Date of Award

Spring 5-30-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Graphic Design

First Advisor

Benjamin Shaykin

Second Advisor

Clement Valla

Third Advisor

Bryn Smith

Abstract

Speculative Politics—Fictionalized Spectacle posits an alternate model for design practice. Borrowing from the genre of science fiction, this design approach activates consideration of possible realities and cultural forms. It raises questions and invents problems instead of solving them. By imagining technologies, policies, laws, and conditions that do not yet exist, design becomes an agent of investigation to highlight current and future social, cultural, and political conditions.

The projects within this thesis reconsider our present situations through methods of speculative documentation. The act of documentation becomes a process of manipulating notions of truth to render fictions from reality. Using subversion, instigation, satire, and a “What If” methodology, elements from traditional graphic design media are reframed as plausible and possible narratives. Some projects begin as self-reflexive investigations of a particular medium. Others propose possible futures of political organizations through fake collateral, creating documentation out of the unreal. What if the flags of America represented fragment iterations of our sub-nationalities, or if the United Nations was untied from its present, and contradictory, identity. It’s all open to questioning and up for debate.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.