Agency Isn't Really Happening in That Same Way

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Designers of the forties and fifties were building spaces with many hundreds of images inside them through which people would walk in their bodies. In moscow, n 19 59, we have a massive national propaganda exhibition there, giant buckminster fuller dome, 200 feet across. Seven screen images above flickering with different pictures of america. These environments were designed to show people the possibilities in America - not not to immerse them. And i think what's new about our time is that when we have phones in our pockets, screens on our desks, screens onOur walls, screens on the back of our aeroplane chairs,. screens on the backs of our car chairs, make up

In 1940, a group of 60 American intellectuals formed the Committee for National Morale. “They’ve largely been forgotten,” says Fred Turner, a professor of communications at Stanford University, but their work had a profound impact on public opinion. They produced groundbreaking films and art exhibitions. They urged viewers to stop, reflect and think for themselves, and in so doing, they developed a set of design principles that reimagined how media could make us feel more calm, reflective, empathetic; in short, more democratic.