Dear Chris, Ken, Terry, Klaus and all
Apologies for delay in reply Chris ... work pressures.
I think that when we attempt to disengage and distance ourselves in order to understand what something is (in and of itself) through some unitary conclusive definition we are following a set of cognitive operations which are more cultural than cogent. Given that in my understanding there is nothing that is separate.
Single definitions may be evidence of a cultural tendency that John McCumber refers to as ousidic civilisation ... an appropriation and skewing of elements of Greek philosophy in service of resource focused production economies (is that all design is?). This civilisation is characterised by an orientation to the centre through the promulgation of the idea that it is possible/preferable to for social groups to possess common values, morality and understanding.
The idea that the validity of a social group identified through shared practice is linked to the adherence to or acceptance of a single understanding as held-in-common is quite an absurd and sometimes violent imposition. The tendency to rank groups (and the intent of groups to who attempt self-ranking) through an adherence to some central measure for validity is a project founded in a social an illusion albeit one that we are often rewarded for accepting.
The key to this illusion is the recognition that all such ranking has to be negotiated in the language of the centre - to be valid 'design' has to speak in the language of 'science' ...when in reality there is no language of science & what is actually happening is a conformity to the values of production-for which we will be rewarded in terms cogent to value of our production and the inherent value of our role in the reproduction of these values.
One of the principal functions of symbolic violence (the coercive violence of social positioning through reward) is to create the illusion that the forms used by economic capital to disguise itself have an intrinsic, rather than a purely social value (Bourdieu 1990).
Some of us will be (are) rewarded for aligning design solely to production as it exists now and seeks to maintain itself ... but I see in the environmental futures work of some designers that a definition of design may be a critical movement from servant of production to production design... and instigation design being a central concern for our social and environmental futures.
I believe that design is a context relevant practice and it is this feature of the definition supplied by Ken that appeals to me most ... but also like all effective human processes design is diverse and that is its strength ...while the language of capital is a singular ...it is a common currency which is great ... but not all languages (social exchanges) do or should have this limitation.
I propose that design definitions are essentially contextual because in conceiving of design definitions (as designers) we should employ design thinking ...design cognition ...where the first step is the perception of the range of possibilities in a context.
Goel, V. (1995) Sketches of Thought. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
To this end I characterise the definition supplied by Ken as inhabiting the possibility range described by the design principle (1) below... and take it from there as a design instigation?
(1) Mobility
(2) Engagement
(3) Fit
(4) Respect
Norm
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From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design on behalf of Chris Rust
Sent: Sat 25/08/2007 5:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Instigation Design
Kristina Borjesson wrote:
> Also when it comes to packaging, as referred to by Chris, re-appropriation
> and re-use are most probably also guided by the affective quality.
That's exactly right and I think one of the things that Janet Shipton
found was that people would keep packaging objects that had decorative
appeal or pleasant associations. She also found (quite early on, later
she moved into the subtle stuff) that structural affordances were
important and a pack that was strong, transparent, sealable and
stackable would be very likely to find a second use (obvious once you
say it) My son used containers like that for his model warriors with
the added feature that the containers came from his favourite ice cream
(Carte D'Or) and so also had esteem value or pleasant associations from
the original product.
But my favourite example was one I found for Janet myself. At a tourist
attraction, queueing for the shuttle back to the car park when it
started to rain, a man who appeared to have Indian origins had taken a
supermarket plastic bag and cleverly twisted it to make a turban shaped
hat. The bag was an attractive turquoise colour with no heavy-handed
graphics and you had to look twice to realise that it was a plastic bag
and not a fabric turban. So the bag conformed to Kritina's thinking but
the additional factor was that the man had an idea of a hat and maybe a
technique for forming it, that came from his experience.
Best wishes
Chris
*********************
Professor Chris Rust
Head of Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University, S11 8UZ, UK
+44 114 225 2706
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www.chrisrust.net
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