Urgentcraft (2019)

URGENTCRAFT is a set of principles that works to resist oppression-based design ideologies, especially in art and design education. URGENTCRAFT isn’t a manifesto, but rather a constellation of tactics—a series of incomplete observations; a note to self. This is a reminder that we can use art and design to loosen hegemonic power. The print was originally made to accompany the talk “URGENCRAFT,” delivered at the Eyeo Festival in June 2019 (and revised in April 2020 for The Creative Independent in response to COVID-19). The talk outlines these principles and provides examples of artists and writers who manifest these ideas. It was reprinted as a zine in an edition of 200 in August 2019 and included in QUEER.ARCHIVE.WORK #3 for distribution at Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair.

• Do what you can
• Use modest tools and materials
• Understand the politics of your platforms
• Practice media fluidity
• Work in public (self-publish!)
• Practice a slow approach to fast making
• Acknowledge complexity and contradiction in making
• Work towards the then and there of queer futurity (while acknowledging past struggles and privileges)
• Agitate/interfere (“make good trouble”)
• Dismantle white supremacy
• Resist, loosen, and dismantle ableism, heteropatriarchy, and settler colonialism
• Resist capitalist strategies
• Resist design perfection / stay with the mess
• Question linearity and other hierarchical structures
• Commit to maintenance and self-care as a form of urgency
• Fail to provide the perfect read (resist legibility)
• Steal from the institution
• Prioritize communal care as a never-ending practice

Download a PDF scan of the zine [1.8 MB] →