Abstract
Culture jamming offers both a practical blueprint and some social theoretical foundation according to which graphic designers might play a consequential role in shaping their world, emancipated from their typical realm of corporate subservience. Culture jamming, however, is obviously not the only means through which graphic design may be of political significance. This article, therefore, is not focussed specifically upon culture jamming; rather, the article is concerned with the broader question of graphic resistance, and particularly also with the question of graphic design’s significance within the context of what might be termed ‘radical commodities’. This paper seeks to argue that there is a key difference between culture jamming and radical commodities: where the former is confined to the realm of images, the latter in fact have some recourse in the material world. That is to say, where culture jamming can offer only the signs of resistance, radical commodities may constitute a substantive alternative (even if not always holistically so). Thus, the paper argues, it is in the move toward a synchronicity of image and practice that the revolutionary potential of radical commodities–and indeed the revolutionary potential of visual communication–truly lies.
Citation
Haylock, B. (2004) Revolutionary Images and Images of Revolution. Graphic Resistance Through Culture Jamming and Radical Commodities., in Redmond, J., Durling, D. and de Bono, A (eds.), Futureground - DRS International Conference 2004, 17-21 November, Melbourne, Australia. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2004/researchpapers/134
Revolutionary Images and Images of Revolution. Graphic Resistance Through Culture Jamming and Radical Commodities.
Culture jamming offers both a practical blueprint and some social theoretical foundation according to which graphic designers might play a consequential role in shaping their world, emancipated from their typical realm of corporate subservience. Culture jamming, however, is obviously not the only means through which graphic design may be of political significance. This article, therefore, is not focussed specifically upon culture jamming; rather, the article is concerned with the broader question of graphic resistance, and particularly also with the question of graphic design’s significance within the context of what might be termed ‘radical commodities’. This paper seeks to argue that there is a key difference between culture jamming and radical commodities: where the former is confined to the realm of images, the latter in fact have some recourse in the material world. That is to say, where culture jamming can offer only the signs of resistance, radical commodities may constitute a substantive alternative (even if not always holistically so). Thus, the paper argues, it is in the move toward a synchronicity of image and practice that the revolutionary potential of radical commodities–and indeed the revolutionary potential of visual communication–truly lies.