Between Word and Deed: The ICOGRADA Design Education Manifesto, Seoul 2000

Abstract

Manifesto Basics A manifesto is a particular form of communication predicated on three beliefs: that a change has occurred or some new insight has altered understanding of a situation; that a human agency can change circumstances into something more desirable; and that the timing is advantageous for both the manifesto and the change it seeks. It is a public statement rather than a private one. Exactly what is included under the classification manifesto is open to debate. Corporations and nonprofits have their mission statements, governments and foundations have their policy agendas, and political parties have their platform-all these might be considered particular forms of the manifesto. On occasion, a less formal organization creates a manifesto. What marks all these documents is a common purpose-to focus attention on a new agenda arising from a recognition of changed circumstances, to publicly announce a desired change in human behavior and institutional configuration, and to exhort interested and influential people to not only endorse the manifesto, but bring about through their own agendas the changes the manifesto prescribes. A successful manifesto is a call to action that stimulates and coordinates agency. Agency is defined as the capacity, condition, or state of acting or exerting power. It is about what we can individually or collectively accomplish to alter a state of affairs. Designers are increasingly understanding their role as mediators of culture. What is less certain is whether they understand their possibilities as active agents, consciously supporting substantive change in which they have a voice or, in contrast, they understand their role more as technicians who create instruments for others who set and control the agenda. The writing and acceptance of a manifesto signals a proactive attitude. It indicates that the participants are aware that, through their agency, they can effect change. Style often is the most memorable attribute of the manifesto. By nature, it must rise above the usual din of communications. It must stir the soul-this is a strongly rhetorical form. Rhetoric engages in messy human communications that encompass the interpretation of events, alternative actions and ethics, opposing values,