Shift - Daniel Bickle-Lazarow

SHIFT

Semester One 2020 (COVID-19)

Socialism or Barbarism (1932)

SHIFT - June 2020 The revolutionary socialist Antonio Gramsci popularised the phrase “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” after he was sent to prison in 1926 by Mussolini’s fascist government.

What he meant was that it’s important to acknowledge the world around us, no matter how depressing it may seem, but it’s equally important to believe in the possibility of a better world. In this fleeting moment of human existence where our industrial revolution has accelerated the means of production, we’ve simultaneously managed to plummet the environment into ecological disaster whilst also developing military weapons so powerful that we have the ability to wipe out whole countries with the press of a button. However, as Gramsci would say, it’s important to not fall into hopeless despair and instead take seriously the analysis of the mechanisms of society and how to make meaningful changes to avoid destitution.

‘Shift’ attempts to look at how our political circumstances are linked to the way that we design. Whether it’s reflections on the cargo ship graveyards in Bangladesh, hand drawn political posters relating to the COVID-19 crisis or the destruction and development of public buildings in Melbourne, understanding each phenomenon with a political view of the forces in power allows us a better understanding of the design implications.

I hope this publication can be used to better understand the political issues we all face through the microcosm of design.

And if it doesn’t then at the very least I hope you enjoy reading it. ii

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DITORIA

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Daniel Bickle-Lazarow

“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried..I am become Death, the destroye r of world”

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WORKING FROM HOME Wenkui Li

How working from home affects us differently

23 - HOME IS Madeleine Palmer

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zarow S Daniel Bickle-La ES R G O PR F O D e N tch of coast where th 1 - THE WASTELA re st a ts is ex e er th ng in Bangladesh “In the city of Chittago o ship innovation go to be put to rest...” carg industrial wonders of

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21 - OUR CITY OUR SQUARE Daniel Bickle-Lazarow “Creating positive change in fact doesn’t come from the starchitect

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In the city of Chittagong in Bangladesh there exists a stretch of coast where the industrial wonders of cargo ship innovation go to be put to rest, then are systemically disassembled and recycled for scrap metal.

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While many in first world countries would naively see this initially as a positive outcome of industrial progress, once you contrast the fact that the industry is one of the most dangerous in the world, a more critical view becomes necessary.

At the ship breaking yards, on average one worker dies every week and the workers are paid a measly $2 per day1.

The people of Bangladesh endure the wasteland of our progress.

1 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/05/ bangladesh-workers-asia-shipbreaking

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The rich man wasn’t wrong, yes, you can enjoy life now but what happens when you hit a hard time? Sacrifice now and safeguard you whether its rain or shine The insecurity of the uncertain future makes the ambition of fulfillment in people consistently increase, the desire of owning more continue to roll bigger and bigger to satisfy our insecurity, up to a point that we seem to have forgotten the fundamental intention for working.

We work to live, for survival and to enjoy life.

Yet, the hardest part is to define how much is enough. There isn’t any true boundary on what is enough, as the pursuit for each person is different and their measuring line can always be changed through time. However, there is one thing the fisherman never forgets is the essential for working, we work to enjoy life and not live for work.

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A CONVERSATION WITH

BY

DANIEL BICKLE-LAZAROW

EMILY THOMPSON

ALL IMAGES ARE DESIGNED BY EMILY THOMPSON

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Emily Thompson is a revolutionary socialist whose work designing posters reflects the battles the left wing are fighting during the pandemic. Her work is influenced by her political views, her personal circumstances at work and her interest in art and design. Emily has been working as a nurse at a hospital in Sydney during the COVID-19 outbreak. ...

DBL: There are a lot of interesting things about your life that I’m curious to find out more about, but perhaps the best point to start off at is what led you to start designing artistic political posters during the COVID-19 crisis?

ET: It was actually a friend and comrade that asked me to design the first COVID-based political poster, as part of a group of them we wanted to put up around the city, while restrictions weren’t so tough. He’s a fellow member of Solidarity, Spreading the Climate Strike, you name it, we’re both in it. I’ve been working closely with him since last December, and we’ve got a good connection now! I did some design at my university (last September for the major school strike). I do art as a hobby, which we’ll get more into in the next question, I see. I was very interested in it because as a nurse and ex-nursing student, seeing the inaction to protect our workplaces, to protect our people, our international peers, First Nations peoples, all of the things I’m passionate about inspired me to become more involved.

DBL: Have you always been interested in design and art?

ET: I’ve always been interested in art and design, but I’ve not actually gone into it very much. I dropped out of my art class in high school, conflict of interest with my teacher - long story, but my food technology teacher loved my works. I continued throughout university, more-so as a hobby, but I then joined the nursing committee as the Dir. Communications. It was my responsibility to make advertisements, and fun ones at that. I resigned from the committee and now I just do hobby and political art.

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DBL: Political poster design has quite a strange artistic history. After the russian revolutionary art of the avant-garde during the 1910s it seemed like for the next century the only form of design used was an echo of a soviet aesthetic. What made you interested in designing posters using collage and illustrations?

Coles magazines, and even some old books, so I decided to look for good reference photos. I was mainly inspired to do collage because a) its easy to hide mistakes, b) its really dynamic and interesting to look at, and c) its really easy! Its also pretty unique and different to the types of posters I normally do, like on Canva and with pretty and clean digital lines.

DBL: Posters and fliers are often used as one of the main communication methods of political organisations.

Do you think a more artistically or consciously designed poster is more effective to convey the message?

ET: I actually got really inspired by the Soviet aesthetic.

I’ve loved Soviet / communistic / powerful political posters for a long time. I really wanted to catch the vibe of old powerful posters, so I looked up examples on Pinterest as inspiration! I don’t pride myself in my ability to draw full-body people, I mainly work with portraits.

I had a bunch of old magazines / cut-outs (for journaling) lying around, like Frankie and some

ET: I think in order to get a point across, especially visually, you need to consciously design something. I’ve been in many a presentation where people poorly design PowerPoints;

too much writing, images with watermarks...

I sound picky! But, as a visual learner, you really lose me when you have a thesis on the board. Its all well and good to have a simple poster with a few words on it, a simple slogan! I think well-designed posters really draw people in, maybe even help them to remember the sayings on the poster!

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DBL: On perhaps a more political level, I read that there was the possibility that you were going to be out of work because there wasnt enough work to be done during the crisis in the hospital. Surely that seems absurd, how did that come about?

ET: Yeah! That was a really scary time for me, waiting for each email from the CEO was pretty daunting. I never thought I, as a nurse during the era of COVID, would be out of work. My experience has been alright, it hasn’t been as bad as nurses in New York or Italy. We definitely don’t have the materials to be using them willy-nilly. I still run into people that tell me to use gloves while making a bed (unnecessary). My experience with PPE as a whole has never been excellent.

Recently, though, its been really hard to find gloves in my size, hand sanitiser, aprons for showers and shoe covers for showers. As for patients and family members, they started out asking if I was

worried about the pandemic, to which I would say no, but now they’re tired and worried, and family are especially tired and stressed. They often become angry quickly, quicker than normal. For the first time, I had to ask someone to leave the room because they were making me stressed! The staff aren’t visibly concerned. We’ve switched to scrubs instead of our normally formal uniform, and they were excited about that. I’ve tried to get staff involved in political photo actions, but they aren’t interested.

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DBL: What have been the more obvious short comings of the healthcare system during the crisis? Was the healthcare system prepared for this kind of medical crisis?

of staff, finally implemented a checklist for patients, and hung up signs about COVID-19 (in Chinese and English). The healthcare system was in no way prepared for this. It is underfunded (mainly public...), understaffed and under-resourced.

ET: I think... any shortcomings in the public system are not their own fault. As for private, I think the shortcoming is found in the development of private health, but I don’t have to get into that! I belong to the largest private sector in Australia, and I think the fact that our CEO had to negotiate for our hospitals to stay open, and almost apologise for our “not earning as much money” right now, is totally wrong. I think not having a health-before-profit mindset really stops people from opening up to the public. We were never declared “nationalised” but we’re “happy” to take in extra patients to help the public system. I think the system was extremely slow and apathetic.

I’ve only JUST received training when the “curve is flattening”. By the time the CEO had fully negotiated all Australian state private hospitals, the WHO had 80 situation reports and Australia had 6052 cases of COVID-19.

The WHO has always had wonderful recommendations throughout the whole pandemic.

My hospital, obviously, didn’t see any of them.

The most we’ve done is test temperature

DBL: After Spain nationalised all private hospitals to combat the crisis, do you think a similar strategy would be effective in Australia? How do you think it would change the way that you work?

ET: I definitely think a similar strategy would help, especially with emergency and ICU rooms. We have 2378 ICU beds in Australia.

Out of the 191 ICUs, 72 of those are private.

Between 5-16% of patients with COVID-19 in heavily-affected countries needed to be admitted into an ICU. If we needed that, we wouldn’t have that many ICUs for public use. If we nationalised, we’d definitely have a better chance at effectively treating it. I don’t think it would really change the way I work, though, I honestly think I give the same care to people in public and private. I think, if anything, I’d have more work and less a chance of becoming redundant.

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DBL: The theme of this publication is ‘Shift’. After the crisis ends I imagine there will be a lot of opinions about some of the most important changes we need to make to society. What shifts you will be interested in campaigning for after the state of emergency ends?

ET: I’ll be very interested in campaigning for nationalisation of private hospitals, transition from capitalism to socialism and resuming my protesting for climate change efforts. I also want to campaign for basic things that have been implemented, like more funding to things we need, free childcare to those who truly can’t afford it right now. I think also efforts for First Nations peoples and International people are important, too!

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AMAZON WORKERS SAFE TO ASSUME WORK UNSAFE Large scale machinery is dangerous. The industrial revolution introduced machinery to workers which allowed them to work the land at a previously unimaginable rate. With new forms of technology comes new safety hazards and protection from these risks determines which workers live and die. In 1885 at the famous brickworks in Brunswick, a 16 year old boy lost his life working with machinery. The newspaper Mercury and Weekly Courier reported “...a terrible machinery accident occurred at the no.2 Hoffman’s Brick Company’s works, Brunswick, the sufferer being a youth sixteen years of age named John Delahunty.

The unfortunate lad was employed clearing out dirt from underneath one of the rolling tables, when he lost hold of his shovel, and , in endeavouring to regain it, became entangled in the powerful machinery, the result being that his right leg was torn away above the knee joint.”1 This is by no means an unusual story for it’s time, and it’s unfortunately one of many examples available.

In the 21st century, Amazon’s technological 13

his right leg was torn away above the knee joint innovation is speeding ahead as rapidly as the brickworks in Brunswick was in the 19th century.

By using drones and robots to collect packages when an order is made online, the company is able to offer some of the cheapest prices available for online shopping. Through this streamlined process of online delivery, Amazon has become a household name for shopping. It’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has reaped the rewards, becoming one of the richest people on the plant with a net worth of over $110B2, nearing the same sum of money that the Australian government has commited to the JobKeeper scheme to bail out companies employing almost one third of the Australian population during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon is now the 7th largest private employer in the world, employing 798,000 employees

totalling more employees than the entire population of some small countries such as Luxembourg (interestingly the single largest employer in the world is the American military with 3.2 million employees)3 .The importance of safety in their warehouses has become a significant issue to contend with.

Safety equipment has just as

“Amazon is now the 7th largest private employer in the world�

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many innovations as the machinery that it’s keeping us safe from, but when Amazon filed for a patent in 2016 for “forward looking technology” it caught the attention of the public unlike most patents that fly under the radar4.

The patent was to claim ownership of a piece of technology (→) that would protect a factory worker, not by making the innovative technology safer, but instead to simply enclose the factory worker inside of a metal cage then provide mechanisms for the worker to operate pulleys and levers from inside the cage. Determining whether or not this machine is an effective and reasonable measure to keep the workers safe is hard to judge without an in depth knowledge of how Amazon warehouses work, however what has shocked the general public more clearly is it’s similar aesthetic to a prison cell. It might be fair to criticise this reaction as a superficial way to view technology; whether it looks oppressive as opposed 15

to whether it actually is oppressive. Conversely it could be interpreted that the aesthetic of something isn’t meaningless because it provokes memories and understandings of learned experiences, meaning if you want to design a prison it shouldn’t look like a prison.

While both of these analysis’ are interesting and probably both correct to a certain extent, what might instead be the key to understanding why this form of cage-safety equipment has garnered so much attention, instead of a forklift driver’s cage, could be commonly understood sub standard working conditions of Amazon employees.

On the 30th of March, right in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis, Amazon workers in New York walked out of their workplace and refused to continue working due to Amazon not providing a safe workplace5. “Strikers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island demanded Amazon temporarily shut down the large facility for

cleaning, after reports of multiple employees testing positive for Covid-19�. The Guardian reported the story after multiple workers in the Amazon warehouse tested positive for Covid-19. Amazon has been considered an essential

service so that shoppers can reduce risk of infection by shopping at home and not exposing themselves, however unlike many other professions, little to no 16

support has been offered to Amazon workers to keep them safe. Bezos wrote [Amazon has] “placed purchase orders for millions of face masks we want to give to our employees and contractors who cannot work from home,” but very few have been fulfilled6. Amazon workers work to fulfill quotas that prove their productivity, however whilst the 1.5 meter distancing rule still applies at their workplace, no reduction in their quota has been established. They have also not offered sick pay for workers that need to self quarantine. Nor have they been offered medical expenses paid for if they were to contract the virus in a country with a severely lacking public healthcare system7, putting workers working pay check to pay check between a rock and a hard place if they show minor symptoms. This lack of help is compounded by the fact that the median wage of all workers at Amazon comes to a measly $28,446 per year, far below the minimum wage of workers in 17

Australia8.

If we take the background information about Amazon into account, it offers us a clearer picture as to why the safety equipment is viewed so negatively by the public.

But perhaps the more important lesson to learn from taking the broader situation into account is that the viewer of the safety equipment is neither naive for simply reacting to the aesthetics of the cage, nor is the rationalist critic intellectually superior for considering only the practical implications of the equipment. Instead, the layman’s reaction is the most profound because they instantly understand that Amazon is not to be trusted. They don’t need a higher education to realise the simple truth that even when Amazon might be effectively implementing safety equipment, they ultimately couldn’t care less about the well being of their employees.

1 Mercury and Weekly Courier, 28 August 1885 2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/billions/2018/09/04/jeff-bezos-is-18-billion-richer-as-amazonsmarket-cap-briefly-hits-1-trillion/ 3 https://craft.co/amazoncom 4 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amazon-worker-cages-warehouseenclosure-metal-a8537876.html 5 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/31/amazon-strike-worker-fired-organizingwalkout-chris-smallls 6 https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/jeff-bezos-open-letter-amazon-employees-coronavirus. html 7 https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/01/dtw1-a01.html 8 https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/2/17927478/amazon-minimum-wage-15-dollars-increasebernie-sanders

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OUR CITY OUR SQUARE A review and a reflection on what happened

what happened:

03/04/2018 - Caliper 02: Identity

“The planned demolition of the Yarra building at federation square, housing the Koorie Heritage Trust, is emblematic of the continued destruction of culturally significant architecture in favour of flagship establishments of the rich and powerful.

My favourite description of this whole process is ‘shady as fuck’. Firstly we find out that Apple has been in conversation with the Labor government about this development for over two years and when we finally find out what the hell they’ve been scheming up all these months it’s a design so bad they had to constantly labour the point in their OpenHouse debate that it isn’t finished and they promise it will be better upon construction. On top of that, all they released were two renders and an aerial shot that’s zoomed out just far enough so you can’t see anything in any detail and then the renders themselves are so mediocre in quality that I wouldn’t be surprised if they modelled the building in SketchUp. Then we’re told in Daniel Andrew’s announcement tweet that “It’s even backed by the original architect”… So wait one second. You mean you have already privately consulted with Don Bates about what his opinion on the project will be without releasing anything to the public… and we’re asked to believe it was just a friendly discussion of architecture? This strange phenomenon of support is then compounded by Jill Garner, the Victorian government architect’s contribution to the OpenHouse debate. I’m not sure if it was just me but I couldn’t help but imagine there was a metaphorical gun held to her head as she whimpered out her rehearsed speech. To be fair to Garner however, I wouldn’t be too hopeful for my job security either if I was given the choice of either opposing the decision made by those who employ me or supporting a horrible development and later being forced to debate my point of view (or lack thereof) publically. I’m also lucky enough to know two people who worked with Don Bates on the original scheme (one being Tony Allen, the former project manager of Federation square and the other being my dad, Peter Bickle, Project Architect of LAB architects) both of which are astonished and dumbfounded

by Bates’s support.

This is all compounded by the fact that Richard Wynne, the planning minister of the currently elected Labor government, has given Apple an exemption from the planning process that would normally give citizens the chance to object. Apple has also been graced with the privilege of not having to disclose any financial deals made between the government and Apple. And if you’re still pondering that maybe it’s all a coincidence and really this is the only way for this development be successful, then why in the hell was the announcement made on the 20th of Decemeber?

Well I’ve got an idea. Because they think that Melbournians won’t care enough to discuss how dismal and shady our government is when we’re trying to enjoy our summer holidays. Well you’re wrong Andrews. We have talked about it over summer, we will continue to talk about it through winter and if it’s built we’ll make sure you never stop hearing about it.

The last thing I want to touch on is the persistent argument from the minority supporters of the project that Federation Square is running at a cost of 10 million a year to the government. If this is a genuine concern then I’m going to need you to really stop and think for a moment. If the role of a government isn’t to invest in architectural projects that serve the public at a cost to the government, then why haven’t we sold off the site of the State Library? How about Melbourne Museum? The Shrine of Remembrance? Or even Roy Grounds’ National Gallery of Victoria?

When we start justifying selling away public architecture so we can make a profit for mega corporations like Apple, we put ourselves on a very slippery slope and I sincerely hope this isn’t the slip that leaves us on our ass at the bottom of the hill.” - Daniel Bickle-Lazarow

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what now:

April 5th 2019

“Apple store plans shelved after heritage authorities say ‘no’”. After the National Trust nominated Federation Square to the Victorian heritage register in August 2018, management at Federation Square submitted an application to demolish the Yarra building which received thousands of objections from the public, more than any previous heritage application. It’s safe to say that applying to demolish the Yarra building touched a nerve of the population of Melbourne, but what it took to save Federation Square from a sense of highest bidder wins was the large rejection of the project from the general public and an organised group of individuals that were able to funnel that anger into productive and effective means that had to the chance to actually stop the project before it started.

Whilst the corporate interests weilded significant influence by organising the project behind closed doors with the state government, the project was squashed by a democratic process of opposition. Apple’s famously dirty tactics of creating a monopoly through any means neccessary had to face the consequences when user groups expressed their desires and needs a significant public square.

Tania Davinge deserves a lot of credit for her work organising and coordinating the ‘Our City Our Square’ campaign because it was able to bring together a large amount of citizens that could voice their anger at media events as well as reaching out to people in the construction industry to get vocal opposition.

A valuable lesson has been learnt in the architectural industry. That creating positive change in fact doesn’t come from the starchitect, but instead from the collective able to express their will. Hopefully this lesson will recognised and taken account for in all groups that want to create positive social change through architecture.

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Home is an entity both personal and shared Home is where I’m most vulnerable Home is dog greetings at the door Home is a congregation of memories Home is familiar Home is where I dream Home is the people I hold dearest Home is where I reflect Home is my springboard Home is where I experienced my first steps and first falls Home is where I gather strength Home is picking strawberries with grandma and grandad Home is painting Home is my chosen community Home is my comfort zone Home is my childhood Home is a feeling of the sameness in soul Home is in those who care selflessly Home is where family gathers Home is filled with love Home is him Home is in those who guide me Home is building mazes and towers out of video cases Home is my location of reference

MADELEINE PALMER

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Home is where I dance and sing most freely Home is when Dad plays Kylie Minogue Home is habitual Home is imperfect Home is symbiotic Home is a constant Home is my centre of the world Home is what sparks nostalgia Home is where I feel most special Home is where I let tears fall Home is an extension of myself Home is introspective Home is safe Home is timeless Home isn't taught Home is ancestral Home is forgiving Home is important Home is inspiring Home is the everyday Home is multifaceted Home is universal Home is felt Home is a wonderful place to be.