For designers dissatisfied with the present conditions, the discourse around design is stagnant. Why are design institutions still wheeling out Ken Garland and Milton Glaser every time we want to talk about our collective conscience? If we make “critical design,“ what is it criticising? And of what relevance is an ethical appeal of selective client-rejection and humane capitalist social relations when most of us can’t get paid work in the first place? We all know professional institutions such as AIGA and D&AD exist for a conception of the designer-subject as a free agent, in a position of autonomy in relation to clients and coworkers, and with full control over the direction and content of a given job: a conception which is at best rooted in select circumstances and at worst in pure fantasy. We suspect this discourse of ethics and selective refusal of work will, in the face of austerity, be replaced with TOTAL REFUSAL.
Cloud Communism—A conversation with Deterritorial Support Group BY METAHAVEN.
Download link for full section (non aaaarg link, will crash ur acrobat tho)