Through a Glass Darkly : The Scene and the Anthropocene

Ruminating on B. Singleton’s article “Anthropocene Nights”

Designers are implicated throughout human history in many of the disastrous socio-political movements, environmental destruction, and cultural appropriation. The current fad in critical design seems to be one that looks at design through a dystopian lens. Perhaps this is why the contemporary ethics that I have come to identify with and that I try to apply to my practice as a designer seem so overly optimistic.

I agree with Singleton when he raises the point that design is complicit in a multitude of situations that have devastated so many (Singleton, 2012). Right or wrong, designers and artists are the traditional developers of propaganda. There is little that we can do about what those who preceded us have done; however, we do have the opportunity to take personal responsibility for what we create. We are also in the unique position to imbue our work with a sense of our personal ethics. I suspect that this is central to the conundrum that has faced creatives for millennia.