DAVID CARR-SMITH - ART / DESIGN / KITSCH
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ESSAY-1: DESIGN AND
INFORMATION
DESIGN MUDDLE: UNRESOLVED CONFLICTS OF
UNRELATED INFORMATIONS
EG
1
A ZEBRA CROSSING AND A DOZEN OTHER
SIGNIFICATIONS
A
confusion of signs: a muddle that results not only from the independent acts
of unrelated agencies but also from the different 'levels of abstraction' of
the various signs:
Crossing Stripes are almost-pure abstraction: the meaning needs to be learnt, but not to the degree that completely arbitary signs such as alphabet letters require; the stripes illustrate the acts of stepping ... and the yellow belisha-beacons the 'fire an the hill', but what about their striped stems? = more stepping like the zebra?: climbing the poles?! ... suddenly - because one assumes there is an 'information-scheme' here - signification breaks down, loses constancy and instead of clear action, provokes doubt and muddle (causing an excess of brain/information processing: that perhaps should be done by the designer not by the user!). Apparantly included in this (defective) scheme and thus compounding the muddle are striped gate posts - an architectural convention and pure coincidence that seems to intentionally signal the crossing's goal.
Tech College gates
whose
'wrought-iron-twiddle' style fakes that of Renaissance
palaces - a style adopted by the founder of Pears Soap who built
his late-19C mansion here in leafy Isleworth, now
supplemented with late 1970s 'box-modern' blocks and morphed into a technical
college (a confusion of snobbery with practicality - perhaps not unwelcome to
the 'authorities'). Unlike the zebra-stripes that provoke an action by
proffering its abstraction, these gates simply copy (albiet with some editing of
the difficult and expensive bits!) the appearence of familiar and prestigious
originals - evoking a memory and its concommitant emotions of envy
(kitsch).
A chance association of red
objects that seem
to bracket the gateway
(apparantly meaningfully grouped at the instant of the photo and not
noticed by the photographer!)
are
actually a 'real-objective' event with
no 'subjective' significence. A group of three unconnected people (who
all look to the left - at an emerging fire-engine?) are all clad in the same red,
and - as if this coincidence is insufficient - are balanced symetrically on the
right of the central gates by a large same-red phone-box. Any thinking-being
could be excused for mistaking this 'expression of chaos' for intention:
street-theatre, ritual, or suchlike.
These and many other
significations confuse each other and us: a plot of chaos richly furnished with
intentions!
EG
2
A 'PERSONALISED' EX-COUNCIL HOUSE
One half of a modest 1920s 'cottage-style'
pebble-dash Council semi has been bought and 'individualised' with a display of
mass-taste style-signs: 'Classical' (plastic) door-case (with Lloyds logo'!);
'Elizabethian Baronial' door; 'Baroque Palace' (plastic) parterre vases;
'Cottage' side-gate with lucky-horseshoe and 'hand-wrought' nails;
'International-Modern' white walls with 'picture-windows'. Except that they
issued from one 'agency' (one person or family) this confusion of messages
resembles the zebra-crossing site - when chosen and installed each motif seems
to have been perceived as if alone: there is no sense of irony or awareness of
their mutual tensions.
In contrast an example of 'solved'
stylistic collage:
ROBERT
ADAM - OSTERLEY HOUSE CONVERSION (1761-) (Osterly Park, Middlesex, London):
An
audacious dramatic 'collage'. he removed the centre of the front wing of this
elizabethan courtyard mansion and as if 'slid in' an immense 'item of
furniture': a huge classical pedimented porch that amplifies and dramatises the
previously commonplace srmmetry of the older building while mantaining an
extraordinary state of 'focussed confrontation' with its context. A shocking and
magnificent combination of elegance and formal tension!
NB: For other buildings that are 'disunified' yet
`resolved' look at examples of 'Mannerism' (Italy #C etc); and Post-Modernism
(architecture - not the kitsch trash of London developers).
EG
3
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL (SOUTH BANK
ARTS CENTRE, LONDON)
This capital city institution' conveys the same
amateurism as a 'village-hall notice-board'! (some may find this a charming
characteristic of British culture).
Main Stair from Foyer:
'Dignified' and 'grand' symmetry of Stair is contradicted by ad hoc muddle of
notices!
Gents WC and Cafe:
A
melange of WC and Cafe signs and significations:
[NB: Graphic Signs for 'Men' and 'Women'; etc]
[NB: The (unintentional) rhythmic pattern of WC door and its associated
notices.]