Soviet Critical Design

Abstract

Soviet Critical Design is the first monograph to explore the socialist design practice of ‘artistic projecteering’, which was developed by the USSR’s Senezh Experimental Studio in the 1960s. Tom Cubbin first examines the studio as a site for the development of the design discipline in the optimistic environment of the Soviet Thaw of the 1960s. He then explores how designers adapted to new realities of the Soviet Union of the 1970s and 80s. Over two decades, designers at the studio worked on critical projects that highlighted how the Soviet state’s treatment of citizens, urban heritage and the environment was manifest in daily life. Drawing on previously unpublished visual material from private archives and also extensive interviews, this book presents a new history of the late socialist period in the USSR, which gives insight into the creative strategies of designers who engaged their practice as a contribution to broader discussions on alternative models for socialist existence. Overall, it argues that artistic projecteering must be read as a utopian activity which privileged the political and ideological over the functional.

Introduction

“…Tom Cubbin's recent book explores precisely such an alternative community -the Senezh Experimental Studio, which was affiliated with the Artists' Union of the USSRbutwhosememberswerecriticalofinstitutionalSovietcultureand expressed alternative visions of socialist everyday culture through their conceptual work in interior, exhibition and graphic design. 33 My book examinestheheterogeneityofSovietdesignfromadifferentperspective: the contesting ideas of objects, their uses, their social roles and their powertotransmitmessagesfromdesignerstoconsumers-orthepower tosubvertthesemessages.Tracingtheimplementationofthisvisionin production,retailtrade,massmediaandconsumptionisataskthatwould requireextensivearchivalandoralhistoryresearchinmultiplegeographical locations: the concentration of certain industries in specific Soviet regions meant that objects had to travel long distances before reaching consumers, if they ever did. An added complication is that factory…”

From objects to design programmes

“…In search of an alternative to rigid city planning, Rozenblium employed a group of young architects who were knowledgeable about the latest Western critiques of modernism. 81 They developed the 'environmental approach'tourbanplanningthatoneofthem,AndreiBokov,latercharac-terisedasmoreflexiblethantheSovietpracticeofplanningandbuilding. The environmental approach was sensitive to the dynamics of modern urbanandrurallifeandgrantedequalimportancetoboththegeneraland the particular.…”