beautiful work.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Maarten Baas talks.
The Powerhouse Museum
Sydney 17-11-09
Smoke Series(03)
Baas' graduation piece, Design Academy Eindhoven 1996
A very interesting talk on the disparity of our acceptance of beauty in manufacture (mostly perfectly symmetrical, even and polished) and beauty in nature (uneven, wild and often is complete disarray. Always changing).
Commented on trying to create work that requires no explanation, whose concept is inherent but maybe not apparent and certainly not laboured to its audience.
A delightful walk through Baas's work, Smoke (03), Treasure (05), Clay (06), Sculpt (07), Tha Chankley Bore (08), The Shanghai Riddle (08), Standard Unique (09), Real Time (09) and his most recent commission by New York collector Lindemann.
My highlight was most definitely his response to the question:
Are you an artist or a designer?
An honest and unabrasive:
'I don't give a shit about the answer of this question.
You can stretch anything anywhere you want.
I don't see the reason why I would ask it.
I make things.
You can talk about it or you can not talk about it and spend the time to play some football or something.'
Bloody great.
Clay (06)
Sydney 17-11-09
Smoke Series(03)
Baas' graduation piece, Design Academy Eindhoven 1996
A very interesting talk on the disparity of our acceptance of beauty in manufacture (mostly perfectly symmetrical, even and polished) and beauty in nature (uneven, wild and often is complete disarray. Always changing).
Commented on trying to create work that requires no explanation, whose concept is inherent but maybe not apparent and certainly not laboured to its audience.
A delightful walk through Baas's work, Smoke (03), Treasure (05), Clay (06), Sculpt (07), Tha Chankley Bore (08), The Shanghai Riddle (08), Standard Unique (09), Real Time (09) and his most recent commission by New York collector Lindemann.
My highlight was most definitely his response to the question:
Are you an artist or a designer?
An honest and unabrasive:
'I don't give a shit about the answer of this question.
You can stretch anything anywhere you want.
I don't see the reason why I would ask it.
I make things.
You can talk about it or you can not talk about it and spend the time to play some football or something.'
Bloody great.
Clay (06)
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Contemporary Ceramic Design for Meaningful Interaction and Emotional Durability: A Case Study
Citation: Lacey, E. (2009). Contemporary ceramic design for meaningful interaction and emotional durability: A case study. International Journal of Design, 3(2), 87-92.
67. The paper presents a case study of the design of emotionally durable ceramics, which is then applied in real commercial contexts. It illustrates how designers can be inspired by hand crafted unique objects, and how designers in turn can translate some of their qualities for use in mass-produced objects.
‘fewer better things’ (personal communication, February, 2007),
for example ceramic objects which transcend the fast moving home-ware trends and remain loved and relevant over extended time. As observed through personal experience, value beyond monetary cost can be assigned to individual handmade products. It is this uniqueness and integrity of material and process seen in handmade crafts that are hoped to be imbued into commercial products in order to make them emotionally durable.
How could one design ‘unique’ pieces that would be valued on a personal level and which could also be industrially mass produced? The notion of integrity is central in this contradiction.
89. The design explorations resulted in the main proposition that design (or craft) features that take the user on a journey contribute to meaningful experience. In the case of hand-made or hand-finished products, visual clues, such as an unglazed
area or an irregularity in form, can lead to tactile investigation of these unique or seemingly unique qualities. It is this level of consciousness required to explore the object in detail that is the aim of the author’s own designs, in hopes of enhancing the user’s initial experience of an object in a way that encourages one to
return to explore the details again and again.
The surprise element described in the experience of the TAC01 can be seen as a cue to explore the product.
In his book Emotionally Durable Design (2005), Jonathan Chapman proposes that we might address issues of sustainability through exploring product lifespan and relating this to peoples’ emotional needs. He describes a ‘utopian futurescape’ where design is derived from “profound and sophisticated user experiences that penetrate the psyche over time” (p. 83).
90. The reflective answers provided levels of personal attachment that the designer cannot (or perhaps should not) try to contrive. The user autonomy, which is asserted here, is evidently connected to the very individual, social, cultural and emotional
value of the object and perhaps suggests that the designer should look at ways in which to leave space in the design for the consumers’ own interpretation, rather than design a piece to be used only as directed by the designer. For example, enabling
the user to personalize an object or adapt the way it is used. This concept is illustrated in the following section.
Creating the perfect ceramic : The first was to add an element of surprise that
would nudge the user into exploring the object consciously. The second was to incorporate a unique element that would give the object an individual identity, again to nudge the user into closer inspection. The third was to allow for a level of interaction which could be personal and which was beyond simply drinking tea or
coffee.
67. The paper presents a case study of the design of emotionally durable ceramics, which is then applied in real commercial contexts. It illustrates how designers can be inspired by hand crafted unique objects, and how designers in turn can translate some of their qualities for use in mass-produced objects.
‘fewer better things’ (personal communication, February, 2007),
for example ceramic objects which transcend the fast moving home-ware trends and remain loved and relevant over extended time. As observed through personal experience, value beyond monetary cost can be assigned to individual handmade products. It is this uniqueness and integrity of material and process seen in handmade crafts that are hoped to be imbued into commercial products in order to make them emotionally durable.
How could one design ‘unique’ pieces that would be valued on a personal level and which could also be industrially mass produced? The notion of integrity is central in this contradiction.
89. The design explorations resulted in the main proposition that design (or craft) features that take the user on a journey contribute to meaningful experience. In the case of hand-made or hand-finished products, visual clues, such as an unglazed
area or an irregularity in form, can lead to tactile investigation of these unique or seemingly unique qualities. It is this level of consciousness required to explore the object in detail that is the aim of the author’s own designs, in hopes of enhancing the user’s initial experience of an object in a way that encourages one to
return to explore the details again and again.
The surprise element described in the experience of the TAC01 can be seen as a cue to explore the product.
In his book Emotionally Durable Design (2005), Jonathan Chapman proposes that we might address issues of sustainability through exploring product lifespan and relating this to peoples’ emotional needs. He describes a ‘utopian futurescape’ where design is derived from “profound and sophisticated user experiences that penetrate the psyche over time” (p. 83).
90. The reflective answers provided levels of personal attachment that the designer cannot (or perhaps should not) try to contrive. The user autonomy, which is asserted here, is evidently connected to the very individual, social, cultural and emotional
value of the object and perhaps suggests that the designer should look at ways in which to leave space in the design for the consumers’ own interpretation, rather than design a piece to be used only as directed by the designer. For example, enabling
the user to personalize an object or adapt the way it is used. This concept is illustrated in the following section.
Creating the perfect ceramic : The first was to add an element of surprise that
would nudge the user into exploring the object consciously. The second was to incorporate a unique element that would give the object an individual identity, again to nudge the user into closer inspection. The third was to allow for a level of interaction which could be personal and which was beyond simply drinking tea or
coffee.
Switch! Energy Ecologies in Everyday Life
Citation: Mazé, R., & Redström, J. (2008). Switch! Energy ecologies in everyday life. International Journal of Design, 2(3), 55-70.
55. There is no single answer to the question of how people should live, nor any silver bullet for solving current ecological problems—and yet, contemporary design must seek ways to think and act in light of emerging environmental challenges. We present here an overview of the Switch! design research program, a continuation of our previous work on how interaction and product design can promote awareness of energy use in everyday life. Extending this approach to a larger architectural and urban scale, Switch! was set up to explore the possibilities of design as an intervention into multiple and interpenetrating technical, material and social systems—or ecologies. In addition to designing materials, objects, and interfaces, Switch! also examines how design can be engaged in staging potential scenarios, narratives and debates.
The design of interventions into energy ecologies and the use of design methods become a platform for exposing existing habits and hidden norms as well as for proposing alternative actions and views. These propositions have been developed through practical experimentation and the materialization of design examples. Central to our investigation is how critical practice enables us to examine and discuss the concepts, strategies and ideologies underlying sustainable design.
With the new challenges presented by climate and energy issues, design must reexamine its role in shaping and changing values— both within the sustainability discourse and within the design practices that impact production and the products that shape
practices of consumption. If we consider that design has had, and continues to have, a profound power to influence consumer and societal values, then we might renew its role in light of current problematics of mass-production and (over)consumption. We
might rethink how the values embodied in products influence beliefs and behaviors, and how systems of objects, service ecologies and social ecologies influence user relationships with design products throughout their lifespans and lifecycles.
design can influence multiple actions and interactions that accumulate over time
56. Inspired by contemporary thinking in material culture and the sociology of technology, Switch! considers design as an intervention into multiple and interpenetrating technical, material, and social systems—or ecologies. Although the power to control or to design and implement new systems and structures at such
a scale may not fall to design research, we can use design as a vehicle for exposing, debating and intervening in values within these complex ecologies, thereby introducing new openings for awareness and change.
Design is often said to be about “value creation,” referring to the power of design to effect meaningful and valuable experiences for consumers as well as material and brand value for clients and stakeholders. Operating on behalf of producers, design is bound
up with larger projects of increasing economic and symbolic capital. With respect to consumption, design is no longer, if it has ever been, solely about satisfying the basic human needs of an individual or a society, but also about creating needs and even
manufacturing desire (Forty, 1986). Historically, this persuasive power of design has been employed in service to expanding consumption—indeed, design came into being at a particular stage in the history of capitalism, bound up with economies of industrial production and mass-consumption.
Given this history, as well as contemporary awareness of some of the undesirable ecological side-effects of previous modes of production and consumption, perhaps it is no wonder that design has often been seen as part of the problem within the discourse on environmentalism. In response, diverse strategies are collecting under the umbrella of sustainable design, ranging from those trying to minimize negative environmental costs to those trying to solve environmental problems. Much effort has been directed
towards improving existing manufacturing systems, increasing the energy efficiency of processes and products, and promoting green consumption. Others move away from the production of and desire for the “new,” towards the endurance, reuse and sustainment
of existing things, or towards continuing and closed systems of production.
Given the difficulty of foreseeing the future consequences of design decisions, it is possible that things we regard as solutions may produce further problems elsewhere
in the world or later on in time. Humanitarian and environmental interests intersect and even compete within sustainable design, pointing to larger historical and philosophical tensions between ideas of nature and culture, progress and change, individualism and collectivism.
57. Engaging with the issues bound up in environmental discourse and sustainable design means, to some extent, engaging with the complexity of causes and effects, problems and solutions. Designers must consider the potential consequences and impact
of their proposals in order to, at least to some extent, anticipate potential problematics and emerging issues. Propositions must also be located in a world already densely-populated with previous design “solutions” to human needs and desires.
66. We believe that design research offers the possibility to act as a sort of curation in the development of a mature debate about environmental issues by materializing diverse—and perhaps even conflicting—values in forms and formats that people can relate to and participate in.
68. Sustainable design must incorporate and encourage mechanisms for critically reflecting on the role and responsibility of design in shaping human experience and changing social conditions. Rather than attempting to preserve the status quo or
return to a previous state of affairs, this requires us to acknowledge the inevitably productive and persuasive power of design in creating the “new.” Besides new solutions—or problems—this might also include the formation of reflective practitioners and alternative products. As an “art of staging,” design might meet
sustainability in “problem-finding” within existing and emerging paradigms, opening up questions to an expanded range of interests and stakeholders. Critical practice might be brought to bear on sustainable design not as simplification but diversification of the ways in which we might understand the challenges at hand. In such terms, design practice might employ research and theory in order to open up the way for constructive engagement in complexity.
55. There is no single answer to the question of how people should live, nor any silver bullet for solving current ecological problems—and yet, contemporary design must seek ways to think and act in light of emerging environmental challenges. We present here an overview of the Switch! design research program, a continuation of our previous work on how interaction and product design can promote awareness of energy use in everyday life. Extending this approach to a larger architectural and urban scale, Switch! was set up to explore the possibilities of design as an intervention into multiple and interpenetrating technical, material and social systems—or ecologies. In addition to designing materials, objects, and interfaces, Switch! also examines how design can be engaged in staging potential scenarios, narratives and debates.
The design of interventions into energy ecologies and the use of design methods become a platform for exposing existing habits and hidden norms as well as for proposing alternative actions and views. These propositions have been developed through practical experimentation and the materialization of design examples. Central to our investigation is how critical practice enables us to examine and discuss the concepts, strategies and ideologies underlying sustainable design.
With the new challenges presented by climate and energy issues, design must reexamine its role in shaping and changing values— both within the sustainability discourse and within the design practices that impact production and the products that shape
practices of consumption. If we consider that design has had, and continues to have, a profound power to influence consumer and societal values, then we might renew its role in light of current problematics of mass-production and (over)consumption. We
might rethink how the values embodied in products influence beliefs and behaviors, and how systems of objects, service ecologies and social ecologies influence user relationships with design products throughout their lifespans and lifecycles.
design can influence multiple actions and interactions that accumulate over time
56. Inspired by contemporary thinking in material culture and the sociology of technology, Switch! considers design as an intervention into multiple and interpenetrating technical, material, and social systems—or ecologies. Although the power to control or to design and implement new systems and structures at such
a scale may not fall to design research, we can use design as a vehicle for exposing, debating and intervening in values within these complex ecologies, thereby introducing new openings for awareness and change.
Design is often said to be about “value creation,” referring to the power of design to effect meaningful and valuable experiences for consumers as well as material and brand value for clients and stakeholders. Operating on behalf of producers, design is bound
up with larger projects of increasing economic and symbolic capital. With respect to consumption, design is no longer, if it has ever been, solely about satisfying the basic human needs of an individual or a society, but also about creating needs and even
manufacturing desire (Forty, 1986). Historically, this persuasive power of design has been employed in service to expanding consumption—indeed, design came into being at a particular stage in the history of capitalism, bound up with economies of industrial production and mass-consumption.
Given this history, as well as contemporary awareness of some of the undesirable ecological side-effects of previous modes of production and consumption, perhaps it is no wonder that design has often been seen as part of the problem within the discourse on environmentalism. In response, diverse strategies are collecting under the umbrella of sustainable design, ranging from those trying to minimize negative environmental costs to those trying to solve environmental problems. Much effort has been directed
towards improving existing manufacturing systems, increasing the energy efficiency of processes and products, and promoting green consumption. Others move away from the production of and desire for the “new,” towards the endurance, reuse and sustainment
of existing things, or towards continuing and closed systems of production.
Given the difficulty of foreseeing the future consequences of design decisions, it is possible that things we regard as solutions may produce further problems elsewhere
in the world or later on in time. Humanitarian and environmental interests intersect and even compete within sustainable design, pointing to larger historical and philosophical tensions between ideas of nature and culture, progress and change, individualism and collectivism.
57. Engaging with the issues bound up in environmental discourse and sustainable design means, to some extent, engaging with the complexity of causes and effects, problems and solutions. Designers must consider the potential consequences and impact
of their proposals in order to, at least to some extent, anticipate potential problematics and emerging issues. Propositions must also be located in a world already densely-populated with previous design “solutions” to human needs and desires.
66. We believe that design research offers the possibility to act as a sort of curation in the development of a mature debate about environmental issues by materializing diverse—and perhaps even conflicting—values in forms and formats that people can relate to and participate in.
68. Sustainable design must incorporate and encourage mechanisms for critically reflecting on the role and responsibility of design in shaping human experience and changing social conditions. Rather than attempting to preserve the status quo or
return to a previous state of affairs, this requires us to acknowledge the inevitably productive and persuasive power of design in creating the “new.” Besides new solutions—or problems—this might also include the formation of reflective practitioners and alternative products. As an “art of staging,” design might meet
sustainability in “problem-finding” within existing and emerging paradigms, opening up questions to an expanded range of interests and stakeholders. Critical practice might be brought to bear on sustainable design not as simplification but diversification of the ways in which we might understand the challenges at hand. In such terms, design practice might employ research and theory in order to open up the way for constructive engagement in complexity.
Consumer-Product Attachment: Measurement and Design Implications
Citation: Schifferstein, H. N. J., & Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, E. P. H. (2008). Consumer-product attachment: Measurement and design implications. International Journal of Design, 2(3), 1-13.
1. Due to differences in the attachment consumers experience towards the durable products they own, they hang on to certain products whereas they easily dispose of others. From the viewpoint of sustainability, it may be worthwhile to lengthen the life span of many durable consumer products. Hence, there is a challenge for designers to strengthen the bond between consumers and their products through the product design process. In the present study, we develop a scale to measure consumer-product attachment, and we identify and measure seven possible determinants of attachment: enjoyment, memories to persons, places, and events, support of self-identity, life vision, utility, reliability, and market value. Only memories and enjoyment contribute positively to the degree of attachment. The highest levels of attachment are registered for recently acquired products (<1 year) and for products owned for more than 20 years. For new products, enjoyment may be the main driver of attachment, whereas for old products memories may be more important.
Based on these results, several design strategies are proposed to intensify the emotional bond that users experience with their durable products: design more enjoyable products, develop products that are used together with other people, and design products that gracefully accumulate the signs of their usage history in their appearance.
From the viewpoint of sustainability, high product turnover is in many cases undesirable, because it produces waste and uses up more scarce resources.
One possible strategy to slow down product life cycles is by increasing the attachment people experience towards the products they use and own.
When a person becomes attached to an object, he or she is more likely to handle the object with care, repair it when it breaks down, and postpone its replacement as long as possible.
CONSUMER - PRODUCT ATTACHMENT
We define the consumer-product attachment as the strength of the emotional bond a consumer experiences with a durable product. ...implies the existence of an emotional tie between a person and an object.
IRREPLACEABILITY, INDESPENSABILITY & SELF EXTENSION
2. irreplacebble =symbolic meaning not present in other products.
indispensable = practical not emotional reasoning
self extension= entends self concept, expected / owned
DETERMINANTS OF ATTACHMENT
People form feelings of attachment to objects irrespectie of the primary functions these products perform. WHY?
People use objects to define the self, to create a sense of identity, to remind themselves and others of who they are or who they would like to be and to protect and enhance their self-concept.
3.Diffuse Self - Enjoyment
Private Self - Individual Autonomy
Public Self - Group Affiliation
Collective Self - Life Vision
4. From the viewpoint of sustainability, it is interesting to determine changes in the degree of consumer-product attachment over time, because they will partly be responsible for the moment of product disposal.
8. Implications for designers seeking to increase the sustainability of people's consumption patterns by stimulating the degree of attachment between people and the products they own.
Designers should design products that are useful and evoke enjoyment, or facilitate the formation of associations between products and people, places or events (memories).
9. The recollection of memories may be enhanced if a product shows physical signs of the events. *material choice
1. Due to differences in the attachment consumers experience towards the durable products they own, they hang on to certain products whereas they easily dispose of others. From the viewpoint of sustainability, it may be worthwhile to lengthen the life span of many durable consumer products. Hence, there is a challenge for designers to strengthen the bond between consumers and their products through the product design process. In the present study, we develop a scale to measure consumer-product attachment, and we identify and measure seven possible determinants of attachment: enjoyment, memories to persons, places, and events, support of self-identity, life vision, utility, reliability, and market value. Only memories and enjoyment contribute positively to the degree of attachment. The highest levels of attachment are registered for recently acquired products (<1 year) and for products owned for more than 20 years. For new products, enjoyment may be the main driver of attachment, whereas for old products memories may be more important.
Based on these results, several design strategies are proposed to intensify the emotional bond that users experience with their durable products: design more enjoyable products, develop products that are used together with other people, and design products that gracefully accumulate the signs of their usage history in their appearance.
From the viewpoint of sustainability, high product turnover is in many cases undesirable, because it produces waste and uses up more scarce resources.
One possible strategy to slow down product life cycles is by increasing the attachment people experience towards the products they use and own.
When a person becomes attached to an object, he or she is more likely to handle the object with care, repair it when it breaks down, and postpone its replacement as long as possible.
CONSUMER - PRODUCT ATTACHMENT
We define the consumer-product attachment as the strength of the emotional bond a consumer experiences with a durable product. ...implies the existence of an emotional tie between a person and an object.
IRREPLACEABILITY, INDESPENSABILITY & SELF EXTENSION
2. irreplacebble =symbolic meaning not present in other products.
indispensable = practical not emotional reasoning
self extension= entends self concept, expected / owned
DETERMINANTS OF ATTACHMENT
People form feelings of attachment to objects irrespectie of the primary functions these products perform. WHY?
People use objects to define the self, to create a sense of identity, to remind themselves and others of who they are or who they would like to be and to protect and enhance their self-concept.
3.Diffuse Self - Enjoyment
Private Self - Individual Autonomy
Public Self - Group Affiliation
Collective Self - Life Vision
4. From the viewpoint of sustainability, it is interesting to determine changes in the degree of consumer-product attachment over time, because they will partly be responsible for the moment of product disposal.
8. Implications for designers seeking to increase the sustainability of people's consumption patterns by stimulating the degree of attachment between people and the products they own.
Designers should design products that are useful and evoke enjoyment, or facilitate the formation of associations between products and people, places or events (memories).
9. The recollection of memories may be enhanced if a product shows physical signs of the events. *material choice
The Product Ecology
Understanding Social Product Use & Supporting Design Culture
International Journal of Design, 2(1), 2008
J. Forlozzi
11. The Product Ecology is useful because it articulates all of the factors that evoke social behavior around products. The factors in the framework can be used in a generative manner to scaffold the selection of design research methods for
understanding current experience and generating new products to change that experience.
Frameworks and theories in design and interaction design are relatively new, there being few examples and some disagreement about what constitutes a theory, especially in design. They are not scientific theories in the narrow sense of predicting action
irrespective of context and situation. Rather, they are concerned with transforming the conditions and potentials for human action.
Frameworks and theories in design allow designers to assess a complex and unique problem by articulating the phenomena involved in a design problem and the relationship
between those phenomena. In addition, they allow for movement between prescribed design and research processes and the use of the designer’s implicit judgment, knowledge gleaned from other design examples, ethical responsibility, and pattern seeking in solving problems.
THE PRODUCT ECOLOGY FRAMEWORK
12. The functional, aesthetic, symbolic, emotional and social dimensions of a product, combined with other units of analysis, or factors, in the ecology, help to describe how people make social relationships with products. These include the product; the
surrounding products and other systems of products; the people who use it, and their attitudes, disposition, roles, and relationships; the physical structure, norms and routines of the place the product is used; and the social and cultural contexts of the people who use the product and possibly even the people who make the product.
International Journal of Design, 2(1), 2008
J. Forlozzi
11. The Product Ecology is useful because it articulates all of the factors that evoke social behavior around products. The factors in the framework can be used in a generative manner to scaffold the selection of design research methods for
understanding current experience and generating new products to change that experience.
Frameworks and theories in design and interaction design are relatively new, there being few examples and some disagreement about what constitutes a theory, especially in design. They are not scientific theories in the narrow sense of predicting action
irrespective of context and situation. Rather, they are concerned with transforming the conditions and potentials for human action.
Frameworks and theories in design allow designers to assess a complex and unique problem by articulating the phenomena involved in a design problem and the relationship
between those phenomena. In addition, they allow for movement between prescribed design and research processes and the use of the designer’s implicit judgment, knowledge gleaned from other design examples, ethical responsibility, and pattern seeking in solving problems.
THE PRODUCT ECOLOGY FRAMEWORK
12. The functional, aesthetic, symbolic, emotional and social dimensions of a product, combined with other units of analysis, or factors, in the ecology, help to describe how people make social relationships with products. These include the product; the
surrounding products and other systems of products; the people who use it, and their attitudes, disposition, roles, and relationships; the physical structure, norms and routines of the place the product is used; and the social and cultural contexts of the people who use the product and possibly even the people who make the product.
Is Going Green as Hard as It Seems?
Lehrer, J. PRINT, 10.09
PRINTMAG.COM
28. importance of designers embracing and understanding sustainability.
taking it seriously and not considering it a catchphrase or buzzword.
29. impact of a clients budget on works and clients wants, "conversation by conversation"
its a process.
PRINTMAG.COM
28. importance of designers embracing and understanding sustainability.
taking it seriously and not considering it a catchphrase or buzzword.
29. impact of a clients budget on works and clients wants, "conversation by conversation"
its a process.
David Trubridge at the American Craft Council Salon
17.05.07
Lily Kane, Director of Education at ACC
http://greenjeansbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2007/05/david-trubridge-at-american-craft.html
para-3. The upshot of his presentation was that design must become more sustainable, and that craft as a process is modeling the way forward.
4. At a time when the need for sustainability is no longer in question, designers must start thinking less in terms of "products" and more in terms of "process," Trubridge said. Designers are, wittingly or not, in fact complicit with manufacturers, ever eager to come out with new items, in the overproduction that's straining resources and creating the waste problem, he added.
5.Yet while the world hardly needs more stuff, there is a human impulse to want things. This is where craft comes in, he argued: if more designers would focus on making things on a small scale using local materials, building things with care and love, then we would want to have them for a long time, and thereby we wouldn't be wasting materials and resources by buying temporary or disposable items. In other words, perhaps design can become more sustainable by becoming more like craft.
Lily Kane, Director of Education at ACC
http://greenjeansbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2007/05/david-trubridge-at-american-craft.html
para-3. The upshot of his presentation was that design must become more sustainable, and that craft as a process is modeling the way forward.
4. At a time when the need for sustainability is no longer in question, designers must start thinking less in terms of "products" and more in terms of "process," Trubridge said. Designers are, wittingly or not, in fact complicit with manufacturers, ever eager to come out with new items, in the overproduction that's straining resources and creating the waste problem, he added.
5.Yet while the world hardly needs more stuff, there is a human impulse to want things. This is where craft comes in, he argued: if more designers would focus on making things on a small scale using local materials, building things with care and love, then we would want to have them for a long time, and thereby we wouldn't be wasting materials and resources by buying temporary or disposable items. In other words, perhaps design can become more sustainable by becoming more like craft.
Designer Guilt: Why Sustainable Design Matters
Borschke, M.
para-1. Kevin McCullagh: 'This rising tide of disaffection towards design tends to share twi themes: a distaste for the superficiality of design's media-celebrity nexus; and a growing discomfort with design's role in generating 'useless stuff,'... ' just as critics from outside design are sharpening their knives, designers are becoming racked with self doubt and loathing.'
2. Design problems are merely opportunities for design solutions. In a world where concerns about the environment have become mainstream, the creation of 'useless stuff' may now just be cause for hand-wringing, it might also signal bad design.
3. 'Some people argue that there is no such thing as sustainable design. These principles should form part of any good design.' Angelique Hutchison, ‘Design for sustainability focuses on reducing the environmental impact of a product during its manufacture, use and disposal or reuse. It uses strategies such as avoiding use of toxic substances during production, minimising materials used, minimising energy or water required during use, and designing for repair, reuse or disassembly and recycling.’
4. ‘I think that design's ability to address sustainability is limited by its focus on the object or product,’ Hutchison continues. ‘Designers need to consider the larger systems within which they (and their objects) are operating. They need to reconsider the 'needs' that they are trying to address through the design of a new object, and question if those needs can be met in another more sustainable way, through a different type of product or system or mode of use. For example, car share systems reconfigure the perception that the consumer needs a car, when what they really need is transport. Designers also need to work in a more interdisciplinary way, not only with other designers but across technical and social disciplines, to understand the complexities of social, economic, technical and ecological systems that influence their design.’
8.growing demand from the population at large means that designers are also turning to sustainable practice because it’s good business. Trend forecasters such as The Future Laboratory in London, are tossing around phrases like ‘conscience consumers’ and hyping ‘nu austerity’ as this year’s answer to last year’s ‘bling’, all the while assuring marketers and brand strategists that the market is out there, that the green consumer cuts across political lines and that the highly desirable, upper middle class market is ready to spend. Green design, that is, may be green in more ways than one.
11. If sustainable design is good design, then good design is good business.
12.‘Sustainable design is about creating environments that allow people to live, work, play in such a way that the opportunities to do similar will not be compromised in the future.’ For designers and architects, sustainable design may not only be ethical, it may be the opportunity of a lifetime.- Caroline Pidcock, president of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council
para-1. Kevin McCullagh: 'This rising tide of disaffection towards design tends to share twi themes: a distaste for the superficiality of design's media-celebrity nexus; and a growing discomfort with design's role in generating 'useless stuff,'... ' just as critics from outside design are sharpening their knives, designers are becoming racked with self doubt and loathing.'
2. Design problems are merely opportunities for design solutions. In a world where concerns about the environment have become mainstream, the creation of 'useless stuff' may now just be cause for hand-wringing, it might also signal bad design.
3. 'Some people argue that there is no such thing as sustainable design. These principles should form part of any good design.' Angelique Hutchison, ‘Design for sustainability focuses on reducing the environmental impact of a product during its manufacture, use and disposal or reuse. It uses strategies such as avoiding use of toxic substances during production, minimising materials used, minimising energy or water required during use, and designing for repair, reuse or disassembly and recycling.’
4. ‘I think that design's ability to address sustainability is limited by its focus on the object or product,’ Hutchison continues. ‘Designers need to consider the larger systems within which they (and their objects) are operating. They need to reconsider the 'needs' that they are trying to address through the design of a new object, and question if those needs can be met in another more sustainable way, through a different type of product or system or mode of use. For example, car share systems reconfigure the perception that the consumer needs a car, when what they really need is transport. Designers also need to work in a more interdisciplinary way, not only with other designers but across technical and social disciplines, to understand the complexities of social, economic, technical and ecological systems that influence their design.’
8.growing demand from the population at large means that designers are also turning to sustainable practice because it’s good business. Trend forecasters such as The Future Laboratory in London, are tossing around phrases like ‘conscience consumers’ and hyping ‘nu austerity’ as this year’s answer to last year’s ‘bling’, all the while assuring marketers and brand strategists that the market is out there, that the green consumer cuts across political lines and that the highly desirable, upper middle class market is ready to spend. Green design, that is, may be green in more ways than one.
11. If sustainable design is good design, then good design is good business.
12.‘Sustainable design is about creating environments that allow people to live, work, play in such a way that the opportunities to do similar will not be compromised in the future.’ For designers and architects, sustainable design may not only be ethical, it may be the opportunity of a lifetime.- Caroline Pidcock, president of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council
Friday, October 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Work exhibited at COFA Spring Fair
derbuchnook 09
SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2009 COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES F BLOCK GREENS RD PADDINGTON http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/newsevents/events/event_0298.html
SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2009 COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES F BLOCK GREENS RD PADDINGTON http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/newsevents/events/event_0298.htmlSaturday, September 5, 2009
Change Me
Matthew Kiem
1. Today ‘sustainability’ is a buzz word par excellence, bandied around in all manner of contexts and agendas.
However as a title Sustain me: contemporary design has an alternative reading: the desperate cry of a practice searching for relevance amidst a crisis of its own making.
2. Design is understood and practiced as ‘thing’ production, a major problem considering the rapacious rate of material throughput. Design and designers have been historically and culturally shaped to practice this way, and it is a key aspect of the identity of the field and its practitioners.
Sustainability must therefore mean more than eco-design. Unfortunately this point and its implications are beyond the current thinking of designers.
3. The most obvious and predictable is unmaking materials as waste, that is, reuse and/or recycling.
But with the (not unsubstantial) limitations of recycling aside, in seeing unsustainability as only a problem of waste, the solutions on offer fail to point out that the practices assisted by such objects are also problematic.
4. This is not simply an issue of how an object looks, but the fact that the current design of an object’s presentation blinkers thought about the real context of use. The sustainable object is a myth; things sustain or deplete according to how they are used. To design without this in mind leaves a gaping hole in the quest for sustainment.
5. This attitude permeates the entire practice, and every opportunity is taken to reduce the amount of waste, water, chemical and carbon impact of designing. This is another commendable idea, and the enthusiasm of these practitioners is hopefully an inspiration to others to take on the difficult task of changing engrained habits of work.
6. But what of the work itself? Again the presentation ignores use. More so, one is encouraged to accept these objects as too precious to be used
An object’s journey to us is not represented in its appearance, so we cannot know the history or future of its impact. Further, the works rely on wholesome but simplistic narratives of localisation, traditional skills, and depressingly, the lessons of the back to nature “noble savage” made modern, again. There is no real alternative, tangible vision of a sustainable ways of living offered; it is more a lesson for the discerning collector.
7. Sustain me proposes that the sustaining potential of design resides not only in the functional, but also the poetic. To this end, the works of Lisa Gasparotto, Elliat Rich, and again David Trubridge convey messages of awareness, appeal, and questioning that relate to issues of the environment, sustainability and design. Dependency on these messages feels heavy, especially considering otherwise tenuous claim these works have on sustainment.
9. In this light Sustain me is at heart a conservative show that cannot generate the kind of challenge and inspiration needed for design to be truly redirective.
The dead-end dichotomies of form/function, art/science appears to underlie the presentation, misrecognising the full nature of design as a driver of unsustainability.
What should be of concern is the rationality of our design know-how, the non-conscious habits of thought and action that we are disposed which constitute our culture of designing. ‘Rational rationality’ cannot help but fail when it operates in practices that lack the embodied ability to sustain. This applies as to all practices as much as it does design. A diabolical failure of current design education is the rendering of cultural constituted practical know-how as technical process. This leaves the onus of change with a designer who can’t understand what they are really struggling against.
10. Despite the talk that goes on surrounding design, the modus operandi of the practice is to essentially produce things to be wasted and people to be wasters. The anxiety that designers feel about the issue of unsustainability is a dissonance between genuine moral concern and a body of knowledge, talk and skill disposed to thwart effective action. Contemporary design is the problem. It is a practice that plunders the future for the purposes of the present. To sustain this without change is to sustain precisely what is unsustainable. The glimmer of hope of course is that design can be otherwise understood and practiced, and it can do so by design.
11. Sustain me is an indication of a practice, an industry, a society and culture no less, that is trying to find its way within a crisis it is aware of, but does not yet fully understand. This muddling is unavoidable considering that all we currently have at hand to deal with the crisis is part of the crisis itself. But the time by which we need to start saving (future) time is already upon us. The challenge for designers is therefore this. Stop thinking that simply meeting needs (i.e. expectations) and (‘anti-rational’) creativity per se is acceptable. Maintaining current conceptions of designing as ‘thing’ making only exacerbates the problem. The kind of creativity actually required involves changing what we believe it is possible to change by design, what it is appropriate for a designer to see as their objective when they engage in designing, what designers do to achieve this objective, and changing non-designers expectations of design and designers. As far as contemporary design is concerned ‘sustain me’ has no future. ‘Change me so that I can sustain’ is the only alternative.
Src:
http://designphilosophypolitics.informatics.indiana.edu/?p=113
1. Today ‘sustainability’ is a buzz word par excellence, bandied around in all manner of contexts and agendas.
However as a title Sustain me: contemporary design has an alternative reading: the desperate cry of a practice searching for relevance amidst a crisis of its own making.
2. Design is understood and practiced as ‘thing’ production, a major problem considering the rapacious rate of material throughput. Design and designers have been historically and culturally shaped to practice this way, and it is a key aspect of the identity of the field and its practitioners.
Sustainability must therefore mean more than eco-design. Unfortunately this point and its implications are beyond the current thinking of designers.
3. The most obvious and predictable is unmaking materials as waste, that is, reuse and/or recycling.
But with the (not unsubstantial) limitations of recycling aside, in seeing unsustainability as only a problem of waste, the solutions on offer fail to point out that the practices assisted by such objects are also problematic.
4. This is not simply an issue of how an object looks, but the fact that the current design of an object’s presentation blinkers thought about the real context of use. The sustainable object is a myth; things sustain or deplete according to how they are used. To design without this in mind leaves a gaping hole in the quest for sustainment.
5. This attitude permeates the entire practice, and every opportunity is taken to reduce the amount of waste, water, chemical and carbon impact of designing. This is another commendable idea, and the enthusiasm of these practitioners is hopefully an inspiration to others to take on the difficult task of changing engrained habits of work.
6. But what of the work itself? Again the presentation ignores use. More so, one is encouraged to accept these objects as too precious to be used
An object’s journey to us is not represented in its appearance, so we cannot know the history or future of its impact. Further, the works rely on wholesome but simplistic narratives of localisation, traditional skills, and depressingly, the lessons of the back to nature “noble savage” made modern, again. There is no real alternative, tangible vision of a sustainable ways of living offered; it is more a lesson for the discerning collector.
7. Sustain me proposes that the sustaining potential of design resides not only in the functional, but also the poetic. To this end, the works of Lisa Gasparotto, Elliat Rich, and again David Trubridge convey messages of awareness, appeal, and questioning that relate to issues of the environment, sustainability and design. Dependency on these messages feels heavy, especially considering otherwise tenuous claim these works have on sustainment.
9. In this light Sustain me is at heart a conservative show that cannot generate the kind of challenge and inspiration needed for design to be truly redirective.
The dead-end dichotomies of form/function, art/science appears to underlie the presentation, misrecognising the full nature of design as a driver of unsustainability.
What should be of concern is the rationality of our design know-how, the non-conscious habits of thought and action that we are disposed which constitute our culture of designing. ‘Rational rationality’ cannot help but fail when it operates in practices that lack the embodied ability to sustain. This applies as to all practices as much as it does design. A diabolical failure of current design education is the rendering of cultural constituted practical know-how as technical process. This leaves the onus of change with a designer who can’t understand what they are really struggling against.
10. Despite the talk that goes on surrounding design, the modus operandi of the practice is to essentially produce things to be wasted and people to be wasters. The anxiety that designers feel about the issue of unsustainability is a dissonance between genuine moral concern and a body of knowledge, talk and skill disposed to thwart effective action. Contemporary design is the problem. It is a practice that plunders the future for the purposes of the present. To sustain this without change is to sustain precisely what is unsustainable. The glimmer of hope of course is that design can be otherwise understood and practiced, and it can do so by design.
11. Sustain me is an indication of a practice, an industry, a society and culture no less, that is trying to find its way within a crisis it is aware of, but does not yet fully understand. This muddling is unavoidable considering that all we currently have at hand to deal with the crisis is part of the crisis itself. But the time by which we need to start saving (future) time is already upon us. The challenge for designers is therefore this. Stop thinking that simply meeting needs (i.e. expectations) and (‘anti-rational’) creativity per se is acceptable. Maintaining current conceptions of designing as ‘thing’ making only exacerbates the problem. The kind of creativity actually required involves changing what we believe it is possible to change by design, what it is appropriate for a designer to see as their objective when they engage in designing, what designers do to achieve this objective, and changing non-designers expectations of design and designers. As far as contemporary design is concerned ‘sustain me’ has no future. ‘Change me so that I can sustain’ is the only alternative.
Src:
http://designphilosophypolitics.informatics.indiana.edu/?p=113
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Remaking of Shanghai Local Spaces
Lu, Pan. (2008) The Remaking of Shanghai Local Spaces, http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/soi/article/view/17740/16530
______________________________________________________
2. Masculine aspirations overlooked variety of local spaces of Shabghai urbanity in ways that have raised the power of global capital to the status of becoming the exclusive tool for understanding the foundation of both local & global imaginaries
. some local spaces trivial in math of globalisation, some deeply embedded in local soil, some traverse global & local awareness
. Shanghai is as divided and multilayered, Imaginary layers of shapes that overlap and intermingle in the form of a palimpsest that blurs the indentities of space in spaces of identity
.local > global systems, the micro affecting the global
.Duolun Road, accommodated some of the best known masters of Chinese modern lit., entrepeneurs & politicians
30s & 30s golden time, pedestrian access
3. Duolun Rd Cultural Celebrities St, architectural variety, charm lost
Shaoxing Rd, significant cultural landmark, tranquil, nostalgia
5. localness defined and redefined outside global aspiration
. cultural spaces have been reborn not only in the sense that the formation of local objects - old traditions return, hybridism emerges
6. DDM warehouse, 98 Taiwanese Deng Kunyan
7. Shanghai Sculpture Space, Shanghai Diao Su Zhong Xin, Tian Zi Fang (Shanghai Soho)
.Modern capitalism and modernism once synchronised with the world, came to a halt for nearly 30 years
8. Collin Rowe, 'Collage City'
10. 30s, 50 yrs of de-urbanisation, caused discontent & conflict between urban form and function
11. While the desire of consumption can be projected onto the temporal effect of refurbished urban spaces, time past is not necessarily the only magical spell underpining the charisma of old architecture for locals
12. Shanghai is Hype. We talk about it without seeing the multifaceted reality of this city
. fragmentation
13. Shanghai- decentralising itself in both temporal and spatial terms
______________________________________________________
2. Masculine aspirations overlooked variety of local spaces of Shabghai urbanity in ways that have raised the power of global capital to the status of becoming the exclusive tool for understanding the foundation of both local & global imaginaries
. some local spaces trivial in math of globalisation, some deeply embedded in local soil, some traverse global & local awareness
. Shanghai is as divided and multilayered, Imaginary layers of shapes that overlap and intermingle in the form of a palimpsest that blurs the indentities of space in spaces of identity
.local > global systems, the micro affecting the global
.Duolun Road, accommodated some of the best known masters of Chinese modern lit., entrepeneurs & politicians
30s & 30s golden time, pedestrian access
3. Duolun Rd Cultural Celebrities St, architectural variety, charm lost
Shaoxing Rd, significant cultural landmark, tranquil, nostalgia
5. localness defined and redefined outside global aspiration
. cultural spaces have been reborn not only in the sense that the formation of local objects - old traditions return, hybridism emerges
6. DDM warehouse, 98 Taiwanese Deng Kunyan
7. Shanghai Sculpture Space, Shanghai Diao Su Zhong Xin, Tian Zi Fang (Shanghai Soho)
.Modern capitalism and modernism once synchronised with the world, came to a halt for nearly 30 years
8. Collin Rowe, 'Collage City'
10. 30s, 50 yrs of de-urbanisation, caused discontent & conflict between urban form and function
11. While the desire of consumption can be projected onto the temporal effect of refurbished urban spaces, time past is not necessarily the only magical spell underpining the charisma of old architecture for locals
12. Shanghai is Hype. We talk about it without seeing the multifaceted reality of this city
. fragmentation
13. Shanghai- decentralising itself in both temporal and spatial terms
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sustain Me, IDG 09, Foreword
Rod Bamford
Co-Curator
The idea of being 'sustainable' strikes a reactive chord both in personal and glibal terms.
For some 'sustainability' will be understood in terms of climate change or recycling, for others it may attest to cultural relevance or economic survival.
The European Energy Commission estimates that 80% of a product's environmental impact is 'set' during the design phase. We rely more today on design in the shaping of our world than ever before, so how do we design our world, and how does the world respond to design? Design is transforming its 20th century emphasis on style and function, that which is 'designed' does not exist in isolation.
Co-Curator
The idea of being 'sustainable' strikes a reactive chord both in personal and glibal terms.
For some 'sustainability' will be understood in terms of climate change or recycling, for others it may attest to cultural relevance or economic survival.
The European Energy Commission estimates that 80% of a product's environmental impact is 'set' during the design phase. We rely more today on design in the shaping of our world than ever before, so how do we design our world, and how does the world respond to design? Design is transforming its 20th century emphasis on style and function, that which is 'designed' does not exist in isolation.
Design: A Better Path to Innovation
Shedroff, N., Design: A Better Path to Innovation, Interactions.15 (6), 35-41. New York: ACM
35. While engineers and designers have an innate appreciation for appropriate and significant innovation, most businesspeople still need to be convinced because of the risks involved and because it's not an easy thing to do.
36. Innovation can take several forms:
better offerings and experiences, better processes, better organizations
38. (Natural Capitalism) Sustainability is the successful management of 4 kinds of capital:
Financial Capital, Manufactured Capital, Natural Capital, Human Capital
Why is sustainability important to all organisations? Because we no longer have the luxury of ignoring it.
39. All organizations need to address how their strategy intersects with sustainability.
Besides being a business imperative, Sustainability is a source of tremendous opportunity.
Challenge most organizations struggle with is in differentiating novel innovation from meaningful innovation. Meaning is the most powerful aspect of customer experience. It can transcend traditional and 'rational' price and performance decisions. It surrounds all products, services, and events, whether we acknowledge and address it or not. And it can be the most effective guide in determining whether an idea or solution is truly valuable and not merely 'new'.
41. Design-led innovation has an edge on other approaches because of its history of user-centered research, prototyping, critique, iteration, and embracing of constraints.
Unlike other development processes it makes room for meaning and other questions to be addressed before requirements are solidified.
The entire concept of design can be described as the prcess of meaningful innovation.
6 Dimensions of Experience:
Breadth, Intensity, Duration, Triggers, Interaction, Significance
5 Levels of Significance:
Meaning (Reality), Status/Identity (Values), Emotions (Lifestyle), Price (Value), Function (Performance)
35. While engineers and designers have an innate appreciation for appropriate and significant innovation, most businesspeople still need to be convinced because of the risks involved and because it's not an easy thing to do.
36. Innovation can take several forms:
better offerings and experiences, better processes, better organizations
38. (Natural Capitalism) Sustainability is the successful management of 4 kinds of capital:
Financial Capital, Manufactured Capital, Natural Capital, Human Capital
Why is sustainability important to all organisations? Because we no longer have the luxury of ignoring it.
39. All organizations need to address how their strategy intersects with sustainability.
Besides being a business imperative, Sustainability is a source of tremendous opportunity.
Challenge most organizations struggle with is in differentiating novel innovation from meaningful innovation. Meaning is the most powerful aspect of customer experience. It can transcend traditional and 'rational' price and performance decisions. It surrounds all products, services, and events, whether we acknowledge and address it or not. And it can be the most effective guide in determining whether an idea or solution is truly valuable and not merely 'new'.
41. Design-led innovation has an edge on other approaches because of its history of user-centered research, prototyping, critique, iteration, and embracing of constraints.
Unlike other development processes it makes room for meaning and other questions to be addressed before requirements are solidified.
The entire concept of design can be described as the prcess of meaningful innovation.
6 Dimensions of Experience:
Breadth, Intensity, Duration, Triggers, Interaction, Significance
5 Levels of Significance:
Meaning (Reality), Status/Identity (Values), Emotions (Lifestyle), Price (Value), Function (Performance)
Annotated Bibiliography
‘We believe that if design today does not contribute towards a better way of living, it is both irrelevant and irresponsible. Our vision is to be able to promote ideas more than products. We do not create a new form to seduce you into buying something you do not need.’
(Trubridge, 2009, The Three Baskets of Knowledge, ¶4)
Discuss this statement and debate the pros and cons of sustainable practices in relation to contemporary design. What changes does this issue provoke in contemporary design practice? Include specific examples.
___________________________________________________
Bamford, R. & Williamson, L. (2009)., Sustain Me: Contemporary Design. [Exhibition Catalogue]. Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney: UNSW.
Coinciding with The Sydney Design Festival 2009 this exhibition gives insight into the development of sustainable practices in design with current contemporary design examples. ‘Contextualising the exhibition opens up the similarities and differences between the perceived barriers to sustainable design experienced in the past, for example consumer guilt and the aestheticisation of poverty, and provides an opportunity to reflect on how they are, to a greater and lesser extent, resonant today’ (Moline., K., 2009, Tensions Between Sustainability and Design: Third Time Lucky, Sustain Me: Contemporary Design, [Exhibition Catalogue], Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney: UNSW). This is a valuable resource as it provides solid reference points and is theoretically very well considered by lecturers of varying design disciplines whom are at the forefront of this issue.
Borschke, M. (2007)., Designer Guilt: Why Sustainable Design Matters, D*Hub Powerhouse Museum. Retrieved 08-09 from www.dhub.org.
Resource collated by the Powerhouse Museum Sydney discussing various opportunities sustainable awareness offers to designers and ways in which global warming can be seen as one of the most positive catalysts for contemporary design, citing various examples and with Designer’s input. This article provides differing perspectives from scholars, designers and politicians giving insight into both the pros and cons of this movement. This reference is a useful resource because of its solid references and design examples, as well as its provision of a wide range of reactions and perspectives to this issue, each with strong theoretical backing.
Cerver, F. (1998)., The New Modern Furniture Design. New York: Whitney Library of Design.
This book gives an overall view of modern furniture in its many and varied forms. It gives insight into the philosophies of particular prominent designers, specifically furniture designers Charles and Rae Eames. This resource is useful for its insights into processes of material applications and design development, discussing how a culmination of processes and connections forms the final object outcome. Whilst too broad to be a substantial source, relevant design examples will be referenced and this has also broadened research into some of these designers’ specific works.
Clement, G., Borasi, G., & Rahm, P., (2007). Environ(ne)ment: Approaches for Tomorrow. Canada: Skira
Landscape designer Gilles Clement and architect Philippe Rahm present their contrasting visions for contemporary architecture and design through installations designed for the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Considerations surround biological diversity and uses of energy and climate to inform form. This book considers the relation of humans to design and architecture and various outcomes of this relationship are represented through installations, this work is not dissimilar to that of Designer David Trubridge and is useful as an example of sustainable considerations forging their place into contemporary design.
De Botton, A. (2007). The Architecture of Happiness: The Secret Art to Furnishing Your Life. London: Penguin.
Philosopher De Botton discusses the inter-relationship between history and psychology, and architecture and interior design. Investigating what attracts or repels people regarding their surroundings and the effect this has on areas of design or how it might inform design. This book is relevant in that sustainability must not be ignorant of aesthetics and must address philosophical and psychological needs. This resource not directly address sustainability so has clear limitations, however it informs the basis of a broader consideration of contemporary design and its relationship to human needs.
Eat Green Design (2009). Sydney Design 09. Retrieved 08-09 from www.eatgreendesign.com.
Group presenting a temporary sustainable environment created to explore sustainability issues on many levels for individual interpretation. From ecologically intelligent design principles, environmental responsibility in design and architecture, cradle-to-cradle design and rematerialisation, to how the current trends in food consumption translate to the design industry. This endeavour is an interesting example of local initiatives and their effects, which includes reference to lectures by various contemporary designers discussing sustainable processes in their work or research.
Fry, T., (2009). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics & New Practice. New York: Berg.
The work of Professor Tony Fry who heads the Master of Design course at Queensland University, exposing the limitations of ‘Green Design’ Design Futuring systematically presents ideas and methods for Design as an expanded ethical and professional practice. This book argues that responding to political, social and ecological concerns now requires a new type of practice that recognizes Design’s importance in overcoming a world made sustainable. Focusing specifically on ways in which ethics and sustainability can change the practice of contemporary design. This book provides solid groundwork for discussing the pros and cons of sustainability and its effect on Design practice, though its shortcoming is that it does not provide specific examples of Designers work to substantiate its theoretical base.
Kane, L., (2007). Arranged Marriage: David Trubridge Unites Craft & Design, American Craft. 67 (5), 54-55. New York: American Craft Magazine.
Article on New Zealand-based designer/maker David Trubridge who is on a mission to persuade people that craft and design can coexist. Trubridge's woodworking skills have earned him his reputation within the craft community, and his brilliantly conceived and executed designs have made him a fixture at destination design fairs such as the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York and the Milan Furniture Fair in Italy. To solve the question of how manufacturing can supply the needs of everyone indefinitely, Trubridge proposes that craft's more lasting value should be recognized despite, and even perhaps because of, its often higher price point, and that design should be undertaken with this in mind. Introduces the relationship between sustainability and Design philosophy and intentions. This resource provides an excellent and focussed example of the contemporary practitioner and the effect of the sustainability movement on contemporary object design.
Lehrer, J., (2009). Greener is Smarter, Print. 63(3), 20-22. New York: F&W Media.
Paper discussing the eight reasons why the principles of sustainable design are at the heart of good design. Discusses the effect of the current economic downfall and the positive aspects to be gleaned from this competitive Design climate pushing designers to create the best work possible. This resource is applicable as it provides reference to the relationship between sustainability and graphic design processes, as well as providing additional discussion on the principles of sustainable design which will be an important point to define.
Maze, R., & Redstrom, J., (2008) Switch! Energy Ecologies in Everyday Life. International Journal of Design, 2(3). 55-70. Taiwan: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
An overview of the Switch! Design research program, on how interaction and product design can promote awareness of energy use in everyday life. The design of interventions into energy ecologies and the use of design methods as a platform for exposing existing habits and hidden norms as well as for proposing alternative actions and views. These propositions have been developed through practical experimentation and the materialization of design examples. Central to this groups work is the consideration of how critical practice can enable designers to examine concepts and ideologies underlying sustainable design. This article provides a useful example of current practitioners in design and their conceptual considerations of the sustainability issue and direct discussion of how the issue is integrated into or effects their designs.
McDonough, W. & Braungart, M. (2002). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press.
McDonough and Braungart explain the principle of ‘Waste equals food’ and explain how products can be designed from the offset to provide nourishment for something new. This resource makes the case for putting eco-effectiveness into practice. McDonough & Braungart’s research investigates ways and means of redesigning various products to make them more ecological effective. This book is relevant as it discusses various situations affected by design as influenced or affected by sustainable practices and how they might be improved, as well Designer’s feeling the pressure to create sustainable objects or use sustainable materials in design. The main limitation of this article is that it is a broad reflection on sustainable practice and gives no direct examples relating to object design. This resource will provide a solid basis for further research and is a good starting point for investigation into sustainable design practice.
Shedroff, N., (2009). Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable. New York: Rosenfeld Media
Design makes a tremendous impact on the produced world in terms of usability, resources, understanding, and priorities. What is produced and even people’s understanding of how the world works is all affected by the design of models and solutions. This book focuses on the unprecedented opportunity contemporary Designer’s have to use their skills to make meaningful, sustainable change in the world. In Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable, Nathan Shedroff examines how the culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how designers can include sustainable considerations into their design processes to produce more sustainable solutions. Discussion includes explanations and examples of sustainable practice and how to implement those practices into existing frameworks, which are useful in consideration of this topic.
Shedroff, N., (2008). Design: A Better Path to Innovation, Interactions.15 (6), 35-41. New York: ACM
This magazine article discusses the importance of innovation in design and the relationship between design innovation and sustainability. This should be considered in relation to Shedroff’s work in the previous reference and is on the same topic, this article is useful solely for its introduction of the consideration of design Innovation to this question.
Trubridge, D., (2009), David Trubridge Design. Retrieved 08-09 from www.davidtrubridge.com.
New Zealand based Designer David Trubridge has sustainable core values and creates work with a strong cultural message. As a contemporary object designer Trubridge is a good example of how sustainable practice can be forged into a Designer’s philosophy to enhance their work and its meaning. This site features various interviews with Trubridge on his practices, as well as notes on his philosophy and designs, which are each relevant to this topic.
Young, P., (2009). Work the Green Dream, Journal of Applied Arts. 24(4), 28-32. Berlin: Illustrative.
Article discussing new movements in graphic design and what practices can be implemented to reduce the environmental footprint of contemporary designs. Discusses definitions of sustainability and interpretations related specifically to graphic design practices. Limited in that it discusses no other disciplines, but a valuable resource in consideration of the Graphic discipline.
(Trubridge, 2009, The Three Baskets of Knowledge, ¶4)
Discuss this statement and debate the pros and cons of sustainable practices in relation to contemporary design. What changes does this issue provoke in contemporary design practice? Include specific examples.
___________________________________________________
Bamford, R. & Williamson, L. (2009)., Sustain Me: Contemporary Design. [Exhibition Catalogue]. Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney: UNSW.
Coinciding with The Sydney Design Festival 2009 this exhibition gives insight into the development of sustainable practices in design with current contemporary design examples. ‘Contextualising the exhibition opens up the similarities and differences between the perceived barriers to sustainable design experienced in the past, for example consumer guilt and the aestheticisation of poverty, and provides an opportunity to reflect on how they are, to a greater and lesser extent, resonant today’ (Moline., K., 2009, Tensions Between Sustainability and Design: Third Time Lucky, Sustain Me: Contemporary Design, [Exhibition Catalogue], Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney: UNSW). This is a valuable resource as it provides solid reference points and is theoretically very well considered by lecturers of varying design disciplines whom are at the forefront of this issue.
Borschke, M. (2007)., Designer Guilt: Why Sustainable Design Matters, D*Hub Powerhouse Museum. Retrieved 08-09 from www.dhub.org.
Resource collated by the Powerhouse Museum Sydney discussing various opportunities sustainable awareness offers to designers and ways in which global warming can be seen as one of the most positive catalysts for contemporary design, citing various examples and with Designer’s input. This article provides differing perspectives from scholars, designers and politicians giving insight into both the pros and cons of this movement. This reference is a useful resource because of its solid references and design examples, as well as its provision of a wide range of reactions and perspectives to this issue, each with strong theoretical backing.
Cerver, F. (1998)., The New Modern Furniture Design. New York: Whitney Library of Design.
This book gives an overall view of modern furniture in its many and varied forms. It gives insight into the philosophies of particular prominent designers, specifically furniture designers Charles and Rae Eames. This resource is useful for its insights into processes of material applications and design development, discussing how a culmination of processes and connections forms the final object outcome. Whilst too broad to be a substantial source, relevant design examples will be referenced and this has also broadened research into some of these designers’ specific works.
Clement, G., Borasi, G., & Rahm, P., (2007). Environ(ne)ment: Approaches for Tomorrow. Canada: Skira
Landscape designer Gilles Clement and architect Philippe Rahm present their contrasting visions for contemporary architecture and design through installations designed for the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Considerations surround biological diversity and uses of energy and climate to inform form. This book considers the relation of humans to design and architecture and various outcomes of this relationship are represented through installations, this work is not dissimilar to that of Designer David Trubridge and is useful as an example of sustainable considerations forging their place into contemporary design.
De Botton, A. (2007). The Architecture of Happiness: The Secret Art to Furnishing Your Life. London: Penguin.
Philosopher De Botton discusses the inter-relationship between history and psychology, and architecture and interior design. Investigating what attracts or repels people regarding their surroundings and the effect this has on areas of design or how it might inform design. This book is relevant in that sustainability must not be ignorant of aesthetics and must address philosophical and psychological needs. This resource not directly address sustainability so has clear limitations, however it informs the basis of a broader consideration of contemporary design and its relationship to human needs.
Eat Green Design (2009). Sydney Design 09. Retrieved 08-09 from www.eatgreendesign.com.
Group presenting a temporary sustainable environment created to explore sustainability issues on many levels for individual interpretation. From ecologically intelligent design principles, environmental responsibility in design and architecture, cradle-to-cradle design and rematerialisation, to how the current trends in food consumption translate to the design industry. This endeavour is an interesting example of local initiatives and their effects, which includes reference to lectures by various contemporary designers discussing sustainable processes in their work or research.
Fry, T., (2009). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics & New Practice. New York: Berg.
The work of Professor Tony Fry who heads the Master of Design course at Queensland University, exposing the limitations of ‘Green Design’ Design Futuring systematically presents ideas and methods for Design as an expanded ethical and professional practice. This book argues that responding to political, social and ecological concerns now requires a new type of practice that recognizes Design’s importance in overcoming a world made sustainable. Focusing specifically on ways in which ethics and sustainability can change the practice of contemporary design. This book provides solid groundwork for discussing the pros and cons of sustainability and its effect on Design practice, though its shortcoming is that it does not provide specific examples of Designers work to substantiate its theoretical base.
Kane, L., (2007). Arranged Marriage: David Trubridge Unites Craft & Design, American Craft. 67 (5), 54-55. New York: American Craft Magazine.
Article on New Zealand-based designer/maker David Trubridge who is on a mission to persuade people that craft and design can coexist. Trubridge's woodworking skills have earned him his reputation within the craft community, and his brilliantly conceived and executed designs have made him a fixture at destination design fairs such as the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York and the Milan Furniture Fair in Italy. To solve the question of how manufacturing can supply the needs of everyone indefinitely, Trubridge proposes that craft's more lasting value should be recognized despite, and even perhaps because of, its often higher price point, and that design should be undertaken with this in mind. Introduces the relationship between sustainability and Design philosophy and intentions. This resource provides an excellent and focussed example of the contemporary practitioner and the effect of the sustainability movement on contemporary object design.
Lehrer, J., (2009). Greener is Smarter, Print. 63(3), 20-22. New York: F&W Media.
Paper discussing the eight reasons why the principles of sustainable design are at the heart of good design. Discusses the effect of the current economic downfall and the positive aspects to be gleaned from this competitive Design climate pushing designers to create the best work possible. This resource is applicable as it provides reference to the relationship between sustainability and graphic design processes, as well as providing additional discussion on the principles of sustainable design which will be an important point to define.
Maze, R., & Redstrom, J., (2008) Switch! Energy Ecologies in Everyday Life. International Journal of Design, 2(3). 55-70. Taiwan: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
An overview of the Switch! Design research program, on how interaction and product design can promote awareness of energy use in everyday life. The design of interventions into energy ecologies and the use of design methods as a platform for exposing existing habits and hidden norms as well as for proposing alternative actions and views. These propositions have been developed through practical experimentation and the materialization of design examples. Central to this groups work is the consideration of how critical practice can enable designers to examine concepts and ideologies underlying sustainable design. This article provides a useful example of current practitioners in design and their conceptual considerations of the sustainability issue and direct discussion of how the issue is integrated into or effects their designs.
McDonough, W. & Braungart, M. (2002). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press.
McDonough and Braungart explain the principle of ‘Waste equals food’ and explain how products can be designed from the offset to provide nourishment for something new. This resource makes the case for putting eco-effectiveness into practice. McDonough & Braungart’s research investigates ways and means of redesigning various products to make them more ecological effective. This book is relevant as it discusses various situations affected by design as influenced or affected by sustainable practices and how they might be improved, as well Designer’s feeling the pressure to create sustainable objects or use sustainable materials in design. The main limitation of this article is that it is a broad reflection on sustainable practice and gives no direct examples relating to object design. This resource will provide a solid basis for further research and is a good starting point for investigation into sustainable design practice.
Shedroff, N., (2009). Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable. New York: Rosenfeld Media
Design makes a tremendous impact on the produced world in terms of usability, resources, understanding, and priorities. What is produced and even people’s understanding of how the world works is all affected by the design of models and solutions. This book focuses on the unprecedented opportunity contemporary Designer’s have to use their skills to make meaningful, sustainable change in the world. In Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable, Nathan Shedroff examines how the culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how designers can include sustainable considerations into their design processes to produce more sustainable solutions. Discussion includes explanations and examples of sustainable practice and how to implement those practices into existing frameworks, which are useful in consideration of this topic.
Shedroff, N., (2008). Design: A Better Path to Innovation, Interactions.15 (6), 35-41. New York: ACM
This magazine article discusses the importance of innovation in design and the relationship between design innovation and sustainability. This should be considered in relation to Shedroff’s work in the previous reference and is on the same topic, this article is useful solely for its introduction of the consideration of design Innovation to this question.
Trubridge, D., (2009), David Trubridge Design. Retrieved 08-09 from www.davidtrubridge.com.
New Zealand based Designer David Trubridge has sustainable core values and creates work with a strong cultural message. As a contemporary object designer Trubridge is a good example of how sustainable practice can be forged into a Designer’s philosophy to enhance their work and its meaning. This site features various interviews with Trubridge on his practices, as well as notes on his philosophy and designs, which are each relevant to this topic.
Young, P., (2009). Work the Green Dream, Journal of Applied Arts. 24(4), 28-32. Berlin: Illustrative.
Article discussing new movements in graphic design and what practices can be implemented to reduce the environmental footprint of contemporary designs. Discusses definitions of sustainability and interpretations related specifically to graphic design practices. Limited in that it discusses no other disciplines, but a valuable resource in consideration of the Graphic discipline.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Isidro Blasco
New York - based Isidro Blasco who combines architecture, photography and sculptural installations to explore vision and perception.
Currently on show:
Dominik Mersch Gallery
2 Danks Street
Waterloo/Sydney
Until August 29th 2009
http://www.dominikmerschgallery.com/Artist.aspx?id=23
Atmosphere, Atmosphere
Bruno Latour
An entry for the catalogue of Olaf Eliasson The Weather Project, New Tate Gallery, 2003, pp. 29-41
see: Peter Sloterdijk, Olafur Eliasson
http://www.petersloterdijk.net/
www.olafureliasson.net/
Olafur Eliasson's installation The Weather Project, Tate Modern (London) 10/16/03 through 03/21/04.
29. Envelopes, spheres, skins, ambiences: these are the real 'conditions of possibility' that philosophy has vainly attempted to dig out of totally inaccessible infrastructures.
Sloterdijk is to philosophy = Eliasson is to art... tired old divisions between wild & domesticated, private & public, technical & organic, are simply ignored, replaced by a set of experimentations on the conditions that nurture our collective lives.
Sciences have expanded to such an extent that they have transformed the whole world into a laboratory, artists have perforce become white coats.
That we are all engaged ina set of collective experiments that have over-spilled the strict confines of the laboratory needs no more proof than reading the newspaper or watching the television news.
We have entered the experimental age... we have no idea how to pursue collective experiments in the confusing atmosphere of a whole culture.
30. The laboratory has extended its walls to the whole planet.
What is the difference between this collective experiment (example:global warming) and what used to be called a 'political' issue? Nothing. ... These experiments made on us, by us and for us have no protocol. No one is in charge.
31. Old English and Old German 'thing' meant a case, a contoversy, a cause to be collectively decided at the 'Thing', the assembly or forum. Icelandic Parliament = Althing. Things = matters of concern.
...tbc
An entry for the catalogue of Olaf Eliasson The Weather Project, New Tate Gallery, 2003, pp. 29-41
see: Peter Sloterdijk, Olafur Eliasson
http://www.petersloterdijk.net/
www.olafureliasson.net/
Olafur Eliasson's installation The Weather Project, Tate Modern (London) 10/16/03 through 03/21/04.
29. Envelopes, spheres, skins, ambiences: these are the real 'conditions of possibility' that philosophy has vainly attempted to dig out of totally inaccessible infrastructures.
Sloterdijk is to philosophy = Eliasson is to art... tired old divisions between wild & domesticated, private & public, technical & organic, are simply ignored, replaced by a set of experimentations on the conditions that nurture our collective lives.
Sciences have expanded to such an extent that they have transformed the whole world into a laboratory, artists have perforce become white coats.
That we are all engaged ina set of collective experiments that have over-spilled the strict confines of the laboratory needs no more proof than reading the newspaper or watching the television news.
We have entered the experimental age... we have no idea how to pursue collective experiments in the confusing atmosphere of a whole culture.
30. The laboratory has extended its walls to the whole planet.
What is the difference between this collective experiment (example:global warming) and what used to be called a 'political' issue? Nothing. ... These experiments made on us, by us and for us have no protocol. No one is in charge.
31. Old English and Old German 'thing' meant a case, a contoversy, a cause to be collectively decided at the 'Thing', the assembly or forum. Icelandic Parliament = Althing. Things = matters of concern.
...tbc
Insider-Outsider Perspectives of Guanxi
Lee Mei Yi & Paul Ellis
Business Horizons
Jan-Feb 2008
25. The preservation of 'face' and the accumulation of favours owed (renqing) are the key drivers underlying the concept of guanxi, which has been defined as personal relations or connections.
From a Chinese perspective, social chaos is avoided, not by institutional law, but by an individual's acceptance of his proper place and role in society. In such an environment, business cannot be conducted without the facilitating role of guanxi.
26. Guanxi denotes a personal relationship / common point of reference or kinship, if not already existent that must be established through social interaction and reciprocal conduct and implication.
27. Severe handicap to outsiders, must invest resources and income to overcome significant cultural barrier. Biased exchange. 'crooked'
guanxi xue - the use of social relations to accomplish tasks
29. guanxi = corruption?
Business Horizons
Jan-Feb 2008
25. The preservation of 'face' and the accumulation of favours owed (renqing) are the key drivers underlying the concept of guanxi, which has been defined as personal relations or connections.
From a Chinese perspective, social chaos is avoided, not by institutional law, but by an individual's acceptance of his proper place and role in society. In such an environment, business cannot be conducted without the facilitating role of guanxi.
26. Guanxi denotes a personal relationship / common point of reference or kinship, if not already existent that must be established through social interaction and reciprocal conduct and implication.
27. Severe handicap to outsiders, must invest resources and income to overcome significant cultural barrier. Biased exchange. 'crooked'
guanxi xue - the use of social relations to accomplish tasks
29. guanxi = corruption?
Friday, August 14, 2009
David Trubridge
The Story
The Three Baskets of Knowledge is a new lighting installation, which was on show for the first time at Superstudio Piu in Zona Tortona as part of Milan Design Week.
In the mythology of the New Zealand Maori, after the creation of the earth and life on it, the demigod Tane was sent up to the heavens to receive the knowledge that mankind needed to live on earth. The ascent was a great struggle against adversity, but once he was admitted into the heavens he was given the knowledge in three baskets or kete. Descriptions of the contents vary, depending on the telling, and are freely open to interpretation. You can gather your own knowledge.
Kete Aronui, knowledge of the earth and the natural world, which is for all (body).
Kete Tuauri, our rational knowledge, which we keep for ourselves (mind).
Kete Tuaatea, knowledge of the spiritual world, which we give out for others (spirit).
These three need to be in balance to live harmoniously on earth. Currently our rational knowledge is dominating our spirit and empathy for the earth. This installation suggests a redress to a balanced state. The three lights shine equally on the earth, overlapping at the centre in harmony.
We believe that if design today does not contribute towards a better way of living, it is both irrelevant and irresponsible. Our vision is to be able to promote ideas more than products. We do not create a new form to seduce you into buying something you do not need. We tell stories to nourish and to spread wisdom. This installation is created to feed your mind, your body and your spirit – to give you something to think about, to connect you to nature, and to nourish you spiritually.
Source: www.davidtrubridge.com
Paul Cocksedge, 2005
www.paulcocksedge.co.uk
In “Bulb,” Cocksedge takes three natural elements - electricity, water, and a flower, to create a remarkably simple lamp with dazzling- yet organic properties. Inserted into a vase of water, the flower stem is used to switch on a small halogen light at the base of the “lamp.” The water within the vase then projects the light- as would a lens- and the flower is silhouetted from the glow. Because the conductive property of the sap is what creates the path for current, once the flower dies, the light will go out.
Source: www.inhabitat.com
Human-Centered Design
Richard Buchanan
Buchanan R., (2004) Human-Centered Design: Changing Perspectives of Design Education in the East and West, Design Issues: 20 (1), Winter 2004
30. Market economy emered in the 1980s, new ideas about modern design also entered the country
'arts-and-crafts' toward 'form and function' - Zhou Zhi Wang
uneasy relationship of traditional and modern approaches to design education in China continues to the present
whether and how China can be transformed from the maker of products design elsewhere in the world to an original source of design
'Equipping for the future: An International Conference on Design Education in China'
31. consider whether past practices and theory in Chinese design are suited to the new circumstances of international economic development.
East vs West, similar problems with different solutions, different social and cultural circumstances
32. Chinese Industry cheap labour costs, technical prowess, well skilled and well educated workers. Japan and Koreans surpassed, but wages will inevitably rise - what effect will this have?
***difference will be the future of design thinking - making products desirable abroad and at home
33. in both cultures, Design Ed begins as apprenticeship (?)
similarity: design <> fine arts = 'making', 'poesis' to make = poetry
devision of arts and design in West (not East) - dominant dialectical thought
34. Design Ed <> Art Ed
Obsessions w style and self expression
West broader, East imitation of Masters and style, West humanism - hujman centered approach
'Design is an art of making products that serve people'
West. balance of fine art, engineering, social science and design harmony
35. West - search for knowledge, no longer is design a self contained discipline
36. East obsession w form, West creative problem solving, not troubled w form giving - but repetitious
Western curriculum more diverse
37. Gen Eds, importance in Western cultures of diversity to creative breadth of product
38. research with Masters - interaction design
39. What are the philosophical and theoretical roots of Chinese Design and Design Education that will continue to influence their development?
Buchanan R., (2004) Human-Centered Design: Changing Perspectives of Design Education in the East and West, Design Issues: 20 (1), Winter 2004
30. Market economy emered in the 1980s, new ideas about modern design also entered the country
'arts-and-crafts' toward 'form and function' - Zhou Zhi Wang
uneasy relationship of traditional and modern approaches to design education in China continues to the present
whether and how China can be transformed from the maker of products design elsewhere in the world to an original source of design
'Equipping for the future: An International Conference on Design Education in China'
31. consider whether past practices and theory in Chinese design are suited to the new circumstances of international economic development.
East vs West, similar problems with different solutions, different social and cultural circumstances
32. Chinese Industry cheap labour costs, technical prowess, well skilled and well educated workers. Japan and Koreans surpassed, but wages will inevitably rise - what effect will this have?
***difference will be the future of design thinking - making products desirable abroad and at home
33. in both cultures, Design Ed begins as apprenticeship (?)
similarity: design <> fine arts = 'making', 'poesis' to make = poetry
devision of arts and design in West (not East) - dominant dialectical thought
34. Design Ed <> Art Ed
Obsessions w style and self expression
West broader, East imitation of Masters and style, West humanism - hujman centered approach
'Design is an art of making products that serve people'
West. balance of fine art, engineering, social science and design harmony
35. West - search for knowledge, no longer is design a self contained discipline
36. East obsession w form, West creative problem solving, not troubled w form giving - but repetitious
Western curriculum more diverse
37. Gen Eds, importance in Western cultures of diversity to creative breadth of product
38. research with Masters - interaction design
39. What are the philosophical and theoretical roots of Chinese Design and Design Education that will continue to influence their development?
欢迎进入上海城市规划馆网站
www.supec.org
Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre
Don't let the mundane-sounding name fool you: The Urban Planning Exhibition Centre is the city's monument to itself, stunningly showcasing Shanghai's development, past and present. Follow the crowds upstairs to a 1:500 scale model representing what the city should look like in 2020. You can find every individual building in Shanghai, from tiny one-story alley houses to towering skyscrapers. Anxious residents crane their necks over the model to see if their pleasant French concession houses will be left standing. The museum also features scaled models of yesteryear Shanghai, plus side-by-side photo comparisons of how various intersections looked decades ago and today—the change is mind-boggling.
Open Monday-Thursday 9 am-5 pm, Friday-Sunday 9 am-6 pm.
30 yuan.
100 Renmin Dadao, People's Square, Shanghai.
Phone 6372-2077. http://www.supec.org.
Source: http://www.professionaltravelguide.com/Destinations/Shanghai/See-and-Do/Sightseeing/Attractions/Museums/Shanghai-Urban-Planning-Exhibition-Centre-p1733421
Porosity & Richard Goodwin
Porosity Studio est. 1996
Ancient Chinese scholars were fascinated with porous rocks that became known as 'scholar rocks'. The more richly porous the structures were, balancing air with mass, the more valuable they became.
The 'Sierpensky Sponge', a theoretical cube which is infinitely porous and hence: 'more than a surface, less than a volume'
(Ursprung, Phillip. (2003) p. 487)
Porosity: The revision of public space in a city using public art to test the functional boundaries of built form.
The vision of the city as a landscape, which responds to the nomadic movements of the pedestrian. Porosity research will map nomadic space and overlay it with sendentary space.
East vs West / Teacher vs Student Centred Learning
www.richard-goodwin.com
The Future Cultures of Design
Prof. Kees Dorst
Discussion 'on the value different cultures can bring to the design professions'. 1
'cultural roots of the design professions are defined by Western thought'. 1
'Modernist design has lost its original ideological grounding. It has now become more of a stylistic preference than a way of constructing a better future world'. 2
'The impact of Modernism has been huge: through Modernism the Western cultures have lost their own ornamental languages, and Western designers have lost the very ability to create ornaments.' 2
Conflict between creating good modern design & being faithful to cultural tradition. 2
'In a complex world, we need all the richness of the different human expressions in the world cultures to feed into our design repertoire.' 3
'We need to understand that ... the way values are seen and created within a culture must be the basis for construing of design within that culture.' 3
Design as a child of Western thought. 3
Descriptors of Cultural Difference; Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long Term Orientation / 'face'. 5
Cultural Codes & Value Systems: Shamanic, Indian/Tibetan, Chinese/Japanese, Revelation Religions, Western Scientific. 8
'Chinese/Japanese tradition seeks harmony with the world: it sees the world as the dynamic operation of opposite forces (like Yin-Yang), where the attainment of balance is a key goal.' 8
Source: Dorst, K. (2008), The Future Cultures of Design, UTS
http://www.keesdorst.nl
The Shanghai Riddle, 2008
TransformationMaarten BAAS
Contrasts Gallery
Shanghai
15-08-08 to 04-09-08
Baas:
'Wood is not possible to melt. But yet it seems to melt. What is that? You don't actually know what it happening, but you just accept that it is happening.'
Drawing his inspiration from the city of Shanghai, Baas says: 'They do things you just couldn't find in Holland. There are so many contrasts over there. You don't know if something is new or old or fake or real or traditional or modern. This makes a kind of mixture which you can't understand, you just accept it.'
Baas has characterised Shanghai as 'a city full of contradictions, old/new, high tech/low tech, tradition/revolution, fake/real, cheap/expensive, original/copy. Together all these contradictions seem to form a big and interesting paradox, the complexity of which you can't exactly define. What you can feel is the atmosphere, the energy coming from it, a kind of chemical reaction to what's happening'.
Source: IconEye & Wallpaper* Online
Return Brief 101
- Project Background
- Problem
- Research: Covered & Not Yet Covered
- Research Categories: Contextual, Historical, Ecological, Social, Conceptual
- Precedents
- Aims & Objectives
- Aims Categories: Designer & Client: Ecological, Social, Aesthetic, Functional, Practical, Materials, Manufacture
- Desired Outcomes
- Target Audience
- Ecosystems & People at Risk
- Required Skills: in house / outsourced
- Costing: Stage 1: Research & Contextual Development
- Stage 2: Idea Development
- Stage 3: Prototyping Project
- Timeline
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