AFTER VICTOR PAPANEK

The Future Is Not What It Used to Be

Irene Tsatsos (Ed.)

Viennese designer and educator Viktor Papanek’s pioneering influence on sustainable, socially responsible, human-centered design is keenly relevant to current discourses in contemporary art, design and architecture. The catalog from the group exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts, After Victor Papanek (2015), gathers work by eight artists, including Liz Nurenberg, Michael Parker and Dave Bailey, who engage Papanek’s concerns in projects exploring communal interaction and the monitoring of technologies embedded in our social fiber. Former Dean of Cal Arts, Papanek (1923–1998) emigrated to the US to study design and architecture with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1949 and then earned a B.A. from Cooper Union and M.A. at MIT before moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, where his knowledge of the Bauhaus and anthropology shaped his conviction that when design is simply technical or merely style oriented, it loses touch with what is truly needed by people. Though modest, this well-designed publication is jam-packed with ideas. Each project and installation is well documented with ample photographs and informative descriptions. Contributions by Irene Tsatsos, Jeff Cain, Liz Nurenberg, Robby Herbst, Michael Parker, Dave Hullfish Bailey, CamLab, Olga Koumoundouros, Rafa Esparza Ken Ehrlich and Mathias Heyden, Rosten Woo, The Llano Del Rio Collective, Los Angeles Poverty Department, Verynice design and Matthew Manos.

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