Even if currently on holiday under a hottish sun (35C) in Puglia, the discussion on art and design is too interesting to ignore.
As quite often is the case on this list, there is a tendency to polarize, which heats up the discussion but also somewhat twists the debate.
Reading the different contributions, you get the impression that though debating with a multidiciplinary viewpoint the points made, seem curiously single-diciplinary (depending on professional point of reference).
Having read and pondered, I would like to emphasis and add the following:
1. Multidiciplinary approaches are important in all subject areas to avoid creating a new problem when attempting to solve an exisisting.
2. Traditional links between to subject areas, like Art and. (d)Design, can block the creation of new links, which are the precondition of a sound development of a field, i.e. Anthropology and (d)Design, Cognitive Science and (d)Design, to mention a few. This has been the case with i.e. Architecture: the traditional link to political science has blocked the link to the humanities.
3. Looked at from the outside (according to my informers), it is difficult to understand that one designer is 'arty' while another is 'tecno', still they are both Industrial Designers. Their education appears to be very different depending on where they have graduated from: an Art and Design college or an Engineering College.
4. Every dicipline ought on a regular basis to be critically assessed concerning its speciality as well as its multi-diciplinarity: which links to other subject areas ought to be explored and developed alternatively re-modelled as a result of a changing human context.
5. Once links are established they help to (re-)open paths (start thought processes) in our brains which help promote innovation.
6. Neither Art nor Design should (of course) be solely visual: both ought to apply to as many of our five senses as possible (even if not necessarily physically) when at their best.
7. The most evident difference between Art and Design is that they function on different human need levels.
Best regards
Kristina
Kristina Borjesson
PhD, Research Associate
University of the Arts London
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