GE2074: Philosophical Perspectives
Winter Quarter 2010

Design students frequently forget that we owe our understanding of modern design principles to those who came before us, and whose influence still pervades our work. We also tend to forget that these principles were forged within a culture that shares, in many ways, problems that persist today: rapidly changing technologies, political and cultural unrest, and philosophical discomfort. Understanding why earlier movements arose provides us a path toward creating solutions to problems that designers face in the twenty-first century; therefore, by studying earlier movements we can often use the experiences of others as a guide. As George Santayana famously remarked at the turn of the nineteenth century, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The purpose of this course is to present a view of the philosophical, political, and artistic tensions that arose as a direct result of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, and culminated in what we now call Modernism. By 1880, the Arts and Crafts Movement was well established in England; by 1933, when Hitler closed down the Bauhaus, Modernism had reached its peak. The connections between William Morris's reintroduction of handcraft traditions as a response to machine-produced "shoddiness" and the stream-lined industrialism of the later Bauhaus may seem tenuous. But the tradition which links Morris with Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright--the American architect whose 1929 essay, "The Art and Craft of the Machine" provides the obvious connection--had to do not so much with means (whether hand or machine) as ends: the utopian marriage of art, craft, design, and life.

Within each of the movements or sub-movements we will study, several themes obtain: the relationship between art and labor, the relationship between art and life, the questionable separation of art from craft, the relationship of form to function, utopian politics, and the increasingly important factor of technology. Although the Omega Workshops (1913-1919) consciously rejected the order and precision of Morris's style, its artisans still took seriously what Morris referred to ironically as "the lesser arts" and tried to create art with which people could live. All of the workshops and guilds that emerged from Morris's example also fostered utopian ideas, whether in the form of anarchist fantasies, like Morris's News From Nowhere, or efforts to reform society, such as Gropius's Bauhaus. The political and economic aspects of art and craft thus played an important part in what the workshops produced--and why they produced what they did.

The course is essentially organized chronologically, although concurrent and overlapping movements make strict chronology difficult at times. The readings include both primary sources (by writers either influential to or directly involved in particular movements) and secondary works (designed to provide historical and philosophical background). The class will follow a fairly informal lecture/discussion format: I will usually spend about an hour of each class on a prepared lecture; after a break, we will discuss the week's topic. Occasionally I will show a film to augment the lecture and readings. During final last class meetings, students will be asked to share the results of their research projects with one another in the form of an illustrated presentation supported by a concept essay and annotated bibliography.

Discussion topics will include the historical and philosophical relationship between art and work, the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement on the development of Modernism in the arts, the influence of science and technology on the course of the movement, art and design in the United States, and the important but often neglected role women played both as artists and critics. Readings for the course will be selected from representative works by John Ruskin, William Morris, Virginia Woolf, Frank Lloyd Wright, C. F. A. Voysey, Thomas Carlyle, and others.

Students in most programs will find this course useful, especially those pursuing careers in graphic design and advertising, web and media design, interior design, and fashion. The historical and philosophical perspective may also appeal to film and photography students because it informs the development of both fields. Rather than repeat what we've already studied in art and design history courses, this class draws on that background and is meant to deepen understanding of movements we could only cover very broadly in a survey class.

A word of warning: this course requires extensive reading and discussion, as well as the ability to express ideas, connect concepts, and reflect on why certain art and design movements occurred when and where they did. You need not already be an accomplished writer, but you must be willing to ask for and accept help, either from your instructor, or from the tutors in the Academic Improvement Center. Early drafts of the final paper (an essay about the process involved in your final project and its philosophical basis, not a research paper) are welcome and will be returned with comments and suggestions for improvement. If you do not have the appropriate background (Writing I and II, Oral Communication, Introduction to Humanities, and History of Art and Design I & II), and if you are not willing to devote the time and effort required to complete the class successfully, this is probably not the elective for you.

Recommended reading: Nikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of Modern Design (from which I stole the title of this course). The book has recently been revised and expanded, with an introduction by Richard Weston: New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2004. It's also widely available in area Half-Price Books outlets in several different editions.

pioneers of modern design home
01.03.10