Course title:

PATTERNS AND POWER

Course description:

WALLPAPER, BEHAVIOR, REPETITION, EDUCATION, DESIGN
When we design, we don’t just create forms, we shape worldviews—and reproduce their conditions.
The workshop begins with an uncomfortable observation: design forms are rarely neutral—on the contrary, they often simply reinforce the norm. They do not reflect what we think, but often reproduce what we usually expect. They reassure, orient, and guide us. Through their constant repetition, they condition and educate us. The interruption and disruption of such coded and trained patterns is unsettling—and often triggers rejection, resistance, or even fear. Based on Lutz Dammbeck’s essayistic documentary film “Overgames,” the seminar deals with the aesthetic and political dimensions of pattern formation—in society, design, and thinking. Using game shows, psychiatry, science, and the media as examples, the film examines the influence that the American re-education program had on post-war West German society. In doing so, it raises fundamental questions about the controllability of human behaviour, the idea of permanent revolution, vulnerability, especially during so-called “rites de passage,” and, more generally, the power of images, codes, and cultural patterns. The seminar responds to current areas of tension in which design and art are not outside the realm of social discourse. It navigates be- tween the demand for greater diversity, the call for visibility, the fear of misconduct, perceived overload, and retreat into the private sphere—between moral consensus and growing uncertainty about what may be said, shown, and designed. And it seeks forms that do not unthinkingly or merely repetitively adopt the past. The work focuses on an object that seems as harmless as any other: wallpaper. But its images and patterns are visual systems—they repeat, smooth, standardize, stereotype, make spaces legible, and people controllable. Based on this knowledge, we use deconstruction and deliberate pattern interruption to design our own graphic wallpaper motifs that critically examine questions of representation, manipulation, social norms, cultural coding, and power relations. Theoretical research, historical references, and creative experiments intertwine in the process. The aim is to develop wallpaper designs that are critical, political, psychological, poetic, or experimental and can be understood as independent visual commentaries on the subject matter. The results will be presented together at the end of the workshop.

Bio:

Markus graduated from the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts & Graphic Design in 1999. Between 1999 and 2002 he taught at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts as an assistant lecturer. Since 2004 he has been senior lecturer for first and second year graphic design at the Leipzig Academy. The collaborative project Spector was founded in 2000 and Markus is co-editor of its magazine outlet, cut+paste. What is Spector? It can be an office, a magazine, a network or even a temporary venue in Leipzig. Even so, work on publications on contemporary fine art is still at the core of Spector. The Studio’s work includes book designs for contemporary artists. Clients include, among others, the Leipzig Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig Opera, Dresden Museum of Technology and the Arts Council of the Free State of Saxony. Markus has received numerous national and international awards for his design work, such as the Golden Letter in the competition for The World’s Best Designed Books 2004.