Rethinking Graphic Design History

Aggie Toppins

I would like to use my participation in the DesignInquiry residency to advance my research in historical reference, specifically forms of reference rooted in activism. William Morris (1834–93), for example, committed to medieval processes and aesthetics in protest of industrialization. The Situationist International (1957–72) developed the practice of psychogeography which was loosely based on Charles Baudelaire’s flâneur (1863). These kinds of “re-writings” were in protest of advancing capitalism. What forms of activism can be drawn from historical models today?