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fuse98 san francisco 270598 > 290598 | > |
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the auditorium at the Masonic Hall | ||
The audience, however, was not always very appreciative. It was made up mainly of
Americans - a variety of ages but mainly young professionals - some Japanese and some
Europeans. They seemed to have little time for a discourse that was firmly rooted in an
English radical tradition - after all they are designers not artists or musicians or
political activists. It was this division that Fuse98 set out to challenge but I dont
think they convinced the people present. Wozencroft defended himself, rather petulantly, by quoting James Turrell saying that "it's about your seeing, not about me" which was really only partly true - i mean it was really not the place to show short films by his Royal College of Art students. I think Wozencroft's vision is laudable and interesting but his exhortations and even his harrying of the audience were misplaced. We had not come to attend a political meeting but to hear different viewpoints. When Wozencroft insisted on the necessity of resistance to corporate culture, on not selling out, one could almost hear the crowd yawning - they want to sell - out or in, it doesnt matter. The crowd were warned at the beginning to drop their prejudices, to participate. One group of people did this by adding "re" to the "fuse" in the posters around. It appeared they were disgruntled by the fact that there was no attention being paid to disabled people, poor people, outsiders. That it was all talk and no action. Of course, Wozencroft loved this. Although he didnt like it at all when David Carson pointed out in his acidic clever way that there was no interaction or participation going on that he had noticed. They were right. Fuse wandered uneasily between design and activism without really satisfying either. |
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But there were some great speakers ... |
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