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Can designers change systemic oppression?
The document discusses the role of design in addressing systemic oppression, emphasizing that oppression is a social relation that diminishes human potential. It asserts that designers can combat oppression by aligning with the oppressed and co-creating solutions rather than imposing their designs from a position of power. The examples illustrate how collaborative efforts can help address community issues affected by systemic oppression.
Can designers change systemic oppression?
- 1. Can designers change systemicoppression? Frederick van Amstel @fredvanamstel Laboratory of Design against Oppression (LADO), UTFPR www.fredvanamstel.com
- 2. What is oppression? Whyis it systemic? What can designers do?
- 3. HUMAN BEING BEINGMORE BEING MORE BEING MORE BEING MORE Frantz Fanon Álvaro Vieira Pinto Paulo Freire Augusto Boal The ontological vocation of human beings is to become more, to develop further.
- 4. LESS-THAN HUMAN BEING BEING LESS BEINGLESS BEING LESS BEING LESS Oppression is a social relation that curtails this ontological vocation.
- 5. Oppressed humans are classifiedinto social groups • Human • Men • Colonizers • White • Citizens • Able • Designers • Less-than-human • Women • Indigenous • Black • Immigrants • Disabled • Users
- 6. OPPRESSED (less-than-human) BEING LESS OPPRESSOR (human) BEING MORE Asa group, the oppressed are made to believe that they lack something that the oppressor have to exchange.
- 7. OPPRESSED (less-than-human) BEING LESS OPPRESSOR (human) BEING MORE Theexchange is unequal. Hence, the oppressor becomes more human than the oppressed and defines the standard for being human.
- 8. Humanizing standards aredefined, among other ways, through how humans (and less-than-humans) design their world (images generated by craiyon.com).
- 9. Why is oppressionsystemic?
- 10. BEING LESS BEING LESS BEINGMORE The oppressed often act similarly to the oppressor in another social relation to regain the stolen humanity. Oppression is systemic as it is reproduced across social groups, generating complex patterns of domination. OPPRESSED BEING MORE OPPRESSED IN ONE RELATION, OPPRESSOR IN ANOTHER.
- 11. Example: Anger Transference(Richard Sargent, 1954).
- 12. The oppressed liveat the intersection of several oppressive relations. BEING LESS BEING LESS BEING LESS BEING LESS BEING MORE BEING MORE BEING MORE BEING MORE OPPRESSED Kimberlé Crenshaw Patricia Hill Collins bell hooks Angela Davis
- 14. OPPRESSED (less-than-human) BEING LESS OPPRESSOR (human) BEING MORE Oppressioncan only be countered if the oppressed reject the oppressor’s standard and become more for their own sake.
- 15. What can designersdo for the oppressed?
- 16. Take a lookat these classifications once again • Human • Men • Colonizers • White • Citizens • Able • Designers • Less-than-human • Women • Indigenous • Black • Immigrants • Disabled • Users
- 17. Designers are already systemicallyoppressing users if they design for them.
- 19. There is notmuch you can do against oppression on the oppressor’s side. You need to side with the oppressed to fight oppression.
- 20. Design workers areoppressed, not because they are designers but because they are workers. Women designers are oppressed, not because they are designers, but because they are women and workers. …
- 21. Designers should jointhe oppressed as an oppressed, not as an almighty deusigner that can save them.
- 22. Example: Uniperifa collectivejoined LADO students to plan community actions in Condomínio Iguaçu III (Oct 2022).
- 23. We identified severalsustainability issues that required an increased sense of community, which was damaged by systemic oppression. We decided to focus on the community center then.
- 24. Design students joinedUniperifa collective to renovate Iguaçú’s community center, making things that are not usually associated with design work (Nov 2022).
- 25. To change systemicoppression, designers can design and make things with the oppressed, by the oppressed, for the oppressed.
- 26. Obrigado! Thank you! Frederick vanAmstel @fredvanamstel Laboratory of Design against Oppression (LADO), UTFPR www.fredvanamstel.com