Contemporary Issues in Design: Week 6

The 80's is Back - Powerhouse Museum visit: Design issues/solutions/comments

T.V. shows, sitcoms, etc. such as "Neighbors" addressed issues in family/everyday life and brought people/families together
Clothing - coming out of the wars, there were a lot of military and "worker" style design remnants visible, particularly in the early 80's. Clothing also experienced the rise of subcultures - distinctive "badges" of different urban tribes, such as rockabilly and mods, hip hop and goths...
Tax incentives encouraged businesses to invest more money into the cinema and television industry, giving Australians a new confidence in the way they presented themselves to the world
Personal computer developed in the 80's
Colors were very bold - lots of solids and bright shades...possibly affected by the rise of the personal computer and its early limitations in color
MUSIC. Perhaps one of the main issues of importance in the 80's. It became as much about the look as the sound. MTV was introduced, and with this people in the music world became highly influential in the political and social arenas, in the fashion world, and more. Many musicians of the 80's branched out and explored the creation surge in styles and sounds. Regarding punk, Jane Dambranskas said, "...it was mostly people just wanting to hang out together and have a laugh."
The 80's was a time of "party" society - however, it also was a time of upheaval and extremes, prosperity and recession, soaring salaries and unemployment, threat of war, concern for the environment, etc. Reflections of the 80's are still present - dance party, strobe lights, music styling, design styles...It was interesting to me to note that a lot of the design pieces (particularly posters and such) on display in the exhibit looked like they could easily have been designed within the last 5 years.
Dancing continued to be a big part of society in the 80's - particularly in Sydney, which was known as the dance capital of the world.
Celebrity fitness programs became popular with spread of television programming and the idolizing of music artists
"Must have" items became huge thanks to television advertising
AIDS and HIV surfaced in the 80's - Australians led in prevention campaigns
Indigenous and non-indigenous Australian came together for land rights in the late 80's
"The 1980's cut loose from attempts to perfect a highly controlled modern society and freedom broke out everywhere - particularly the freedom to make a lot of money and spend it all on yourself without guilt. It was the decade of the yuppie and it was the decade of designerism." - Adrian Franklin, "Collecting the 20th Century" 2009

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