Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Designers and the Riots
I believe, along with many, that the recent riots were not primarily political in nature, certainly unlike the pole tax riots. Many have been blamed or critisized from single mothers to gang culture to the police. Whilst all these professions may have born some degree of guilt, designers haven't either spoken up nor had fingers pointed their way. What were the most stolen items? not food; Waterstones remained untouched, no, it was the desirable consumables, mobile phones, computer games, laptops, trainers. A feast of designer goods. A new pair of trainers or a Blackberry brings but temporary comfort, dates and needs to be updated to take part in the fashion of object ownership. These rioters who can see no further than a pair of status symbol nikes are a lost generation. Politically the endorsement of material betterment that began with Thatcher but became the thrust of Blairs 'democracy' has clearly left a gaping hole. These objects of desire deliver a longevity of ;buzz' not much greater than a bag of heroin or a pipe of crack. But who thinks up material culture? is it not us designers? Are we not equally responsible for delivering these momenary highs as much as any? It is time that designers refuse the throw away, the fashion satement and show a materalism of depth. Arguably the Designer Craftsmen with their adherence to the Arts and Crafts ethos have turned their backs on the trivia of conventional product design and offered an alternative, objects of heirloom significance. The practice must transcend both the attack of the shock of the momentarily new and the self indulgent.
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You could say that, but you would be saying that people rioted because they had been morally debauched by their taste for trainers and mobile phones. Perhaps they had. If they had taken food would we say they had been morally debauched by their need to eat? They didn’t take food, presumably because, although they feel themselves to be materially disadvantaged, they are not, mostly, at the point of not being able to feed themselves. You could simply say that, like most thieves in other contexts, they were after easily portable and saleable objects of high value. Some police spokespeople have said that the riots spread simply because, after the police failure to control the first riots sparked by Mark Duggan’s death, people believed they would get away with it. That amounts to saying that significant sections of society are in a permanent state of potentially violent disaffection and indicates an alarming degree of social alienation. In some broad sense that has to be considered ‘political’. We may be debauched by trashy consumer goods but I think one can overstate the extent to which that is a radical social change. There has always been a taste for quick gratification and often for the tawdry – to some extent. One might equally say that the alienation is produced by the constant display of highly expensive consumer goods that a very small minority can easily enjoy, but only they can. In that picture ‘designer-maker’ furniture comes off less creditably. What is new in our society is an alienation of ordinary people from the processes by which material goods are produced, and that applies equally to the high-tech electronic goods in everybody’s pockets and to the low-tech but immaculate purpose-made furniture.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say the riots were not political I meen they were not protestriots such as the student riot last year. I do, however, believe that physics was involved and in that sense they were political.
ReplyDeleteI have made several posts on the riots, probaly as they were happening or in their immediate aftermath. Here, I wanted to point out that we all should have a little self reflection, even us.
I had a piece published in 1999 on how I struggled with the fact that few of my family or freinds could ever afford what I make. Making just for the rich is upsetting and is what steers my creativity in to other areas. Furniture making has become a job and I have never wanted to work, only play. It sustains me but I have lost the hunger or belief I once had in its' imoportance. I now find other creative outlets.
I think your final point is a good one though don't see its' relevance to the riots. Unless you are saying that not just manufacture but the whole machinations of society are not understood by most normal people, This is key. Most who rioted didn't have a socialogical understanding of what they were doing, just a hatred of years of police bullying and aspiration only for fashionable goods. The second is saddening, the first apalling. I am currently near Newcastle where, on many estates Raoul Moat is still a hero for shooting a copper. I have never had a good experience of the police and have taken a kicking from them for nothing, years ago now but it does tend to stay with you. If you have been bullied all your life then it feels good to hit the bully back for once and if you have advertisements stuffed down your neck for years for things you can't afford then it can't be unexpected that, given the opportunity you might take some.
I don't think designer makers can change the world. Increasingly I find the whole thing sickening.
Thanks for your response, skree