From Google reviews to YouTube tutorials, and from online service desks to real-life ‘may I speak to the manager’ requests - we are all critics of our designed environment. It seems therefore strange, if not outrageous, that design criticism is a practice considered to be a haute-for-few instead of a low-for-all. Design belongs to all of us and, therefore, its criticism as well. How can we activate more people to become actively aware of and critical towards their designed environments?
open call and results
Onomatopee launched an open call to advocate for (un)professional everyday design criticism. Participants were asked to submit a short text that criticizes, discusses, analyzes or reflects upon an everyday design object, system, environment, or construct. The 15 selected essays can be read individually in the installation and will soon be published collectively in a book.
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Billboard advertisements are designed to catch a person’s attention and create a memorable impression very quickly, meant to leave the reader thinking about the advertisement after they have driven, walked, or cycled past it. The CriticALL! installation makes use of these mass-communication aesthetics (billboard, newsstand) to catch everyone’s attention and wishes to redirect that attention towards the critical content of the 15 selected essays of the CriticALL! open call.
The 15 selected essays are written by:
Adina Glickstein, Anniek Tijmes, Bessie Rubinstein, Iskander Guetta, Jo Minhinnett, Judith Leijdekkers, Lara Chapman, Lauren Thu, Pete Fung, Plasticity Studio, Rosannagh Maddock, Stijn van de Vyver, Vanessa Brazeau, Y. Selim, Zack Wellin
