#1 D&V_ZINE_01_PONY_SPREADS.indd 1 22/09/2016 18:58 D&V_ZINE_01_PONY_SPREADS.indd 2 22/09/2016 18:58 3D printed gun, the Liberator And yet the intersections of design (2013). It is impossible to simplify and violence are never static, never Steven’s weighty tome but his circumscribable. They continue to our teams over the past year, led argument suggests that we live in a mutate and they appear differently, here at MoMA by Michelle Millar more peaceable era compared to our inhabiting discrete localities as often Fisher, have resulted in a thoughtful In the introductory statement for ancestors; however, the design and as they become global phenomena; translation and augmentation of the the online curatorial experiment dissemination of open-source files for they manifest newly in the hands original project. When colleagues DESIGN AND VIOLENCE at The a printable, untraceable gun marked, and minds of individuals, collectives, know each other well — and we do, Museum of Modern Art, ‘design’ was for us, a watershed that contradict- and in the molecules of materials even more so after this adventure — defined within the parameters of the ed Steven’s research. Instead of into which they pass. It thus makes dialogue can immediately become museum’s collection as a compelling dissipating, violence seems to have perfect sense for this conversation to frank and deep, which allows marriage of economy, elegance, morphed and recombined into novel, move into other institutions in order partners to fruitfully challenge functionality, and timeliness. As co- intangible, or ghostly forms — into to spark overlapping yet distinct each other’s established ideas and PAOLA ANTONELLI AND JAMER HUNT curators, we — Paola Antonelli and the roadside bomb, cyber threats, reflections to those we articulated preconceptions. In his parsing of Jamer Hunt — also defined ‘violence’ the unmanned aerial drone, and the in New York. Just one of many violence along semiotic, systematic, very broadly as “a manifestation of everyday household tool repurposed possible examples: where our last and spectacular lines, Ralph has the power to alter circumstances, into a protest weapon. The works post in the U.S. focused on the widened the definition of design that against the will of others and to we included in our online survey lethal injection — written by Death we at MoMA started out with. their detriment.” As we said then, responded to this shape shifting: Row exoneree Ricky Jackson — the although designers aim to work ’s Digital Attack Map, for conversation has shifted in The Science Gallery Dublin team has toward the betterment of society, instance, charts distributed denial- to the sensitivities and politics of retained several of the works from it is and has been easy for them to of-service (DDoS) attacks across the Eighth Amendment of the Irish MoMA’s exhibition, and brought them “overstep, indulge in temptation, the world; James Bridle’s Drone Constitution. into orbit with a new constellation of succumb to the dark side of a moral Shadow project evokes and reveals objects. In doing so, they have forged dilemma, or simply err”. And yet the the fear of a distantly-controlled Initiating a discussion with our perspectives on the intersection of intersection of design with violence overhead attack; Volontaire’s elegant, valued colleagues at Science Gallery our material culture with our capacity is a history rarely, if ever, told by strong poster series for Amnesty Dublin — former CEO of Science for sometimes terrible but often quite critics, historians, or designers International raises consciousness of Gallery International Michael John mundane forms of violence. Most themselves; the public, therefore, gendered violence and female genital Gorman in the early stages, and then importantly, this new manifestation of remains unaware — unless they mutilation. Director Lynn Scarff, Programme DESIGN AND VIOLENCE has opened NEW YORK become one of its victims. Over a Manager Ian Brunswick, and up the conversation to audiences far period of two years, we, along with Exhibitions Producer Aisling Murray beyond those originally imagined. MoMA Curatorial Assistants Michelle — was like sitting down at a table The intention of this experiment, Millar Fisher and initially also among old friends. Indeed, Michael in New York, in Dublin, and in any Kate Carmody, assembled a range John and Paola have known each future locale and incarnation, is of design projects, objects, and other for a very long time — ever not to glorify or spectacularise ideas that lived between these two since MoMA’s first foray into design violence, nor to engage in voyeurism guideposts of ‘design and violence’. and science with the exhibition or didacticism, but to place these The works were as varied as the Design and the Elastic Mind in 2008 quotidian, theatrical, systemic, and discussions they provoked online, in — and Paola greatly respects and hidden relationships between design the galleries, in the public debates trusts his vision for the intersection and violence into new relief. Science we held, and, eventually, in the of contemporary design, science, Gallery Dublin also has an amazing pages of the book we published. and technology and the track record record of lively conversation through of boundary-crossing exhibitions at public engagement with their Our initial conversations were Science Gallery Dublin and beyond. exhibition visitors. We look forward to catalysed by two key projects: Adding Ralph Borland to the mix — the opinions, questions, and actions Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker’s a designer whose work has been held that will ensue. book The Better Angels of Our within MoMA’s own collection since Nature: Why Violence Has Declined 2006 — as the external curator New York City, (2011) and Defense Distributed’s for this presentation of DESIGN September 2016 AND VIOLENCE at Science Gallery Serpentine Ramp by Temple Grandin, c. 1974. Image courtesy of the designer. Dublin made great sense given the longstanding relationship he has had with both of our institutions. The regular conversations between The urge to identify ordinary things As one of the curators and the lead as within the frame of design is a researcher on this exhibition, the democratic one — while recognising topics it raises have particular reso- the role of skills and experience nance with my experiences growing in shaping efficient and beautiful up in South Africa during apartheid, objects and systems, we want to and in independent Zimbabwe. From bring design, too, into the frame of an early age I was filled with stories ordinary, lived experience. We are and images of violence; both the interested in reading objects for the violence of the state’s suppression In selecting work for this exhibition, intentions encoded into them, as of dissidents, and the romance of it soon became clear that design well as noticing the way that objects violence as a means for revolution. and violence are potentially all- shape the human world around us. This tension between violence as encompassing themes that might oppressive harm to another and as a overwhelm us with their breadth. South African artist Thembinkosi symbol of our capacity for resistance Goniwe’s work Dignities, for example, has remained a constant source of Violence, in particular, permeates a portrait of the artist alongside his provocation for me. everything around us, as one of painting lecturer, shows both men the central organising principles of sporting ubiquitous ‘flesh-coloured’ The work that led to my role in this human affairs. One of the definitions plasters on their cheeks. On his exhibition, my art-design project of a modern state is that it reserves lecturer’s white face, the plaster Suited for Subversion, on exhibition RALPH BORLAND the right to violence for itself, while blends in, while on Thembinkosi’s at the The Museum of Modern excluding it from others it terms dark skin it stands out starkly. The Art, New York for much of the last dissidents or criminals. Most of the work identifies the assumptions ten years, came in part out of this Dignities by Thembinkosi Goniwe, 2000. time, state violence does not have to embedded in ordinary designed provocation. Designed from my be exercised, but it is always present objects, and the undignified effect experience taking part in large-scale in the form of a police force or army of these on the user. The humble street protests in New York in the ready to enforce laws and boundaries. plaster signifies here both the early 2000s, it is a disarming suit superficial violence of a small injury, The exhibits referred to in this edition of armour, clownishly over-protecting Unless we include the geological and and the deep, long-standing violence cover some of this range of iterations the wearer in order for them to DUBLIN evolutionary processes that shape of racial inequality. of design and violence. Blockchain, claim territory from the state, while the natural world as some form of the new form of distributed ledger humanising them through a pulse- ‘design’, the boundaries of design As an additional lens for the and digital currency that promises reader and speaker that transmits can be more readily contained. But exhibition, we looked at how potential to replace trust with code, refers to the wearer’s heartbeat outside their even confined to human actions, we work fitted into the frame of ‘now’, the violence of our financial systems body. embraced in this exhibition a broad asking ourselves how the exhibits and attempts to reform it through definition of design as not just the reflected a world that is increasingly design. The Thanatron, a DIY suicide During the same period, I saw the work of professionals or the product urbanised, globalised and networked, machine, is an example of how the artist Saul Williams performing in a of mass-manufacture, but as found in which inequality is rising, and in boundaries of individual rights, park in Brooklyn, and one sentence in everyday, ubiquitous objects and which new forms of technology are including the right to elective self- he spoke (in an early version of his in ad hoc or DIY processes. changing the face of labour, warfare violence, are pushed through design. song Grippo) has stayed with me ever and political control. Environmental White Torture points to our legal and since as offering some resolution to This is political: part of the slippery harm — especially the biggest threat ethical systems as sites for design, this tension. It is with these words nature of violence is the way it of our time, climate change — is and to the fact that violence need that I would like to end this essay, appears to be a disruption of the increasingly realised as the violent not leave marks on the body to be along with thanks to everyone at normal, an aberration, rather than result of our designs upon the planet. devastating to the human psyche. Science Gallery Dublin and The part of the normal state of things. The public artwork Drone Shadows Museum of Modern Art, New York for The raw materials and labour refers to the distance at which our shared work on this exhibition. processes in the products we buy in violence is increasingly enacted, and the developed world may have been attempts to close this gap by con- “Using violence as a metaphor secured through conflict and poverty veying some of the feeling of living for victory”. in the developing world. This is our under the threat of a drone strike violence too, not just that of faraway — an everyday experience in some places and peoples. parts of the world, though not in the countries which control the drones. D&V_ZINE_01_PONY_SPREADS.indd 3 22/09/2016 18:58 D&V_ZINE_01_PONY_SPREADS.indd 4 22/09/2016 18:58 While recognising the potential of In Ireland, for example, there were blockchain as one tool that — in a several long-term bank strikes in the very pragmatic way — could assist 1970s. The economy didn’t grind with cooperative activities, much to a halt. Instead, local publicans of the current rhetoric around stepped in and extended credit to blockchain also hints at problems their customers; the debtors were within the techno-utopian ideologies well known to the publicans, who that surround digital activism, and were in a good position to make points to the pitfalls these projects an assessment on their credit- fall into time and again. Chief among worthiness. Community trust re- A blockchain is, essentially, a dis- these is the idea that we can replace placed a trustless monetary system. tributed database. The technology messy and time-consuming social first appeared in 2009 as the basis processes with elegant technical of the Bitcoin digital currency solutions. system, but it has the potential to do much, much more — including Fostering and scaling cooperation is aiding in the development of really difficult. This is why we have platform cooperatives. institutions, norms, laws, and mar- kets. These mechanisms allow us Traditionally, institutions use cen- to cooperate with others even when RACHEL O’DWYER tralised databases. For example, we don’t know and trust them. They when you transfer money using a help us to make decisions and to bank account, your bank updates its divvy up tasks and to reach consen- ledger to credit and debit accounts sus. When we break these structures accordingly. In this example, there is down, it can be very difficult to co- one central database and the bank is operate. Indeed, this is one of the a trusted intermediary who manages big problems with alternative forms it. With a blockchain, this record is of organisation outside of the state shared among all participants in the and the market — those that are network. To send bitcoin, an owner not structured by typical modes of publicly broadcasts a transaction to governance such as rules, norms or all participants in the network. Par- pricing. These kinds of structureless ticipants collectively verify that the collaborations generally only work transaction took place, and update at very local kin-communal scales the database accordingly. This re- where everybody already knows and cord is public, shared by all, and it trusts everyone else. Screenshot of real-time blockchain This kind of local arrangement animation at dailyblockchain.github.io

CAN CODE REPLACE TRUST? cannot be amended. wouldn’t work in a larger or more atomised community. It probably This distributed database can be wouldn’t work in today’s Ireland, used for applications other than because community ties are weaker. monetary transactions. With the rise of what some are calling “Blockchain Blockchain replaces a trusted third 2.0”, the accounting technology party such as the state or an online underpinning Bitcoin is now taking platform with cryptographic proof. on non-monetary applications as This is why hardcore libertarians diverse as electronic voting, file- and anarcho-communists alike both tracking, property title management, favour it. The claim being made is not and the organisation of worker that we can engineer greater levels cooperatives. Very quickly, it seems, of cooperation or trust in friends, distributed ledger technologies have institutions or governments, but made their way into any project that we might dispense with social broadly related to social or political institutions altogether in favour of transformation for the left. an elegant technical solution. All we When we think of violence, what need is to trust in the code. But this do we think of? What images do technology doesn’t replace all of the we see, what feelings do we have, functions of an institution, just the what thoughts do we have? Images function that allows us to trust in of blood, broken bones, perhaps our interactions with others because the sounds of someone screaming? we trust in certain judicial and One person shooting, punching, bureaucratic processes. It doesn’t striking another; flesh giving way, stand in for all the slow and messy bruising, bleeding? This way of Estimates suggest torture occurs in bureaucracy and debate and human thinking can lead us utterly astray 140 countries worldwide, and that processes that go into building when considering the violence that it is significantly under-reported, cooperation. can be visited upon the defenceless. so it may happen in many more. One widespread form of violence Democracies, when they torture, In this sense, the blockchain has forms part of a long line of codified is torture, and when we think of prefer ‘white’ torture — a form of more in common with the neoliberal violence enacted through ledgers, torture, our thinking is coloured violence practiced because it leaves governmentality that produces plat- automated record-keeping systems, by medieval imagery –– bleeding, no marks. The long-lasting effects form capitalists, like Amazon and databases and archives that work bruising, beatings, broken bones, are inflicted on the brains and minds Uber, and state-market coalitions not to support networks of trust and and flesh torn and scarred. It’s a and behaviour of the tortured and, than any radical alternative. Seen political dissent but to make these common mistake. Alberto Gonzales, somewhat surprisingly, often on in this light, the call for blockchains things disappear. the former U. S. Attorney General, the brains, minds and behaviour of

SHANE O’MARA said in a 2015 interview: “When the torturer also. White torture is a While technical tools such as the I think about torture, it’s broken coordinated and deliberate assault blockchain might form part of a bones, electric shocks to genitalia. on the core functioning of our brains broader artillery for networked It’s pulling your teeth out with pliers. and bodies, and all the more powerful cooperation then, we also need to It’s cutting off a limb. That’s torture. and effective because it affects have a little perspective. We need Is waterboarding at the same level? our fundamental metabolic drives. to find ways to embrace not only I’d say probably not.” Our thinking Suffocation, starvation, freezing, technical solutions, but also people about torture is also deeply coloured repeated episodes of near-drowning, who have experience in community by movies and television; one person restraint stress through close organising and methods that foster has hidden knowledge, and this can confinement in small, overheated trust, negotiate hierarchies and be easily, reliably and veridically boxes, social isolation through embrace difference. Because there extracted through violence. extended solitary confinement — is no magic app for society. And none of these techniques leave visible there never will be. Governments change behaviour surface marks. The tools for white DESIGNING TORTURE through laws, memos, legal opinions, torture are repurposed from other and other means; many of them are uses: plastic bags for suffocation, This is a modified version of a paper explicitly coercive. Governments cable ties to restrict and restrain first published inOurs To Hack have implicit (and occasionally limb movement, food and liquid And To Own: The Rise Of Platform explicit) models of human behaviour restrictions to induce starvation, Cooperativism, A New Vision For The change underpinning policy. These trestle tables for waterboarding, Future Of Work And A Fairer Internet, models are derived from prior small, uncomfortable chairs for sleep edited by Trebor Scholz and Nathan practice, contemporary culture, deprivation, adult nappies, ample Schneider (2016). history and social learning. They supplies of cold water. are rarely informed by neuroscience or psychology. Lawyers deciding to torture a detainee into revealing information are an example of an empirically or theoretically un- Bitcoin is a decentralised currency – it’s neither a brand nor a product or company. supported lay or folk theory of As such ECOGEX argues that a symbol neuropsychological function in (Unicode Character U+0243) should be action, implemented under cover of used to represent Bitcoin rather than a logo. law, and routinised as policy. Bitcoin Symbol by ECOGEX (ecogex.com) is licensed under FAL 1.3 White Torture infographic reproduced Designing a systematic programme with permission of Agence France-Presse of torture in democracies requires (AFP), 2014. the co-operation and support of a whole group of public policymakers, none of whom will directly administer the behavioural practices they sanction. Democracies then rediscover Napoleon’s great truth: “The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognised that this way Sadly, many democracies have never of interrogating men, by putting entirely given up the practice of them to torture, produces nothing Interrogation techniques torture — even if it is not officially worthwhile. The poor wretches say A US Justice Department memo, released 2009, sanctioned, it still happens. anything that comes into their mind detailed interrogation techniques that the CIA Democracies tend to resort to torture and what they think the interrogator proposed in 2002 for use on a top Al-Qaeda detainee during times of great national stress wishes to know” (Bonaparte, 1798). (think France in the late 1950s; the The contemporary historian of in the early 1970s; torture, Darius Rejali, puts it thus: The attention Facial hold the United States in the post 9/11 “There may be secret, thorough grasp Palms on either period). Deciding to employ torture reports of torture’s effectiveness, Grab by collars, side of face as a human information gathering but historians have yet to uncover and draw to hold head tool in a democracy usually needs them for any government. Those to interrogator immobile a terrible act to catalyse and legally who believe in torture’s effectiveness institutionalise torture. If torture seem to need no proof and prefer is the attempt to force information to leave no reports” (Torture and from the unwilling, then it is the Democracy, 2007, p. 522). And we Walling Facial slap effort to force information retrieval come full circle to relearn the lessons Slam against “the purpose... from the memory systems of the of history and of the behavioural a false flexible is to induce brains of the unwilling. This is the brain sciences: torture as an wall made to shock, surprise, peculiar place, where governmental interrogational theory and practice create loud and/or policy theories have a mediated is a complete and utter failure. And noise humiliation” interface with theories of brain there are better, ethical and humane function. It takes willing lawyers ways to gather information from Wall standing Stress positions and politicians, but it really takes other human beings. Designed to make Includes sitting lawyers, because they write policy fingers support with legs straight documents like the Torture Memos, body weight out, and kneeling allowing government agents to Shane O’Mara, “not permitted to positions starve, semi-drown, sleep deprive, Professor of Experimental Brain move or reposition” freeze, and stress other human Research and Wellcome Trust beings with the ostensible purpose Senior Investigator, Institute of of eliciting vital information from Neuroscience, . Waterboarding Cramped confinement them. And all under cover of law. shaneomara.com Cloth covers nose and mouth as water poured over it Further reading: Shane O’Mara, Why Torture “...produces the perception Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of of ‘suffocation and , Amazon or Harvard incipient panic,’ i.e., Interrogation the perception University Press of drowning” Small: sitting only, Large: max 2 hours can stand or sit, max 18 hours

With insect: for detainee known to have phobia

Source: Justice Department

DRONE SHADOWS ARIANNA HUFFINGTON ARIANNA very littlepoliticaldiscussion.That’s and its use continues to grow, with conscience. Thedronewascreated, zero civiliancasualties,oraclean this hi-techequipmentcannotensure idea ofsurgicalaccuracyisafallacy; flickering, shadowy‘suspects’.The operated fromtheshadowson about thisnewworld.Dronesare design. Andthat’s what’s sodangerous and Afghanistanis,ofcourse,by programme in countries like Pakistan The invisibilityoftheU.S.drone or experiencethem. drones butmostofusdon’tseethem threatened. We nowliveinaworldof when wearenotdirectlyphysically of existencealltooeasytoforget work spotlights a contemporary fact already thereinanewway. His art does: it makes us see what was of theDrone James Bridle’s does what all great doeswhatallgreat Under the Shadow Under theShadow should be a part of our national should be a part of our national the pointofdrones—totakewhat New York. © 2015TheMuseumofModern Art, done inourname. forcing ustoconfrontwhat’s being such a striking way, James Bridle is making theirpresencemanifestin of dronesouttheshadowsand main focus.Bybringingtheworld switching theperipheralto His workaugmentsourvision, the ground. a presence both in the air and on fact thatformany, thesedronesare important, unabletonotseethe victims. Hemakesusseeor, more to thenamelessandfacelessdrone come. Itactsasapublicmemorial foreshadowing ofapossiblecrimeto scene that’s inthepast,anda echo ofthechalkoutlineacrime Bridle’s installationisatoncean powerful andprovocative. Bridle isdoinginawaythat’s both the openwhereitbelongs,asJames is bringingthisdialoguebackinto valuable thattheartisticcommunity hours aday.) Andthatiswhyitso number ofthoselivingunderthem24 (Except, ofcourse,totheincreasing and makeitunseen,hidden,secret. discourse out of the conversation Photo byJamesBridle. courtesy ofJamesBridle/booktwo.org. Einar SneveMartinussen Drone Shadow002 by James Bridle , 2012, image , 2012,image and and

HERTZIAN TALES ANTHONY DUNNE ANTHONY Use ofthe Photographer: Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, bypermission ofTheMITPress. Experience, andCriticalDesign, Dunne, Anthony., Hertzian Tales Jean-Louis Atlan Hertzian Tales: ElectronicProducts,Aesthetic extractpermittedasfollows: spread of pages 43 – 44, © 2006 spreadofpages43–44,©2006

3D design Colm McNally

Sketches Ralph Borland PARTNERS

LEAD PARTNER

SCIENCE CIRCLE #1

This is the first of three editions produced as an alternative form of catalogue for the exhibition in Dublin. This edition focuses on the process leading to the exhibition, the second will incorporate responses to the show and the third will look at the future implications of design and violence.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

MEDIA PARTNER DESIGN AND VIOLENCE at Science Gallery Dublin has been developed by Ralph Borland, Lynn Scarff and Ian Brunswick and is based on an online curatorial experiment originally hosted by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and led by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Jamer Hunt, Associate PROGRAMME PARTNERS Professor, Transdisciplinary Design, School of Design Strategies, Parsons The New School. The project has invited experts from fields as diverse as science, philosophy, literature, music, film, journalism, and politics to respond to selected design objects and spark a conversation about them. Noting the history between the two themes, the exhibition seeks to explore the relationship between design and the manifestations of violence in contemporary society. It features works from the original curatorial selection, the DESIGN AND VIOLENCE book, plus new curatorial FOUNDING PATRONS additions to the exhibition.

SCIENCE GALLERY DUBLIN IS PART OF THE GLOBAL SCIENCE GALLERY NETWORK PIONEERED BY TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN SCIENCE GALLERY, A CO-PRODUCTION BY TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, PEARSE STREET, DUBLIN 2 NEW YORK, AND DUBLIN.SCIENCEGALLERY.COM SCIENCE GALLERY DUBLIN