Soviet Critical Design: Senezh Studio and the Communist Surround

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Soviet Critical Design is the first book to explore the socialist design practice of artistic projecteering, which was developed by the USSRs Senezh Experimental Studio in the 1960s. Tom Cubbin examines the studio as a site for the development of the design discipline in the optimistic environment of the 1960s Soviet Thaw. He also explores how designers adapted to the fast-changing Soviet Union of the 1970s and 1980s, considering their approach to critical projects highlighting the Soviet states treatment of citizens, urban heritage and public spaces. Drawing on previously unpublished visual material from private archives and also extensive interviews, this book presents a new history of the late socialist period in the USSR, which gives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. Cubbin shows how artistic projecteering must be read as a utopian activity which privileged the political and ideological over the functional.

Reviews

For many years, it seemed as if there were only two kinds of Soviet design: visionary Constructivism or Stalinist kitsch. Cubbins vividly written and deeply researched study offers an entirely new picture. Illuminating the long history of modernism in the USSR, he examines how critical designers sought to create utopia on a human scale. * David Crowley, Head of the School of Visual Culture at NCAD, Ireland *
What happens when principles of Russian avant-garde of the 1920s are retooled for the needs of Soviet science and technology In his book, Cubbin traces the emergence and demise of technical aesthetics created by Soviet artists-engineers in the 1960s-1980s as a communist alternative to capitalist design. Highly informative and richly documented, this book reconstructs fascinating yet barely known moments in the history of material culture and aesthetic theory of the twentieth century. * Serguei A. Oushakine, Director of the Russian and Eurasian Studies Program at Princeton University, USA *
The book provides insight to the activities of Senezh studio, an important part of the USSR Union of Artists. It also explores the phenomenon of 'paper design', a particular kind of project work, characteristic of the Soviet cultural milieu. Senezh studio operated for more than twenty years, although only a fraction of its projects were ever realized. Despite this, the studio's design practices were of remarkable national importance. * Alexandra Sankova, Director of the Moscow Design Museum, Russia *

Author Bio

Tom Cubbin is Senior Lecturer in Design Studies and head of Campus Steneby, part of the Artistic Faculty at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a design historian and has a background in Russian and Soviet history. He has contributed to the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design and has had several articles published in Home Cultures, Estonian Art, and the Calvert Journal.