Dear Johann,

Thank you for your delightful shaping of thoughts and ideas through words,
and my apologies for the delay in sending this response.

My concern about your response to Glen  is that you seem to be proposing
that an 'activity of'designing' (verb) is identical to, or at least the
same sort of epistemological entity as,  a 'design' (a noun referring to
the specification of how to make the artefact). When you write, for example,
the 'past of design', do you mean 'a  history of designed objects' or 'a
designer's  internal memories of their experiences of designing'? I suspect
that separating these concepts is important to clarifying which qualities of
talent are developed, and understanding the underlying mechanisms through
which these 'talents' emerge and are actualised .

Best wishes

Terry
____________________________

Dr Terence Love
We-B Centre
Management Information Systems
Edith Cowan University
Churchlands, Western Australia
email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +61 8 9273 8682
____________________________


========================================


Subject: Re: Theory and originality
Date: 8/29/00 2:01 PM

Glen
Words are fierce creatures, aren't they?
I will give this some more thought, but for now - yes you can teach an old
dog some new tricks, although, as you say, the best time to introduce the
"talent" for design is in primary school and earlier (give me the child
before age 7). Children are more open to the possibilities of art and design
than adults, and when it comes to mature students the resistance can be
staggering.

What exactly is "talent"? To me at the moment (which is what I try to
instill in my students) this description means to get them to unlock their
own potential - any potential - for this illusive/elusive thing called
design. Design as  talent is design as remembering - we can only know the
future of design if we can remember a past of design, and that includes an
own past of experiences to do with (whatever counts as) design. This would
mean that some design students, undergraduate or postgraduate who came to
design late will find it very difficult to "reason" using a kind of design
language, giving that they have not really picked up a "feel" for design (I
know this sounds obscure, but in cooking - how do you know what a pinch of
salt is? How much is that exactly?) You develop a "feel" for quantities and
effects - in short, for the "connections" that are made by different
combinations of flavours, textures - so it is with design, exactly so, for
design is a conversation betw!
 ee!
n the cook, the ingredients and the foreseen end-user. You don't want to be
looking in the recipe book all the time. That is talent. And I realize I
cannot describe it directly, just as it becomes impossible to describe
design directly and succinctly.

Regards
Johann

Johann van der Merwe
Faculty of Art and Design, Port Elizabeth Technikon
P/Bag X6011 Port Elizabeth 6000
Phone  +27 41 504 3682  Fax +27 41 504 3529



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%