“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” (Chief Seattle, Duwamish)
Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset..., is a manifesto of sorts for design and our collective future. TSPS is far from revolutionary or exhaustive—if anything, it serves to instigate a conversation to help build capacity or imagination to think within and beyond our present moment. TSPS is part of a larger body of work which examines the role of the common practice of design and traditional design curriculum under conditions of unsustainability.
︎Design must encompass a new circulation of thinking and acting.
︎Design must look beyond capitalist/modernist agendas.
︎Design is more than a tool for the commercial sector.
︎Design is inherently exclusionary—the grand narrative of design history tell us this.
︎Design is ALWAYS political, never innocent.
︎Design must understand its ontological dimension.
︎Design as a common practice sustains unsustainability.
︎Design is entirely social.
︎Design must consider the potential of undesign.
︎Design is fundamentally part of the problem—it offers few solutions.
︎Design is a form of critical and philosophical inquiry.
︎Needs not Wants︎
Written with earnest intentions amid challenging times.
Trevor Embury, July 11, 2022.
Trevor Embury, July 11, 2022.