Hi Ken,

At the moment with current technologies, any sensible Occupational Health and Safety legislation would probably ban most home factories.

This is particularly so for any serious level of 3D printing manufacture.

This is not a new issue. 

In the late 80s, was working on the design and use of home robotic-manufacturing cells in the NW of England to distribute the workload of the aerospace industry. 
The robot manufacturing technology and numerical control programming  was easy. The problem was OHS.

Similarly, a great PhD project by Dr Sooyung Yang resulted in proof of practice of  a  one person design manufacturing business for  top- end high fashion knitware using a modified design  and programming process for Shima Seiki Wholegarment knitting machines. Again the limitations as a home business were primarily OHS.

My guess is that many home craft designer-maker manufacturing businesses also fail under OHS. This is a significant issue.

My feeling is it is possible beneficial that the proportions  of home designer maker businesses are tiny compared to design activity worldwide. I have some local figures, but it would be good to have some international ones.

Best regards,
Terry




-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ken Friedman
Sent: Sunday, 22 March 2015 11:14 PM
To: PhD-Design
Subject: Re: Use of Art and Design as an substantive adjoined term

Dear Martin,

You are quite right.

New technology has given rise to new kinds of manufacturing. This blurs the boundaries as new kinds of small factories become possible. 

This technology will also lead to yet another kind of small factory. People can use home factories to print or produce artefacts designed by someone else. The owners of minifabs or home factories can license the right to produce artefacts using plans designed by someone else. This has long been the case for creative works in theater and music. Actors and musicians perform — and record — works written or composed by a playwright or composer.   

Anyhow, thanks for this. I did not account for it in my note.

This doesn’t change my view on the uses of the word design — the same person may hold two roles in the same process. Or, in the case of minifabs and home workshops, the same person may hold even more roles as design, artistry, engineering, and production blur roles that might have been equally blurred in the 15th century.

In music, I compare this with Mozart’s improvisational piano recitals in which we was creator-performerof an evolving prototype, as contrasted with Mozart conducting an orchestral performance of a symphony that he composed for others to perform. We can no longer hear Mozart improvise, but we can still hear his compositions. 

Language is fuzzy here because the realities we attempt to describe are fuzzy. Your point is well taken. Words such as “design” or compound words such as “art and design” create meanings in several ways, some according to context, others according to intention.   

Warm wishes,

Ken

Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia

—

Martin Salisbury wrote:

—snip—

Thanks for the overview. I just want to pick you up on one thing. You say:

"In today’s terms, education and division of labour between different kinds of work has taken a different form. The word “design” involves planning an artefact by making plans and prototyping those plans. The designed artefact will eventually be manufactured by a completely separate group of people in a factory."

Yes, that used to be the case except that in recent years, as I'm sure you know, there has been a huge upsurge in small scale 'designer-makers'. This includes small batch edition hand-made or screen printed books, ceramics, wrapping paper, fabric design, fashion design, 3D design… virtually all areas of design in the applied arts. I can't remember the figures but this now constitutes a surprisingly significant portion of the UK creative industries. That's one of the reasons that I am always against the idea of defining 'design' in terms of 'a plan for (something or other)'. 

Perhaps this is a good reason for adjoining the words 'art' and 'design'… in whichever order?

—snip—




 


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