“ Beware, Men! ”

This has been a "speculative" sober reading of the first few chapters of Speculative Everything by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. Now in dire need of a beer, as it seems to be going downhill from here. Lets hope design academics gets its act together.

And ”critical design” is, btw, explicitly not engaging with Critical Theory. Anti-capitalism is a stretch when you are looking for alternatives to capitalism.

Fwiw, Dunne & Raby’s sourcing is the sloppiest I’ve seen: “animals are cloned ... genetically modified ..., human babies are designed to order and bred to provide organs and tissue for their siblings (!), fish and … pigs made to glow in the dark, goats … produce military grade silk …” The footnote sources just one of these: the goat silk.

The absolute hubris to think you can design your way out capitalism is stunning.

"... easier to imagine the end of the world than an alternative to capitalism. Yet alternatives are exactly what we need." We aready have alternative: it is called sharing wealth equally.

How about instead of Speculative Design, we pay interns a living wage?

The most important thinking on graphic culture comes from people who don’t think about graphics at all. Case in point: https://open.substack.com/pub/ancestraltones/p/why-football-chants-are-the-real

Mojeek seems like an interesting alternative https://blog.mojeek.com

@onpaperwings If they even have the option, I am not interested.

“[Typography] has succeeded in transforming even abject poverty - by apprehending it in a fashionably perfected manner - into an object of enjoyment. For if it is an economic function of [typography] to restore to mass consumption, by fashionable adaptation, subjects that had earlier withdrawn themselves from it […]”

The ever relevant Walter Benjamin dropping truth bombs from 1934.

Ugh … Even Ecosia and DuckDuckGo incorporate AI tools these days. I guess “sustainability” was just marketing. What are you using for search engines?

The straw that broke the camel’s back was this AI-generated podcast I stumbled upon today: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/synthetica-synthesis-on-design/id1786764068?i=1000681225391 A future were these people flood everything with generated content seems incredible sinister to me. It does not surprise me that designers are early adopters.

Step 2: Deleted my accounts at Duolingo and Soundcloud.

Step 1 of the AI/technofascist detox: @Vivaldi is now the default browser. Suggestions for Google Drive/Docs alternatives?

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/23/1082189/data-poisoning-artists-fight-generative-ai/amp/

@nhoizey Consider a reverse listing on Finn: "Room needed" , budget and time frame. The housing market is full-on crisis in Norway, and any decently priced place gets hundreds of interested people replying.

@flaviazim The more I learn, the harder it gets to say something smart :) @TiroTypeworks has been touring the northern reaches recently, so do use their eyes.