Dear Ranjan,
Yes, I can see from your experience why you might adopt the strategy you
describe, and from the responses you've gotten, much prefer to stress
opportunities and possibilities in design. I tend to do that too and have
said problem/opportunity/possibility so much over the years that I have
colleagues who will remind me if fail to indicate a wide sense of the
concept in the conversation. I have also been accused of stressing the
opportunity aspect too much as a ploy for building enthusiasm and minimizing
difficulties. (Probably guilty)
I would say that I don't DEFINE design and designing in terms of problem
solving, but I am interested in the way that "problems come up" from
wherever down is in the "peopled space" you describe and that I think of in
cultural terms as an environmental field. Typically I will try to state
matters, or try to influence the constructed narrative of an existing
situation, in terms of issues - points of view in tension or conflict - in
all the various areas of concern. I find that one can easily turn
well-stated issues around and restate them as goals and that people feel
validated when they see their concerns translated into intentional work. I
have been overheard claiming that goals are issues spelled backwards.
Another reason for thinking that the concept of problem in designing is
still useful is that I find it plays an important role in overcoming what
Kevin Lynch called "the ponderous inertia of places." In my experience this
is an important first phase matter in designing. (A phase is a stage in the
life of a process) There is a lot of designerly work to be done here, much
of which goes under the radar in theory.
But not to get sidetracked and finish the inertia idea, groups in the
environmental situations I deal with haven't always made up their minds
about transformation or its desired direction. There is usually a need to
more consciously explore both the problematic (in the negative sense)
aspects of change and to try to convincingly generate - and I think rehearse
as tangibly as possible - a convincing case for realizing the opportunities
and possibilities that would make things better. (desirable ends-in-view
that are worth the effort) It is important work for the designer to help
the group understand how to defuse and overcome critical difficulties AND to
find reasons for aligning their interests in a commitment to a shared vision
of something better.
I think of this visually as a moment problem in engineering. The
counterclockwise arrows include fear of change (better the devil you know -
if there's any chance of failure, don't try) ideology, scarce resources,
leadership, organization, costs etc. and the clockwise arrows represent such
things as an adequate dissatisfaction with the present situation, a shared
vision of a desirable future, and the belief that it is possible to get from
here to there. When the clockwise arrows prevail, the field becomes ripe
for change and ready to roll forward (well not literally) - and the
designer's attention turns to a phase of more directed, committed,
intentional work on what needs doing.
Regards from around the world,
Jerry
On 8/18/05 12:50 PM, "M P Ranjan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> From: M P Ranjan <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: 19 August 2005 1:18:16 AM GMT+05:30
>> To: Jerome Diethelm <[log in to unmask]>
>> Cc: M P Ranjan <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: [PHD-DESIGN] I|d like a copy -- Re: a specific proposal
>> that fits?
>>
>> Dear Jerry
>>
>> Your description of the Bucky experience is no exaggeration, at least
>> from what I remember of my own experience from his visit to NID in the
>> late seventies (? - need to check my dates), he conserved his strength
>> through the day, looking sharply with his eyes (and mind) at the
>> Institute and the city, did not utter a word in casual conversation,
>> but in the evening lecture in Ahmedabad went on and on for many hours
>> non stop, taking the audience of Ahmedabad on a mind blowing journey
>> through the exciting perspectives that he brought to design thinking
>> and philosophy. Some of us at NID, faculty and student got together
>> and built domes for many months after his visit, with much discussion
>> and reading, late into the night.....
>>
>> About the "problem - solution" debate, I have the following thoughts
>> to offer, may be theoretically unsound but here it is anyway.
>>
>> I have given up, many years ago trying to define design in terms of
>> "problem solving", many other professions do that too, and it is not
>> necessarily very beneficial in describing and in communicating exactly
>> what designers do, either to design students or the industry and
>> government clients who know very little about design at all its levels
>> of manifestation, especially at the systems level. I have found it far
>> more effective and fruitful to talk about locating opportunities and
>> in mapping and modeling the contours of these situations without
>> really using the word "problem" in the discourse, identify the gaps
>> and possibilities. The word "problem", somehow has a very negative
>> connotation especially to young students who are literally sent out of
>> the Institute campus in search of new assignments to handle in their
>> classroom and/or diploma projects, and invariably they used to come
>> back with a clutch of very morbid perceptions from the field, (we have
>> plenty of problems in India if anyone wants to know about these) and
>> the enormity of some of these sometimes discourages the student s (and
>> faculty) from even attempting to enter that discourse, very
>> disheartening, for a novice and even for the hardened professional.
>> However if you ask them to list opportunities for improving what they
>> see around them in the city roads, hospitals, schools, shops, malls
>> and hotels, and homes, to name a few typical places that they fan out
>> to at the beginning of an assignment in design, they come back from
>> field observation and brainstorming and discussions, with each other
>> and with faculty, with a very long list of possible directions, a germ
>> of an idea which they believe is do-able, which in my view is a great
>> way to start building "intentions' and then "convictions' to make some
>> of these "opportunities" a part of their own career goals, very deep
>> commitments indeed, some life-long.
>>
>> While yes the 'Problems' are there to be 'Solved', we may need to look
>> at these from the corner of our sights rather than head-on and then
>> feel dejected by the enormity of the perceived task, and not take it
>> on at all as a result. Many of our 'problems" are in this category,
>> but all these desperately need design, (230 sectors in India in my
>> count - Ken and Terry have a longer list) not just the science and
>> technology and even marketing spends that are today being funneled
>> towards these "problems" in India, particularly when compared to very
>> meager design spends which in my view needs to be hugely enhanced
>> soon. But that is a long story, for another day.
>>
>> With warm regards
>>
>> M P Ranjan
>> from my office at NID
>> 19 August 2005 at 01.05 am IST
>>
>> PS: I checked the dates of Bucky's visit to Ahmedabad
>>
>> Quote from <http://www.amaindia.org/act_popular.html>
>> Series on Human in Universe by Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller, the
>> well-known geometer, architect, philosopher, and inventor (December
>> 15-16, 1978)
>> UnQuote
>>
>> ___________________________________________________________________
>>
>> Prof M P Ranjan
>> Faculty of Design
>> Head, NID Centre for Bamboo Initiatives
>> Faculty Member on NID Governing Council (2003 -2005)
>> National Institute of Design
>> Paldi
>> Ahmedabad 380 007 INDIA
>>
>> Tel: 91+79+26610054 (Res)
>> Tel: 91+79+26639692 ext 1090 (Off)
>> Tel: 91+79+26639692 ext 4095 (Off)
>> Fax: 91+79+26605242
>>
>> email: <[log in to unmask]
>> web archive: <http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp/>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>> On 18-Aug-05, at 12:23 AM, Jerome Diethelm wrote:
>>
>>> enjoyed seeing the Bucky process again and remembered the last time
>>> I heard him speak - as usual for four hours without a break. Iım
>>> sure youıve experienced the unique unfolding of that marvelous mind.
>>> I remember him beginning haltingly at first, with a staccato like
>>> stuttering of grounding ideas and phrases that left the uninitiated
>>> wondering if this was the real Bucky Fuller. Weıd all fallen for a
>>> fake Andy Warhol and his sidekick Viva in purple boots some years
>>> before.
>>>
>>> But by the second hour, he had once more rebuilt his conceptual
>>> world before our very eyes, drawn his audience into it, and was
>>> picking up the pace. By the third hour, for those of us with the
>>> stamina (and bladders I was younger then) he was of course fluid,
>>> fluent, brilliant, as in radiant, and exceeding the speed limit. At
>>> the end of the fourth hour, he scraped us all off the floor and then
>>> we went outside and built a dome. Well, OK, I exaggerate a little,
>>> but not too much.
>>>
>>> I always think of Fullerıs ³tension and compression always mutually
>>> co-exist² when I am asserting that valuing and meaning always
>>> mutually co-exist in design (as in interests/matter). And Iım quite
>>> sure itıs from his evolution1 - evolution2 that I have drawn what I
>>> prefer to call the same continuum: natural selection human natural
>>> selection. I like the special flavor of consciousness, the fruit of
>>> the tree, applying itıs own language of evaluating and choosing
>>> (selection) backward on its mother matrix. Prototype isnıt always my
>>> first choice for describing a formative expression, mainly because
>>> its industrial connotations donıt quite fit my work, but why quibble
>>> (as in ³problem²) and ³purposefully² miss the point.
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Diethelm
Architect - Landscape Architect
Planning & Urban Design Consultant
Prof. Emeritus of Landscape Architecture
and Public Service
2652 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~diethelm
541-686-0585 home/work 541-346-1441 UO
541-206-2947 work/cell
|
