent almost anything in Photoshop, why would/how does one make choices about how to manipulate images.
Rules make the game interesting. This is the difference between a beautiful soccer game and a bunch of people chasing a ball around in an open space. The limitations should not be randomly thrown onto content, but should stem from the content itself.
History. It influences everything I produce.
In some types of humor, things are funny because there is a failure of sorts. Slipping on a banana peel, getting a pie in the face, etc. An object that produces a result outside of its intended use can be funny even if it causes physical harm or embarassment to a person.
Moving beyond failure itself. It seems is always going to be negative. In my reading, I found a place where a certain field of scientist (I cannot remember which one) created a place where they could publish their failures online with the idea that the collective could advance faster and in the end have less failure, however, it appeared not many people have published anything there. Since this is supposed to be a generative process, I need something that will give me a finished product. It is the nature of my field.
So, I guess I want to ask the question, “How did this thing that failed work for something else?”
In posing the question like this, I am hoping to avoid a binary situation of failure or success-and tend more towards a situation where failure can be success and success a failure.
Lost Book Found - Jem Cohen
The Uses of Failure by Robin Kinross
Bruce Nauman
Sound is closely linked to failure. More than any other time, it seems, you are “alerted” with a sound when an error occurs. On the computer, there is no sound when you hit the “right” key, click on the right word or object, or you computer is functioning properly. Obviously, this is because the machine needs to communicate that the thing you are trying to do is not really allowed at that moment or in that space. That is the basis for errors, otherwise it would not be a error.
But, why sound?
Need to think about how sound will function in my presentation. Generally, sound is a big issue during presentations. It is either too loud, too quiet, too bass heavy, too much feedback, etc. These usually have a negative effect on the overall presentation, but I wonder how these problems can be used. Maybe to emphasize certain words. Maybe to distract from the parts that are less considered than other parts.
Some sources of sound relating to failure or sound produced by a failure:
Failure to stay in your lane produces a hum
Wrong answer on a game show is a buzzer
Tar filling cracks in asphalt make a whishing sound when you drive on them
Sound Files I found online:
Slow spindle motor
Head Stuck to Platter-phaser noise
Ships hull cracking and filling with water
Heart malfunction
Head damage to a computer