Hi again Terry,
I am off the pace in this discussion, as ever, having now travelled to Norway for a conference.
I couldn't understand a lot of your message below because of the jargon and stuff about 'affordance'. And the general debate seems to have veered of into a side show between you and Ken about muskets!
But I was interested in your comment in another reply -
'Designers and design researchers from Art and Design traditions seem absent from designing the software and computer systems changing their design practices.'
I think you are absolutely right here. Notwithstanding David Sless's example of the exception, I would say that there is generally a huge disconnect between those with the technical knowledge to design software and those who use that software in creative work. An exception that springs to mind is a an MA graduate of mine, of Chinese origin, who is an excellent artist and also a keen mathematician. She currently works with her partner designing storybook apps (very good ones). She does all of the coding herself. It is the only example I know of where the art and science in this field are properly speaking to each other. Her notebooks are teeming with a fusion of of mathematical equations and free-flowing character drawings- what the Germans might call a Leonardo Wimmelbuch. A rare delight. Stereotypically, those of in the creative arts struggle with the mathematics, and those in on the engineering side do not have the experiential knowledge of creative design. The important thing is to try to build bridges, learn from each other, rather than become entrenched, wouldn't you agree?
Regarding your comment-
'I was wondering how one could consider the usefulness of such information more broadly in design and design research, without triggering emotional reactions that would lead to emotionally- driven behaviour unhelpfully blinkering the situation by focusing on defending particular design practices.'
There is an inherent assumption here that emotional engagement is always 'unhelpful' and 'blinkering' in research. I wonder if you would care to expand a little on that?
And finally, your interesting paragraph about the ethical position of various professions/ activities - needing to be driven by altruistic aims of making themselves redundant- this seems rather tenuous and difficult to extend to the creative arts, where an apparently selfish impulse to express personal creative preoccupations or motifs may bring joy to and/ or connect with many, without that having been its primary intention.
Sorry for all the questions- your observations would be welcomed.
Best wishes from the Visibility conference in Bergen,
http://globe.khib.no/visibility/index.html
Martin
(PS are you in fact an Artificial Intelligence?)
Professor Martin Salisbury
Course Leader, MA Children's Book Illustration
Director, The Centre for Children's Book Studies
Cambridge School of Art
0845 196 2351
[log in to unmask]
http://www.cambridgemashow.com
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/ccbs.html
________________________________________
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Terence Love [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2016 4:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Designers in the 22nd century
Dear all,
Thank you for your deep, useful and insightful comments.
My thoughts were both a bit simpler and a bit different. I'll try to describe them.
Posting that article on automated book cover categorisation, I was thinking about:
1. Its implications for design research and design in general
2. Emotional intelligence in using material in design research
3. Professional ethics of design
On 'emotional intelligence' I was wondering how one could consider the usefulness of such information more broadly in design and design research, without triggering emotional reactions that would lead to emotionally- driven behaviour unhelpfully blinkering the situation by focusing on defending particular design practices.
On its implications for design research and design, I was seeing it as an example of 'research on affordances'.
A book cover is a simplified example of affordance design for products. The appearance of the book via the book cover gives the product user (the reader) the affordances of functions and consequences for their brain and emotions of the use (reading) of the publication.
In general, identifying affordances of products is a difficult task for humans. It is an area deep into the creative activity of design. So, researching automated affordance identification from appearance seems worthwhile path whether done on book covers or something else.
Also of interest is that, for most of us, our bodies have been learning categorisation and affordance identification 16/7/52 for decades on a very wide range of experiences. In comparison, the automated system was successful on book covers with relatively little learning. Most humans with but a few years of learning (say a youngster under 4 years) would have difficulty with the book cover categorisation. If the number of categories were raised (imagine say 300 categories), most adults would have difficulties - as sometimes even do book specialists (wasn't Don's book on design commonly classified under Psychology?).
Affordances are deeply implicated in many areas and aspects of design so the research seemed important as a pointer to how design research might proceed if anyone had the thought to research affordances in design in that manner.
On professional ethics in design, my thoughts were in part linked to the emotional intelligence issue of seeing things more broadly by avoiding triggering the emotional reactions that blinker the view of the situation.
One of the key features of ethical behaviour in all professions is to remove the need for professionals' services. I.e. the ethical importance for professionals to act to put themselves out of a job.
This is found, e.g. in education where the most ethical position is to teach people to be able to learn for themselves. It is found in medicine where the highest aim of medical practitioners is to improve the health of people so they no longer need doctors. In religion, the ethical high road is to offer individuals a path to religiousness so individuals no longer need a religion or a religious go-between. In governance, the height of ethics for statespersons is to support societies to be able to self-govern. For crime prevention and criminal justice professionals, the higher ethical aim is to help create a world so that they are not needed.
Hence, my question as to how designers' and design researchers are acting ethically to change things so that they are out of a job.
Yes, Eduardo...
Regards,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love
FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI, MAISA
Director
Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
Perth, Western Australia
[log in to unmask]
www.designoutcrime.org
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
==
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of jean schneider
Sent: Monday, 14 November 2016 4:28 AM
To: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Designers in the 22nd century
Hello Don and all,
You wrote
> Le 13 nov. 2016 à 19:46, Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> a écrit :
>
> I believe that automated design tools of the future will change the
> way designers work, allowing designers to concentrate upon their
> creativity and overall judgment instead of their skill at mechanical
> tasks and even at the traditional craft skills of drawing, and materials, etc.
and though I agree with your belief, I would step aside regarding the relative value given to the activities/tasks (which is maybe not what you think yourself).
It always seems to me that the idea(tion) and the judgment are perceived as the gold nugget of the designer, and the rest (drawing, making mockups, modeling etc.) are the chores of the materialization procedure that we should take rid off.
There are designers for which this might be true. And businesses with an eye on productivity are pushing for that.
But if I can speak for myself (and some designers, in various fields of design, that I know well), sketching, mockups and the time spent in making a design sustain a mental and physical engagement that actually fuel the thinking process. And, in my personal experience, it is very different from being confronted to the evaluation of hundreds of « variants/solutions/alternatives… » that would be generated by myself, assistants, or smart machines. It is, literally, digging deeper in the project itself, rather than looking for solutions. I realized that this was the only way in which a holistic understanding of the thing-to-come could emerge (and isn’t this, by definition, designing?). Maybe those of you who are interested in sketchbooks (e.g. by architects) have noticed that some of them think somehow simultaneously on the building or the planning and some cladding or panel or window detail…
Of course, I am using softwares, and I guess that I might even use some automated softwares if they suit me. But this will not be for a question of (design) time, rather for the robustness they provide when data must be manipulated and transmitted between parties.
If I ever see them, though…
Jean
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
--
Please click here to view our e-mail disclaimer http://www.anglia.ac.uk/email-disclaimer
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
