"Since the days of radical printer–pamphleteers, design and designers have a long history of fighting for what's right and working to transform society. The rise of the literary form of the manifesto also parallels the rise of modernity and the spread of letterpress printing. ...
The original list was largely drawn from Mario Piazza's presentation at the Più Design Può conference in Florence, though I've edited and added to it. I've also incorporated links where I was able to find them."
(John Emerson, 22 July 2009, Social Design Notes)
"In 'What is an author?' [4], Michel Foucault says we are 'accustomed to presenting the author as a genius.' We see the author as the 'genial creator' of work in which he gives us, 'with infinite wealth and generosity,' an inexhaustible world of meanings. (Being 'creative' always has a positive ring, whatever is produced!) Foucault says that the author does not 'precede' the work: ideas and meanings are already there and the author's role is to 'choose,' to filter and synthesise to create output. (Foucault also emphasises 'limiting' and 'excluding'). The author's role is to limit the proliferation of meanings and present a personal view of the world. Yet the 'genius author' is represented as a continual source of invention–the opposite of his genuine function."
(Monika Parrinder, 2000, Eye Magazine)