Em 10-12-2012 21:01, Jerry Diethelm escreveu:
> That is why I admire Simon¹s robust, distillation of design¹s
> purpose: (in short) to change the existing into the preferred.
Dear Jerry,
First let me tell you that I love your title "A Design Leftover". It
sounds like a Kazuo Ishiguro book.
Second, you go straight to the point when you call Simon's definition a
"distillation of design's purpose". I like especially the word
"distillation" since it is a process from which you obtain the spirit of
a thing. I think that in English, as well as in Portuguese, sometimes
spirit means the essential idea you have in mind to do something.
The trouble with Simon's definition is a) it is not a definition since
it defines the purpose of something and not the thing itself. b) it only
works in English.
The thing is that Design migrated to other languages at the same time as
Jeans, Jazz, Blues, Rock n' Roll not exactly for the same reasons but
mainly because it designated a fancier, more modern and more effective
way of pre producing stuff. The consequences of Design on stuff was self
evident first by the look of the thing and secondly by its ability to
preform better that earlier stuff (both functionally and economically).
Design also brought to foreign languages the possibility of creating new
stuff (even better that making old stuff look better or modern).
Also, some of the "artisans" involved in designing (in non English
countries) become more "elegant" to quote old timer Wotton.
I don't know, but I guess that in most European countries Design came
out from the fusion of the intellectual tradition of Architecture,
Sculpture and Painting with the craftsmanship of the "Lesser Arts".
Institutionally and Socially the word "design" as in the Simon
definition, has no value. In Portuguese Simon's commandment reads:
"Projectar é divisar procedimentos e acções que visem transformar
situações existentes em situações preferidas". Let me stress that we do
not use design as a verb and Simon's proposition refers to the verb.
There is no conjugation of the verb design in our languages.
So, either the rest of the world starts to adopt the English verb or the
English speaking show more curiosity in knowing what the global word
Design means.
As for your University concerns, read Stefan Collini's book "What are
Universities for?"
yours truly,
Eduardo
--
Eduardo Côrte-Real
Prof. Doctor
IADE, Lisboa
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