Taller Tupac Amaru

Jorge Rosales

March 31, 2013                     Taller Tupac Amaru

ART 301

            I thought it was very interesting that USF chose to bring Taller Tupac Amaru to the Thatcher gallery because they are on the more “radical” side of the art world. They have beautiful work but in a setting like USF it was a bit of a surprise. It is very inspirational work because it focuses all on creating a better world or at least a more conscience world that we live in. My favorite piece at the gallery was “Zapateado De Los Muertos” which is a woman in front of a green background with a skull covering half her face and she is looking down at her feet. This image seemed very mysterious and powerful because it was a reminder to people that death is something that exists in our everyday lives. I sat in front of this poster for at least thirty minutes contemplating what the meaning was behind such an image.                                                                                      During the panel discussion one of the artists said something very important. Favianna said that most of the times we ask artists to make posters for us after we have our ideas set on what it is we want. She told us that this is a huge mistake because we are simply asking the artist to take action by helping us with an already conceptualized idea. We must include the artist in the process of brainstorming and coming up with ideas according to Favianna. I fully agree with her because it is the truth, most of the time we use the artist for the labor and not the input of ideals. She also stated something along the lines of how sometimes artists think on a bigger almost impossible scale sometimes and how this can be helpful because it begins a change in conscience in people who see their art work. I think if the artist is included in the ideals of a movement instead of just the process it creates a stronger piece of work where the artist is also connected to the movement instead of printing/creating already set in place ideals.   

Designing Pornotopia

Jorge Rosales

March 24 2013          Designing Pornotopia

ART 301

            In “Designing Pornotopia” we get a very important message which is that we need not to only change the way design is used but change our own mindsets. In order for design to change and how it is used we must first change our mindsets. If we try to change design before changing out mindsets than the design work will still be the same that we created before trying to create change.                                                                                              An important aspect that comes up I think is when the author mentions the street as a place where we already incorporate commercial in. This is important because if we want to create change in the world it must begin with aspects of community. You cannot just send out one broad message to the entire world without taking into consideration how the space in their surroundings is set up. The street is considered a public space yet often we see capital advertisements surrounding it and us. I think that changing our mindset goes along with changing our surroundings and taking ownership of that public space and no longer allowing dangerous, capitalist propaganda to take over our public space.  

Week 3 response

I think Amnesty International is a big, important example of Design and Social change because they are a group that raises awareness for things that usually go unnoticed or are seen but easily ignored. An example is this image which shows children on a seesaw with weapons yet it is the same sign we see near playgrounds. I think it is interesting that they chose a common image which is slightly edited to convey such a powerful message.

The 2nd example of design and social change I think is fairly important is the floppy disk. Although not very artistic looking or beautiful, the floppy did function exactly the way it was supposed to. It was a small, portable way to carry information from computer to computer. It revolutionized the way we exchanged files and memory in our computers and giving way to a more portable form of media sharing that had not been available before its commercialization.