Soviet Critical Design: Senezh Studio and the Communist Surround

Description

Soviet Critical Design is the first monograph to explore the socialist design practice of ‘artistic projecteering’, which was developed by the USSR’s Senezh Experimental Studio in the 1960s. Tom Cubbin first examines the studio as a site for the development of the design discipline in the optimistic environment of the Soviet Thaw of the 1960s. He then explores how designers adapted to new realities of the Soviet Union of the 1970s and 80s. Over two decades, designers at the studio worked on critical projects that highlighted how the Soviet state’s treatment of citizens, urban heritage and the environment was manifest in daily life. Drawing on previously unpublished visual material from private archives and also extensive interviews, this book presents a new history of the late socialist period in the USSR, which gives insight into the creative strategies of designers who engaged their practice as a contribution to broader discussions on alternative models for socialist existence. Overall, it argues that artistic projecteering must be read as a utopian activity which privileged the political and ideological over the functional. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Illustrations Figures Acknowledgements Glossary Note on Translation and Transliteration Introduction: The Communist Surround Socialist objects as critical design The communist surround The language of Soviet design Late socialism Conclusion Notes 1 Art, Technology and Design in the Soviet Thaw Technical aesthetics as a ‘science of design’ Theories of design in art and aesthetics Problems of design Foreign influences From chaos to harmony The production art of the future Objects of the future Conclusion Notes 2 Senezh Studio and the Emergence of a Critical Practice The artist in design Industrial policy and labour Open form Sites of experimentation: socialist spaces of the future Methodological philosophy and the reassessment of artistic projecteering The domestic information machine Conclusion Notes 3 Semiotics, Environment and the Historical Turn Abandoning industrial design Redefining visual agitation Conservation of architectural heritage Retrospectivism, memory and history Theatricalization Conclusion: opening the semiotic cage Notes 4 Design and the Projective Imagination Environment and the ‘museifi cation’ debate ‘Projectivism’ and design Icons of a higher reality Underground culture Maiakovskii Square as a theatre of post-authoritarian urbanity Conclusion Notes 5 A Quiet Conversation Among Th ings: Memory, Agency and Materiality at the End of History Background: cultural ecology and projecteering in Pushchino The abandoned house Perestroika and time Photographs Tables Icons Conclusion Notes Conclusion Notes APPENDIX I Complete List of Senezh Projects APPENDIX II Key People Index