An exploration of ornamental tradition as a form of agency in graphic design.

摘要

This thesis pursues a graphic investigation of urban space in order to critically engage the processes that structure our current perceptions of space. Furthermore, this exploration of postmodern urban spatiality was extended to examine the vernacular as a factor in the reclamation of human agency and social space from capitalist domination.;The convenience store was chosen as a distillation of the postmodern urban experience, exhibiting characteristics of liminality, marginality and the vernacular. Both visual and textual research led to the conclusion that the act of making constitutes a reclamation of human agency and acts as a counterpoint to capitalist alienation. Additionally, the research culminated in the design of a book, Liminal Feast, which constituted the graphic expression of three distinct cultures as articulated through the space of the convenience store. Each culture's ornamental tradition was translated into the formal and conceptual vocabulary of the author, which in itself became an exploration of the essential human agency underlying the act of making.