Hi everybody,
This interesting discussion has drifted away from the original Terry's
quest or diatribe, better said.
Terry raised the matter of autonomy of Design from Art.
The matters of consanguinity and neighbourhood and methodoxicality (A
few years ago I invented the term methodoxy to assert the impossibility
of a Design Methodology) between Art and Design where ill formulated and
I'll try to explain why.
I'll start with a Giulio Carlo Argan's declaration: "The job of Art is
to raise unsolvable problems; the job of Architecture is to solve
problems." I think we could say Design instead of Architecture.
GCA statement obviously means the Fine Arts, and that is the question.
Architecture was from its initial proposition (when the word was
recovered from Vitrivius text) considered and Art, first along with
Sculpture and Painting and then with Engraving (the Arts of Design
according to William Dunlap in the 1830's).
I think that Architecture is still considered an Art although for long
earned its autonomy from painting and sculpture.
The social Proposition of Design as a Discipline, a Profession and a
Field of Higher Education was to create another Art (different from the
Fine Arts and Architecture, and Engraving) devoted to the creation (I
hate the word) of useful, usable things: stuff, gadgets, products,
chairs mostly, posters, stationary, lamps, you name it). And, of course,
earned its autonomy early, as Art, different from Painting, Sculpture,
Music, Poetry, Drama, Dance, Architecture, and later from Cinema,
Comics, Installation and Performance, Graffiti, Video Art, Photography.
As you may, have noticed things in Fine Arts' evolution make this simple
assertions about Art (guessing for instance) a little bit simplistic.
As you may have guessed, all Arts require a process of design (or do you
think that Pollock was a Sufi priest with sprinklers in his vest?)
So my partial conclusion would be: Design is an Art different from the
other Arts but since Design is so concentrated in doing projects, it is
vital to be near the other Arts for the other Arts' sake.
But why, in Design interest, should Design be near to the other Arts?
So let's go back to Argan. Creating problems versus solving problems.
In his sentence Art and Architecture (and Design) share a common
passion: problems. And I modestly would add: Human Problems. You don't
normally find Engineering students discussing Soren Kierkegaard's work
but you find Art students doing it, a lot. Yet, they also discuss if
plywood will last more than a few years looking good or if red is a
symbol of masculine power.
The mater of user testing is irrelevant. Every Art has its metodoxy in
which recipients are important, and, by all means, an opening in a
gallery or a preview for a film can be regarded as similar in a process
in which the work is received by the "others".
And we seem to forget that one of the most important museums of modern
art has a Design Store that became the Avatar for every Product Designer.
In the end, let me ask you a question. If you wanted to make a poster
who would you ask to do it: Picasso or Schrodinger?
Best regards
Eduardo
PS: Yes Kay, it was very impressive. I think that Lineker's postulate
about football is back. I hate to imagine Portugal's soft mid field in
such cruel hands (or feet). But we have Ivory Coast to worry before.
On 14-06-2010 11:58, Fiona Jane Candy wrote:
> Hello again
>
>
> I just wanted to add a little to what i said earlier about artists not understanding designers- of course what I meant to say is that some artists don't understand 'design' thinking (and therefore put it down) just as some designers don't understand 'art' thinking (and ditto).
>
>
> I would also like to say (following on from the great comments below) in my rather unguarded, arguably too emotional way, that for sure, academic 'disciplines' are ways of differentiating cultural and professional practices, pedagogy, literature, tools and methods etc.
>
>
> They are also manifestations of the senses - of neural pathways. They are ways to inhabit one's body and live life...
>
>
> I for one don't want to live in a body that doesn't feel moved and influenced by art...
>
>
> Fiona
>
>
>
>
> Fiona Candy
> see my projects at
>
> www.a-brand.co.uk
>
> Senior Lecturer
> The Northern School of Design
> University of Central Lancashire
> Preston
> PR1 2HE
> Lancashire
> UK
>
> T: 00 44 (0)1772 893368
> F: 00 44 (0)1772 892920
> E: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>>>> Terence Kavanagh 13/06/10 10:17 PM>>>
>>>>
> Colleagues
>
> Just to return to the beginning of this thread:
>
> David Pye in 'The Nature and Aesthetics of Design' [Barrie and Jenkins, London. 1978] is worth consideration in this respect. It's still, I believe, a great read.
>
> "Design is neither a problem-solving activity nor an art. It is both. All arguments about what designers ought to do seem bedevilled by the habit of a mind which thinks 'either...or'
> either all intuition or all logic, either all artist or all problem solver. This is extremism, and extremism in any cause whatever, good or bad, is evil". [p.94]
>
> and....
>
> "But many times the two parties to the controversy, the artist and the problem solver, are both together in one skin. Every good designer is made up of both. Nor does he think of art as God and problem solving as Mammon, but thinks of the two as inseparable parts of one whole, like the mind and body of man, each dependent on each other and each affecting the other. He does not think there is room for both. He knows there is need, absolute necessity for both". [p.95]
>
> and off the top of my head.....
>
> I reckon that Lowey; Glaser; Montezemelo [not strictly a designer- more a design leader]; Sotsass; Ive; Mellor; Koolhass; Hewlett; Miyake; Wrikkala; Day [Lucienne and Robin] to name a tiny few, would agree.
> [You won't have difficulty adding your own favourites to the list!].
>
> Best wishes
>
> Professor Terence Kavanagh
> Dean of Faculty for Social Sciences and Humanities
> Chair of Design and Applied Arts
> Loughborough University
>
> PS: As with most design schools in the UK we are holding our undergraduate degree shows and I refer you to the web-sites: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/degreeshows/& http://www.twentytendesign.co.uk/
>
> and...
>
> I strongly recommend:
>
> http://pmbryan.com/
>
>
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