Centres and Peripheries: Design Capitalism Back and Forth

Szentpéteri, Márton and Keszeg, Anna and Gyenge, Zsolt and Vincze, Hanna Orsolya (2024) Centres and Peripheries: Design Capitalism Back and Forth. In: P/References of Design. Cumulus conference proceedings series, 1 . Cumulus Association, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Budapest, pp. 55-56. ISBN 978-952-7549-02-5

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Abstract

The track was devoted to tantalising tensions between mainstream contemporary design cultures and those of (semi)peripheral capitalisms and emerging third world and global south countries. In this respect the issue of the total aestheticization of the world proved to be of high eminence considering the way how spectacularly did unsustainable late capitalism apply design and the hegemony of consumption as a means of the (an) aesthetization of consumers and the corresponding total virtualisation and alienation of citizens living in a "sublimated slavery" (Herbert Marcuse) in which basic human rights and dignified living conditions are no longer tenable. The neoliberal McDonaldisation, a particular type of colonisation that swept through the post socialist region during and after the political regime changes is a unique phenomenon that is yet to be fully understood in the broader perspectives of the apparent failure of liberal democracies in the region. Neoliberal colonization went hand in hand with destabilizing processes of postmodernist relativism and criticism of classical liberalism which brought with it different anti-humanist and anti-Enlightenment subversion on behalf of mostly leftist cultural studies and critical theories that in turn gradually became hobbyhorses of new authoritarian and illiberal cultural and political streams as it is now rather clear from Fareed Zakaria's, the late Ulrich Beck's and Francis Fukuyama's recent works. Furthermore, the postcolonial situation of the global south was also in our focus, because thought- and meaningful comparisons help us better understand our pretty diverse anamneses and find mutual diagnoses and promising prognoses together on a global scale. CUMULUS BUDAPEST 2024 CENTRES AND PERIPHERIES 55 We invited scholars and design educators to discuss options for critical and speculative design and practice oriented design culture studies interventions that can help better understand the recent past and in turn, create new perspectives for a better and more humane future with dignity. The power of criticism either written or built in art and design projects was of high interest in this respect as in the case of fashion and design education for example.

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