Model Revolution is a design-based inquiry into the role of art and technology in building a contemporary political revolution.
My contribution to Loyola Marymount University’s 2021 (Virtual) Graphic Design Senior Exhibition: Design a Better World
Abstract
Throughout history, revolutionary socialist movements have utilized art, design, and visual communication to spread their ideology & enact revolutionary change. With the use of contemporary technology & modes of communication, such as social media and virtual reality, modern revolutionaries can create art & propaganda that reaches a large audience. Designers and artists, now more than ever, wield a unique power in the national political dialogue. I aim to create a socialist designer’s manifesto for the purpose of facilitating artists and designers to create work adapted for the general American public with the intent of radicalization, organization, and revolution.
A Historical Prologue & Analysis
With the process of revolution and mass communication being such a large topic, a brief understanding of the history behind revolutionary socialist movements must be understood. This thesis takes into account a wide swath of revolutionary history, ranging from the experiences of the Haitian revolution against the French, to the struggles waged by the Black Panther Party against the police and US imperialism. The political ideology that will guide this thesis’ revolutionary timeline is one from a Marxist-Leninist perspective while incorporating experiences & ideas from the 1945 Chinese Communist Revolution such as the mass line, protracted people’s war, and antagonistic vs. non-antagonistic contradictions. Each of these philosophical and practical revolutionary theories are extensive and could be presented in their own reports, and additional reading has been linked.
History has shown that the formulation of mass revolutionary movements is a long process, requiring difficult work and discipline. The revolutionary movement in the United States, at its current state, is weak. This is not to discredit the tremendous work done by revolutionaries organizing today, but among the masses of working class people these organizations are but small operations without a strong presence in most communities. Because of this, as well as many other factors, the contemporary US mass revolutionary movement is in relatively early stages of development. The establishment and positive perception of mass organizations with political education among the people of the US is a necessary component of successful political revolution. Without a strong connection to the people, the revolution is misguided.
This thesis explores methods of mass social communication now and at the end of this first stage of revolutionary organizing. No one can claim to know the future, and I may very well be wrong in my analyses. This thesis attempts to visualize and give analysis based off of revolutionary history, facts, and contradictions facing the mass movement today to attempt to develop a future analysis.
Foundational Principles of Revolutionary Design
1. The revolutionary artist must be aware of the social power of art & propaganda and should wield it as a tool with the intention of mass radicalization, organization, and revolution.
2. The revolutionary designer must reconcile the social conditions of society with the content of their craft. Social investigation is necessary. We should go to the masses of working people, learn from them, and synthesize their experience to produce relevant and effective content that drives revolutionary culture.
3. Designers & artists have free choice over the themes of art. The artist must claim these rights as not only inalienable, but necessary for the continued development of art under the banner of revolutionary socialism.
4. Artistic & design-based collaboration with organizations, unions, and their respective communities is essential to propaganda production.
5. Revolutionary designers should not look on their work as merely a means for capitalist monetary growth.
6. Designers and artists must be principled & unified to defend revolutionary culture against attacks by the dominating capitalist class.
The Economy of Revolutionary Art
This cycle depicts the overall “flow” of revolutionary art & its function in practice. There are 4 main components within the loop: iteration and social investigation, production, distribution, and mass consumption.
Iteration & Social Investigation means talking to real working people, and finding out the conditions and problems they are facing with relevance to social and economic struggles.
Production of revolutionary art may manifest throughout a variety of mediums. With the increasingly widespread practice of digital art production, art & design solutions may exist in the material world as well as the digital world.
Distribution of art & design has been completely revolutionized in the modern digital age. Distribution can take on a variety of forms, such as physical distribution of pamphlets, fliers, posters, and murals. Additionally, the power of social media & the internet has allowed for mass communication with large audiences instantaneously. The internet should be fully taken advantage of by, not only artists, but modern revolutionaries as a whole.
Mass consumption is exactly that. Consumption by the masses. The consumption and subsequent reaction to art & design that aims to be revolutionary is the guiding light for practice. It employs social investigation, and informs a material analysis of class conditions.
Macro & Micro
To better understand the greater systems at play, I found it useful to map out the “macro” and “micro” levels of individual radicalization vs. collective revolution. I came to understand these processes as occurring simultaneously, with the collective will of the people at the forefront of revolutionary change. The medium of cut and paste collage aims to speak to unattainable goal of “originality” that capitalism has indoctrinated into contemporary designers. Additionally, the medium references the importance of designers’ relations of production and how they contribute to the overall forces of production that serve as a foundation to collective revolution.
“The aim of this appeal is to find a common ground on which all revolutionary writers and artists may be reunited, the better to serve the revolution by their art and to defend the liberty of that art itself against the usurpers of the revolution.”
— Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art, 1938