Design is seen as something that is objective, built, and physically manifested in the world, while ideology is assumed to be subjectively, mentally, and immaterially constituted. This panel discussion on the occasion of the exhibition Lost in America will focus on the similarities and interconnections of these two fields. Alexander Alberro, Dan Graham, Caitlin MacBride, and Cameron Rowland will join John Miller to discuss the influence ideology has on the production of goods in the United States and how the country’s manufacturing power has led to certain ideologies such as Fordism, American exceptionalism, and isolationism. The discussion will also address how the dialectic between design and ideology is being shaped by the Information Age and a global climate crisis that is becoming ever more acute.

An edited version of the online discussion was printed in the publication Lost in America; it has also been released as an n.b.k. DVD.