A narrativa histórica de Alexandre Wollner sobre o design brasileiro em sua relação com arte, indústria e tecnologia

This work aims to investigate the historical narratives in which the graphic designer Alexandre Wollner assembled about the development of its own profession in Brazil, focusing the ways in which his discourse points relations among design (with greater emphasis in graphic design) and visual arts, the industrial development and notions about technology. Firstly, the theoretical setup searched for dialogues with design historians, with Mikhail Bakhtin, specially his concepts about “ideology” and “discourse’, and the theory of Field Autonomy by Pierre Bourdieu applied in the artistic practice. Following, the relation between Wollner’s own journey and the Brazilian industrial development is shown, and, at last, three of his historical texts are studied, which are written in different moments (1964; 1983; 1998), being those in which the analyzed author wished to point out the origens, events and names that are more remarkable. Throughout the work, it is pointed the importance of Wollner’s contact with the modernist european ideologies that share an abstract and rationalist matrix found at Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (HfG Ulm), the german design school from the city of Ulm, in the 1950s. Such modernist discourse understood the practice of design as a method with scientific character, being then different of some other more recurring artistic professional practices in some productive sectors. Wollner aimed to apply such ideals in his professional practice, being the foundation of the paulista office forminform, in 1958, one of his first expressions of such posture, and in his academic practice, helping the foundation of the Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial (ESDI), in Rio de Janeiro, in 1963. Such modernist ideals went along with moments of the Brazilian industrial development during the government of Juscelino Kubitschek (1956–1961) and the “Economical Miracle” from the military government (1968–1973). Wollner argued about the need for the development of national design as a technological and productive differential that would help the growth of national industry, based on Ulm’s project model concept. It is defended that Wollner’s professional and intelectual path, in his efforts of thinking a history of Brazilian design through the choice of pioneers in the area, was founded on an “ideal model” of design, leaving aside the modernist experiences from the 1950s. Such posture would indicate a search for validation of his own profession that was beginning to become more evident in Brazilian productive means, aiming the creation of a differential space in comparison with pre-established practices, usually link to graphic artists from the time.

Americanismo e fordismo nos boletins da comissão brasileiro-americana de educação industrial

This text thematizes the performance of the Brazilian-American Commission of Industrial Education (CBAI) since its installation at Rio de Janeiro, on 1947, and extinction in Curitiba, on 1963. The general goal consists in identifying if are there any relation between Gramsci’s Americanism and Fordism elements and the CBAI’s performance, by means of a speech analysis from de Newsletter of CBAI and other documental sources related to the organizations performance. The specifics objectives intend to contextualize the political and economic situation that Brazil was going through before and concomitant to CBAI’s performance, emphasizing some aspects of the Cold War feature that contributed to narrow the relations between United States and other countries of Latin America, especially Brazil. On the following, it intends to present the main aspects of Gramsci’s thought and the Americanism and fordism and Passive Revolution as key categories for a better understanding of the presence of an Americanization project on Brazilian’s professional education. As so, the object of this study are the Newsletters of CBAI. Finally, the speech’s analisys of the Newsletter was the methodology used to demonstrate CBAI as an Americanism diffuser. The documental research and sources served as groundwork, especially the Newsletters, were found at Departamento de Documentação Histórica of Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (DEDHIS) and at Biblioteca de Educação of Universidade de São Paulo (FEUSP). The theoretical foundation has as a workline for the conception of the categories the studies of Gramsci about the of work (and the Newsletters itself), and the speech’s analysis of main concepts from Bakhtin, Voloshinov’s and the Circle of studies about language philosophy. At last, this paperwork concludes that the attempt to disseminate an amerizanization project in Brazil obtneined significant results on the industrialization of the country according to the fordism’s racionalization standarts, nevertheless, this research considers that such a project corroborates the comprehension about the consolidation of a Passive Revolution’s project.