Dear Juris and Terry
I liked this idea of Juris' -
"In this sense, perhaps engineers are a kind of anti-design
avant garde! In other words, they're problem solving but
without all the hype and
circumstance!" However, I remember an
exhibition I saw at MoMA early last year called "Digitally
Mastered" and it was a loose exhibition featuring a bunch of
design objects created via digital means. One example I puzzled over for
some time was "A Jet Engine Fan Blade". It was a smooth, torqued
piece of metal about three or four feet high, black and shiny and set up
on a pedestal. It wouldn't have looked at all out of place in an
exhibition of minimalist sculpture. & I puzzled for a long time
imagining exactly what it did in that jet airplane, what the plane looked
like, what the surrounding engine looked like, and how this elegant
piece of digitally engineered metal actually worked. No further
information from the exhibition. Perhaps even the most
"functional" engineering design can, in the end, be coopted into
the aesthetic economy Juris writes of?
Best wishes
Dan
Critical Cities: http://djhuppatz.blogspot.com
>
> 1. Design-Art
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 20:10:16 +0800
>
From: Terence Love <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re:
Design-Art
>
> Hi Juris,
>
> Thanks
for explaining. I can see the shift of focus - great!
>
> I've found it's useful to distinguish between engineering design
(with
> its
> differing dimnensions:concept design,
detail etc), engineering analysis,
> engineering project
management and engineering management rather than
> lumping them
all together under 'engineering'. Otherwise, it's a bit like
>
trying to create design theory after lumping all 'Art and Design'
> disciplines plus museum managers, retail stores managers etc under
> 'craft'.
>
> Situationalism offers another
way of looking at the same issues that
> you've
>
addressed. I'm wondering how you see your analyses would accord or differ?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Terry
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
From:
PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Juris
> Milestone
> Sent: Saturday, 7 June 2008 5:32 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re:
Design-Art
>
> Terry,
>
> I am very
interested in the worlds of engineering design (having been an
>
"aerospace maintenance technician" in a former life, and a
committed 'gear
> head' still today!), but I haven't applied this
analysis there. My goal
> has
> been to understand how
the 'idea of design' moves those outside of design
> professions
- of any kind. And this necessarily leads one to explore how
>
design is portrayed in the media (without judging how 'accurate' it is,
> from
> any perspective), and consumerism (on any
front, not just material
> culture).
> Thus, there are
certain realms or fields or contexts that offer up the
> bulk
> of public or mass exposure to the idea of design, and these tend to
be of
> the aesthetic variety (architecture, product design,
fashion - the look,
> if
> you will) - your observations
about what people do and don't know about
> engineering design
illustrates a part of this. When we're talking about
> culture or
society, design in the political economy of consumer-capitalist
>
dominated societies is largely an aesthetic mechanism of order (mediated
> by
> aesthetic experts and their pundits), and
embedded in a symbolic economy
> of
> cool or new or
tech, with some measurements of functionality mixed in (and
> an
increasing interest in sustainability too, I suppose). The questions
> I've had lately have to do with how this organizes society, who
benefits
> (in
> terms of power), how new subjectivities
(identities-labels) are created
> (as
> Amanda
> says) so as to align populations with the needs and desires of
political
> economic order a la 'design', as it is known
popularly? In
> this sense, perhaps engineers are a kind of
anti-design avant garde!
> In other words, they're problem
solving but without all the hype and
> circumstance!
>
> OK, I'm off to offer some dispute resolution and diaper
changing..!
>
> Juris
>
>
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