1.
Symbolic Violence:
Design as Manipulation / Design as Emancipation
Jody Boehnert
EcoLabs - www.eco-labs.org
@OccupyDesignUK Launch
January 2012

2.
THE STEADY STATE ECONOMY
A Totem of Real Happiness

3.
reas sur an c e
fast climate Change Slow climate change
£220 £220 £260 £280 £280 £300
BROWN ‘Green’
TECH African bush Canadian
Beaver sparrows Honey bee
Tech
elephant Fig Trees Starfish
bowhead
tropical
cameron
whale
forest
£200
£340
Slow oil deplesion
Tasmanian
Slow oil deplesion
Coral reef
Amazon
Forest
£180
£340
Yangtze
so ci al learni n g
Boreal
Forest
River
£360
£180
tech n o -fix
E conopoly
Enviropig
£160
Hydrophere
cereal
hybrid
£140
£380
Fast oil depletion
Fast oil depletion
Descent
Energy
Local
Plan
Atmosphere
terminator
gene
£140
£400
Local
Energy
Lake Gulf of Descent ARAL Kalahari Kayapo Madagascan
Victoria Mexico Plan Sea Devil’s Claw people Periwinkle
Coll apse Transition
£120 £100 £100 £80 £60 £60
fast climate Change slow climate change
cr isis ori ent ed

4.
£220 £260 £280 £280
Canadian
Beaver sparrows Fig Trees Starfish
E conop oly
Ecology GAmes 2012

5.
Design as
Manipulation
The UK advertising industry, worth £17,318M in 2008 (1.2% of GDP),
has plentiful resources to communicate a view of nature that suits
the needs of industry and convince the public that new products and
business as usual are sustainable.

6.
Design skills are harnessed to help advertisers communicate
attitudes and values supporting consumer capitalism.
Advertising offers highly paid work for graphic designers but
a recent report by the new economics foundation found that
‘for every £1 of value created by an advertising executive,
£11.50 is destroyed’ (nef 2009).

7.
Symbolic violence is perpetuated through design.
The design industry manipulates tastes, desire and identity to
maintain the seductive power of consumer capitalism.
Design serves the needs the capitalism system that is dependent
on both the exploitation of nature and the invisibility and
remoteness of this dynamic.

8.
This visibility of corporate advertising marginalizes environmental
concerns to the point of obscurity.
Truthful information on the state of Earth’s systems cannot compete
with the information overload by advertisers characterizing nature
as infinitely exploitable.

9.
Design as
Emanicipation
• Visualizing ecological literacy & sustainability
• Supporting social movements (such as Occupy)
• Politically, socially & ecologically engaged design practice

10.
Visualising ecological literacy & sustainability
Graphic by PIRC

11.
Recent temperature changes GLOBAL STEP 2
Temperature Choice
Models vs. Scenarios
Bars show the range in
year 2100 produced by
several scenarios.
6.0
5.5
5.0
A1FI - Rapid growth, fossil fuel intensive.
Temperature Rise, degrees Celsius
4.5
Temperature Rise, degrees Celsius.
A2 - High energy consumption, rapid population growth.
4.0
A1B - Rapid growth, balanced energy sources.
3.5
B2 - Environmental preservation and local solutions.
3.0
A1T - Rapid growth, new, non-carbon, technology.
2.5
IS92a - "Business as usual" IPCC.
2.0
B1 - Environmentally and socially conscious global approach.
1.5
1.0
0.5 Scenarios
A1B
0.0
A1T
A1FI
-0.5 A2
B1
-1.0 B2
IS92a
1700 1800 1900 2000 2100
Year
"The Game Plan" slideset release 1.0, March 13 2008 43

12.
Springer-Verlag. The New Scientist.

13.
Earth’s Natural Wealth: an Audit. The New Scientist

14.
The Oil Age. Information design by Dave Menninger. 2006

15.
Good Magazine

16.
Living Planet Report WWF

17.
Planetary Boundaries
Climate Change
Nit
ro
ge
n
ss &
Lo Ph
ity o
s
sp
er
ho
iv
ru
od
s
Bi
Cy
cle
s
Ocean A
System Change
cidification
Land
Ch
n
em
io
et
ic
l
ep
al
D
P
ol
er lu
at tio
W n
h
es
Fr
Ozon
e and Aerosol
Humanity has already transgressed three planetary boundaries: for climate change, rate of biodiversity loss and changes to the global nitrogen cycle.

18.
EcoLabs
www.eco-labs.org
http://visecology.wordpress.com
http://ecolabs.posterous.com/