Politics/Political system is in a state of flux. As compared with design which is about making things static (i.e. ideas become matter/form/object).
That objects can be viewed as an expression of political power or will. Things modifying power structures or relationships.
Two schools of materialism: liberalism and marxism (Carl Marx). Political ideologies around the production and distribution of wealth. Material Things. Philosophers Plato and Higer.
[ This ties in with the Things that Matter reading talking about the Platoism of objects ].
Postulating that advancing technology and economic growth is beneficial.
An object could be anything but becomes something - moves from the generic to the particular. "works" - The Human condition - Hannah Arendt's. Vita Activa - the making of things that will endure. Works of art, poetry, architecture, monuments, industrial machinery.
Is this statement true?
Modern political society had ignored or suppressed roles and institutions where citizens could experience freedom by taking part in public life.
Q: Does that happen now? and how?
Design choosing form among possibilities.
Goal: political principles realised in design and construction.
Historical contexts/experience:
1/ statecraft - What is the structure of the best state?
2/ architecture and urban planning?
3/ engineering
Greek lawgivers:
- Solon
- Lycargus?
- Cleithenes?
A constitution - a design of a political system with checks and balances. The separation of powers.
edifice - to build and to instruct. Environmental determinism - the environment shapes you. Christopher Alexander.
[ I have had a read of Christopher Alexander and he is quite and interesting read regrading patterns of living. Would like to revisit him ].
behavioural - features change behaviour like stones in a river change the way water flows. Resonance between material form and civil structures.
Enginerring
democracy - systems, processes, and products available to all. Kodak camera. Bell telephone. Efficiency is relative to a desired goal/outcome i.e. contextual.
political/sociotechnical forms. Political ergonomics.
ergonomic - the shape of a useful instrument is tailored to the human form.
SUMMARY:
to combine all the three approaches: statecraft, architecture, and engineering.
Example given: Volvo
1/ participatory design
2/ disabled equal rights
3/ maxiumum output doesn't include or is considerate of ethical ideals.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Reading: Towards Use Design?
I liked how the title had a question mark in it as though the question was up for debate.
Experience design/ User experience - expanding the frontier of design beyond the object, and thinking about it's context and how it is used.
Intended Use vs Actual Use = A rejection of that idea as we don't know enough about the people buying our products to have any idea how they are going to use it.
USER-CENTRED DESIGN
Social determinism / transformation through design of objects - efficiency, ease-of-use.
Design moving from function (functionalism) to communication.
Objects as signs communicating a method. Detecting, creating, and controlling cultural, and emotional meanings.
Objects being a transmitter - that you have a receiver/cognition going on.
That designers are trying to create dynamic, multi-sensory experiences, but we don't really know enough about who we are designing for to do that. Designing for a particular user narrows the design scope or uses and creates over determinism.
We can only predict a way and object will be used,but we can never actually know until it is our own or possessed. We can't predict. We can only speculate.
e.g. mac mini hacks
I think it's useful to think of design choices being exclusive (who are you favouring or not favouring?). It makes you think about what your prejudices are.
Experience design/ User experience - expanding the frontier of design beyond the object, and thinking about it's context and how it is used.
Intended Use vs Actual Use = A rejection of that idea as we don't know enough about the people buying our products to have any idea how they are going to use it.
USER-CENTRED DESIGN
Social determinism / transformation through design of objects - efficiency, ease-of-use.
Design moving from function (functionalism) to communication.
Objects as signs communicating a method. Detecting, creating, and controlling cultural, and emotional meanings.
Objects being a transmitter - that you have a receiver/cognition going on.
That designers are trying to create dynamic, multi-sensory experiences, but we don't really know enough about who we are designing for to do that. Designing for a particular user narrows the design scope or uses and creates over determinism.
We can only predict a way and object will be used,but we can never actually know until it is our own or possessed. We can't predict. We can only speculate.
e.g. mac mini hacks
I think it's useful to think of design choices being exclusive (who are you favouring or not favouring?). It makes you think about what your prejudices are.
Reading: Men, Machines, and the World About
Norbert Weiner talking about cybernetic science? About a scientist with social responsibility/ethics, engage with consequences.
etymology (plural etymologies)
1. The study of the historical development of languages, particularly as manifested in individual words.
2. An account of the origin and historical development of a word.
cybernetics - communication and control in the animal and machine.
(source wikipedia)
A move from physical/mechanics to the immaterial and intangible. Abstract signals - input/output. Ma becoming part of the machine. Bomber (part of aeroplane), anti-aircraft gunner.
A shift of paradigm. Individuals part of systems. Dissappearing boundaries between the self and the collective.
post-structuralist positions(?) Zen Buddhism. Examples of Norbert Weiners personal ethics.
"It is a question perhaps of a small conception of self as opposed to a larger one - not that our hand is not part of us, but that much more is".
I though that this was an interesting idea about expanding our idea of who we are to be more encompassing and altruistic.
VS
nihilistic =>
nihilism (uncountable)
1. (philosophy) Extreme scepticism, maintaining that nothing has a real existence.
2. The rejection of all moral principles.
3. A doctrine holding that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility.
4. The belief that all endeavors are ultimately futile and devoid of meaning.
5. Contradiction (not always deliberate) between behavior and espoused principle, to such a degree that all possible espoused principle is voided.
"...the bandmembers sweat hard enough to earn their pretensions, and maybe even their nihilism" (rock critic Dave Marsh, reviewing the band XTC's album Go)
6. The deliberate refusal of belief to the point that belief itself is rejected as untenable.
(source wikipedia)
Machine evolution and power. Nowadays machines deal with control and communication.
"Thinking beyond the construction of the gadget to its integration into society. How will it affect humans? How will humans interact with it What consequences will it have?"
THOUGHTS:
It's quite interesting to compare this text with William Morris's Revival of Handicraft as they have similar themes: The delegation of work to machines and the social implications. He also speaks of having caution, and machines being false gods, and of somehow usurping our place in the world. A Pandora's box. Things being released that can't be undone. A machine plague. Whilst I agree our dependence on machines has grown, I don't think they have gained a religious status. Computers are ubiquitous and everyday common things now. Their intimidating and monumental mainframe size and speed has been tamed and brought down to the human, and even child scale.
I still think his ideas of questioning what we are making and why we are making it is valuable, as maybe things don't get scrutinised as much as they could. It would be interesting to see what real life designers thing about this.
etymology (plural etymologies)
1. The study of the historical development of languages, particularly as manifested in individual words.
2. An account of the origin and historical development of a word.
cybernetics - communication and control in the animal and machine.
(source wikipedia)
A move from physical/mechanics to the immaterial and intangible. Abstract signals - input/output. Ma becoming part of the machine. Bomber (part of aeroplane), anti-aircraft gunner.
A shift of paradigm. Individuals part of systems. Dissappearing boundaries between the self and the collective.
post-structuralist positions(?) Zen Buddhism. Examples of Norbert Weiners personal ethics.
"It is a question perhaps of a small conception of self as opposed to a larger one - not that our hand is not part of us, but that much more is".
I though that this was an interesting idea about expanding our idea of who we are to be more encompassing and altruistic.
VS
nihilistic =>
nihilism (uncountable)
1. (philosophy) Extreme scepticism, maintaining that nothing has a real existence.
2. The rejection of all moral principles.
3. A doctrine holding that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility.
4. The belief that all endeavors are ultimately futile and devoid of meaning.
5. Contradiction (not always deliberate) between behavior and espoused principle, to such a degree that all possible espoused principle is voided.
"...the bandmembers sweat hard enough to earn their pretensions, and maybe even their nihilism" (rock critic Dave Marsh, reviewing the band XTC's album Go)
6. The deliberate refusal of belief to the point that belief itself is rejected as untenable.
(source wikipedia)
Machine evolution and power. Nowadays machines deal with control and communication.
"Thinking beyond the construction of the gadget to its integration into society. How will it affect humans? How will humans interact with it What consequences will it have?"
THOUGHTS:
It's quite interesting to compare this text with William Morris's Revival of Handicraft as they have similar themes: The delegation of work to machines and the social implications. He also speaks of having caution, and machines being false gods, and of somehow usurping our place in the world. A Pandora's box. Things being released that can't be undone. A machine plague. Whilst I agree our dependence on machines has grown, I don't think they have gained a religious status. Computers are ubiquitous and everyday common things now. Their intimidating and monumental mainframe size and speed has been tamed and brought down to the human, and even child scale.
I still think his ideas of questioning what we are making and why we are making it is valuable, as maybe things don't get scrutinised as much as they could. It would be interesting to see what real life designers thing about this.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Assignment 3: Research Composition
Here are the links to my stuff:
Processing
Molecule/Bounce Ball
Spark
Stars
The processing scripts are Zipped up:
Molecule/Bounce Ball ZIP
Spark ZIP
Stars ZIP
This is the final presentation zipped up with the final movie (so the movie link should work):
Proj3 Final ZIP
It's approx 16MB. I'll try to put up a web version of the movie.
Processing
Molecule/Bounce Ball
Spark
Stars
The processing scripts are Zipped up:
Molecule/Bounce Ball ZIP
Spark ZIP
Stars ZIP
This is the final presentation zipped up with the final movie (so the movie link should work):
Proj3 Final ZIP
It's approx 16MB. I'll try to put up a web version of the movie.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Reading: Cold War Hothouses
Artefacts - Design as a reflection of Culture (archeology). General topic being the cold war era - how the cold war changed things for the architect and architecture. The collapse of the architect as a heroic figure transforming spatial order. A paradigm shift in the way that architects look at their field. Popular culture becomes art.
Everything in the post-war culture was domestic. Domestic space had expanded. Giving examples of this:
drive-ins - the car transformed to domestic space.
suburbia - same houses, same tv programs
public parks - converted to domestic interiors
Road Trip - the car as a mobile domestic interior. The whole highway system as one small domestic world.
The beat generation. The 50’s. Famous writer William Burroughs - The Naked Lunch
The housewife as a soldier on the home front. American superiority resting on the ideal of the suburban home. The all plastic Monsanto House - the house of the future, displayed at Disneyland (1957-1968). American house deployed as a weapon of the cold war.
Communism fought with washing machines and food mixers.
Playboy - extreme post-war house fantasy. Domestic and designed for suburbia. Fantasy of the girl next door.
Cockpit to cubicle: the design on military space filtering down to the design of office space and domestic space.
Converting materials (e.g. Aluminium) for post-war use.
Toys were military.
1949 Eames House - reconfigurable. You are able to change it on the fly.
Kit-sets. Reconfigurability providing adaptability. Play as post-war therapy. Architecture as a re-orientor and “shock-absorber”.
“Every post-war artefact as a kind of toy”. “[ Defensive] Play, not as the escape from cold war tension, but as its very modus operandi”.
Finding out about architecture through design.
THOUGHTS:
It is interesting to thing of the whole suburban landscape being a product of or response to the cold war. The domestic environment providing the illusion of control and safety - normalcy - when in fact you had the arms race and the potential for mutually assured destruction.
Also that we are or could be still in this environment now.
And if this environment is a "shock-absorber" was things are we being cocooned from now?
Everything in the post-war culture was domestic. Domestic space had expanded. Giving examples of this:
drive-ins - the car transformed to domestic space.
suburbia - same houses, same tv programs
public parks - converted to domestic interiors
Road Trip - the car as a mobile domestic interior. The whole highway system as one small domestic world.
The beat generation. The 50’s. Famous writer William Burroughs - The Naked Lunch
The housewife as a soldier on the home front. American superiority resting on the ideal of the suburban home. The all plastic Monsanto House - the house of the future, displayed at Disneyland (1957-1968). American house deployed as a weapon of the cold war.
Communism fought with washing machines and food mixers.
Playboy - extreme post-war house fantasy. Domestic and designed for suburbia. Fantasy of the girl next door.
Cockpit to cubicle: the design on military space filtering down to the design of office space and domestic space.
Converting materials (e.g. Aluminium) for post-war use.
Toys were military.
1949 Eames House - reconfigurable. You are able to change it on the fly.
Kit-sets. Reconfigurability providing adaptability. Play as post-war therapy. Architecture as a re-orientor and “shock-absorber”.
“Every post-war artefact as a kind of toy”. “[ Defensive] Play, not as the escape from cold war tension, but as its very modus operandi”.
Finding out about architecture through design.
THOUGHTS:
It is interesting to thing of the whole suburban landscape being a product of or response to the cold war. The domestic environment providing the illusion of control and safety - normalcy - when in fact you had the arms race and the potential for mutually assured destruction.
Also that we are or could be still in this environment now.
And if this environment is a "shock-absorber" was things are we being cocooned from now?
Monday, May 19, 2008
Assignment 3: Keywords
The thing that interested me most in my essay was about our desire for novelty. To be stimulated by new things. That this tends to create object churn and how do we respond to that?
Here are some that seemed centred around this issue:
Novelty
1/ The state of being new or novel, newness.
2/ A new product, and innovation.
3/ A small mass produced trinket.
4/ in novelty theory, newness, density of complexification, and dynamic change as opposed to static habituation
Appetite
1/ Desire for, or relish of, food or drink; hunger
2/ A strong desire, an eagerness or longing.
3/ The desire for some personal gratification, either of the body or of the mind.
synonyms: craving, longing, desire, appetency, passion
(To) Stimulate
1/ To encourage into action
2/ To arouse an organism to functional activity
synonyms: encourage, induce, provoke, animate, arouse, energise, excite, perk up
Excite
1/ (transitive) to stir the emotions of
2/ to arouse or bring out feelings; to stimulate
Leaning towards excite or stimulate as they are verbs.
Here are some that seemed centred around this issue:
Novelty
1/ The state of being new or novel, newness.
2/ A new product, and innovation.
3/ A small mass produced trinket.
4/ in novelty theory, newness, density of complexification, and dynamic change as opposed to static habituation
Appetite
1/ Desire for, or relish of, food or drink; hunger
2/ A strong desire, an eagerness or longing.
3/ The desire for some personal gratification, either of the body or of the mind.
synonyms: craving, longing, desire, appetency, passion
(To) Stimulate
1/ To encourage into action
2/ To arouse an organism to functional activity
synonyms: encourage, induce, provoke, animate, arouse, energise, excite, perk up
Excite
1/ (transitive) to stir the emotions of
2/ to arouse or bring out feelings; to stimulate
Leaning towards excite or stimulate as they are verbs.
Reading: The Revival Of Handicraft
Art Workmanship
- reaction against mechanisation
- revert to handicraft
The effect of machinery vs handicraft on the arts
Made to Measure (something made specifically for you) vs mass-production (something made for the general market - the mythical average man).
Middle Ages - Production individualistic in method. Little DIVISION OF LABOUR
First medieval period - Slef employed workman using own tools.
Latter 16th cetury to 18th century - captialist, and the workman, and a division of labour
A change from man using tools (superior), to tending machines (subordinate)
Machines produce ugly thing (utilitarian).
Beauty not as an end in and of itself, but as an environment, a context for other life purposes or activities. Therefore important to have in your surroundings. Society cannot be happy without happy people. Squalid surroundings and wretched drudgery do not make for happiness.
Art in the service of some purpose makes it beautiful.
GREAT EPOCHS OF PRODUCTION
Civilisation being guided by or having a spiritual purpose determined/debated by the intellectual aristocracy.
Mass-production creating capitalists/rich manufacturers - material purpose - who supplant the aristocracy. Status aristocrats (born and bred) being challenged/replaced by wealth aristocrats (new money, rich people).
Basically mass-production changing the power structure of society.
Division of labour being fragmentary or anti-holistic (to the worker). Also the machine displacing workers, creating unemployment and leading to poverty.
But also mass-production making affordable to the poor what was once only affordable to the rich. Mass-production being an equalising or liberating force.
Karl Marx - Socialism "Capital".
THOUGHTS:
William Morris seems to be on the money pretty much and it is surprising how much of what he has to say is still relevant today, considering it was written over 100 years ago.
I think technology has come a long way, and not all mass-produced things are ugly any more. Or at least ugliness isn't an inherent quality of mass-production. There are some very beautiful mass produced things out there. Indeed some mass-production processes are more exacting and precise than any human could be. Microchips being a case in point.
His talk about the surroundings (i.e. environment) is still just as important now. Keeping beauty alive within the human footprint.
- reaction against mechanisation
- revert to handicraft
The effect of machinery vs handicraft on the arts
Made to Measure (something made specifically for you) vs mass-production (something made for the general market - the mythical average man).
Middle Ages - Production individualistic in method. Little DIVISION OF LABOUR
First medieval period - Slef employed workman using own tools.
Latter 16th cetury to 18th century - captialist, and the workman, and a division of labour
A change from man using tools (superior), to tending machines (subordinate)
Machines produce ugly thing (utilitarian).
Beauty not as an end in and of itself, but as an environment, a context for other life purposes or activities. Therefore important to have in your surroundings. Society cannot be happy without happy people. Squalid surroundings and wretched drudgery do not make for happiness.
Art in the service of some purpose makes it beautiful.
GREAT EPOCHS OF PRODUCTION
Civilisation being guided by or having a spiritual purpose determined/debated by the intellectual aristocracy.
Mass-production creating capitalists/rich manufacturers - material purpose - who supplant the aristocracy. Status aristocrats (born and bred) being challenged/replaced by wealth aristocrats (new money, rich people).
Basically mass-production changing the power structure of society.
Division of labour being fragmentary or anti-holistic (to the worker). Also the machine displacing workers, creating unemployment and leading to poverty.
But also mass-production making affordable to the poor what was once only affordable to the rich. Mass-production being an equalising or liberating force.
Karl Marx - Socialism "Capital".
THOUGHTS:
William Morris seems to be on the money pretty much and it is surprising how much of what he has to say is still relevant today, considering it was written over 100 years ago.
I think technology has come a long way, and not all mass-produced things are ugly any more. Or at least ugliness isn't an inherent quality of mass-production. There are some very beautiful mass produced things out there. Indeed some mass-production processes are more exacting and precise than any human could be. Microchips being a case in point.
His talk about the surroundings (i.e. environment) is still just as important now. Keeping beauty alive within the human footprint.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Reading: Social Dimensions of Wearable Computers
Ubiquitous Computing - Networked Computers located everywhere and nowhere
Embedded Computing - Supply actors (human and non-human) with communication and computing capabilities "smart".
Pervasive Computing - Remote control, by yourself or others.
Personal Computer (PC). Shift towards the personal computing paradigm. Small Personal Object Technology (SPOT).
- connectedness and empowerment
- personal space augmented
- wearable computers as personal empowerment
Wearable Computer (WC) - fully functional, self-powered, self-contained computer.
Steve Mann - WC being controlled by the wearer. Not possible with closed/proprietary software.
Conceptual Development - WC gaining more credibility. Minaturisation resulting in more application focus and scope.
Handsfree - military applications. WC aware of context, locations, and surroundings. Being cognizant. Client (local) with processing done on the server-side.
WC evolving from tools to technological companions. An extension of self or a second skin.
Lew & Philips "ICD+" Smart shirt system. Wearable Mother board. Applications.
SOCIAL DIMENSIONS
Q: What is the social impact?
Positives
- memory
- monitoring
Negatives
- loss of autonomy
- reliability
- safety
- security
- control/surveillance
WC - Control and Surveillance
Orwellian - discourages uptake
(Read more about the e-Sniffer mobile tracking service. The same kind of thing could be used in a big-brother way).
Conclusion:
WC are a double edged-sword.
"technological artifacts as (heterogeneous) networks that favour certain social dynamics, certain social patterns of organisation, and modes of experience".
WC should be inclusive and representative of the people using them.
Embedded Computing - Supply actors (human and non-human) with communication and computing capabilities "smart".
Pervasive Computing - Remote control, by yourself or others.
Personal Computer (PC). Shift towards the personal computing paradigm. Small Personal Object Technology (SPOT).
- connectedness and empowerment
- personal space augmented
- wearable computers as personal empowerment
Wearable Computer (WC) - fully functional, self-powered, self-contained computer.
Steve Mann - WC being controlled by the wearer. Not possible with closed/proprietary software.
Conceptual Development - WC gaining more credibility. Minaturisation resulting in more application focus and scope.
Handsfree - military applications. WC aware of context, locations, and surroundings. Being cognizant. Client (local) with processing done on the server-side.
WC evolving from tools to technological companions. An extension of self or a second skin.
Lew & Philips "ICD+" Smart shirt system. Wearable Mother board. Applications.
SOCIAL DIMENSIONS
Q: What is the social impact?
Positives
- memory
- monitoring
Negatives
- loss of autonomy
- reliability
- safety
- security
- control/surveillance
WC - Control and Surveillance
Orwellian - discourages uptake
(Read more about the e-Sniffer mobile tracking service. The same kind of thing could be used in a big-brother way).
Conclusion:
WC are a double edged-sword.
"technological artifacts as (heterogeneous) networks that favour certain social dynamics, certain social patterns of organisation, and modes of experience".
WC should be inclusive and representative of the people using them.
Lecture: (Im)material Practice - Part II
PART II: WHAT IS FORM?
Scientific Realism – that there are universal truths that can be discovered. That there can models and teories of how the universe works.
Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995)
What is form in relation to matter, science, and design?
1/ Body without organs(?)
2/ Stratification (prison) – strata, layer, belts. Imprisoning intensities, containment.
hmmm... maybe an easy way to think of this is discrete vs continuous, or static vs dynamic.
Change in Actual Structure results in a difference in degree (i.e. the amount of a thing e.g. bigger, longer, heavier etc).
A change in intensive structure creates a difference in kind - a change in structure (e.g. ice to water to steam).
A cascade of symmetry changing events (phase change - transition)
Kleens - Classification of Geometries
Intensive Matter is more Interesting. Actual Matter as a manifestation of an intensive principle.
(This is a very similar theme to the "Things That Matter" text as it talks about the Platoism of Matter - the idea of matter (sign, meaning) etc being more important than the thing/object itself). Although it seems the angle here is slightly different basically that there is an underlying level or layer to matter).
Intensity causes the form
Extensivity is just a slowing down.
Think of the world as an intensive place - that there is a pattern, or blueprint underlying things.
Frei Otto
Experiments in Form Finding. Experiments in light-weight structures.
Not matter obeying laws but matter wanting to be matter (?)
Munich Olympics. Soap Bubble Experiments.
Hyperbolic Paraboloids. MW Architects. Olympic Games - Watercube 208.
Scientific - inert mass that is commanded by the idea of the law to submit to a form.
Designer - materials are heterogenous.
- Herb Simon
- Horst Riltel
- Melvin Webber
- Gilles Deleuze
Axiomatics - repeatability. Method?
Problematics - doing knowledge. When you design something everytime it is a new creation.
Hylomorphic - forms come form outside (Aristotle).
Homogenised Material - processed
Heterogeneous Material - natural
Design becomes a reproduction of form regardless of material.
Thoughts:
I remember this lecture generating quite a lot of debate at the time.
The two main things that stood out for me was:
1/ Designers should deal with or engage with the essence of a material/thing (intensive structure) versus the extensive side.
2/ Design becomes a reproduction of form regardless of material.
1/ Well the first seemed a bit vague for me. As a designer it doesn't give you much to work with. What is the essence of a form? The Louis Sullivan quote springs to mind "What does a brick want to be?". Defining the essence of a material seems very subjective and individual. After all it relates to my own perception, and spiritual or emotional relationship with an object.
2/ A big assumption here is that a change in material necessitates a change in form because of the differences in material qualities. I don't agree with this. What is the driver of form? Materiality or Functionality or something else again? Changes in material may necessitate changes in construction, and even in surface/texture, but not necessarily changes in form. Engagement with the material could be implemented in the design in other ways.
There was also the view postulated that somehow homogenised/processed materials are bad because the original intensive qualities are ignored. I argue that it is only by understanding the intensive qualities of a material that we are able to manipulate them to the extent that we do. Thing of Kevlar vests, and carbon-fibre bikes and boat masts. Would we be able to do this if we didn't understand a materials intensive qualities?
Standardised materials allow us to build safely and efficiently (i.e. more sustainable) because we know that they perform within certain tolerances, and can therefore use less of them. If we used non-standardised materials we would need to have higher saftey margins in order to compensate for fluctuating qualities of individual materials.
That is not to suggest that only standardised material should be used in design, but that the strengths of each can be used in a balanced and complementary way.
Scientific Realism – that there are universal truths that can be discovered. That there can models and teories of how the universe works.
Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995)
What is form in relation to matter, science, and design?
1/ Body without organs(?)
2/ Stratification (prison) – strata, layer, belts. Imprisoning intensities, containment.
| Actual Structure | Intensive Structure (Body without organs - flows) |
|---|---|
| Length | Temperature |
| Area | Pressure |
| Volume | Speed |
| Mass | Density |
hmmm... maybe an easy way to think of this is discrete vs continuous, or static vs dynamic.
Change in Actual Structure results in a difference in degree (i.e. the amount of a thing e.g. bigger, longer, heavier etc).
A change in intensive structure creates a difference in kind - a change in structure (e.g. ice to water to steam).
A cascade of symmetry changing events (phase change - transition)
Kleens - Classification of Geometries
Intensive Matter is more Interesting. Actual Matter as a manifestation of an intensive principle.
(This is a very similar theme to the "Things That Matter" text as it talks about the Platoism of Matter - the idea of matter (sign, meaning) etc being more important than the thing/object itself). Although it seems the angle here is slightly different basically that there is an underlying level or layer to matter).
Intensity causes the form
Extensivity is just a slowing down.
Think of the world as an intensive place - that there is a pattern, or blueprint underlying things.
Frei Otto
Experiments in Form Finding. Experiments in light-weight structures.
Not matter obeying laws but matter wanting to be matter (?)
Munich Olympics. Soap Bubble Experiments.
Hyperbolic Paraboloids. MW Architects. Olympic Games - Watercube 208.
Scientific - inert mass that is commanded by the idea of the law to submit to a form.
Designer - materials are heterogenous.
- Herb Simon
- Horst Riltel
- Melvin Webber
- Gilles Deleuze
Axiomatics - repeatability. Method?
Problematics - doing knowledge. When you design something everytime it is a new creation.
Hylomorphic - forms come form outside (Aristotle).
Homogenised Material - processed
Heterogeneous Material - natural
Design becomes a reproduction of form regardless of material.
Thoughts:
I remember this lecture generating quite a lot of debate at the time.
The two main things that stood out for me was:
1/ Designers should deal with or engage with the essence of a material/thing (intensive structure) versus the extensive side.
2/ Design becomes a reproduction of form regardless of material.
1/ Well the first seemed a bit vague for me. As a designer it doesn't give you much to work with. What is the essence of a form? The Louis Sullivan quote springs to mind "What does a brick want to be?". Defining the essence of a material seems very subjective and individual. After all it relates to my own perception, and spiritual or emotional relationship with an object.
2/ A big assumption here is that a change in material necessitates a change in form because of the differences in material qualities. I don't agree with this. What is the driver of form? Materiality or Functionality or something else again? Changes in material may necessitate changes in construction, and even in surface/texture, but not necessarily changes in form. Engagement with the material could be implemented in the design in other ways.
There was also the view postulated that somehow homogenised/processed materials are bad because the original intensive qualities are ignored. I argue that it is only by understanding the intensive qualities of a material that we are able to manipulate them to the extent that we do. Thing of Kevlar vests, and carbon-fibre bikes and boat masts. Would we be able to do this if we didn't understand a materials intensive qualities?
Standardised materials allow us to build safely and efficiently (i.e. more sustainable) because we know that they perform within certain tolerances, and can therefore use less of them. If we used non-standardised materials we would need to have higher saftey margins in order to compensate for fluctuating qualities of individual materials.
That is not to suggest that only standardised material should be used in design, but that the strengths of each can be used in a balanced and complementary way.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Powerpoint for Reading
Here is the link for the "Things that Matter" powerpoint.
Things that Matter Powerpoint
Sorry no blog updates for awhile. Been hammered with other projects. Will update soon.
Things that Matter Powerpoint
Sorry no blog updates for awhile. Been hammered with other projects. Will update soon.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Research: Design for the Real World
Design for the Real World
Victor Papanek
Paladin 1974
This book has a lot going on. It critiques the status quo in regards to the current state of affairs of design and the environment in which it operates. The latter part of the book proposes alternatives. I’ll summarise the things that stuck out for me.
The Function Complex - criteria for evaluating design.
Use - Does it work (well)?
Need - Do we need it?
Telesis - Does the design fit it’s context/culture?
Association _ I think this refers a bit to semiotics and the recognition and identification of designed objects. i.e. don’t confuse people.
Aesthetics - beautiful, exiting, delightful, meaningful.
Method - interaction of tools processes and materials i.e. using the appropriate ones.
Notably aesthetics is incorporated into the functional complex.
The main themes were:
We design for a minority
We produce things we don’t need
We replace/throw away things when we don’t need to motivated by fashion/marketing/fads/status
There is built in product obsolescence (no spare parts, replacements, servicing etc).
Do we need so many brands/models/versions of something? (wasteful duplication).
We need safer products (badly designed products can hurt, maim, and even kill people).
Product life cycle/environmental issues relating to pollution and product disposal.
This book is over 30 years old and it is interesting to see that most of the issues raised are still relevant now, and are issues we are still grappling with.
It has some relevance to my essay topic which I shall discuss in more detail.
Victor Papanek
Paladin 1974
This book has a lot going on. It critiques the status quo in regards to the current state of affairs of design and the environment in which it operates. The latter part of the book proposes alternatives. I’ll summarise the things that stuck out for me.
The Function Complex - criteria for evaluating design.
Use - Does it work (well)?
Need - Do we need it?
Telesis - Does the design fit it’s context/culture?
Association _ I think this refers a bit to semiotics and the recognition and identification of designed objects. i.e. don’t confuse people.
Aesthetics - beautiful, exiting, delightful, meaningful.
Method - interaction of tools processes and materials i.e. using the appropriate ones.
Notably aesthetics is incorporated into the functional complex.
The main themes were:
We design for a minority
We produce things we don’t need
We replace/throw away things when we don’t need to motivated by fashion/marketing/fads/status
There is built in product obsolescence (no spare parts, replacements, servicing etc).
Do we need so many brands/models/versions of something? (wasteful duplication).
We need safer products (badly designed products can hurt, maim, and even kill people).
Product life cycle/environmental issues relating to pollution and product disposal.
This book is over 30 years old and it is interesting to see that most of the issues raised are still relevant now, and are issues we are still grappling with.
It has some relevance to my essay topic which I shall discuss in more detail.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Lecture: (Im)material Practice
Talking about designers having to deal with form, materials, and mass.
But what actually is design?
Design as Applied Creativity
A mixture of creativity and analytical skills.
Design as Problem Solving
Pose
Search
Generate
Test
Phase model of the design process. Starting with requirements, and a linear progression through development, testing, and production.
It works well in situations where the design goal is clear and the goal doesn’t change, and if different solutions can be compared with each other.
It is a control management process.
Design as Learning
Experiments - models, sketches, etc
Iterative - learn your way towards a solution
Design as Evolution
Continual refinement of ideas and concepts
Design as a Social Process
Today we work and design in teams as the skills of many people are required. Group dynamics involve negotiation and compromise. Good designers are good negotiators.
Design as a Game
A design problem is a challenge or a gamble. Have to take risks.
Design as Solving Wicked Problems
There were quite a few clauses defining Wicked Problems in the lecture, but Messy vs Tame sums it up.
Improvising your way to a solution. Create a path by walking along. Reach a solution intuitively, and construct explanation afterwards with hindsight.
Design as Mastery of Expertise
Niave - adequate for everyday use. Design as a reaction
Novice - considers mentor ideas. Follow strict rules. Learn formal process of design.
Advanced Beginner - maxims/guidelines, exceptions to rules
Competent Designer - select relevant elements, seeking opportunities, building up expectations, willing to take risks.
Expert - many years of experience. High level patterns. Responds intuitively. Vulnerable to disruptions (external factors)
Master - Anxious expert (anxiety).Standard ways of working aren’t normal but contingent. Consequences/appropriateness of design decisions (ethics).
Visionary - expert domain. Works in the margin of domains (expanding boundaries). E.g. Galileo, Martin Luther King. They see the world in a different way.
How Not To Design
I thought that I’d reframe this into the positive, so...
How TO Design
Explore many ideas and concepts
Start off at a high level (macro)
Be flexible
Be holistic (focus on many aspects - the whole problem)
Do something/anything i.e. work through creative blocks
Listen (utilise feedback and constructive criticism)
(I don’t thing I got them all but it’s a good start).
The game of “Go” (not sure of the spelling of that one). Competition for the computer to beat a human. The idea that something human can do better than computers. Actually that we take a lot of things that we can do for granted.
My Thoughts/Summary
It is interesting to look at design from different perspectives. The “Design as a Wicked Problem” got my back up. It seems like a problem classification or categorisation system to me, and one of limited use. Basically how does labelling a design problem “Wicked” or not help you respond to it? It doesn’t add anything.
I did like the “How (not) to Design”. I think the “Don’t wait for inspiration” is key. Do. Act. Engage. Be active versus passive. Take control.
Part II coming soon...
But what actually is design?
Design as Applied Creativity
A mixture of creativity and analytical skills.
Design as Problem Solving
Pose
Search
Generate
Test
Phase model of the design process. Starting with requirements, and a linear progression through development, testing, and production.
It works well in situations where the design goal is clear and the goal doesn’t change, and if different solutions can be compared with each other.
It is a control management process.
Design as Learning
Experiments - models, sketches, etc
Iterative - learn your way towards a solution
Design as Evolution
Continual refinement of ideas and concepts
Design as a Social Process
Today we work and design in teams as the skills of many people are required. Group dynamics involve negotiation and compromise. Good designers are good negotiators.
Design as a Game
A design problem is a challenge or a gamble. Have to take risks.
Design as Solving Wicked Problems
There were quite a few clauses defining Wicked Problems in the lecture, but Messy vs Tame sums it up.
Improvising your way to a solution. Create a path by walking along. Reach a solution intuitively, and construct explanation afterwards with hindsight.
Design as Mastery of Expertise
Niave - adequate for everyday use. Design as a reaction
Novice - considers mentor ideas. Follow strict rules. Learn formal process of design.
Advanced Beginner - maxims/guidelines, exceptions to rules
Competent Designer - select relevant elements, seeking opportunities, building up expectations, willing to take risks.
Expert - many years of experience. High level patterns. Responds intuitively. Vulnerable to disruptions (external factors)
Master - Anxious expert (anxiety).Standard ways of working aren’t normal but contingent. Consequences/appropriateness of design decisions (ethics).
Visionary - expert domain. Works in the margin of domains (expanding boundaries). E.g. Galileo, Martin Luther King. They see the world in a different way.
How Not To Design
I thought that I’d reframe this into the positive, so...
How TO Design
Explore many ideas and concepts
Start off at a high level (macro)
Be flexible
Be holistic (focus on many aspects - the whole problem)
Do something/anything i.e. work through creative blocks
Listen (utilise feedback and constructive criticism)
(I don’t thing I got them all but it’s a good start).
The game of “Go” (not sure of the spelling of that one). Competition for the computer to beat a human. The idea that something human can do better than computers. Actually that we take a lot of things that we can do for granted.
My Thoughts/Summary
It is interesting to look at design from different perspectives. The “Design as a Wicked Problem” got my back up. It seems like a problem classification or categorisation system to me, and one of limited use. Basically how does labelling a design problem “Wicked” or not help you respond to it? It doesn’t add anything.
I did like the “How (not) to Design”. I think the “Don’t wait for inspiration” is key. Do. Act. Engage. Be active versus passive. Take control.
Part II coming soon...
Updated Bibliography
Thanks for the book recommendation Anne. I have updated my bibliography list accordingly. I have tried to get hold of this book previously (TS170.5 C466 E), but it is on loan till 28/4.
I shall try and source another copy or get it recalled.
I shall try and source another copy or get it recalled.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Lecture: Emboddied Interaction
Wearable Technology
Mobile Media
Interaction Installations
Telematics
Device shrinkage leading to hi-tech jewellery and biometrics e.g Taser jacket and USB necklace.
New materials. Luminescent, colour changing, electrically conductive. Thermo-chromic inks.
L’echape Communicante
Steve Mann. Wearable Computers. Him being a pioneer in his field. Werable computers are:
- worn, not carried
user controllable
operate in real time (although they may have a sleep mode).
“sousveillance” - embedded cameras. Surveilling back.
Benoit Maubrey. Die Audio Gruppe
1982 Audio Jackets
1989 Audio Ballerinas
2003 Audio Peacocks
Golan Levin - Dialtones (a telesymphony)
Arts Electronica Festival
Paul De Marinis - merging the acoustic and interactive.
1998 Raindance
2004 Firebird
Sound embedded in water
Joachim Sauter ART COM Berlin Interactive Performance
Virtual to Physical interaction
2007 Duality
2002 Famous Grouse Experience
Holistic experience design using all of the senses
Media Stage and Costume Design
Architecture Generated in real time from plant growing algorithm. Infrared reflective costumes.
Four cameras in realtime motion capture for volume generators.
David Rokeby
Very Nervous System (1986-1990) Soft VNS
Vision inextricably linked with surveillance.
2003 Sorting Daemon. Automatically classifying people. Prejudice institutionalised in software programs.
Paul Garrin / David Rokeby
1994-96 Border Patrol. Thomas Squat=re Riot 1988. Security through insecurity (pre 9/11).
Erkki Kurenniemi
DIMI Ballet 1971. Optical video to sound synthesiser.
Paul Sermon
Telematics - computers and wireless (GPS).
Telepresence - to appear, or have an effect at a location other than their true location.
1992 Telematic Dreaming
1993 telematic Vision
You are as sensitive to what happens to your own image as your are to your own body.
1977 Satellite Arts Projects. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz
1980 Hole in Space. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz.
1984 Good Moning Mr Orwell.
Nam June Paik. NY, Paris, and San Francisco.
Mobile Media
Interaction Installations
Telematics
Device shrinkage leading to hi-tech jewellery and biometrics e.g Taser jacket and USB necklace.
New materials. Luminescent, colour changing, electrically conductive. Thermo-chromic inks.
L’echape Communicante
Steve Mann. Wearable Computers. Him being a pioneer in his field. Werable computers are:
- worn, not carried
user controllable
operate in real time (although they may have a sleep mode).
“sousveillance” - embedded cameras. Surveilling back.
Benoit Maubrey. Die Audio Gruppe
1982 Audio Jackets
1989 Audio Ballerinas
2003 Audio Peacocks
Golan Levin - Dialtones (a telesymphony)
Arts Electronica Festival
Paul De Marinis - merging the acoustic and interactive.
1998 Raindance
2004 Firebird
Sound embedded in water
Joachim Sauter ART COM Berlin Interactive Performance
Virtual to Physical interaction
2007 Duality
2002 Famous Grouse Experience
Holistic experience design using all of the senses
Media Stage and Costume Design
Architecture Generated in real time from plant growing algorithm. Infrared reflective costumes.
Four cameras in realtime motion capture for volume generators.
David Rokeby
Very Nervous System (1986-1990) Soft VNS
Vision inextricably linked with surveillance.
2003 Sorting Daemon. Automatically classifying people. Prejudice institutionalised in software programs.
Paul Garrin / David Rokeby
1994-96 Border Patrol. Thomas Squat=re Riot 1988. Security through insecurity (pre 9/11).
Erkki Kurenniemi
DIMI Ballet 1971. Optical video to sound synthesiser.
Paul Sermon
Telematics - computers and wireless (GPS).
Telepresence - to appear, or have an effect at a location other than their true location.
1992 Telematic Dreaming
1993 telematic Vision
You are as sensitive to what happens to your own image as your are to your own body.
1977 Satellite Arts Projects. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz
1980 Hole in Space. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz.
1984 Good Moning Mr Orwell.
Nam June Paik. NY, Paris, and San Francisco.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Lecture: Open Source Design and Collective Invention
Networks
Archigram - Plug-In City. Living within the network. Node/Links. Total node network. Networks about horizontality - flat space, infinite surface.
Nework continous and extended. Building has become the planet. Superstudio.
Megastructures. Archizoom. Non-stop city. The prosthetic extension of the human body through electronics. GIANT ELECTRONIC BRAIN.
www.instructibles.com
RepRap(?): Opensource rapid prototyper
Mash-Up & Remix Culture. Danger Mouse, The Grey Album, 2004
Negativland
Culture Jamming
Adbusters
Will St Leger
Surveillance Camera Players
Upgrade and Repurpose
Jodi. Jodi.org. Joan Heemskerk (Bogotá) and Dirk Paesmans (Caracas)
Criticality in Art and Design
Combining things to make a new meaning. Usually more striking if both things seem unrelated at first glance. Idea of the ready made - dealing with the existing, working in context, re-examination.
William Burroughs - The Naked Lunch. Cut Up. Cut up filmstrips to create new associations.
Fluxus - John Cage, Tacit, 1960
Pop Art
Jasper Johns American Flag.
Andy Warhol, Cambells Tomato Soup
Punk - situationalist
Deconstructivisim Gordon Matt-Clark
Pomo Pastiche - Irony
Kitch - Jef Koons
Camp
Diane Arbus - margnal photographs.
Archigram - Plug-In City. Living within the network. Node/Links. Total node network. Networks about horizontality - flat space, infinite surface.
Nework continous and extended. Building has become the planet. Superstudio.
Megastructures. Archizoom. Non-stop city. The prosthetic extension of the human body through electronics. GIANT ELECTRONIC BRAIN.
www.instructibles.com
RepRap(?): Opensource rapid prototyper
Mash-Up & Remix Culture. Danger Mouse, The Grey Album, 2004
Negativland
Culture Jamming
Adbusters
Will St Leger
Surveillance Camera Players
Upgrade and Repurpose
Jodi. Jodi.org. Joan Heemskerk (Bogotá) and Dirk Paesmans (Caracas)
Criticality in Art and Design
Combining things to make a new meaning. Usually more striking if both things seem unrelated at first glance. Idea of the ready made - dealing with the existing, working in context, re-examination.
William Burroughs - The Naked Lunch. Cut Up. Cut up filmstrips to create new associations.
Fluxus - John Cage, Tacit, 1960
Pop Art
Jasper Johns American Flag.
Andy Warhol, Cambells Tomato Soup
Punk - situationalist
Deconstructivisim Gordon Matt-Clark
Pomo Pastiche - Irony
Kitch - Jef Koons
Camp
Diane Arbus - margnal photographs.
Lecture: Design and Postmodernity
Martine Dawley -Architectural Critic and Writer. Unconcious celebration. Design informing us about history - not the other way around.
Spaces of Modernism - umm, coulding find this book. Maybe it's in the Course Outline.
-ity: state, value, system, ideaology of root word.
-ism: the association, manifestation
e.g. materiality vs materialism
1960’s - Systemisation of design not possible.
1940’s - USA post WWII. Norman Rockwell. Capitalist Society. Levittown House. 17000 identical housing in an urban grid. Nature and women suppressed.
Postmodernism - about choice.
Feminism - about choice.
Therefore Feminism is Postmodern.
Second wave of feminism - quest for sameness. Women lib primarily focusing on males vs female issues. From 1970’s onwards it focused on other - disabled, race, gender(?). i.e. the marginal.
1960’s attention on surface as most/products equal in terms of function and efficiency. Attention to style as a differentiator.
Richard Hamilton
Ray Lichenstein - pop art.
Abstract Expressionism
1972 Coca-Cola vs de Kooning; Untitled
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
1964 Terence Conran, Habitat. LSD, riotous colour, stop needing started wanting
[ maybe an important transition time. Could be relevant for essay topic].
Mass Communication. Surface+Space=Power
1962 NASA Moon Landing. Neil Armstrong
1952 Ant Chair - Arne Jacobsen
1957 Egg Chair - ditto
1970 Apollo Space Rocket Design
Ettore Sottsass
Father of postmodernity. Red typewriter 1969 for Olivetti.
Memphis -Egypt. Piranesi influenced by Egypt as well.
Ornament becomes the object.
1971 Nixon - suspended convertability of US dollar into gold.
1973-1986 - oil crisis. Price of oil rose quadrupled.
NZ - Robert Muldoon Prime Minister and also Finance minister. Implemented protectionism that ended in 1984. NZ design stagnation until 1984 when Robert Muldoon replaced.
Cold War. 1940 to mid 1990. Ended really with the destruction of the Berlin wall.
1947-55 Korean War
1957-75 Vietnam War
Yamusaki - World Trade Centre
Postmodernism alienates and is subservient to capitalism.
1972 Charles Jencks end of modernism. After is post-modernism.
1976 Apple Macintosh is the biggest selling home? computer in the US.
1984 Apple Mac
Materialism
Philip Johnson - aluminium. Post war uses.
Robert Venturi - One of the three major writers of the century. Complexity and Contradiction.
Association important in structuralism. Simplification of signs. Iconography,
Michael Graves - Portland, Oregon, Municipal Building 1980.
Aldo Rossi - Modena Crematorium 1972-1976, 1978.
Structuralism
Faucault, Lacan, Levi-Strauss, Barthes
Semiotics - what an object means to you
[ I though this would be worth further investigation for essay].
Sign, Signified, Signifier
Roland Barthes
Media has subverted what fashion is. Code or association (dova) determines meaning.
Language determines the understanding of the sign. The word is meaningless. It is the association that is important. In language there is only signifiers.
The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
Michel Faucault (1926-1984).
The guard house. Observation/surveillance. Postmodern narrative is situational, provisional, temporary with no claim to universality, truth, or reason.
The holiness of science revealed as bas or distortion.
Structuralist narrative stressing the performative - doing what you say e.g. launching a ship.
Simulcra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard, 1988
Functional Value
Exchange Value
Symbolic Value
Sign Value
Real vs Representation
Simulacrum - representation of something that is real.
Frederick Jameson - Anti-capitalist. “Post-Modernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism”. Hi-tech fantasies are morally questionable Difference between copy and original is redundant. Breakdown of symbols, and symbol recognition.
[The last two books sound very interesting. I have got the Baudrillard one, but interested in Frederick Jameson as well].
Spaces of Modernism - umm, coulding find this book. Maybe it's in the Course Outline.
-ity: state, value, system, ideaology of root word.
-ism: the association, manifestation
e.g. materiality vs materialism
1960’s - Systemisation of design not possible.
1940’s - USA post WWII. Norman Rockwell. Capitalist Society. Levittown House. 17000 identical housing in an urban grid. Nature and women suppressed.
Postmodernism - about choice.
Feminism - about choice.
Therefore Feminism is Postmodern.
Second wave of feminism - quest for sameness. Women lib primarily focusing on males vs female issues. From 1970’s onwards it focused on other - disabled, race, gender(?). i.e. the marginal.
1960’s attention on surface as most/products equal in terms of function and efficiency. Attention to style as a differentiator.
Richard Hamilton
Ray Lichenstein - pop art.
Abstract Expressionism
1972 Coca-Cola vs de Kooning; Untitled
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
1964 Terence Conran, Habitat. LSD, riotous colour, stop needing started wanting
[ maybe an important transition time. Could be relevant for essay topic].
Mass Communication. Surface+Space=Power
1962 NASA Moon Landing. Neil Armstrong
1952 Ant Chair - Arne Jacobsen
1957 Egg Chair - ditto
1970 Apollo Space Rocket Design
Ettore Sottsass
Father of postmodernity. Red typewriter 1969 for Olivetti.
Memphis -Egypt. Piranesi influenced by Egypt as well.
Ornament becomes the object.
1971 Nixon - suspended convertability of US dollar into gold.
1973-1986 - oil crisis. Price of oil rose quadrupled.
NZ - Robert Muldoon Prime Minister and also Finance minister. Implemented protectionism that ended in 1984. NZ design stagnation until 1984 when Robert Muldoon replaced.
Cold War. 1940 to mid 1990. Ended really with the destruction of the Berlin wall.
1947-55 Korean War
1957-75 Vietnam War
Yamusaki - World Trade Centre
Postmodernism alienates and is subservient to capitalism.
1972 Charles Jencks end of modernism. After is post-modernism.
1976 Apple Macintosh is the biggest selling home? computer in the US.
1984 Apple Mac
Materialism
Philip Johnson - aluminium. Post war uses.
Robert Venturi - One of the three major writers of the century. Complexity and Contradiction.
Association important in structuralism. Simplification of signs. Iconography,
Michael Graves - Portland, Oregon, Municipal Building 1980.
Aldo Rossi - Modena Crematorium 1972-1976, 1978.
Structuralism
Faucault, Lacan, Levi-Strauss, Barthes
Semiotics - what an object means to you
[ I though this would be worth further investigation for essay].
Sign, Signified, Signifier
Roland Barthes
Media has subverted what fashion is. Code or association (dova) determines meaning.
Language determines the understanding of the sign. The word is meaningless. It is the association that is important. In language there is only signifiers.
The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
Michel Faucault (1926-1984).
The guard house. Observation/surveillance. Postmodern narrative is situational, provisional, temporary with no claim to universality, truth, or reason.
The holiness of science revealed as bas or distortion.
Structuralist narrative stressing the performative - doing what you say e.g. launching a ship.
Simulcra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard, 1988
Functional Value
Exchange Value
Symbolic Value
Sign Value
Real vs Representation
Simulacrum - representation of something that is real.
Frederick Jameson - Anti-capitalist. “Post-Modernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism”. Hi-tech fantasies are morally questionable Difference between copy and original is redundant. Breakdown of symbols, and symbol recognition.
[The last two books sound very interesting. I have got the Baudrillard one, but interested in Frederick Jameson as well].
Lecture: Design and Modernity
Post WWI - Russian Revolution and rejection of history and design ornament
Baroque 1600-1700 emotionally expressive. dramatic curvilinear forms. faith, power and prestige. ornamental and lavish.
Industrialisation
1712 Steam Engine
1775 James Watt
1840 Manchester - First industrial city in the world.
1851 - Crystal Palace - Joseph Paxton. Design synonymous with decoration.
1840 Dilemma of style.
1900 Arts and Crafts Movement. 1834 - 1896 William Morris “utility is just as important as beauty”. Simple forms and good quality
1889 William Morris. Carpet design and wallpaper. The social function of design.
1894 Luois Sullivan “Form [ever] follows function”.
1903 (1900’s) Frank Lloyd Wright - emphasis on primary forms coming through.
Werkbund (German Work Federation). 1895 Henry Van de Velde
Factory
site of production
worker
honest
pragmatism
opposite of art
1908 Peter Behrens - designer and consultant for AEG.
28 July 1914 - WWI 20 million military and civilian deaths. Loss of Rationality. Utopian fervour for a more rational world.
Russian Constructivists
1915 Kazimir Malevich. Suprematism.
1920 Alexander Rodchenko - Construction no. 127
1920 Vladimir Tatlin - Monument to the Third International
1925-30 YakovChernikhov - Fundamentals of Modern Architecture
1928 Katarzyna Kobro - Spatial Composition No. 4
Post-war health concerns. Metaphor for a bright new future.
Italian Futurism - SPEED
1913 Umberto Boccioni
Eintseins Theory of Relativity. Body and Space become one.
1914 Antonio Sant ‘Elia
de Stijl - Netherlands
1911 Piet Mondriam
The social aspects of design. Design has a socialist function: to make you a better person.
Internationalism of the Arts
The new, the social spirit of technology to transform the way people live.
Bauhaus
1919-1925 Weimar
1925-1932 Dessau
Ethos:
work
creativity
value
combining to make a total work of art.
Design as a collective process. Fine Art being the individual against the collective. Emphasis on craftwork.
1921 Marianne Brant
1926 Grete Lihotzky “Frankfurt kitchen”. The kitchen as a production line. An efficient kitchen.
Modernism starting to become a style (International Style) rather than a movement.
Baroque 1600-1700 emotionally expressive. dramatic curvilinear forms. faith, power and prestige. ornamental and lavish.
Industrialisation
1712 Steam Engine
1775 James Watt
1840 Manchester - First industrial city in the world.
1851 - Crystal Palace - Joseph Paxton. Design synonymous with decoration.
1840 Dilemma of style.
1900 Arts and Crafts Movement. 1834 - 1896 William Morris “utility is just as important as beauty”. Simple forms and good quality
1889 William Morris. Carpet design and wallpaper. The social function of design.
1894 Luois Sullivan “Form [ever] follows function”.
1903 (1900’s) Frank Lloyd Wright - emphasis on primary forms coming through.
Werkbund (German Work Federation). 1895 Henry Van de Velde
Factory
site of production
worker
honest
pragmatism
opposite of art
1908 Peter Behrens - designer and consultant for AEG.
28 July 1914 - WWI 20 million military and civilian deaths. Loss of Rationality. Utopian fervour for a more rational world.
Russian Constructivists
1915 Kazimir Malevich. Suprematism.
1920 Alexander Rodchenko - Construction no. 127
1920 Vladimir Tatlin - Monument to the Third International
1925-30 YakovChernikhov - Fundamentals of Modern Architecture
1928 Katarzyna Kobro - Spatial Composition No. 4
Post-war health concerns. Metaphor for a bright new future.
Italian Futurism - SPEED
1913 Umberto Boccioni
Eintseins Theory of Relativity. Body and Space become one.
1914 Antonio Sant ‘Elia
de Stijl - Netherlands
1911 Piet Mondriam
The social aspects of design. Design has a socialist function: to make you a better person.
Internationalism of the Arts
The new, the social spirit of technology to transform the way people live.
Bauhaus
1919-1925 Weimar
1925-1932 Dessau
Ethos:
work
creativity
value
combining to make a total work of art.
Design as a collective process. Fine Art being the individual against the collective. Emphasis on craftwork.
1921 Marianne Brant
1926 Grete Lihotzky “Frankfurt kitchen”. The kitchen as a production line. An efficient kitchen.
Modernism starting to become a style (International Style) rather than a movement.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Essay Bibliography
Bibliography
Scitovsky, Tibor, The Joyless Economy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992
Baudrillard, Jean, Simulacra and Simulation, The University of Michigan Press, 1994
Dichter, Ernest, Handbook of Consumer Motivations: The Psychology of the World of Objects, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964
Papanek, Victor, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, Paladin, 1974
Green, William S., Jordan, Patrick W., Pleasure with Products: Beyond Usability, Taylor & Francis, 2002
Chapman, Jonathan, Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences, and Empathy, 2005
Other possibles are:
Hinte, Ed Van, Eternally Yours: Time in Design; Product Value Sustenance, 2004
Chapman, Jonathan, Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences, and Empathy, 2005
McDonough, William, Braingart, Michael, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Norman, Donald A., Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things, 2004
Scitovsky, Tibor, The Joyless Economy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992
Baudrillard, Jean, Simulacra and Simulation, The University of Michigan Press, 1994
Dichter, Ernest, Handbook of Consumer Motivations: The Psychology of the World of Objects, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964
Papanek, Victor, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, Paladin, 1974
Green, William S., Jordan, Patrick W., Pleasure with Products: Beyond Usability, Taylor & Francis, 2002
Chapman, Jonathan, Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences, and Empathy, 2005
Other possibles are:
Hinte, Ed Van, Eternally Yours: Time in Design; Product Value Sustenance, 2004
Chapman, Jonathan, Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences, and Empathy, 2005
McDonough, William, Braingart, Michael, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Norman, Donald A., Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things, 2004
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Thesis Proposal
Useless Things
Lots of stuff gets thrown away. Truckloads of it go off to landfills around the country every day. Industrial Designers would have designed a lot of the things that ended up in there. And the thing that bothers me about all this is that there seems to be a lot of waste.
When you think about how much energy and effort has gone into creating a product, the fact that it can go to the tip without further ado seems criminal.
If we want to live more ethically, like Norbert Wiener, and engage with the consequences, having a greater awareness about waste would seem a good thing.
The proposal would be to examine the psychology of waste from a consumer perspective and aim to determine if our relationship with our objects is a healthy one.
This would involve reviewing historical precedents as they affect the current situation.
Also why consumers buy products, what are their motivations and needs that are being fulfilled by the object. Is it emotional, functional, spiritual need etc. A lot of people buy things they don’t really need. Why? This is the waste prevention side of the equation.
Waste can also be tackled from a remedial aspect. Are there ways to get people to keep their objects for longer (engaging with object etc)? What Recycling/reclamation opportunities are there?
Lots of stuff gets thrown away. Truckloads of it go off to landfills around the country every day. Industrial Designers would have designed a lot of the things that ended up in there. And the thing that bothers me about all this is that there seems to be a lot of waste.
When you think about how much energy and effort has gone into creating a product, the fact that it can go to the tip without further ado seems criminal.
If we want to live more ethically, like Norbert Wiener, and engage with the consequences, having a greater awareness about waste would seem a good thing.
The proposal would be to examine the psychology of waste from a consumer perspective and aim to determine if our relationship with our objects is a healthy one.
This would involve reviewing historical precedents as they affect the current situation.
Also why consumers buy products, what are their motivations and needs that are being fulfilled by the object. Is it emotional, functional, spiritual need etc. A lot of people buy things they don’t really need. Why? This is the waste prevention side of the equation.
Waste can also be tackled from a remedial aspect. Are there ways to get people to keep their objects for longer (engaging with object etc)? What Recycling/reclamation opportunities are there?
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Things That Matter
Interesting read of "Things that Matter" - my allocated reading.
This is a bit of a brain dumps of the ideas and concepts discussed in the reading:
1/ The Modern Movement - "form follows function". Mass production influencing/dictating the forms of objects i.e. what could be manufactured.
2/ Just designing objects felt to be reductionist/boring leading to pop design and post-modern design. Objects have meaning. Objects can be fun. That there is an emotional component/dimension to objects.
3/ That the stress on functionalism results in a loss of attachment with a particular product as any object that can do the same function has the same value (i.e is interchangeable). The object is not valued for it's uniqueness or individuality. I am also referring to mass produced objects here as each object exists independently of its brethren.
4/ Post-modern products have become icon, symbols or signs - the object has become abstracted and is considered in terms of what it signifies, communicates, or represents.
5/ Script - "the deposit in an object of the world view of the designers".
6/ Nothing terribly new here but that as designers we make design choices and discriminate. Favor one thing and exclude/omit others. That these choices can have unintended or unforeseen consequences, and that in some cases certain classes of people can be discriminated against e.g. disabled people.
7/ Exclusion is inherent as we design for particular use(s). One size does not fit all.
8/ An object does not exist in isolation. It is in relation to people.
9/ That there a feedback loop going on. Objects can "invite" certain types of usage. They can condition or train us in certain kinds of behaviors or interactions.
It also talked about TECHNOLOGICAL INTENTIONALITY. Here it started t get a bit vague for me:
"Once technologies have received identity, within that relation they nevertheless can have an own weight".
The jist that I got from that was objects can matter as things not just as signs. The way that I translate is that we can appreciate objects for what they can BE for us, not just necessarily what they can DO for us. Intrinsic value versus functional value.
The things I find interesting here is the parallel between how as a society we deal with objects and how we deal with people. The emphasis on functionality - what a thing does. Being useful. Did modernism have a fallout effect on handicapped or disabled people. When an object is no longer useful it gets discarded. I think I read somewhere about 80% of objects getting thrown away while they are still functional.
I think about getting old. Not being young and 'new' anymore. Getting put on the scrap heap. Trundled off to an old persons home while I am still functional/living.
Which kind of gives me an idea for an essay topic - Useless Things - some investigation into that area.
Back to the reading. Further concepts introduced:
1/ Ready-at-Hand Tools/objects that permit engagement through the wold through themselves. e.g a hammer.
2/ Present-at-Hand ?? hmmm. The opposite of ready-at-hand. There, but no longer operational or functional.
3/ transparency - when our awareness shifts from the tool (e.g. hammer) to the task (e.g. hammering/nailing). In a sense the hammer disappears or becomes transparent.
There is one contentious bit here for me:
0"Transparency enables people to sustain their relationship with the product even when something goes wrong". hmmm. Not sure about that one. Would you hang on to a hammer if it was broken?
ENGAGEMENT vs CONSUMPTION
Basically I think this means that we use objects without engaging with them. e.g. my Bic pen, I don't really thing twice about it, I just write with it. And that we want to aim for more of the former and less of the latter.
SUMMARY
If we cherish our objects we will keep them around for longer which means filling up landfill at a slower rate.
This is a bit of a brain dumps of the ideas and concepts discussed in the reading:
1/ The Modern Movement - "form follows function". Mass production influencing/dictating the forms of objects i.e. what could be manufactured.
2/ Just designing objects felt to be reductionist/boring leading to pop design and post-modern design. Objects have meaning. Objects can be fun. That there is an emotional component/dimension to objects.
3/ That the stress on functionalism results in a loss of attachment with a particular product as any object that can do the same function has the same value (i.e is interchangeable). The object is not valued for it's uniqueness or individuality. I am also referring to mass produced objects here as each object exists independently of its brethren.
4/ Post-modern products have become icon, symbols or signs - the object has become abstracted and is considered in terms of what it signifies, communicates, or represents.
5/ Script - "the deposit in an object of the world view of the designers".
6/ Nothing terribly new here but that as designers we make design choices and discriminate. Favor one thing and exclude/omit others. That these choices can have unintended or unforeseen consequences, and that in some cases certain classes of people can be discriminated against e.g. disabled people.
7/ Exclusion is inherent as we design for particular use(s). One size does not fit all.
8/ An object does not exist in isolation. It is in relation to people.
9/ That there a feedback loop going on. Objects can "invite" certain types of usage. They can condition or train us in certain kinds of behaviors or interactions.
It also talked about TECHNOLOGICAL INTENTIONALITY. Here it started t get a bit vague for me:
"Once technologies have received identity, within that relation they nevertheless can have an own weight".
The jist that I got from that was objects can matter as things not just as signs. The way that I translate is that we can appreciate objects for what they can BE for us, not just necessarily what they can DO for us. Intrinsic value versus functional value.
The things I find interesting here is the parallel between how as a society we deal with objects and how we deal with people. The emphasis on functionality - what a thing does. Being useful. Did modernism have a fallout effect on handicapped or disabled people. When an object is no longer useful it gets discarded. I think I read somewhere about 80% of objects getting thrown away while they are still functional.
I think about getting old. Not being young and 'new' anymore. Getting put on the scrap heap. Trundled off to an old persons home while I am still functional/living.
Which kind of gives me an idea for an essay topic - Useless Things - some investigation into that area.
Back to the reading. Further concepts introduced:
1/ Ready-at-Hand Tools/objects that permit engagement through the wold through themselves. e.g a hammer.
2/ Present-at-Hand ?? hmmm. The opposite of ready-at-hand. There, but no longer operational or functional.
3/ transparency - when our awareness shifts from the tool (e.g. hammer) to the task (e.g. hammering/nailing). In a sense the hammer disappears or becomes transparent.
There is one contentious bit here for me:
0"Transparency enables people to sustain their relationship with the product even when something goes wrong". hmmm. Not sure about that one. Would you hang on to a hammer if it was broken?
ENGAGEMENT vs CONSUMPTION
Basically I think this means that we use objects without engaging with them. e.g. my Bic pen, I don't really thing twice about it, I just write with it. And that we want to aim for more of the former and less of the latter.
SUMMARY
If we cherish our objects we will keep them around for longer which means filling up landfill at a slower rate.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
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