Banham's Design Criticism
Banham's Design Criticism
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istry of ouse my cade dine. Crm is what do for money.” Ut
tere ina conference adres in 1964 this remark, however tongue
chee, might lead ust suppose that Bana sw a dint separation
betweenhis ‘serous duties as ahistoran and his celatively trivial activi
2s, cic even when one aces the qu about financial remuneration
This supposition might be reinforced by his history” being published i
hardback books and cade or profesional journals whereas his “ert
pears tohave been a necessary forerunner ofthe technical."
Like innovation and novelty, or symbolic and physical expendabilty
of the fundamental condition of
ham had formulated the
thetic and technical change were part
the Second Machine Age. By the early 19605 Ban
‘intellectual attitudes for living in @ throws
away economy” that he hag
” coarten
vehicles of Desire” in 1955. He was
and urgent
df iate criteria in his design criticism.
ified as neces
identified # ort
row in a position to apply the 3
inction of the design critic as deconstructing the
‘Te Role ofthe Critic
Jucing and consuming,
‘Banham saw the primary
parent dana ance
ae ery of bese." he had described how Detroit car designers ofthe
a
posse cane tha
iar taste andthe inate traditions of the produc.” Ths shifted designing
vars trom the Modernist model of abstraction with its “characteristic pri
tray fs andcolour”toapost Modernist one of product semantics with
rr cattoraly loaded, meaningful forms and images. Modernist designers
may have thought their primary forms were "readily accessible to every-
cae" but Banham realized that accessibility was more likely to come
‘through the application of specific cultural codes and conventions that, in
view ofthe need for masssalesin the marketplace, would be based on sym-
bols which had widespread public recognizability and appeal—hence pop-
ular and fashionable genres like science fiction, up-to-date and romantic
‘areas suchas supersonic flight, and the enduring human fascination with
sex. The post-Modern designer was also unlike the Modernist designer in
that the latter could remain aloof from popular taste and closeted in the
academy: the former would need to understand popular culture and the
mate traditions" of the relevant products, and this required immersion.
Both the designer and the critic, Banham wrote in another important 1955
article, “Space for Decoration: A Rejoinde,” “must deal with a language of
signs.** Both, he confirmed in 1960, needed a “command and understand
mame and] popular symbolism."* Good criticism depended
“onthe stat of eign otcstomarer te warkingraf the popular atv
ich constitutes the aesthetics of expendabilty."” Because de-
sign was based on serial production and was consumed in the market
design criticism was, it followed, fund: rene ethe
Seas ceeeae Seeeaee car “The
ec eee popular arts,
ime-bound aesthetic procedures to
a0
consumable and non-traditional products can only cheapen those proce-
dures and—as in so much Victorian design—debases the fine arts without
benefiting the expendable arts.” Art criticism dealt with form and iconog-
raphy ina relatively inward-looking way, whereas design criticism “depends
alysis of content, an appreciation of superficial rather than abstract
‘and an outward orientation that sees the history of the product as
sources of the symbols and the consumer's un-
onan ani
qualities,
an interaction between the
derstanding of them.” Design criticism would have to deal with audiences
‘and their use of the object as part of the criticism,
"Applying this modus operandi to the expendable American car, Banham
explained in 1960, the critic would be responding to "a content (idea of
‘a source of symbols (aircraft), and a popular culture (whose mem-
.e these symbols and their meaning)."* The first responsibility
ge, and its
power),
bers recognis
of the critic is to understand the language, its contemporary usa
history. In the case of car styling,
its propriety to automotive design les in its symbolic content, which is concerned,
‘with penetration. When this symbol language was young it
hhad an architectural connection, for the only availabe language of penetration was the
© isplaced dynamism of Eich Mendelsohn and his imitators, but asthe pubic grew more
familar with the appearance of racing cars, jet planes, space-ship projects and the like,
‘a whole new iconography of penetration-symbols became available to the automobile
Its theme is germane to the
| more than anything ese,
stylist. ts aptness to the automobile cannot be denied.
pusiness of transportation, and is symbols are as firmly bul into the techrcal history
‘of the product as were the useless flutings, uttae,triglyphs and so forth of Greek:
Doric temples.”
‘The critic could then turn his or her attention from the general to the par-
ticular. The particular included the new Cadillac Eldorado convertible that
Vehicles of Desire." He had expertly demonstrated
Banham had praised in
.guage of the contemporary automobile with its
his understanding of the lan
3, sporty nave-plates, ventilator, in
repertoire of hooded headlamps, bumper-bombs
es,
speed-sreaks and chromium spears, protruding exhaust:
takes, incipient tai-fins,
EXPENDABLE ICONS AND SOFTER HARDWARE
319 corner 6
nan windsens—ttse ge one and socal connotation tothe body erveape
poungtone ci tenga ido hanging fakes
these cont the ere of ped the grouping af the man mases, the qualty of the
‘ra cures ofthe panels tes balance te sense of masculine power and feminine
lucy tsa thck pe steam of ded sot ate apt 090 off inthe face of
‘hose who don know how to andthe
‘To analyze and evaluate designs within a design language or discourse, the
«titi would need tobe fluent in the language to the extent of recognizing
its dialects, inflections, and nuances. To mistead the language would, as
Banham indicated, harm the critic and expose a lack of credibility,
One ofthe problemsin the 1950s was that there were few critics who had
‘escaped the statjacket of Modernist citer
in their criticism, However, in
Banhamis opinion, there was one who “possesses a shame-faced, but in-
valuable, ability to write automobile-crtique of almost Berensonian sensi
bility" Her name was Deborah Allen, and her criticism appeared in the
‘American publication Industrial Design. From 1954 until the end of the
decade, Allen annually reviewed the styling ofthe new Detroit models. Ban.
‘ham found both her critical postion and her language a model of expertise.
She was a skeptical,
“knowing consumer” of the cars, describing the latest
‘ofa Edcado Baris, 957 (courtesy National Moto Ms
1"; SBaCEConsumng, inconven-
and subjectto speedy obsolescence as they everhave
Been’ Bt, unite British cut rssh wasnt simply donne sr
Alsmisive, What partly atacted Banham washer feeing torre i
sign language andvocabulay of the avtomobilesandher stated belt her
the car designer should be “deeply and boldly concerned with form a 9
means of expression.” In 1955 she described how the 1988 Bc
Jent, fable to damage,
's rerpetualy floating on curents that are conventonaly bunt the design This
ater o achieve buoyancy wth masses of meals bound tohave the same anhwvard
fect asthe sold wooden clouds ofa Baroque baldachino, unless you ike to winee the
Prt wince at every Buick or balachino, the bes recourse isto accept the romantic
Potion that materials have no more weight than the designer chooses to ie them,
He Bucks designers put the greatest weight cer the front wheels, whee the engine
whichis natural enough. The heavy bumper helps to pul the weght forward the dip
the body and the chrome spear express how the thrust ofthe front wheels is dis-
in turbulence toward the reat. ust behind the strong shoulder ofthe cy, a study
lis up the rof, which tals off ike a banner im the ai The dove sin the dead
atthe centre of al ths motion—hers isa ush stuaton."
This ste of design criticism profoundly afected ot only Banham but aso
‘other members of the Independent Group. n Richard Hamilton's casei led
hhim te make a painting—Hers is a Lush Situation (1957-1958)—based on
Allen's Futuris-ike, almost poetic writing,
Banham quoted Allen's writing in "Vehicles of Desir,” claiming: “Ths is
the stuff of which the aesthetics of expendabilty will eventually be made.
FR carries the sense and the dynamism ofthat extraordinary continuum of
‘@motional-engineering-by-publicconsent which enables the automobile
Industy to create vehicles of palpably fulfilled desire.” However Allen's crit-
fcism was not so much an example of *reading” the styling ofthe car or de-
"Constructing its meaning through a “language of signs," as it was a formal
‘analysis of the expressive qualities of the car styling. She wrote in an abjec-
“tive and detached style, in the way an at historian might describe how the
Visual vocabulary employed by an artist produces particular emotional or
APENDABLE ICONS anD SOFTER HAROWARE
a EXPENDABLE ICONS AND SOFTER HARDWARE
expressive effects: the appeal to Banham was Allen's aesthetic sensibility
for the subject matter rather than any use of "symbolic iconographies.”
Closer to “symbolic iconographies” was the writing of Roland Barthes,
whose Mythologies was first published in 1957. It included essays on popu-
lar culture such as wrestling, soap powder, margarine advertising, strip~
tease, film, toys, and cars, Of the Citroen DS, for example, Barthes wrote
until now, the ultimate in cars belonged rather to the bestiary of power.
= [iitisnow more homely, more attuned to tis sublimation ofthe utensil,
which one also finds in the design of contemporary household equipment
The dashboard looks more like the working surface of a factory
ne is obviously turning from an alchemy of speed toa relish in driving."
‘These are the sorts of comments that might have been made by Banham
im his contemporaneous writings about the Detroit automobile, Barthes
role, like Banham’, seems to be the interpreter or conologist who decon-
structs meaning from popular culture or the artifacts of design
‘The difference between the two isin the end to which the means is em
ployed. Barthes i ultimately intrested in the mythologies that help define
ve bourgeoisie; Banham is interested more inthe design itself, ts “innate
traditions,” andits social ole fora particular group. The tones of thet weit.
ferent. Barthes writes ina detached, conventional academic
¥ personal excitement from the au-
ing are also di
way, and the reader gets litle sense 0
hor about his subject matter; Banham usually wrote with Wty and always
vith verve and enthusiasm—he was immersed in his subject matter. BY
temperament, Banham was optimistic about is subject matter; he was @
believer that the design and popular culture ofthe period vere making so-
ciety better.
10 different traditions. In the mi
the two men belonged t
“English prag-
1 of his preference for
the latter represented to him
Intellectually,
1960s Banham revealingly wrote
matism’” over “continental systematics"?
sscholasticism” and resulted in "selective and classicising” Modernism, for
example, or dry theory, which led the writer {0 be “isolated from hu-
manity by the Humanities." The immersion and enjoyment of the
subject matter, as well asthe strong human presence that was to become 3 Aeature of Banham’ articles W25 largely absent in the criticism of both
Barthes and allen
Barthes was not 2”
largely because his work was
nti the translation of Myzhol
mortar gue in arith POP cure inthe 1960s,
te known outsice verysmall esoteric cles
Josie in 1972 Considerably better knowin
sono was concerned considerably more relevant, Was
hall McLuhan, The Mechanica Bride, an anal
‘of American advertisements, had been pub
availability was limited by indignant
and—as far 5
the Canadian academic Mas!
ysis ofthe layered readings
fished as early a 1951, but widespread
vrrttigiousmanuecurers. However, the concern with imagery and mean
sta, which parle te Independent Groups own interest guaranteed
the book 2semi-legendary” status among erstwhile members when they
clscovered it in 1956.
in the 19605, Mcuhan became the doyen of technological optimism, but
inthe 1950s his position was more guarded. nthe preface to The Mechani
cal ride he wrote thatthe aim of the contemporary mass media seemed to
be “to getinsde [the collective pubic ind] in order to manipulate, exploit
[and] contol... And to generate heat not light i the intention. To keep
everybody inthe helpless state engendered by prolonged mental rutting is
‘the effect af many ads and much entertainment alike.“ At this stage,
McLuhan sounded ike Vance Packard, one of the "professional Jeremiah,”
{5 Banham termed them. However, McLuhan did acknowledge that the
‘mass media were “fll... also of promises of rich new developments,” and
itis those which became the focus of his The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
and Understanding Meca (1964). McLuhan influence was not atits great
‘est until 1965 and 1967, when his diagnosis ofthe technico-cultural con-
dition seemed a plausible and convincing explanation of High and Late
Pop culture.
Where McLuhan and Banham differed most i in the importance they
‘attached to subject matter and content. McLuhan’s famous phrase “the
ae eaie oe ee ‘minor importance he ascribed to con
re significance of the medium—especially
"electronic technologies to democraize, demolish class
‘boundaries, and challenge conventional hi
ierarchical distinctions —but he
EXPENDABLE ICONS AND SOFTER HARDWARE
remained committed to his Courtauld art historical approach with its em-
phasis on content and iconographical meaning. As he wrote in 1967, “in
‘general, the message isthe sole reason why the medium exists, even fits
‘a new medium that facilitates the transmission of unprecedented mes-
sages."* Banham went on to remark that this was something that
“eyictuhan undoubtedly understands." Indeed, Banham's own thinking was
clearly McLuhanesque at times: assumptions about the global village un-
derpin a range of ideas from the radicalism of “A Home Is Not a House” 10
the tribal mobility of the transistor radio.
“The 1960s was a decade of increased academic study of popular culture in
Britain, but much of it continued the thinking of the cultural critics of the
1950s, ndeed, the “major contribution” ofthe likes of Richard Hoggert and
raymond Williams was duly acknowledged. In The Popular Arts (1968), for
‘example, Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel argued that there was “a sharp
conflict between the work of artists, performers and directors in the new
‘media, whict has the intention of popular art behind i, and the typical of-
fering of the media—whichis a kind of mass at." Mass art was to be de-
spied: it “destroy altace of individuality nd idiosyncrasy...and assumes
‘asort of depersonalised quality, @no-style"; furthermore, “the element of
manipulation iscorrespondingly high.” Banham deplored this typeof think
the crticiam would always be prejudiced against the sort of
Ing that meant
“the intense sophistication and
mass art he welcomed.” He retorted that
protessionaim of Pop desgnis something that many people find hard to
take: they wculd prefer kind of Hoggartish spontaneity.“ The prejudices
“ofthe 1950s were alive and kicking a decade later and Banham remained 2
distinctive voce in his type of tics
“nt times closer to Banham was Tom Wolfe, winose collected writings, um
der the title The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Fake Streamline Baby, were
published in the United States in 1965, and in Britain a year ater. Mary of
the essays were concerned with ashionablesocety andi etiavete, but
book titted “The New Culture-Makers" contained Raf 2
fe essay on car customizing, Las Vegas
ey Murray the K. and the enigmatic
understanding of youth
‘the section of th
dozen essays—among them the til
signs, demolition derbys the isc joc
record producer Phil pector—whichshowed area r gnree were subjects that soattracted Banham,
oe ht
enn ee yas aan ee ab
ae tribution made by Banham to New Society was a
the anthropology of affluence that raises, en
the ctu
firmation and belief,” upholding th
practices about which Banham himself also wrote
Gannam praised Wolfe's “total panoramic, wide-screen knowledge” of
issubjects and responded warmly to his prose style. Wolfe's stated inten
tion wasto find an equivalent to the energy and zest of his subject matter.
“The inal paragraph ofthe introduction to Wolfe's book is flamboyant ex-
ample of his syle. n response toa Las Vegas sign makers categorization of
his aesthetic as “free-form,” Wolfe writes
Freeform’ Marvelous! No hung-up ot art history words for these guys. America fst
conscious avant-garde! Te el wth Mondrian, whoever the hel hei. The hel with
Mahal. Nagy anybody ever heard of hin. Artists for the new age, sculptors for the
ew sive and new money ofthe... Yah! Lower ord. The new sensibly Baby
baby vere dd our ove go?—the new world, submerged so long, invisble, and how
sing, spp. shiny lectc—Supe Scuba-man!—out othe vinyl deep”
Wolfe's "New Journalism”—a combination of reportage and creative
\writinganswered the Independent Group's call for an “involved aes-
thetic” and could itself be described as Pop prose. Mis aspirations were al-
‘ways closer to the novel than were Banham, and his style was more “Las
‘Vegas*—excess and impact—than Banham’s "Los Angeles,” with its "sense
‘of possbiltes* and diversity. However, there may have been an influence
‘of Wolfe on Banham’ writin. From the time of his regular New Society con-
‘ributions, Banham’ style did become more informal, but this could be put
‘down not to an influence of Wolfe so much as to the growth of Pop sensi-
bility. significant difference was the two writers’ attitude to high culture
26
‘Wolfe tended to debunk it in The Painted Word (1976) and From Bauhous
to Our House (1982), whereas Banham always valued it as highly as the
noisy ephemeradae” of popular culture.
‘Some csmiss the writings of Wolfe and Banham—both the subjects and
the treatment of them—as superficial and trv. n Banham’ case, this
misses the point, in as much ashe was writing about the expendablia of the
‘second Machine Age in a manner appropriate tothe subject matter. He was
pot elevating it tothe realm ofhigh art, but treatingit inthe manneritmer-
ited, anit merited serious (butnot earnest attention because itwasa man
ifesttior of @ dynamic, technological culture of innovation, leisure, and
pleasure. The architecture of Le Corbusier, Bucky Fuller, or the Smithsons
needed tobe written about in one way; the latest car styling, TV program,
‘or paperback covers needed to be written about in ancther—with acon
centration on style and meaning, and in an energetic syle of writing which
conveyed the pleasure and impact ofthe subject. Weekly publications such
fas Architects’ Journal, The New Statesman, and New Society were appropri
ate vehicles for this type of writing,
Banham was well aware of different readerships, pointing out in 1981:
"obvious, the readers of Artin America were very different to those of The
New Statesman, but probably nothing lke as ifferent as those of Architec-
tural Review (monthy, cosmopolitan, intellectual, elitist) from the sub-
seribers to Architects’ Journal (weekly, local, businesike, work-a-day)."*
| Thishas led toa situation in which some people know Banham for one type
‘of writing and subject matte, and others, for anothet, and partly accounts
forthe diversity of vews about hiscricsm, Banham, however, sawno prob-
lem or contradiction: both durable and expendable writing were legitimate
land necesary expresions ofthe same culture both made sense of the Ma-
chine Age. Indeed, sometimes the apparenty flippant could capture the
Spirit ofthe time better than the heavyweight
The splendour (and mse) of ting or dale, eels or ever monte, that one
Kanade curren problems cuenta leave postenty to wat forthe hardbacks and
PRD dissertations to appear ater. The misery and Gplendour of such writing, when
“is exacton tage sto beincompehestleby te time the et sue comes A
EXPENDABLE ICONS AND SOFTER HARDWARE some ip, ow, sa
a yeasard ese 7
comme, at al. yea sence of an epoch far better than
wv e58
me eso
ce ear
Da gmat camry acted wth How Soe
eta i on townceconte (6
ee yng al Bro pubis 235
a empnore aing tetwety ours eid
articles or
ished in the politically Left
Prior to New Society, a regular column was publi
‘The New Statesman between 1958 and 1965. Over these eight years, 110ar-
tidesor eviews appeared. Largely alongside The New Statesman was aco
umn Architects Joural from 1956 to 1964, with occasional contributions
thereafter The “Not Quite Architecture" column averaged about eight 2
year over the eight years following 1958, before dropping down to one or
two a year fam the mid-19605 to mid-1970s.Predating all three ofthese
regular columns were his Art Mes ait Revew pieces between 1950 ond
1955, totaling fit ovr the sxxyear period, The statistics reveal just how
prolfica writer Banham was. In al, be published over 750 articles and re
views in his fe, ranging trom the scholarly through the theoretical or
polemical tothe entertaining and instantly expendable. The four regular
‘oluns—Art News and Review, The New Statesman, Architects’ Journal,
‘2nd New Societ-—amount to just under 500 of them.
‘The least ical of what Banham became best known for were the Art
ews an eve errtions. he ast mj were reviews of cent
embins Hower: unre eding “The Shape of Things” he did
of design topics, among them the Courage Brewery CO
orate redesign ated out by Milner Gray and 5
The ube ere sas ay andthe Design Research Unit.
ham ead gt on Popular ature rested one Bm
lar columns in Architects’ Journal and The New
Statesman. In his Architects Journal columns, the most frequent subject was
“architecture: ofthe ninety or more pieces he contributed tothe Journal, half
were on (mostly contemporary) architecture or planning isues. Aspects of
‘contemporary design (Ulm's design school, Sotsass's work for Olivetti, and
transistor radios), car styling and racing (the design of the Jaguar Mark X.
‘and Formula 3 racing) comprised nearly a quarter of his output. In the 19505,
‘and 1960s, he also wrote about popular culture films (Dr Strangelove), TV
prograns (That Was the Week That Was), science fiction (its relationship
to architecture), science and technology (the theories of Fred Hoyle, and
early flight in Britain), and miscellaneous subjects (including camping
‘and cycling)
‘During the time Banham wrote for The New Statesman, architectural sub
Jects accounted for 80 percent of the articles and reviews. Contemporary
topics included new buildings by Sting and Gowan, Cedric Price, and the
‘smithsons; the achievements of Buckminster Fuller and CLASP; and analyses
of shetfiela’s Parkhill housing scheme, Coventry Cathedral, and revivalism.
Historical topies went from Le Corbusier, through Antonio Gaudi, to Lord
Burlington and even Stonehenge. About 10 percent ofthe articles were on
aspects of contemporary design suchas the renaissance of British graphics,
packagirg and magazine design, the redesigns of coffee bars and restou-
rants, the styling of radios, and the shortcomings ofthe Council of Industrial
Design and British design education. Cars and other forms. transport were
‘occasionally featured: “The End of Insolence” was accompanied by pieces
con the Consul Cortina, the experience of watching racing at Brands Hatch,
an attack on the vintage car cult, and enthusiasm for the Moulton small
wheeled bigce.
It was with the commencement of his regular contributions to New Soc
‘ety in 1965, under the "liberal and encouraging” editorship of Paul Barker
that design criticism became more central to Banham’ output, We now re
member the late New Society as typical of the decade in which it was
in 1962, it wes consistently Left-wing and
founded—the first isue was i
=progresive" in most spheres but, unlike previous publications of that per~
suasion, at home with an inclusive view of culture that went beyond the
conventicnal high/low hierarchy. Banham's articles appeared in the “Arts
EXPENDABLE ICONS AND SOFTER WARDWARE enasn esis or
ce
sci natn oa
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fasanorample of profit pe, he ra sujet hat Bahan we
‘outareoy a 185, anda ae 86 May Banham once wrote het
aston hth cary fl pasty sone bythe renee
deena andor pata by ying wth he anor
Senge” Not springy thereto cas reccaredin is es wi
‘ute Bache hil poi an ineton of eg les AS
engl of anor Sond Machine Age arse Banas rings
‘Moutatswithnbe ramadbelor tinge sone ute secs
tt tng about car nd tec nother Sect wih fer
Tarrio chapter we a that cn ped aoe aries pa
shen 1955 The Machine Ae hh speared in Arteta
eneein Ar “Sou for Decora: ARjnr” in enin yand
"che of ese publi in tn Sep Taken taper, ese
‘comr hey cf ara sy ning. hing eno and
thedeade “arsyingi den Pop At apse ens and carga
turedon epoch aes cae abe rer On aan yba he.
‘hereon at hy wre geet ide rising an
atgurnt about design ange in fes-roing hele ety.
-axmoring ey poy radu! as. noig cara kon
hich conta toe hi He rote sou tg at dozen
‘ine, and motorbike and sie crane, in Ache ral be
‘ween 95 ane 963 te it neta dered being eed CHAPTER 6
gr of the cars—a wholly Futurist sentiment which
1 sensibility.” Leaving the reader in no doubt
the noise and spect
e, in 1960 he described motor racing
“mechanical
be its significanc
ical culture letting off its surplus head of
with
aaa fa itto
about what he felt 0 bi
asamanifestarion tate was one of the purest forms of
cada a alzohad a definite class dimension: the sport changed
baits Lod it let ina crowd of men who, having won a war by all
seh van onde the Genevaconvention, applied equally total tactic
ee went to the canny, the iron-nerved and the
to motor racing. Victory now
lannelled fool with the latest snob-job from Italy.”
diligent, not to the f
racing was opened up to a rising tech
From being an upper-class pasttime,
rocratic meritocracy: "People like me can identify with them in a way we
never could with the monstres sacrés of the blood-and-guts epoch."
Banham’s enthusiasm for racing remained, and he occasionally sang its
praises in both The New Statesman and New Society. In the latter, the en
thusiasm and praise extended as far as drag racing in California and stock
‘ar racing in Sussex. In both cases, the speed and noise remained a constant
appeal—"quiet motor sport is about as much fun as low-proof whisky or
coitus interruptus””—but a change was evident in his growing appetite for
the social marginality of the activities. The heroism of the technocrat was
being superseded by the anti-heroism of the outsider as Banham seemed to
be seeking a kind of motor-racing autre. Drag or “grudge” racing was @
“delinquent sport in its origins. it must have started with one hot-rod-crazy
coming up alongside another at the traffic lights and saying something dis
pparaging about the other's car. James Dean stuff. There was, he contin:
ued, an undoubted “resemblance of some aspects of drag racing to that
aoe essai the Draw." Its appeal to Hell's Angels served
meee a in the eyes of “slavering, bug-eyed social moral:
hengeeaiie tg lot only was Banham’s hatred of the East Coast in
oan wanes and popular culture, but he developed a liking
was both an undermining of the “codes and
conventions” of established practice—in a way the equivalent to the rad-
ical nature of archi
itecture autre—and an
lass connotations, elbeetetceeelecias
EXPENDABLE ICONS AND SOFTER HARDWARE
The class aspect was most forcefully stated in a 1972 New Society article,
"Rank Values.” Banham describes the scene at the about-to-close-down
track in Sussex that he had visited: “Around the 300 yards of track, 37 wrecks
were now distributed, two upside-down, one on its side, one burned out,
two still smoking, several hissing quietly as their split radiators emptied,
three hooked on the cables of the safety fence, five locked together by tan-
gled metal at one turn, two seemingly friction-welded in eternal deadlock
at the other, most immobilised because they had run over parts of their own
internals and were reduced to fuming frustration.” This could be described
as "rank," meaning “detached from the bottom of an accepted value sys
tem”: stock car racing was “not the bottom end of British motoring sport,
it doesn’t even connect with the official hierarchy [such as] . . . the Royal
toffee-nosed Automobile Club.” He was appalled that the "powers-that-
be accept football rowdyism as an inalienable right of the labouring
poor,” but reject stock car racing because, in his view, it “involves the use
of automobiles—something that the powers-that-be have always be-
grudged the labouring-poor."*
Stock car racing was subversive because the crowd goes to see cars, “top
goodies of the consumer society, and the glowing symbols of Sunday-
supplement success, reduced to a coughing, leaking, geriatric impo-
racing (courtesy National Motor Museum)
333, tos and complete stares theultimate sadopor
ve isthe terminal subversion ofthe power of
versie of te established value system than
.gainst materialism because tis seen
mained seductive goodies
From the mid-1960, ashe traveled reg
1 write about American automotive culture, These
in New Society, and discussed the design of
cultural meanings, which were conveyed less
—is that Banham himself had
ies of the consumer so
Jlarly tothe United States, Banham
was mare easily able t
pieces were usually publshed
the cor aswellasits socal and
by the “symbolic konegyaphis” of thet detailing than they had been by
the “insolent chariots ofthe 1950s, and mare by the car's marketing and
‘verlimage. The Ford Mustang written about in 1967, i 2 casein point:
was a product success str is probably the nearest Detroit has got tothe
Volkswagen clas, complete with @ builtin product mythology that carries
conviction inthe teeth of common sense—lke, I can see myself laying do:
lars by torent a Shelby Mustang in Denver, Colorado, drive it up to Aspen,
‘and down through Las Vegas tothe Fun City, Los Angeles, itslt."* The ar
ticle goes onto ascus largely, the status ofthe car and the fact that “sud>
denly the Leisure People ofthe Age of Fun had found their transport of
delight Banham writes with apparent insider knowledge about the Mus
tang’ design, social significance, and cultural meaning, and he writes as a"
immersed critic tothe point of acknowledging his own desire." One cannot
Imagine Barthes writing about a car inthis way.
Second Machine Age Goodies: The Radio
Nor can one imagine Barthes writing about the radioin a way similar to Bar
ham. Indeed, no crits at the time discussed this Second Machine Age
ood in a revealing a fashion. For example, when Banham wrote about
‘radio design in The New Statesman inthe early 1960s, he did not initially -
‘son the styling, but provided a context for the design:
"EXPENDABLE ICOMS Ano SOFTER HARDWARE
fang 1967 fours atonal Motor Museen)
over the dain dunes, down the deserted and wind-swept beach unt he sea
breaking over my legs, and then, alone inthe unwese ard the roaring sur,
gd—to the Egmont overture comng out of my top pocket. it had't been @
ethoven Prom that was being layed, te thought would never have occured tome.
Iransitor radios seer to be so precise the st futiment of the Romantic rea (8
hehe) tha, assay. as compulsne*
music, cosmic in scale, drawn fem
is anecdote makes a point about the condition of technology in contem- }
ry society: the transistor radio “fufis the cultural promise of mecha-
ied sound” that had taken music from a public socal experience to a
estic service, and then on to a private experience that enabled 2 per
sata map reference on the Norfolk coast to heat the proceedings in
fe Albert Hall without being encumbered by
bacco tn.”
any apparatus larger than a
xs a
marten
srspeited othe nomadic condition ofthe Thr, rather than the Sec.
end, Machine Re, butte thinking of radio stylists had not gone beyond
she rst-they were “Toaded down with furniture-trade prejudices,” stil
designing abies Arai think by designers would lead to radios be.
ing equated wth “pipes and cigarette cases and lighters that ride around in
theinterstices of our clothes, and are held in the hand when taken out.” This
meant that ergonomic considerations had to be addressed. The Murphy
£585, for instance, produced a good sound quality, but was,
sual unconncing—typography has got the beter of plasticity so that the end.
product looks ie a rectangular box in a paper wrapper—but this less important than
ts uncomfortable performance inthe hand. The contos ae awkwardly placed. and
‘most comforable compromises between an effective gp and a clear vew of the
‘tuning stip seem to rest in the aerial (over two Feet long when extended) becoming
hoviontal and caught up inthe surtounding landscape. Even more unfortunate the pla
‘tc of 5 case thin and deforms easly under thumb pressure, gvig an impression of
fimsiness thats nt reassuring (it maybe perfect song enough infact, but ubjec-
‘wey inspires no confidence ®
‘The furniture background of most Britsh and, indeed, European compa:
‘ies seemed to prevent them from thinking radically, and it was manufac-
‘ures lke Sony, from Japan, “where transistor manufacture liable to be in
ouble harness with camera-production, electric shavers and other hand:
held equipment,” that pointed the way forward, This is critical design writ-
ing that not only assesses the product in use, but also supplies a context for
the product type. Radio design, Banham concluded, isa “rich field for er-
‘Sonomic experiment.” In another New Statesman article in 1961, he de-
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