Soviet Critical Design

<p><i>Soviet Critical Design</i> is the first book to explore the socialist design practice of 'artistic projecteering' which was developed by the USSR's Senezh Experimental Studio in the 1960s. <p/>Tom Cubbin examines the studio as a site for the development of the design discipline in the optimistic environment of the 1960s Soviet Thaw. He also explores how designers adapted to the fast-changing Soviet Union of the 1970s and 1980s considering their approach to critical projects highlighting the Soviet state's treatment of citizens urban heritage and public spaces. <p/>Drawing on previously unpublished visual material from private archives and also extensive interviews this book presents a new history of the late socialist period in the USSR which gives insight into the creative strategies of designers who engaged their practice as a contribution to broader discussions on alternative models for socialist existence. Cubbin shows how artistic projecteering must be read as a utopian activity which privileged the political and ideological over the functional.</p>