Schetauna Powell and Ming Washington
In this paper we will make the argument that within African American Design exists a social system design that has operated alongside a political landscape that ties race to space in America, and that this social system design persists across generations, adapting each iteration. The American political and spatial landscape defines the boundaries and confining rules this social system design operates within—homelessness , alienation, dislocation, and dehumanization—what James Carse would call a finite game. The poem of the Signifying Monkey perfectly encapsulates the conditions of the finite game African Americans find themselves playing in the American landscape and Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s literary theory The Signifyin(g) Monkey articulates an infinite game that has been deliberately constructed to transcend oppression and continue play within the finite boundaries. Specifically, Darell Field’s exploration of Signifyin(g) in Architecture grounded in concrete signification, typological revision, vertiginous orientation, and orthographic occlusion offers an interdisciplinary dialogue in which cultural artefacts, vernacular language, and syntax act as elements in this social system design because both Black English and Black Design operate using the same rules.
This is a case study that explores how the conventions of Black English can be seen in Black Design and how through folk traditions, childhood games/skill development, and matrilineal tradition this social system design is transmitted across generations by examining the work of Gee’s Bend quilters, Modern designers Robert Earl Paige and Charles Harrison, and contemporary designer Norman Teague and Folayemi Wilson. Each designer in this case study has a chain of intergenerational collaboration and mentorship that exists between them and uses iterative design and community exchanges to communicate value and meaning.
Keywords: Black Design, Black English, Games Theory