On Saturday I went to the NGV with the intention of visiting an exhibition about Aboriginal art. After going to that exhibition I was impressed by the artwork but wasn’t too engaged. Then, as I was about to leave the museum, I heard music. This instantly attracted my attention. From the moment I got near to the exhibition I was intrigued, I didn’t know what I was entering as there wasn’t much signage. As I walked closer the music got louder and louder, then I started to recognise some pictures that were displayed – it was an exhibition on Darren Sylvester. Before I had an in depth look at his artwork, I immediately went to what caught my attention initially – the music. In the exhibition area I entered through a white door where the music and some red lights were shining out of. I had entered a mirrored room with light up floors that reminded me of a retro disco floor. I didn’t entirely understand what I was looking at, but it was very intriguing, with the bright lights mesmerising, almost hypnotising my vision and those around me. Jake Barton, founder of Local Projects, highlights that people “want to express themselves and see their own identity refracted through the museum’s” (Barton, 2014) , implying that people want to engage with museum exhibitions in a way that can reflect who they are. This is very applicable in many of Sylvester’s museum exhibits. Sylvester focuses a lot of his artworks on attracting many different senses within viewers, rather than just the visual that is used in every piece of art. He breaks out of what the standard type of artwork is and attempts to delight the viewer in more different and engaging ways. In doing so, he “breaks down the fourth wall of design” (Solis, 2016) and partakes in something that Matthew Holt, Design Program Manager at the University of Sydney, refers to as Participatory Design. This refers to the collaboration of all people within the design process, not just the end user. In this case, the act of the viewer collaborates and partakes in the audio and visual aspects of the disco room, ultimately making them part of the exhibition itself. 

Furthermore, Carl DiSalvo’s writings ‘Design and the Construction of Publics’ explores how the public is influenced and affected by it’s own political state. He states that “the public is an entity brought into being through issues for the purpose of contending with these issues in their current state” (DiSalvo 2009, 49), highlighting the myriad of difficulties that arise within a contemporary society. This directly correlates with many of Sylvester’s artworks. In particular, his work titled ‘Broken model’. This photograph is a reenactment of a moment from Jean Paul Gaultier’s fashion show where a model had, initially unknown to Sylvester, fallen deliberately. His recreation to this enlightened viewers about “empathy, lack of authenticity and fashion desirability” (Sylvester). 
Overall, I really enjoyed this exhibition. The many different interactive and reflective ideas it portrayed really stood out to me. 

Bibliography

Jake Barton, An ingenious museum design that turns visitors into creators. Accessed April 10, 2019. https://www.wired.com/2014/06/a-design-museum-that-turns-its-visitors-into-designers/

Brian Solis, Break the fourth wall to transform customer experience. Accessed April 10, 2019. https://relate.zendesk.com/articles/breaking-fourth-wall-customer-experience/

Disalvo, Carl. 2009. Design and the Construction of Publics. Massachusetts: MIT

Sylvester, Darren. 2019. CARVE A FUTURE, DEVOUR EVERYTHING, BECOME SOMETHING. NGV

There are many talented designers in history and in today’s time that have been overlooked and forgotten. One really amazing forgotten designer is Dorit Dekk. She was a Czech born British graphic designer “who helped to shape 20th century design in the UK” (Banks, 2017). As a child, she moved to Austria and later on fled Nazi rule during the Annexation of Austria. From there she went to study in London and during the war she worked in radio intelligence. By the end of the war she had joined the design studio of what was to become the UK government’s marketing agency. There she designed many famous and well known government posters which all led to Dekk working for different profound companies, including London Transport, Air France and Penguin.

Dekk designed many playful and bright posters and became a freelance designer where she became known as the ‘travel queen’. She continued to run her own design business and became a fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists. During this time, it was very uncommon for a woman to work in such a field, let alone have her own freelance business. Furthermore, “a woman’s dream was generally secretarial stuff or dress making” (Connery 2017), so it was incredible that a designer like Dorit made such an impact within the UK.

In Victor Margolin’s discussion piece ‘Design Studies: Tasks and Challenges’, he explains the differences and parallels between art and design. He states that, while art is “discursive” (Margolin 2013, 402) and “are not expected to produce a result” (Margolin 2013, 402), design “is … expected to achieve an outcome” (Margolin 2013, 402). Margolin highlights this difference which directly correlates with many of Dorrit’s works. For instance, her London Transport poster has a clear intended outcome of advertising and displaying the London underground in a positive way, revealing that any type of person, no matter their income, are ‘Londoners’ and can take the tube.

Furthermore, Dekk was also known for her abstract use of collage in many of her works. The ‘Mobile Labour Force’ poster was designed for The Central Office of Information during the war. The outcome of this piece was to “raise the morale of the post-war labour force and present the essential rebuilding works as heroic” (Szulman, 2018), wherein the workers depicted are flying on a plank of wood. Here again, Dekk uses her design ability to achieve a specific outcome in a practical way.

Additionally, the reading ‘Women designers is there a gender trap?’ by Margaret Bruce and Jenny Lewis unpacks the idea of gender stereotypes within the working environment. During their writing, they delve into the ideas of “the sexual division of labor” (Bruce and Lewis 1990, 115) referring to “certain types of work … as being more appropriately carried out by one sex rather than the other” (Bruce and Lewis 1990, 115). Dekk was an inspiring designer as she not only went through many hardships throughout her life, but also became a very successful designer in a hyper-sexualised world.

Bibliography

Tom Banks. Discovering the forgotten female designers from history. Accessed April 9, 2019. https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/23-29-october-2017/discovering-forgotten-female-designers-history/

Jane Connery. Plotting the Historical Pipeline of Women in Graphic Design. Accessed April 9, 2019. http://dharn.org.au/plotting-the-historical-pipeline-of-women-in-graphic-design/

Gabriella Szulman. ‘Designs on Britain’: focus on Dorrit Dekk. Accessed April 10, 2019. https://gabrielaszulman.com/2018/01/designs-on-britain-focus-on-dorrit-dekk/

Margolin, Victor. 2013. Design Studies: Tasks and Challenges. The Design Journal

Bruce, Margaret, and Jenny Lewis. 1990. Women designers is there a gender trap? Amsterdam: Elsevier Ltd