OWHAY ETHAY UCKFAYWAY AMWAY IWAY
Ithoutway ethay igpay atinlay invectiveway – itway’say away estionquay Iway oremay ormallyfay askway ymay udentsstay otay askway ofway emselvesthay , asway ethay irstfay asktay ofway ethay ewnay emestersay. Iway’may ookinglay otay indfay exactlyway owhay eachway Iway isway ecausebay itway’say ethay imarypray exttay inway allway ubjectssay isthay articularpay Iway ashay ethay ivilegepray otay eachtay . Itway’say ethay onlyway interfaceway Iway avehay otayanghay ethay earninglay onway – otay alibratecay ethay eachingtay otay. Oneway izesay ancay itfay allway – erhapspay, utbay otnay ellway – andway isway oundbay otay ebay aggybay onway omesay andway ighttay underway ethay armpitsway orfay othersway.
In other words…
Who Do You Think You Are?
Without the pig latin, invective and otherwise – it’s a question I ask my students to ask of themselves, as the first task of the new semester. I’m looking to find approximately who each “I” is because it’s the primary text in all units this particularly personal “I” has the privilege to teach. The teacher needs to know. It’s the only interface to hang the learning on – to calibrate the teaching to. One size can fit all – perhaps, but not well – and is bound to be baggy on some and tight under the armpits for others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_(pronoun)
I use a conventional looking form with only slight differences to the sort of conventional form most students have spent hours filling out to get into the program. Responses are usually conventional. Generally conservative. Safe.Opaque?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_(document)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opacity_(optics)
Occasionally the (What’s Your Discipline?) question elicits interesting responses. Often from Engineers enrolled in a design elective. Pragmatically my goal is to gain some sense of the potential of each for original thinking, Design thinking, often unacknowledged , unencouraged as such by the student themselves and the ‘overseers’ of their prior learning experiences.
Design authorship is the integral often apparently incidental content (Those Damned Microsoft Fonts!) of any communication – on which hangs trust , and commitment for those of us(ers) cursed by intuition(empathy) in this newly (sanitised) pasteurised homogenised (Where’s the Life In That!)world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author
Being almost old, with the biggest part of my life dealing with marketing communication and strategic design, through the lens of graphic design, I’m a firm believer in much of what I’ve learnt and I call first truths, that were revealed to/by the high priests of designed communication in the 60’s . To paraphrase one of them – Marshall Mcluhan – they were people who understood media (quote)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan
To have been willingly, ever more deeply, embedded within media has been the goal and the achievement of the fifty years of my own practise. Education is today one of the biggest integrated communication mediums in human history . And its getting bigger as it absorbs every new technology and variant devised or simply thrown up by science.
Education is one of the first truths embodied nobly in human rights charters, constitutions – and business plans alike. Commodified and sold as privilege in some cultures – fully funded as a recognition of its necessity in others – notable for the constraints placed on it – the denial of a human right – in too many.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education
But before it was a chartered human right as Education – it had a longer deeper history. At that moment it became necessary for the bio organism soon(millions of years) to be man/woman – first learnt (by elimination) to survive – to propagate – to thrive is when Learning became a first truth hardwired into all our DNA. The DNA of all Life.
I actually think William Bernbach is a quite few million years and a lot of error messages off when he defined Unchanging Man (quote) under the pressure of justifying the subjectivity of his Authorship – his perception of human perception . Sixty years after he might have thought/said what he did , I believe brain scientists coming up with hard data on the amygdala are putting a more accurate truly ancient figure on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bernbach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala
If we’re not changing then – “Where’s The Progress?” In my half century after Bill and Marshall – Firstly in the significance of Autonomy – the individual human entity. Secondly in the creative production of subjectivity – of Authorship. In Design in all its manifestaions. In social media. In all human activity. Thirdly in the expotentially integrated and increasing access to information for each individual on the planet. There’s a revolution going on involving not just us few Designer’s but the billions of Users too. Not always by choice. Information overload is almost a clinical condition for Metropolitan Man. Disinformation is out there. Privacy a virtually indefensible, constantly under siege personal territory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_overload
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy
The most significant “I” rediscovered in the digital plasma we’re immersed in, re-emerging from it like Stanislav Lem’s Solaris, given form by the collective psyche – is Interactivity. Authorship now has a direct conduit to the lives of billions who have been re-empowered by Technology that’s cheaper than a book and a lot easier to use. A once passive ill defined target is moving closer, and closer… Like it or not the Designer’s private (ha!) world has visitors from the rest of the planet.They have a problem. And they know where you live.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactivity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)
Extrapolating another virtual mentor in my life – the aphoristic David Ogilvy – I worked for him – never met him – The User Isn’t A Moron – He/She’s – You. (quote)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman)
You Are Who The Uckfay You Are – Authors All – Warts and All! And Design has a job for you. Because it can’t do it without you. You can quote me. Don’t just stand there and be counted – Count for Design. Fight the Good Fight – Enlist with a Professional Design Association near you (wRega?) change its constitution to recognise and celebrate Design For The Public Good as a professional practise and get your Authorship off that secret desktop – onto the biggest Interface you might ever have access to ~
The Public Good.
As of October 2012 it gets bigger and there’s plenty of room for all at
REDISCOVERY SARAWAK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman)
Anthony Frederick Ward
Pro Bono Publico
Wrote this. Provided the images. Did the typography. For The Public Good. It’s not a Brand .Its a State of Mind.
No membership was promised in advance. Its all his fault because his “I” believed it was the right thing to do. That’s what Authorship means. That’s why he chooses a Probo Publico practice.
He deliberately chose Jimmy Whales’ Wikipedia as the perceived facts and as a manifest example of Interactivity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales
If any reader is offended by the encoded invective – he apologises. Quote (UCKFAY) in a text on LINKEDIN or Facebook and you will be rewarded by immediate connection to his small but influential network of true believers, including his children. Correctly submit the quotes (and their provenance) he mauled to his own Authorship and receive a full and hearty welcome to his world – together with an elephant stamp on your scholarship.
If you require further insight into AFW’s Authorship before you trust him enough to Think for you, or to pursue his deportation for disrespect
https://anthonyfward.wordpress.com
may provide it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_bono
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