Live Concert Analysis How Doing Good Makes

Live Concert Analysis

How Doing Good Makes Us Feel Powerful and Powerless at the Same Time

Design Activism vs. Design for Social Change

The Awakening Consciousness of Designers 1960's

Manifesto

There has been lukewarm interest in public service design, social impact and design activism. But in most conversations, all other designs work to enhance the standard of living of the people; some of it must be activism. The argument is seldom boosted by the notion that architecture has been impacted by intellectual movements and arts for instance, modernism which fuels an idea of a revolutionary society. These movements had ideal proposals for society's reforms. They were related deeply to commerce and aesthetics as well (Jose et al., 2008). Consider the difference between modernism and activism for that matter. The modernism idea states that people stand equals to each other, while society became united in every aspect for instance uniting laborers, designers and users alike. Now put that in perspective with bus boycott of the 1950's. The American blacks put forward an end to black degradation on bus seating (McAdam, 1983). The first one is an abstract philosophy, while the other is just directed activism.

Famous activist movements: Art and design

The traditional activist scenes are commonplace: bunch of people standing together with their lives at risk, holding a strike or a long march to voice their concerns against the status quo, calling for social reforms, finally overturning the decision makers and public anticipation. We do seldom fail to identify how buildings and everyday furniture, in their core design and physical orientation can be resisting the status quo, voicing a call for change and affecting the policy makers. In this paper, design is deemed as activism. The term activism is described a bit briefly here and then paving the way for comprehending design activism and social movement studies to explain more concisely.

Activism is the call for action demanding a change for the wronged, oppressed or the affected group. It is propelled by the wrongdoing or offensive behavior which needs to be rectified (Tilly, 1995). According to Jordan, activism is a moral obligation which demands a better society from human beings (Jordan, 2002). This means that activism can be progressive and regressive for that matter. It could be either visionary or reactionary. A case in point, Jordan indicates that U.S. Patriot movement was very reactionary. The sociologists have observed the white separatists for alteration is "pride and heritage" was employed by minorities later (Benford and Snow, 2000).

Inconsistencies

A unique design does work to instill a change. In its intricate form, the good design (serviceable, lucrative, attractive and expressive) doesn't infuse activism on behest of omitted and abandoned groups. It also stands for general enhancements to everyday living which is attained by private undertakings, retrieved in accordance with consumer's capacity to pay up, whether the customer is an individual, entity or a company.

Design activism against socially conscious design

During the last ten years, the design activism has brought great awareness driving research and interest in the arena (see e.g. Borasi & Zardini, 2008; DiSalvo, 2010; Fuad-Luke, 2009; Markussen, 2011; Mogel & Bhagat, 2008; Thorpe, 2008).

Generally, the design activism means playing the central character in:

Driving social change

Creating awareness among the masses and alter their beliefs (ecological change, sustenance)

Questioning the cause and effects of consumerism and mass production on daily life of consumers

Design activism doesn't mean one context. It has many contexts. It can deal in interactive designs, product designs, urban designs, architecture, fashion and textiles for that matter (see e.g. Fuad-Luke, 2009).

The current understanding of design activism is very thin. How does design activism matter and how does it hold true? How exactly activism works? How much impact does activism have on people in their daily routine and how different is it from its derived arts, namely political activism and art activism? This paper will find the probable causes and investigate how design activism affects urban life and public sphere for that matter (Markussen, 2011).

The word activism is often confused with political activism which is purely wrong. Design activism and political activism are different. Political activism involves global, anti-global, movements and ant capitalist movements for that matter.

So some authors believe that design activism has its roots in activism and can be comprehended in spheres of concepts and ideas taken from sociology (Thorpe 2008) or political theory (DiSalvo 2010). Design activism might arouse political activism; they are both very different from each other. There isn't concrete evidence in this regard. Armed with political theory and sociology, some light is shed on democracy, public space and participation apart from variety of other topics of design activists. Still, it can't define and depict design activism. Design activism is free from resistance to power, political alignments, demonstrations, strikes, boycott and protests. It arouses the resistance to power by penetrating the lives of common people. This is the topic for research in design research (Markussen, 2011).

The design activism has been used in the light of work done on some art movements such as avant-garde, community art and social interventionism. For example, it has been indicated that subversive techniques were employed in urban design activism to draw attention to art production practices. These practices were introduced by Situationists way back in 1960's (Holmes, 2007). A clear understanding is required to look into design activism; the focus must be on the design act from art historian genealogy. The urban design activists employed techniques seen in the days of avant-garde. But exploiting them in a different way, the designer way is varied. The effects can't be comprehended properly. For example, in the avant-garde project redefining the boundaries of art and enlarging them.

They shouldn't be interpreted in the revolutionary terms or the grandiose social utopias as seen in avant-garde. The intimate fabric of aesthetics-political combines to respond the activist form of design activism (Markussen, 2011).

Adbusters and Good magazine

Adbusters Media Foundation was founded way back in 1989. It's a Canadian nonprofit institution. It's also pro-environment and anti-consumerist (About 2011). The founders are Bill Schmalz and Kalle Lasn with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It is completely opposed to any form of capitalism and anti-capitalist ideas (Pfanner, 2004). It's known for publishing the reader supported, ad free Adbusters issue. It's a magazine with 120,000 readers internationally. The readers are challenging consumerism (May, 2003). Adbusters has grown to be a "worldwide network of artists, writers, activists, prankster, students, entrepreneurs and educators, who want to propel the activist movement in this digital age."

Good magazine is a wonderfully decorated magazine about lifestyle and trends. It aims to cover up the craft, gardening section, food, home section, health and beauty section. Good is a bi-monthly magazine. Every issue contains hot and trending recipes. The home ideas are new and innovative. They leave an indelible mark. It has great advice on parenting and gardening as well. Good Shopping Handbook is a yearly bonus issue. Good magazine works for the audience and covers this section selflessly. It also prints articles on health, justice, environment and inspirational stories of great achievements. Good magazine is for proactive women. Advice and inspiration is present for homemakers who seek a trendy and healthy lifestyle. The living styles can be manipulated. Good magazine is printed on Sumo offset stock using BJ Ball with the help of FSC-MIX source pulp taken from forests and various sources. Good magazine is printed with soy and vegetable inks (GOOD, 2013).

Advertisings

These advertisements were produced and published in Good Magazine recently (Good, 2013)

All ads below have been published in Adbusters in the recent past.

POLITICAL/HISTORICAL

https://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/tobacco

Taken from: (Adbusters, 2013)

1.3.2. Merits and demerits

Adbusters:

Merits: They are funny yet serious. They convey the message to the overall audience

Demerits: Websites will repeat what's in the print versions

In conclusion: Adbusters stirs the conscious of the general audience. Art can make a huge change in otherwise artless world.

GOOD magazine

Merits: They are brilliant, visually beautiful and neatly done

Demerits: They are costly with quality variations

Helping The World With Socially Conscious Design

The definition of social design

The social design has relative definitions and the word can be put to different uses all over the globe. Some definitions exist in the design world and refer to the conventional meanings. They can indicate the criteria of the product and services. The rest of the definitions of social design mean raising eyebrows, awareness and designs standard of the world (Margolin, 2002).

Social change in design with respect to 21st century

The design activism takes traditional approach sometimes. It depends on the designers. For instance, the architecture 2030 uses 'a teach' in for idea about design's role for ecological change (Szenasy, 2007). The Socially Responsible Design consists of architects and planners who rallied against the designing of new prisons (Lubell, 2005). The Designer's Accord does employ the traditional form of signing and pledging to set of points, in ways of traditional petition signing (Brown, 2009). This and various other instances show that designers employ traditional activism forms. This point-of-view does fall in expectations in conjunction with designing structures, processes and objects.

Impact on social fabric

Protest and its elements of design

In literature, a similar theme arises where artifacts are taken as objects of protests. This can comprise of:

Type of place for public protest

Symbolic artifacts for protest

Tool for protest

A case in point is the Yitzak Rabin Square in Tel Aviv profiled by Hatuka and Kallus. The architectural planning has been ordered in a fashion to shape public treatise by using some elements of congregating (Hatuka and Kalmar, 2008)." The Yitzak Rabin Square is the site of Prime Minister Rabin's death in 1995. It's strictly monitored by surveillance and barricades. The architectural wonder has been designed in a wonderfully magnificent creativity. It's powerful for both the authorities to control and crowds to protest inside it. A crowd of no less than 400,000 can stand in it comfortably. The author noted one political protester saying that "It's a place of total power owing to its sheer size." The crowds standing on that square at the roof clearly shows that (Hatuka and Kalmar, 2008).

The impact

Hosey gives an instance where shantytowns were constructed on American university campuses to protest against apartheid investment in South Africa. At Yale University, the shantytowns were built. He notes that "The shanties" with their visual disagreement shows the moral irony which the students observed in university's investments" (Hosey, 2000)

He calls these shanty constructions as protest construction. It lessens architecture to its basic form which still caters to a meaning. It gives a concise meaning. Cowan also points out another protest construction. The location is Aboriginal Tent Embassy situated in Australia's Federal Parliament. The structure built speaks for aboriginal land and its people. The author claims it as rich architecture of lands right activism. He suggests that activists are using the architectural structure to retain the independence of living nomadically on the Aussie continent (Cowan, 2004).

Can we measure impact?

There are a few instances which show design as a form for activism. The architects have made tree houses for the people who protects against deforestation. Moreover, they also protest housing (temporary houses yet illegal) to create awareness for housing shortfalls (Greenberg, 2004). Boehnart explains the work of UK's top designers shaped climatic camps with shields emblazoned of big photos with faces showing the diversity of entire global population (Figure below) (Boehnart, 2008).

The camp is an indication of the protest construction. Shantytowns are mentioned in above text. This instance shows that design have a role to play in traditional protests. The design is left with traditional boundaries for that matter. Rather design should enforce its own mechanisms and format to activism.

Climate Camp human shields, photo courtesy Kristian Buus

Charity and design for good

"People view the world as one that is full of troubles. They see the biggest health crisis of 600 years and want to get it right, but aren't sure of what it is. (RED) is exactly about that, doing the right thing at the right time: Bono, "Ethical Shopping: The Red Revolution," Belfast Telegraph, January 27, 2006.

Charity and design for good

Helping people can mean great forms of actions including:

Digging car out of the snow

Giving money to a charity trust

Helping a stranger on the road

The motivations can be numerous from deep compassion to desiring or seeking attention.

The social scientists have come to a conclusion that having a charitable behavior can benefit the donor, sometimes in tax breaks and sometimes in economic ways (Clotfelter, 1997).

Socially, it can raise the standard of living and wealth (Griskevicius et al., 2007). It can also give a great feeling while helping needy people (Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2008).

The charity institutions have always made sure that they exploit the motivation for giving, they try to manipulate the customers with emotionally driven ads and they pin the government to give them tax reliefs. The psychological merits of donating are voiced by Edward De Bono in relation to Product RED campaign. From this campaign, the revenues taken from expensive luxury items are sent to Global Fund for AIDS relief. It feels good to donate for humanity. So, the merits of advertising can be advertised for that matter. Thus, people will feel good after giving/donating to charitable causes.

The design of United Britain is the biggest and strongest internationally. On design, NESTA calculates, UK spends around £23 billion dollars annually. The Imperial College increased the amount to £33.5 billion. During the period of recession, the design council states that the industry propelled forward by 29%.

In 1944, the Design Council was established under the umbrella of Council of Industrial Design. Now, six decades later, the design plays a crucial role in United Kingdom for driving competitive edge and innovation.

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills published a journal in 2011 called Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth (2011). It placed innovation in England's blood and government's strategy for driving economic growth. The aim is to balance the design and incorporate it in the center. UK National Planning Policy Framework (2011) identifies design as key portion of sustainable growth. Independence Review of Competitiveness (2012) stated to incorporate innovation in the UK fabric to drive change and boost the UK's competitive edge.

With successful delivery, it will be inducted in policymaking.

Relating charity with design brilliantly

The global economy is now based on both ingenuity and knowledge. The success relies on using the resources available rather than availability of resources. This is correct for mass manufactured consumer items. The labor costs will impede the worldwide synchronization of third world countries to contend on prices. Quality will be the wild card for many. Design is the crucial element. Not just a plug in, but revamping the structural foundations.

Europe is facing a strict design challenge. Innovation is related to design. Startups rise and decay on a daily basis focusing on creative thinking and design. The established worldwide businesses sharpen their edge by inducting it in their systems. It augments business development.

Fast urbanization is an instance. The megacities are growing at an alarming rate with citizens inhabiting them. The necessity of design solutions is too necessary for meeting the social-techno challenge that we face. The situation at hand is to make a sustainable environment fit for urban living.

Creativity and design adds flavor to the public sector and attributes it to user friendly services. It makes the technology humane. The Danish government promotes MindLab. It's a design driven innovation venture. This cross ministerial innovation powerhouse develops new solutions for human society. It addresses the following departments:

Employment services

Education

Digital self-service

Climate change

Entrepreneurship

Workplace security

Triple bottom line

The idea of a triple bottom line known as TBL or 3BL creates two more bottom lines, namely the environmental concerns and social concerns. Together the three are coined as "Profit, People, Planet." They are also termed as the three pillars (Dossier, 2008). After the approval of ICLEI and United Nations, TBL became standard in urban dictionary and accounting atmosphere in 2007 (UN, 2007). It became the driving force for public sector accounting. UN standards also apply to natural capital measurement for helping the estimates needed by TBL. For instance, the EcoBudget is for recording the ecological footmarks. Some instances of triple bottom line are given below:

Volunteering

What do we mean by volunteering? -- Causes

Volunteering primarily signifies physical presence at a charitable event as a way to show and give support. Volunteering is usually instigated when the extent of the support or rebuilding requires human capital and input and mostly only those individuals who have the heart and the desire to engage with physical can engage on volunteering

Difficulties of volunteering

The primary difficulties include: logistics, security and accommodation for the volunteers if they are from outside the city or state.

Pros & Cons

The pro-of volunteering is that one can get to see the change happening in front of their eyes and thus not only be a part of the positive change but also ensure that it the right kind of positive change. The con of volunteering, if any, can be that the volunteers could run health risks when volunteering for the improvement of a damaged area.

Segments of volunteering

Before 1945, lower and middle range fundraising came to limelight. It became a form for raising funds for the Matures. Direct mail was exactly the primary means for collecting gifts and amassing them. From rented lists came new donors and the members got prospect packages. A gift was attained from 1 in 100 letters. The project pays up in the end as donors donate again (Bhagat et al., 2010).

The direct mail was purely fashioned and toned for the Matures. It's mostly found in Courier font, meaning it was typewritten by someone. It's in the form of a long letter like written by a close friend. The Matures have become accustomed to this form of correspondence and became active respondents (Bhagat et al., 2010).

The Boomers entered the scenario. They occupied space on TV for 30 seconds. In those days Seth Godin called it "TV Industrial complex." They were always sold as they grew with selling only. In the last ten years, studies were being done in conjunction with psychographic and attitudinal variations in methodologies by which Boomers and Matures worked (Bhagat et al., 2010).

Last but not the least, the internet came along; matters became really complex at this point with multiple choices for charity through internet media (Bhagat et al., 2010).

Strategies: Volunteering time vs. For money volunteering

The statistics show that money is the way of connecting of donors with their respective charity organizations. The youth will show support in other ways. When the younger generation was asked on how to change the world by charity, the Generation X and Generation Y wasn't interested in money. They were more inclined towards volunteering, spreading the word themselves and raising funds (Bhagat et al., 2010).

First Form of Engagement (taken from: Bhagat et al., 2010)

(blue numbering represents statistically significant difference)

Codes Of Graphic Communication (Charity Campaigns, Volunteering Campaigns)

Graphic communication codes (charity campaigns and volunteering campaigns)

The dimensions of communications: How to communicate?

Internal and external communication will work for the better for the organization in question. The stakeholders will be pleased and impact will be affirmative. Each nonprofit organization should work with the stakeholders in meeting their demands. It also helps in creating trust between each other.

For motivating them and keeping them up to the speed, internal communication is necessary. The counsel employees and volunteers must be kept under the umbrella. This paves way for great external communications. External communication gets more stakeholders under your belt, create public awareness and boost the mission, comprehending the aims and raising funds for the mission (Aberfield, 2013)..

Hassles with communication

Having the right kind of approach in the social media can create a positive vibe for the charity in question. This was also stated by the new report given by New Philanthropy Capital; which states the general population stated to donate only when they knew the aims and objectives of a particular charity. They could donate £665 million annually for that matter. Thus, this is an opening for the charity organizations to pave way and create awareness regarding their work to the masses. It requires minimal expenditure and maximum bandwidth of audience (Aberfield, 2013).

The charities employ a combination of social media (Twitter and Facebook) to interact with their audiences. In a vibrant marketplace (with volunteering competition apart from donations), the charities need to have a strong foothold apart from communications. They have to engage in deeply with their audiences. Thus, the marketing team must be real competitive and cut throat in their work. The Give as You Live survey found that 30% of the charity donors in the United Kingdom believed in being inspired to donate on social media websites.

The websites as well as social media websites are becoming important for creating a revolution and awareness. The old donors also spread word of mouth. Make the best of what you have is the call of the day (Aberfield, 2013).

The latest research to this date looks at the social media with respect to charities. They are used effectively for their own ends. The strategies are looked upon to view the slow buildup of fans and followers. The kind of content created by the charities is being ignored on a large basis. The visual messages and the video messages aren't been paid heed to either. Social media is vibrant with charities working tirelessly though. With social networks such as Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest and Vine, depicts the importance of creating an interaction with the audiences (Aberfield, 2013).

Strategies

Design creative campaigns

Get inspired from other's ideas and generate creative ideas in regards with lobbying campaigns and raising general awareness. Push them into the limelight with the social media at your disposal and enable electronic support as well as real life support.

Raise funds

Joining JustTextGiving as well as Justgiving can generate electronic money. Share your story with them and generate a following. Building a healthy relationship can translate the ordinary people into dedicated followers.

The offline support

In order to translate the internet supporters into real life supporters, meet them in real life. Take the e support to the next level and solidify the mission.

Combine social media and communications

Plan the offline communications in such a way that social media is tagged in along the way covering the offline communications as well. Combine the press releases along with the social media that feeds with the website. Commence real life promotion as soon as possible.

The expert

Be a resourceful expert who is the deciding factor in your field with capital market share. Develop top ten lists and compose articles. Hand them free to the supporters to create awareness.

Estimate the success ratio

Decide the mark to achieve in your mind and decide the parameters needed to attain them. In this case, tools such as Facebook Insights, The Archivist and MentionMap are great tools developed to get the job done. Crunch the numbers into success stories and fortify the results.

The campaigning season

Looking across these charities below, photography and videography are used brilliantly to provide great examples in social media (Aberfield, 2013).

They aren't really the best of the lot. The aim was to accumulate a table of best-worst charities on internet media. There are several notable examples for that matter which can set a benchmark (Aberfield, 2013).

These charities are based on several themes; they don't employ the same social networks always. They are into diverse kinds of photographic and video content. Nevertheless, they are consistently choosing to engage in videos and photographic content (Aberfield, 2013).

Virtual photos vs. real photos

Real photos are that in which light converges while virtual photos are those where light seems to have been converged. Real photos are the evidence that an object is placed outdoors of a converging len's focal length. In other words, the object is placed outside the converging mirror's focal length.

The photo is observed by the human retina on a screen or in appearance of photos is known as virtual images. A virtual image also occurs when a person stands looking himself into the mirror. The real images have a definite size and shape. They also occupy certain space in 3D coordinate system. Everyday examples such as a chair or a table lying somewhere are concrete examples.

Popularity of Good designs

An unknown sponsor uses the graphic design as a means of persuasive medium to get the message across. It can promote a product, an entity, a company or an assortment of customers. The ancient Egyptians used papyrus to create wall posters and sales messages.

Political campaigns and commercial messages are found in ruins of both Arabia and Pompeii. The ancient Rome commonly used lost and found papyrus ads. Wall painting and rock painting were found to be advertisements. This is all ancient techniques of advertisements. This is still done in portions of South America, Africa and Asia (Kleppner, 1991).

Companies and brands

The Nike's campaign of My Butt is a bold step from the company's point-of-view. It features a bold and honest view. The butt is the only photo in plain view. A poem is visible on the women's bottom and it's repeated once again, this time in shades of red and purple dots in the backdrop. The model is a shade of black so white background is used. A statement "My butt is big" is clearly big and apparent. It's the biggest font on the poster.

While another poster for Courvoisier Cognac gives a nice balance of feet, hands and face of a person in extreme backdrop. The message is self-explanatory for that matter.

This poster is sort of a second hand copy of Wendy's advertisement of "Where's the beef" campaign.

In the television commercial of Clara Peller, an actress with grey hair looks at an ordinary hamburger and asks "Where's the beef"? The message is sharp and simple. The rivals got the message instantly and so did the general audience. Taking help from this was Vice President Walter Mondale who swept the presidential campaign in 1984 against Colorado Senator Gary Hart. The strategy was eerily familiar.

A perfume ad is clearly visible on Chanel 5. The female model with Chanel No 5 with a visible color has a huge impact on the graphic image.

Liberated designers and artists

William Morris was the father of modern day graphics. In the second portion of the 19th century, his Kelmscott Press manufactured numerous graphic designs and built a new niche for collectors' items in art. He associated with artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Burne-Jones at Oxford. They created the Pre-Raphaelites group and the ideas produced by them impact the modern graphic design intensely.

Campaign: The guilt codes

The hope poster of Barrack Obama is iconic in nature designed by the celebrated artist Shepard Fairey. The iconic poster spearheaded the campaign's message of Barrack Obama. It also generated many new forms of the original poster with some variations. Some were commissioned from the Obama's administration office as well. After president Barrack Obama had won the American election in January of 2009, the Shepard Fairey portrait of barrack Obama was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in its National Portrait Gallery.

Dealing with multiple difficulties while still successfully coping with social issues creatively?

At this point in time, humanity faces cultural and social issues, misbalance in social structure, poverty stricken people, ecological contamination and diffidence. All of them influence on the individual, who can experience negative suffering; their impact on entire societies is disastrous. Possibly, the greatest threat the modern population and culture face is the acts of terror committed against them. The act of aggression against civilians is predominant. After the 9/11 incident, terrorism reached a whole new level in the minds of civilians and governments. It's all over on the daily TV news. It's a source of discomfort and insecurity to the civilians. Now, one minor incident affects the lives of millions of people. Their lives, social status and travels are all being impacted by it.