Design, Power, and Antifascism(s)
A panel presentation and discussion with Sandy Kaltenborn (Berlin), Josh MacPhee (Brooklyn), and Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (Montréal/Tiohtià:ke)
3pm: event opens; poster + zine distribution
4pm–6pm: panel and discussion
With the entrenchment and normalization of fascisms internationally, what role can design and imagery play in mobilizing a liberatory counterpower? Both critical of design’s inability to recognize and confront the moment and hopeful at the sight of the many sparks emerging from the darkness, Kaltenborn, MacPhee, and Lo will discuss their long-standing practices of social movement art, community organising, and activist graphic design, pointing towards the possibilities of antifascist visual resistance now.
This event is co-sponsored and co-organized with Abolition Worlds and the Department of Design and Computation Arts.
Sandy Kaltenborn (DE) is a Berlin-based communication designer with a strong emphasis on communication as a social and political practice. Born in Essen, Germany, and raised in Saudi Arabia and Oman, he studied communication design at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee under Alex Jordan (Grapus collective). In the early 2000s, he co-founded image-shift, a Berlin-based studio working at the intersection of design, cultural production, art, social movements and urban struggles. He is one of the co-founders of the tenant initiative Kotti & Co and has been involved in many anti-racist initiatives such as Kanak Attak and Kein Mensch ist illegal.
Assistant Professor of Communication Design and Visual Culture, Design and Computation Arts Department, Concordia University
Founder and Creative Director, LOKI
Kevin works at the intersections of graphic design, cultural production, and social change with a research focus on publication practices and social movements. His research is invested in exploring the tensions between material and relational studies of design as a means of fostering greater social and political autonomy. Kevin founded the graphic design studio LOKI in 2014, working alongside community organizations, non-profits, cultural and educational institutions, unions, artists, researchers and activist groups, as part of broader movements for social change. Kevin holds an MA in Typographic Design from the London College of Printing (UAL). Prior to founding LOKI, he worked in interactive design, advertising and fashion. He is a member of the Memefest network and the Justseeds artist co-operative. Kevin is the author of Design Against Design: Cause and consequence of a dissident graphic practice (2024) with Set Margins’ Press.
Josh MacPhee (US) is a founding member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative (Justseeds.org) and Interference Archive, a public collection of cultural materials produced by social movements (InterferenceArchive.org). He is the author of An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels, and co-editor of Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics and Culture. He regularly works with community, social justice organizations, and unions building agit-prop and consulting on cultural strategy.
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