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The Design ImperativeMarginal UtilityThe Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, & Consciousnessby Virginia PostrelHarperCollins September 2003, 237 pages, $24.95 [29 January 2008] by Rob HorningPopMatters General Features Editor No longer a prole with a dirty toilet, thanks to that fancy toiletbrush in hand, one becomes a fledgling design critic and a curator of the tastefully appointed museum that used to be a one-bedroom apartment.
Oops, I mean to say, argument of the .ppt-y text might be stronger if it were NOT so reductionist. >“Stuff desires to be better stuff,” he proclaims, humbly submitting himself to be the doll whisperer. This, from a recent article in American Bungalow magazine: “The Portland native says old houses in distress ‘speak’ to her, about what they need, room by room. She knew that if she looked and listened hard enough, the house would tell her what to do.” Funny enough, the subhed for this section of the feature is “The House Whisperer”. Design’s goal isn’t always about being cool or getting attention—like the Craftsman style, whose simple line and form are about restraint, function, and a peaceful coexistence with nature. Comment by Bonnie — January 30, 2008 @ 3:41 pm But I guess Neil Peart is right and even a choice toward restraint is still a choice...and no choice, design or otherwise, is made in a vacuum. Comment by Bonnie — January 30, 2008 @ 3:52 pm — PopMatters sponsor —This is an ingenious review. Thank you--and let’s not forget the class aspects. Postrel praises your right to buy a $400 toilet brush...is this really the type of self-indulgence we should celebrate? I talk about some of the class issues here: http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/04/fergie_vs_postr.html Comment by Frank from Journal Square, Jersey City — February 28, 2008 @ 11:05 pm Marginal Utility
Hurray for HypeRob Horning30.May.08 Enjoying popular culture is necessarily a social experience; hype supplies the ground rules. 
Renters: Enemies of the Ownership SocietyRob Horning04.Apr.08 In light of the recently burst housing bubble and the resulting inflation, this renter is having a hard time maintaining sympathy for borrowers who went in over their heads, buying homes with far more space than needed. 
The Attention of Last ResortRob Horning18.Jan.08 Instead of promoting the sharing of ideas and opinions among friends, social networking sites promote posturing and marketing, friendship as spectatorship, surveillance, and imitation, and give us the attention we crave.
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Rabble Without a Cause: Let’s Spice-up the 2008 Election, Iron Chef-Style
By Bill Reagan [22.Jul.08] Pop Goes Philosophy: George W. and J. Peterman, Philosophically Speaking
By George Reisch and Norah Martin [16.Jul.08] Negritude 2.0: Retelling the History of Black Music: Everything You Know about the Blues Is Wrong
By Mark Reynolds [3.Jul.08] Variations on a Theme: The Sounds of Now: Tristan Murail and Sounding Stasis
By Chadwick Jenkins [2.Jul.08] |
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The case would be stronger if not for the pesky problem of the growth of DIY. Industrial design has democratized access to design sensibility. This has in turn increased demand amongst the newly-design-educated people for well-designed objects. The marketplace often lacks these objects, and so said people turn to the handmade, local, artisan boutiques to sate their prior-to-industrial-design-non-existent desire. What else explains the rise of etsy et al.?
Therefore, sounds like the argument would be a lot stronger if it were so, well, reductionist.
Comment by ANP from Manhattan — January 29, 2008 @ 12:35 pm