rob and all,
just last week, on july 15, the new york times science section brought an
article trying to answer your question. it probably is still available on
the nytimes website
it argued that birds are architects of their nests, leaf cutting ants
practice agriculture, crows use tools, chimps form coalitions against
rivals. they all design in the sense of rearranging available resources to
improve their environment. so, design by humans may well have preceded
language (language as a combinatorial system of sounds and gestures, having
a syntax, for example)
simple tools have been found with humanoid skeletons dating back to 100,000
years. but about 50,000 years ago, some profound change seems to have been
occurred. tools became more complex, artistic elements were introduced,
long distance trade emerged and settlements grew in size and complexity.
since technology can be thought of as a combinatorial system, it stands to
reason that it co-evolved together with language. there you have the answer
to part of your question.
your question provoked another thought. indeed, designers, while i wouldn't
call them inarticulate, often do not read and write that much, prefer
looking at glitzy magazines to studying complex arguments, and often work
alone with their own imagination. since language is the premiere social
phenomenon, accounting for our manner of coordination, it would indeed
amount to a great leap forward (maybe not quite as big as the leap that
language enabled 50,000 years ago) if designers were to recognize the social
and linguistic nature of technology and move from the current focus on
individual users' artifacts (usability), to the design of social artifacts,
replacing users by communities of stakeholders. design semantics has argued
that point. but as authors cannot control the reading by others, designers
read what they think they needed, what does not challenge their conceptions
too much, and thus remain concerned with individual users, ignoring how
language and culture structures even their own perception and action.
klaus
klaus krippendorff
gregory bateson term professor for cybernetics, language, and culture
the annenberg school for communication
university of pennsylvania
3620 walnut street
philadelphia, pa 19104.6220
phone: 215.898.7051 (O); 215.545.9356 (H)
fax: 215.898.2024 (O); 215.545.9357 (H)
usa
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhDs in Design
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Rob Curedale
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 10:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: origins of design discussion
It would be interesting to know whether there was a surge in the invention
of tools around the same time as the invention of language which if I
remember correctly was about half a million years ago. Many product
designers seem to be not particularly articulate.
______________________________
R o b C u r e d a l e
Chair Product Design
College for Creative Studies Detroit
201 East Kirby
Detroit MI 48202-4034
Phone: 313 664 7625
Fax: 313 664 7620
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ccscad.edu
______________________________
>>> "Bruce M. Tharp" <[log in to unmask]> 07/21/03 21:28 PM >>>
Dear all,
Ken asked me to take off my Design hat and put on my Anthropology hat (pith
helmet) and offer some
sources in regard to the origins of human design issue. While concentrating
in
contemporary sociocultural anthropology, this topic is hardly my forte.
However, I have run across a few texts which may be of some interest to
those
asking questions about when humans (and pre-humans) began 'designing' and
what
that might have been like. I encourage any archeologists or evolutionary
anthropologists out there, if any, to offer other (better?) sources.
Long live Homo Faber.
Regards,
Bruce
Bruce M. Tharp
PhD Candidate
Sociocultural Anthropology
The University of Chicago
[log in to unmask]
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A good introduction. Takes a look at some of the earliest archelogical
sites
and their stone tools. Offers a look at archelogical research findings and
how
they play into the puzzle of human origins.
> Making silent stones speak : human evolution and the dawn of technology /
> Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth.
> Author: Schick, Kathy Diane
> Imprint: New York : Simon & Schuster, c1993.
> Description: 351 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Contents: 1. Before the Dawn -- 2. The Stone Age Considered -- 3. Dawn
Breaks: The First Stone Tool Makers -- 4. Fashioning Our Future: The Making
of Early Stone Tools -- 5. The Role of Rock: Uses of Early Stone Tools -- 6.
The Nature and Significance of Early Stone Age Sites -- 7. The Handaxe
Makers
and Their Contemporaries -- 8. The Human Threshold -- 9. Brave New World?
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Chapters on arrow, fire, and digging stick; exploitation of plants; the axe;
fire husbandry; paddle spades; hand tools; the ard and plough. Also some
discussion of contemporary reconstructions of past technologies--making
flint
tools and that sort of thing.
> Man the manipulator : an ethno-archaeological basis for reconstructing the
> past / Axel Steensberg.
> Author: Steensberg, Axel, 1906-
> Imprint: Copenhagen : National Museum of Denmark, 1986.
> Description: 199 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
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Edited voulume. Very interesting for those interested in creativity. In
addition to some ideas about what creativity is, offres currrent
perspectives
on the creative mind of prehistorical humankind--from monkeys through Homo,
paleo-, meso-, and neolithic human, as well as a chapter on prehistoric
Europe.
Creativity in Human Evolution and Prehistory
Mithen, Steven (Ed.) New York: Routledge 1998. 300pgs.
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Kind of a classic, but dated. Went through at least 6 editions.
Interesting
and quick supplement to other texts. Many sketches and photos of stone
tools
from different civilizations.
> Man the tool-maker / by Kenneth P. Oakley.
> Author: Oakley, Kenneth Page, 1911-
> Imprint: Chicago : University of Chicago Press 1964, c1961.
> Description: vi, 159 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.
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No pictures :( Of less interest from a design/tool/artifact perspective.
Modern Darwinian account of how we might understand prehistorical
mind--current
and easy to read. Proposes "a radical evolutionary theory of how language
and
culture began."
> As we know it : coming to terms with an evolved mind / Mark Kohn.
> Author: Kohn, Marek.
> Imprint: London : Granta Books, 1999.
> Description: x, 326 p. ; 24 cm.
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Edited voulume. Very interesting for those interested in creativity. In
addotion to some ideas about what creativity is, offres currrent
perspectives
on the creative mind of prehistorical humankind--from monkeys through Homo,
paleo-, meso-, and neolithic, as well as a chapter on prehistoric Europe.
Creativity in Human Evolution and Prehistory
Mithen, Steven (Ed.) New York: Routledge 1998. 300pgs.
*****************************************************
*****************************************************
A little off the general topic, but Of great interest for those of you with
a
penchant for projectiles. Edited volume--detailed and multifarious
perspectives.
> Projectile technology / edited by Heidi Knecht.
> Author:
> Imprint: New York : Plenum Press, c1997.
> Description: xviii, 408 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
> Contents: Ch. 1. The History and Development of Projectile Technology
> Research / Heidi Knecht -- Ch. 2. Factors Influencing the Use of Stone
> Projectile Tips: An Ethnographic Perspective / Christopher J. Ellis -- Ch.
3.
> Middle Paleolithic Spear Point Technology / John J. Shea -- Ch. 4. The
> Microwear and Morphology of Microliths from Gleann Mor / Bill Finlayson
and
> Steven Mithen -- Ch. 5. Side-Notched and Unnotched Arrowpoints: Assessing
> Functional Differences / Andrew L. Christenson -- Ch. 6. Sinew-Reinforced
and
> Composite Bows: Technology, Function, and Social Implications /
Christopher
> A. Bergman and Edward McEwen -- Ch. 7. Contributions of Multidisciplinary
> Experimentation to the Study of Upper Paleolithic Projectile Points /
> Jean-Michel Geneste and Serge Maury -- Ch. 8. Projectile Points of Bone,
> Antler, and Stone: Experimental Explorations of Manufacture and Use /
Heidi
> Knecht -- Ch. 9. Hunting during the Upper Paleolithic: Bow, Spearthrower,
or
> Both? / Pierre Cattelain -- Ch. 10. Self-Barbed Antler Spearpoints and
> Evidence of Fishing in the Late Upper Paleolithic of Cantabrian Spain /
James
> Pokines and Marcy Krupa -- Ch. 11. Technology and Variation in Arrow
Design
> among the Agta of Northeastern Luzon / P. Bion Griffin -- Ch. 12. Hunting
and
> Multifunctional Use of Bows and Arrows: Ethnoarchaeology of Technological
> Organization among Pume Hunters of Venezuela / Russell D. Greaves -- Ch.
13.
> A Comparison of Kua (Botswana) and Hadza (Tanzania) Bow and Arrow Hunting
/
> Laurence E. Bartram, Jr. -- Ch. 14. Each According to Need and Fashion:
Spear
> and Arrow Use among San Hunters of the Kalahari / Robert Hitchcock and
Peter
> Bleed -- Ch. 15. Projectile Points: Form, Function, and Design / Margaret
C.
> Nelson.
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