Justin Bean

About

Justin Bean is a designer whose work focuses on progressing discourse, and amplifying the voices of others through the creation of engaging, and provoking media.

His work to date has spanned across disciplines from Architecture, Exhibition Design, Activism, Performance and Film. Having studied at the University of Bath (2014-2018) he was awarded the RIBA Bronze Medal in 2018. Justin joined the RCA in 2018, being taught in ADS4 across two years of study. This body of work has led research into masterplanning, data classification, and rhetorics of persuasion in relation to performance and film.

Contact

Degree Details

Statement

People may be overconfident and over-optimistic. They may focus on overly specific scenarios for the future, to the exclusion of all others. They may fail to recall past crises. They may overestimate the predictability of the past, and hence underestimate the surprise of the future. They may not realise the difficulty in preparation without the benefit of hindsight. They may prefer gambles with higher payoff probabilities, neglecting the value of the stakes. They may conflate positive information about the benefits of a technology and negative information about its risks… or they may be contaminated by movies where the financial system ends up being saved. In this world everyone is darting their eyes to see if anyone else is reacting, meanwhile trying to appear poised and unflustered.

Left; High frequency trading operates through the narrative of competition - a narrative which begins to expose the irrational nature of markets. As HFT reaches its limit - the speed of light - the next step is to take advantage of the Earth's geometry - an absurd version where all is at stake in an unfaltered pursuit for profit.

The Manifesto

Irrational Matrix
Irrational Matrix — As far as money is concerned the existence of unpredictability makes the world a dangerous place. We all have fear and respond to these feelings in different ways. These interventions situate themselves across a matrix of human behaviour.

The United Nations have stated that a $300 billion global investment would be sufficient funding to buy 20 years of time to fix global climate change. The idea that these levels of investment exist (this amount being the world military spending every 60 days) begins to questions why the forces of global economies means that money does not flow in desired directions.

This thesis interrogates the methods liberal democracy uses to maintain ethical business
practice - competition, regulation and litigation - first suggested by Ralph Nader. I am proposing a
fourth which responds to the animalistic trades of financial traders. This is fear, but more importantly
the fear of being undermined by others - being taken down by the Heist. This methodology utilises exiting incentive systems, monopolising on the way that our human minds respond the emotional and the sensational.

The Trap

MONEY TRAP — This is a Heist. A series of interventions which trigger a response across scales and systems, enmeshed amongst the world view of the capitalist project. Intentionally ambiguous, unexplained and incalculable; this artefact gives rise to an emotional response; from the force which can never be controlled; the person plotting in their bedroom.

Travel on a clipper along the Thames from the Millennium Pier to London Bridge, and as you turn the corner beneath Waterloo Bridge, in to sight drift a forest of glistening totems jutting into the sky. These glass clad monoliths in a variety of phallic shapes are artefacts which belong to a remarkable tribe. This group wield great power, operating beneath cloaks of polite banality. Occupying the upper echelons of our society, imposing value and preference on those beneath them, we find the bulls and the bears, the lame duck who cannot keep up, the turtles who are slow to react, and the fats cats who sit in the boardrooms of the city banks.

The Target

Morphing Mammals
Morphing Mammals
Morphing Mammals — Travel on a clipper along the Thames from the Millennium Pier to London Bridge, and as you turn the corner beneath Waterloo Bridge, in to sight drift a forest of glistening totems jutting into the sky. These glass clad monoliths in a variety of phallic shapes are artefacts which belong to a remarkable tribe. This group wield great power, operating beneath cloaks of polite banality. Occupying the upper echelons of our society, imposing value and preference on those beneath them, we find the bulls and the bears, the lame duck who cannot keep up, the turtles who are slow to react, and the fats cats who sit in the boardrooms of the city banks.

Classical economics suggest a world in which economic motives are calculated, and predictable. The existence of countless superstitious beliefs in finance prove this not to be true. Instead, the reality is closer to the Keynsian idea of the spirit animal with more spontaneous urges for action. The consequence of this is the peculiar relationship between zoomorphic encodings and finance. From the bear and bull to the lame duck and loan sharks, this thesis questions to what degree the decision makers of finance are really driven by the their spirits.

The Heist

MONEY TRAP
MONEY TRAP
MONEY TRAP
MONEY TRAP
Black Swan
Black Swan
Black Swan
Black Swan
Meat Analogue
Meat Analogue — As imitation meat becomes increasingly uncanny, boundaries are blurred, raising questions about our reliance on farming for meat production. As a proof of concept, here the leg of lamb is successfully recreated from cake.
Meat Analogue
Meat Analogue
Underground Networks
Underground Networks — Cities such as London which do not experience flooding do not consider the risks. A new piece of anti-flood infrastructure has been designed—a mimic of existing technology. The creation and failure of a system tests the idea that we are not prepared to protect ourselves from the consequences of events of which we have no memory.
Underground Networks
Underground Networks
Intent of Theft
Intent of Theft — The Bank of England are alerted to the potential value in waste, through a new found interest from others in their waste management system. The intent of theft, implies a value—in this case a commodity which in many ways we have not yet learnt how to expolit.
Intent of Theft
Intent of Theft
Stockpiles
Stockpiles — Sand - a finite resource which is being consumed at an exponential rate, with little regulation for the diminishing resource. The process of stockpiling a commodity is driven by a fear of it not being available in the future - a process which stimulates reaction from others. Here HSBC are framed, an intervention which causes others to react.
Stockpiles
Stockpiles

This is a Heist. A series of interventions which trigger a response across scales and systems, enmeshed amongst the world view of the capitalist project. Intentionally ambiguous, unexplained and incalculable; this artefact gives rise to an emotional response; from the force which can never be controlled; the person plotting in their bedroom.

The Protagonist

... from the person plotting in their room.
... from the person plotting in their room.
Money Trap Manifesto — Manifesto Recording June 2020 This heist asks how a design methodology can be executed in relation to rhetoric of persuasion, theatrics of delivery and form of image and gesture. What the methodology ties into the 3.5% rule - this is that ‘only’ ‘3.5% of a population are required to engage in sustained nonviolent resistance to topple dictatorships’. This thesis attempts to legitimise other forms of practice beyond traditional architectural discourse and typical modes of representation.

Lies, cheat, deceit, distortion, hype, and a blind pursuit of profit drive the business world. Through a series of complex incentive systems, a world has formed with rules, speculation and superstition. Within this, the non-ergodicity of the world is an enemy to any attempt at order in finance. A world which seeks to be ordered, accurate and controlled can be affected by the most irrational suggestions. The sum of human interactions can produce unexpected results that are not related to the intentions of the individuals involved, just as traffic on a motorway can bunch, or crowds can suddenly stampede. A micro-second delay, a superstitious belief, or even a hunch, hold sufficient momentum to cause global systems to rupture. George Soros described this idea as reflexivity—the idea that observations and beliefs about the state of the economy change behaviour, and those changes in behaviour affect the economy in a cyclical loop in which all are a protagonist.

I am questioning how design can play a more active role in the processes of activism. How can design act to rupture systems, and act beyond the parameters, not only being dictated by the system from which they originate. As a design student, I feel the need to be proactive in testing ways in which we can tackle the problems we are currently faced with, take nothing for granted, and become an amplifier for the voices which are so vital for reshaping our future.