Hi David,
Many thanks. I'll get copies of the books. They look interesting.
Just wondering if you would say some more about your thoughts on 'design
drawings as a means of controlling labour'
Since a child, I've always presumed that controlling labour is explicitly
part of the *primary * purpose of any design (the drawing not the thing that
is designed).
It is central to the definition 'A design is a set of instructions
describing how to make or do something'.
I suspect you mean something different - and probably more complex!
Cheers,
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 David
Sless
Sent: Thursday, 26 August 2010 8:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Underground map , sewage, electrical circuits, and design
On 26/08/2010, at 12:26 AM, Terence Love wrote:
> I'd be grateful if anyone would send me details of texts in graphic design
> and/or information design that catalogue and analyse the use in
engineering
> design of the large number of different types of diagramming and drawing
> formats found in the different fields of engineering design/drafting
> practice.
Terry,
One of the best in our research library (available to our Members) is:
Robert L. Harris (1999).
Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference.
Oxford University Press.
One of my favourites is a wonderful celebration of Engineering Drawing. It
was published as an exhibition catalogue for an Exhibition at the the
Science Museum in London. It's called:
The Art of the Engineer
It was published by the Welsh Arts Council in 1978
ISBN 0 905171 35 7
I have a copy, and I used it extensively in my book 'Learning and Visual
Communication'
One of my favourites in the catalogue is a full colour drawing, with all
dimensions shown, for a steam locomotive from one of the great engine
building factories of the 19th Century.
As a further social footnote on this type of drawing, I think it's always
important to see this type of drawing as an instrument for controlling
labour, whether in a factory or building site. Indeed, it was one of the
primary instruments of labour control in the 19th and 20th Century
industrial society.
There is a possible lost metaphor and irony here, when it comes to the
London Underground. Diagrams of this genre were normally used to control
what people did in the workplace. In the LUD it gave the same workers
choices! Is this an early celebration of the emerging activity of popular
tourism and the mood of futurism in the 1930s?
There's another phd for a design historian!
David
--
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web: http://www.communication.org.au
Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
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