ReadyMade Magazine’s Homage to the WPA
ReadyMade Magazine is a great concept wasted on hipsters. Fortunately, it seems that the editors have stumbled upon an idea: their concept is good enough all by itself. In fact, it’s better than whatever their hipster image adds to the content and cache of the magazine.
Editor Shoshana Berger says “the good news about the mess we’re in” may be that:
… the song ReadyMade’s been singing from the get-go about paring down, paying attention, and creating things of real, ironclad value-things that don’t capsize when the markets get rough-is a tune people finally want to hear …
It is. And what’s significant, I think, is that ReadyMade always rode the fence between promoting craft and creativity to a niche market who simply couldn’t afford everything they saw in designer magazines, and promoting those things for more committed reasons. Is ReadyMade ready … to commit? It’s about time.
I’ve always felt a little embarrassed buying the thing. Sometimes I just want see what clever plans their contributors have for making closet organizers from coke cans, caring less about the skinny ties, ironic T’s, and slip-on vans.
Sherif Shalaby's "LP Bowl"
That may sound like claiming to read Playboy for the articles to you, but why should I have to put up with feeling like a thirty-something who can’t let go of his twenty-something ways just to get tips on what to do with my old, unwanted vinyls?
Does it need to be the case that twenty-somethings own the market on making things, recycling, reusing, simple living, good designs and good music? Aren’t these time-honored principles? Don’t they also represent lifestyle choices that, given the climate of our times, run counter to the prevailing consumerist and capitalistic tendencies of our culture in a way that hipsterism doesn’t, necessarily?
Be that as it may, the December issue of ReadyMade is a keeper. Best of all is the option of downloading five posters from their website, which the editors commissioned as homages to the artwork of the WPA. I especially like author Steven Heller’s account of the aesthetic of the posters:
It was not as overly rendered as socialist romanticism or as dramatically gritty as American Ashcan School realism. Instead, WPA artists turned to an early form of universal symbolism that involved a streamlined variant of art moderne (or art deco), a hint of Russian constructivism, a smattering of cubism, and a dose of surrealism that gave the posters the aura of timely modernity. The style was a nod to the progressive approaches introduced in the 1920s by European avant-garde art and design movements…read more…
Heller suggests that as we seem to be entering Depression-like times, perhaps we should not only revisit the bare-bones lifestyle strategies that got people through them (buying less, reusing, repairing, growing locally, etc). We might also revisit the artwork that was produced as part of the government’s initiative to generate jobs for artists and promote progressive, economically sustainable values.
Some work, some don’t. Here are my thoughts on one of them (and I’ll include the others for your comments).
Nick Dewar
Nick Dewar’s artwork is generally a cross between Magritte and retro toons, with elements of wit and surrealism. His submission to ReadyMade’s poster project hits the nail on the genre’s head and is, in my book, the best of the lot.
Parenthetically, I wonder what the Village Scribe thinks about Dewar’s poster; the Scribe is a cycling enthusiast and, I think, shares the ethos of simplicity and sustainability that most enthusiasts, and this image, lay claim to.
One of the things I like so much about this one is that its patterns and colors resurrect that lost progressive patriotism that is so scarce today.
The wheel-driven head lamp captures, all on its own, an alternative energy model that we seek today (failing to realize that it can be found in our own past ingenuity).
Finally, I like the text: “simplicity is the key to successful living”. The visual parody of that art deco/constructivist/cubist/surrealist style is matched by the verbal parody of self-helpism, but in this case the code of simplicity comes across so much richer and more viable than anyone’s ’seven steps’ to effectiveness.
…is what I think. What about you?
Christopher Silas Neal
Mike Perry
Open Design
Christoph Niemann
Your decision to comment on the headlamp in particular is interesting. For a while, these sorts of items were standard equipment. If they were there to allow folks to ride later into the evening, I don’t know. But now, while some headlamps are marketed to mountain bikers interested in night rides, the majority are pitched to commuters (together with taillights and reflective clothing) to ensure they are as visible as possible to motorized traffic. I’m reminded of “Critical Mass,” which is a movement (of sorts) to promote the message the bikes ARE traffic (versus something in traffic for motorists to watch out for the way one might steer clear of potholes lest they be slowed against their will). It’s a wake-up call to those insufficiently aware of those around them. The headlamp is not a means to see but a demand to be seen. Hence, in the image of the headlamp there is a symbol of bikes as advancement, bikes as survival, and bikes as resistance. (Indeed, actual mechanical resistance leading to the production of light and movement.)
That’s kind of interesting. You’re making the point that the headlamp is less about seeing than being seen, and that there is something like a politics of recognition involved with it, a demand or call that is issued (in the context of an automobile-based economy and society) for the cyclist to be recognized. This is the call that is issued when we ask that cities create bike lanes and become bike friendly. At some level it isn’t just a call to be recognized individually, for safety reasons, etc., but also recognition of the value and viability of cycling as a more sustainable and healthy alternative to the car. In any case, I thought Dewar’s poster did a nice job of deliberately but subtly incorporating those cues, like the headlamp, in a way that allows the poster to ’say’ something without forcing the aesthetics of it to bend the knee too much to the message.
Absolutely. The poster is brilliant. And you’re right; it is about more than just “look at me because I’m innately deserved of your recognition.” On the topic of bikes and sustainability, check out the bicycle-inspired furniture on Urban Velo: http://urbanvelo.org/bike-furniture-design/. Seems like the sort of thing that would be right up your proverbial alley.