Design Unbound: Bruce Mau's Path to Postmodern Creativity

Bruce Mau's "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" is a list of 43 statements written by him in 1998 to articulate his beliefs, motivations, and strategies for creative growth. It has been widely discussed and debated in the design community, with some praising it for its inspirational and thought-provoking ideas, while others have criticized it for being too vague or unrealistic. Overall, "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" is a thought-provoking and engaging document that encourages designers to embrace growth, experimentation, and personal development in their work. It underscores the idea that creative work is never truly finished. It encourages designers to embrace their own unique perspectives and experiences, rather than adhering to a set of objective rules, parameters, or standards.?

Our intention here is to delve into the postmodern qualities encapsulated within the manifesto. Through this exploration, we aim to uncover how this manifesto challenges grand narratives, embraces subjectivity, and employs playful self-reference, ultimately embodying the essence of postmodern thought within the realm of design.

Emphasis on Personal Perspective and Experience: Postmodernism challenges the idea of overarching narratives that attempt to provide a universal understanding of the world. Postmodern thought highlights reality's subjectivity and questions absolute truths' existence. Mau's manifesto aligns with this perspective by encouraging designers to embrace their distinct viewpoints and individual experiences rather than adhere to objective rules, parameters, and standards. This emphasis on subjectivity can be seen as a rejection of grand narratives, which attempt to provide an objective and universal view of the world. Instead, it allows for designers to imbue their processes with their own unique approaches, and guides them to discover these approaches.

Examples:

#9 “Begin anywhere” - John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

#19 “Work the metaphor” - Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

#21 “Repeat yourself” - If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

#22 “Make your own tools” - Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

#25 “Don’t clean your desk” - You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight

#28 “Make new words. Expand the lexicon”- The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

#35 “Imitate” - Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique. 36. Scat. When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else ... but not words.

#37 “Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it”Mau's manifesto diverges from the traditional belief in final and perfected art or design. Instead, it underscores the significance of continuous transformation via experimentation, of integrating light-heartedness in the process, and of the realization that creative work remains an ongoing process.

Emphasis on Growth, Transformation, and Experimentation: The manifesto encourages designers to embrace experimentation and continuous learning, rather than conforming to the norms of “good”, “cool,” or for that matter even participating in competitions to avoid subscribing to an overarching prevailing ideology.

Examples:

#1 "Allow events to change you" - Allow events to change you. You have to ?be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

#2 "Forget about good. Good is a known quantity" - Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.”

#3 "Process is more important than the outcome" - When the outcome drives the process, we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome, we may not know where we're going, but we will know we want to be there"

#4 “Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child)" -?Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view, and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.”

#14 "Don't be cool" - This statement suggests that designers should not be concerned with adhering to a particular style or trend, but rather should embrace their own unique perspectives and experiences.

#26 “Don’t enter awards competitions” - Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

#40 “Avoid fields. Jump fences” - Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

Emphasis on Incompleteness: The manifesto emphasizes the importance of growth, experimentation, and the idea that work is never truly finished. This rejection of a fixed, final product can be seen as a rejection of grand narratives, which attempt to provide a comprehensive and final explanation of the world. The very title of the manifesto, "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth," suggests a rejection of grand narratives. Mau acknowledges that the manifesto is not a comprehensive or finished document, but rather an ongoing exploration of ideas and beliefs. This rejection of completeness and finality can be seen as a rejection of grand narratives, which attempt to provide a complete and final explanation of the world.

Moreover, by calling it Incomplete, Mau suggests self-awareness and playfulness about its own limitations. At the very outset, Mau acknowledges that the manifesto is not a comprehensive or finished document. This self-referentiality adds a playful and open-ended dimension to the manifesto, inviting readers to engage with it as a work in progress.

The other ways in which Bruce Mau's manifesto, "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth," embraces playfulness are:

List Format: The manifesto is presented as a list of 43 statements. This format adds a playful and accessible element to the manifesto, breaking it down into digestible chunks and allowing readers to engage with each point individually.

Playful Statements: Within the list, Mau includes statements that encourage a sense of play and experimentation. For example, he includes statements like "Take Field Trips", "Drift," and "Intentionally Left Blank," which suggest a playful and exploratory approach to design. These statements add a light-hearted and imaginative element to the manifesto, inviting designers to embrace a sense of curiosity and playfulness in their work.

Examples:

#8 “Drift” - Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism

#17 “________________. Intentionally left blank” - Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others. 18. Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.

#27 “Read only left-hand pages”- Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle." 28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

#33 “Take field trips” - The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

#36 “Scat” - When you forget the words, do what Ella did: makeup something else...but not words.

#39 “Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms” - Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces -- what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference -- the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently, it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

#41 “Laugh” - People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.

Conclusion

I encourage you to consider immersing yourself in Bruce Mau's "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth." This document offers a unique perspective on design that challenges traditional narratives. Instead of conforming to established norms, Mau's manifesto emphasizes growth, personal experience, and an ever-evolving creative process. Its playful and self-aware approach invites you to explore design from a postmodern standpoint. As you peruse its 43 statements, you'll encounter a diverse range of ideas that inspire experimentation and transformation. This manifesto, much like the creative process itself, is not bound by finality, allowing you to discover your own creative path. Take a moment to engage with these insights and allow them to spark new perspectives within your design endeavors.

References:

https://www.brucemaudesign.com/manifesto

https://www.brucemaudesign.com/