Alexia Vela Akasaka
The Agency of Design-Art: Race and Gender Politics
Despite consensus that diversifying the design industry can effectively tackle global socio-cultural, economic, and political challenges, progress towards diversifying the workforce within the design-art sector has been slow in moving away from historical patterns of exclusion based on race, ethnicity, and gender. Instead, the design- art field, has predominantly remained dominated by the Eurocentric, white, and male narrative despite extensive studies highlighting its role in diversifying cultural production and nation formation such as, John Potvin’s Design Agency (2020) and Alice Rawsthorn’s Design as An Attitude (2018). As a result, broad categorizations of minorities, encapsulated under the term ‘diversity’ often overlooks the unique needs and challenges faced by each underrepresented group. Consequently, as illustrated by Roaa Ali’s The Trouble with Diversity: The Cultural Sector and Ethnic Inequality (2022) and Dave O’Brien, Mark Taylor, and Orion Brook’s Culture is Bad for you: Inequality in the cultural and creative industries (2020), this discrepancy hinders the industry’s transformation into a more inclusive environment.
Echoing anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s (1986) assertion that “objects can kick back”- actively shaping human interactions and cultural practice rather than passively receiving them – and Potvin’s (2020) acknowledgment of designer’s potential to address societal issues, enhance user experiences, and contribute to cultural expression, this dissertation delves into the concept of design agency. Whether manifested in objects, spaces, or network of systems, this study specifically explores the field of design-art, and how it influences and communicates broader societal values across social, political, and cultural contexts. Drawing from the theoretical framework of The Art Nexus by Alfred Gell (1998), this dissertation derives from Gell’s proposal of art objects as active gents in social interactions, influencing human behavior and relationships within cultural contexts. Through this lens, I will explore the emerging field of design-art, aiming to uncover the complex network of agents such as galleries, museums, curators, users and their spaces, that have historically perpetuated patterns of race and gender exclusion that persisted into contemporary market.
Reflecting on the complexities surrounding the gradual progress towards inclusivity within the industry, this thesis underlines the crucial importance to continuously interrogate agency within creative and cultural industries, such as the forms of forced identities it reproduces, as means to evidence the inequality so that strategies can be put in place to effectively counteract them. Bringing together academic, primary data research and personal experience, this study argues for the importance of a comprehensive overhaul of institutional cultural organisation so to effectively move towards a more equitable sector. It will do so by addressing the research question: What is the present status of racial and gender minorities within the design-art industry, and in what manner do the network agents within the industry contribute to the creation and perpetuation of systematic inequalities?
Echoing anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s (1986) assertion that “objects can kick back”- actively shaping human interactions and cultural practice rather than passively receiving them – and Potvin’s (2020) acknowledgment of designer’s potential to address societal issues, enhance user experiences, and contribute to cultural expression, this dissertation delves into the concept of design agency. Whether manifested in objects, spaces, or network of systems, this study specifically explores the field of design-art, and how it influences and communicates broader societal values across social, political, and cultural contexts. Drawing from the theoretical framework of The Art Nexus by Alfred Gell (1998), this dissertation derives from Gell’s proposal of art objects as active gents in social interactions, influencing human behavior and relationships within cultural contexts. Through this lens, I will explore the emerging field of design-art, aiming to uncover the complex network of agents such as galleries, museums, curators, users and their spaces, that have historically perpetuated patterns of race and gender exclusion that persisted into contemporary market.
Reflecting on the complexities surrounding the gradual progress towards inclusivity within the industry, this thesis underlines the crucial importance to continuously interrogate agency within creative and cultural industries, such as the forms of forced identities it reproduces, as means to evidence the inequality so that strategies can be put in place to effectively counteract them. Bringing together academic, primary data research and personal experience, this study argues for the importance of a comprehensive overhaul of institutional cultural organisation so to effectively move towards a more equitable sector. It will do so by addressing the research question: What is the present status of racial and gender minorities within the design-art industry, and in what manner do the network agents within the industry contribute to the creation and perpetuation of systematic inequalities?