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Papers by John Calvelli
Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2011
ABSTRACT Experiments in Correlative Ontography This essay discusses a photographic project that w... more ABSTRACT Experiments in Correlative Ontography This essay discusses a photographic project that was undertaken as a response to a database that was developed to explore issues around environmental injustice in the city of Montreal. As a consequence a new photographic practice was developed, which I name ‘correlative ontography’. This practice endeavors to raise questions regarding the visual representation of injustice at both the environmental and ontological level. Through this practice I sought to explore the possibility of representing the ontological ‘being’ in a photographic image. Potential correlations between geospatially mapped data representing environmental conditions, demographics and health effects, and the photographic images that resulted from this experimental practice of correlative ontography were also examined.
In a world unsustainable by design, we must rethink our relation to the image. To do so, I activa... more In a world unsustainable by design, we must rethink our relation to the image. To do so, I activate Malabou’s concept of plasticity to propose a materialist conception of the image as imago, which consists of the object in the world in interaction with the neural networks in the brain. Reviewing both a history of human unsustainability and a history of the idea of future, I then consider Derrida’s notion of time as trace and Malabou’s formulation of plasticity, the latter as derived from Hegel and as applied to the image. Finally, I consider the historical rift that developed between art and design at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and review its contemporary configuration in the work of Ranciére, Berardi and Groys. I then conclude by proposing a new model of image practice as arte-facture, the activity of making-wonder.
Book is available from Amazon; the Introduction may be found below, as part of The Image in Plasticity
Chapter 1 of my dissertation and Introduction to The Future is an Image book, above. Included are... more Chapter 1 of my dissertation and Introduction to The Future is an Image book, above. Included are short texts and images created by undergraduate students in a seminar on the Image and Philosophy. My advisor on the dissertation was Catherine Malabou, whose concept of plasticity I developed in relation to the design of the image in an era of unsustainability.
With the image is born both our future and our finitude. I consider the image not only as materia... more With the image is born both our future and our finitude. I consider the image not only as material artifact to be grappled with during the long history of its human production, but also as a primary cognitive tool, fuelling our desire for the future in face of death, and fuelling our end by the burning of our desire. It is phantasm, in the sense Catherine Malabou articulates, emerging from ontological difference and orchestrating the plasticity of change.
There is a stake in this investigation, at a time when our future is threatened. Although true, this awareness is nothing new: it is an effect of the image already present from our beginnings. The question then becomes: how can we use the image to further a human future today?
The animated film Wall-E was released by the Disney Corporation at an auspicious time, one year f... more The animated film Wall-E was released by the Disney Corporation at an auspicious time, one year following the 2007 publication of the International Panel of Climate Change 4th Assessment Report. Even if the the IPCC report was inevitably filtered through the emotional centres of our brains, we were able to understand—possibly for the first time in human history—that the comprehensive management of human endeavour over centuries might lead us toward species extinction. It shouldn’t be a surprise: success breeds demise. It is characteristic of the most successful species—like ours—to wipe themselves out through overpopulation, overuse of resources and degradation of their ecosystem.
Humans attempt to manage their relation to the ontic fact of finitude through a multiplicity of diversions, illusions and confrontations. The image, considered both as cognitive construction and visual artifact, is at the core of this process; and the film Wall-E is a particularly interesting and illustrative example.
As animation, Wall-E’s visual expression is considered and precise, which lends it cognitive power as a mediator of finitude. I’ll provide a visual analysis of some of the ways in which this is enabled. Its story—pitting Wall-E, a worker-robot infected by artifacts of human visual and material culture against the luxury spaceship Axiom, whose inhabitants exist in a media-managed ecosystem—uses common tropes of romantic entanglement and heroic victory in order to secure our assent for undertaking the task of meeting our next evolutionary bottleneck.
Among the theoretical frameworks in which Wall-E will be discussed will include post-genetic evolutionary theory, Stiegler’s pharmacological critique and Malabou’s philosophical concept of plasticity.
"If we view design in the broadest sense imaginable, as an activity of planning and making with t... more "If we view design in the broadest sense imaginable, as an activity of planning and making with the aim of securing our place in the world, then what we are calling design is ethological, coincident with the evolution of the species homo sapiens. If, instead, we restrict our definition to a disciplinary one, design emerges with the industrial revolution and the development of mass production and consumption, whose focus becomes the designed object, whether logo, product or building.
As an instrumentalist practice formed through its relationship with industry, a wicked problem is an oxymoron: a problem is useful only to the extent that it enables a solution. Wicked problems are either returned to sender to be refashioned into a solvable problem, or they are externalized as part of the
unintended future impacts of a design solution. Considered ethologically, however, design begins and ends with the wicked problem of being-in-the-world. The only bounds of wicked complexity are those of our human condition and our need and desire to thrive in the world. So on the one hand, we have a discipline of design that excludes wicked problems, and on the other a human behavior of designing that must handle
them all. This is the ‘meta-wicked’ problem of design. My paper will attempt to elaborate and clarify this problem as well as suggest models of pedagogy and practice that seek to address it today."
Mapping Environmental Issues in the City: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography
"Ontological unsustainability is the foundation for environmental unsustainability. As foundation... more "Ontological unsustainability is the foundation for environmental unsustainability. As foundational, it may be described as the physical, biological and cultural condi-tions that give rise to environmental unsustainability. If species well-being is threatened to the extent that its existence in time is called into questions, then we may call this an ontological condition of unsustainability.
Is it possible to represent ontological unsustainability? Can we localize it on a map or represent it photographically? In order to explore these questions, the methodology of ‘correlative ontography’ was developed, correlating a practice of photography to mapped data of the presence of diseases indicative of environ-mental causes in the city of Montreal.
A theoretical and ethical framework based on natural selection is developed for understanding ontological unsustainability and its relationship to the image and to this experimental project of correlative ontography."
"Over the last several years, designers, researchers and educators have been increasingly concern... more "Over the last several years, designers, researchers and educators have been increasingly concerned with what effect design has had, and could have, on the current condition of unsustainability. If design has had a significant part in materializing unsustainability, then we must try to change its disciplinary parameters and relationships. How can we teach design history in order to engage students in this critical work?
This paper will document an ongoing experiment in the teaching of design history to undergraduate students in visual communication in two colleges of art and design. The course asks students to interpret images from the broad history of design through the lens of a common form of a “reverse design brief,” modified to engage the student in the task of pondering designs’ future effects. It is hoped that this pedagogical tool will not only allow the student to internalize this strategic tool of design practice, but as well allow them to understand the present-day consequential effects of designing. I will attempt to judge the success of the modified brief, from the standpoint of the qualitative insights of students into the ongoing designing effects of historical design objects.
This pedagogy raises questions regarding the uses of design history, the relationship between historical study and practice, the understanding of contemporary and historical frameworks and the engagement of an historical and ecological imagination. Can the design history classroom become a locus for a critically engaged, experimentalist pedagogy that can be experienced by the future designer as an essential tool in developing a sustainable practice?
Keywords
case study/studies; design brief; design history; pedagogy; practice; sustainability; unsustainability"
visual : research : scholarship, 2007
Design Philosophy Papers, 2009
There are two broad reasons for the study of design history: to understand how design has shaped ... more There are two broad reasons for the study of design history: to understand how design has shaped our past and present; and for today’s designers to gain the necessary perspective to design for our present and future. Models of design history which are not rooted in practice, i.e., do not allow us to understand the designing effects of our design practices, only further the habitus of ignorance that has already led us to a condition of unsustainability.
It is lucky that design history is a young discipline and was based on the errors of art history: we might have a chance to change it, even rewrite it – which is what we will need to do.
If we must redesign design, we need to rewrite its history.
Photographs by John Calvelli
Teaching Documents by John Calvelli
Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2011
ABSTRACT Experiments in Correlative Ontography This essay discusses a photographic project that w... more ABSTRACT Experiments in Correlative Ontography This essay discusses a photographic project that was undertaken as a response to a database that was developed to explore issues around environmental injustice in the city of Montreal. As a consequence a new photographic practice was developed, which I name ‘correlative ontography’. This practice endeavors to raise questions regarding the visual representation of injustice at both the environmental and ontological level. Through this practice I sought to explore the possibility of representing the ontological ‘being’ in a photographic image. Potential correlations between geospatially mapped data representing environmental conditions, demographics and health effects, and the photographic images that resulted from this experimental practice of correlative ontography were also examined.
In a world unsustainable by design, we must rethink our relation to the image. To do so, I activa... more In a world unsustainable by design, we must rethink our relation to the image. To do so, I activate Malabou’s concept of plasticity to propose a materialist conception of the image as imago, which consists of the object in the world in interaction with the neural networks in the brain. Reviewing both a history of human unsustainability and a history of the idea of future, I then consider Derrida’s notion of time as trace and Malabou’s formulation of plasticity, the latter as derived from Hegel and as applied to the image. Finally, I consider the historical rift that developed between art and design at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and review its contemporary configuration in the work of Ranciére, Berardi and Groys. I then conclude by proposing a new model of image practice as arte-facture, the activity of making-wonder.
Book is available from Amazon; the Introduction may be found below, as part of The Image in Plasticity
Chapter 1 of my dissertation and Introduction to The Future is an Image book, above. Included are... more Chapter 1 of my dissertation and Introduction to The Future is an Image book, above. Included are short texts and images created by undergraduate students in a seminar on the Image and Philosophy. My advisor on the dissertation was Catherine Malabou, whose concept of plasticity I developed in relation to the design of the image in an era of unsustainability.
With the image is born both our future and our finitude. I consider the image not only as materia... more With the image is born both our future and our finitude. I consider the image not only as material artifact to be grappled with during the long history of its human production, but also as a primary cognitive tool, fuelling our desire for the future in face of death, and fuelling our end by the burning of our desire. It is phantasm, in the sense Catherine Malabou articulates, emerging from ontological difference and orchestrating the plasticity of change.
There is a stake in this investigation, at a time when our future is threatened. Although true, this awareness is nothing new: it is an effect of the image already present from our beginnings. The question then becomes: how can we use the image to further a human future today?
The animated film Wall-E was released by the Disney Corporation at an auspicious time, one year f... more The animated film Wall-E was released by the Disney Corporation at an auspicious time, one year following the 2007 publication of the International Panel of Climate Change 4th Assessment Report. Even if the the IPCC report was inevitably filtered through the emotional centres of our brains, we were able to understand—possibly for the first time in human history—that the comprehensive management of human endeavour over centuries might lead us toward species extinction. It shouldn’t be a surprise: success breeds demise. It is characteristic of the most successful species—like ours—to wipe themselves out through overpopulation, overuse of resources and degradation of their ecosystem.
Humans attempt to manage their relation to the ontic fact of finitude through a multiplicity of diversions, illusions and confrontations. The image, considered both as cognitive construction and visual artifact, is at the core of this process; and the film Wall-E is a particularly interesting and illustrative example.
As animation, Wall-E’s visual expression is considered and precise, which lends it cognitive power as a mediator of finitude. I’ll provide a visual analysis of some of the ways in which this is enabled. Its story—pitting Wall-E, a worker-robot infected by artifacts of human visual and material culture against the luxury spaceship Axiom, whose inhabitants exist in a media-managed ecosystem—uses common tropes of romantic entanglement and heroic victory in order to secure our assent for undertaking the task of meeting our next evolutionary bottleneck.
Among the theoretical frameworks in which Wall-E will be discussed will include post-genetic evolutionary theory, Stiegler’s pharmacological critique and Malabou’s philosophical concept of plasticity.
"If we view design in the broadest sense imaginable, as an activity of planning and making with t... more "If we view design in the broadest sense imaginable, as an activity of planning and making with the aim of securing our place in the world, then what we are calling design is ethological, coincident with the evolution of the species homo sapiens. If, instead, we restrict our definition to a disciplinary one, design emerges with the industrial revolution and the development of mass production and consumption, whose focus becomes the designed object, whether logo, product or building.
As an instrumentalist practice formed through its relationship with industry, a wicked problem is an oxymoron: a problem is useful only to the extent that it enables a solution. Wicked problems are either returned to sender to be refashioned into a solvable problem, or they are externalized as part of the
unintended future impacts of a design solution. Considered ethologically, however, design begins and ends with the wicked problem of being-in-the-world. The only bounds of wicked complexity are those of our human condition and our need and desire to thrive in the world. So on the one hand, we have a discipline of design that excludes wicked problems, and on the other a human behavior of designing that must handle
them all. This is the ‘meta-wicked’ problem of design. My paper will attempt to elaborate and clarify this problem as well as suggest models of pedagogy and practice that seek to address it today."
Mapping Environmental Issues in the City: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography
"Ontological unsustainability is the foundation for environmental unsustainability. As foundation... more "Ontological unsustainability is the foundation for environmental unsustainability. As foundational, it may be described as the physical, biological and cultural condi-tions that give rise to environmental unsustainability. If species well-being is threatened to the extent that its existence in time is called into questions, then we may call this an ontological condition of unsustainability.
Is it possible to represent ontological unsustainability? Can we localize it on a map or represent it photographically? In order to explore these questions, the methodology of ‘correlative ontography’ was developed, correlating a practice of photography to mapped data of the presence of diseases indicative of environ-mental causes in the city of Montreal.
A theoretical and ethical framework based on natural selection is developed for understanding ontological unsustainability and its relationship to the image and to this experimental project of correlative ontography."
"Over the last several years, designers, researchers and educators have been increasingly concern... more "Over the last several years, designers, researchers and educators have been increasingly concerned with what effect design has had, and could have, on the current condition of unsustainability. If design has had a significant part in materializing unsustainability, then we must try to change its disciplinary parameters and relationships. How can we teach design history in order to engage students in this critical work?
This paper will document an ongoing experiment in the teaching of design history to undergraduate students in visual communication in two colleges of art and design. The course asks students to interpret images from the broad history of design through the lens of a common form of a “reverse design brief,” modified to engage the student in the task of pondering designs’ future effects. It is hoped that this pedagogical tool will not only allow the student to internalize this strategic tool of design practice, but as well allow them to understand the present-day consequential effects of designing. I will attempt to judge the success of the modified brief, from the standpoint of the qualitative insights of students into the ongoing designing effects of historical design objects.
This pedagogy raises questions regarding the uses of design history, the relationship between historical study and practice, the understanding of contemporary and historical frameworks and the engagement of an historical and ecological imagination. Can the design history classroom become a locus for a critically engaged, experimentalist pedagogy that can be experienced by the future designer as an essential tool in developing a sustainable practice?
Keywords
case study/studies; design brief; design history; pedagogy; practice; sustainability; unsustainability"
visual : research : scholarship, 2007
Design Philosophy Papers, 2009
There are two broad reasons for the study of design history: to understand how design has shaped ... more There are two broad reasons for the study of design history: to understand how design has shaped our past and present; and for today’s designers to gain the necessary perspective to design for our present and future. Models of design history which are not rooted in practice, i.e., do not allow us to understand the designing effects of our design practices, only further the habitus of ignorance that has already led us to a condition of unsustainability.
It is lucky that design history is a young discipline and was based on the errors of art history: we might have a chance to change it, even rewrite it – which is what we will need to do.
If we must redesign design, we need to rewrite its history.