About a week ago, Gjoko posted an interview he did with me and introduced
it to the group in the context of the discussion "Are Politicians
Designers." We have all since witnessed an array of lively discussions on
the role of aesthetics, vs impact, rhetoric, engineering, and much more.
I find these kinds of emailed exchanges curious within a population that is
broadly committed to visual communications and alternative models of
problem-solving.
There is the constant inclination to draw lines in the sand to distinguish
what something is, and what it is not, when ultimately the conditions
forced upon us - those same conditions which prompt our debates - are
equally what push us forward into new territories. As long as Design
matures in tandem with other industries, movements, beliefs, and
institutions - there are those who will shift their beliefs to these
demands, those who will not, and those who will do something else
altogether. These are all valid pursuits - so then what?
Perhaps, we can try an experiment. What if we suspend for a moment our
constant entanglement with defining ourselves in relation to the push/pull
dynamics, and consider, instead, how the internal mechanics of "design" can
function within our communal dialog? After all, isn't it odd that a global
community of designers and design theorists merely exchange emails of
words? It seems like the least designerly approach to constructive
discourse. *Why not - at least by those who are designers - experiment with
more designerly ways of engagement within the limitations of email?*
For example, when I read these emails, most of the time, I'm wondering
"where is the drawing? if only we had a drawing?" So in figure a) we can
sum up a good 4 or 5 emails. In figure b) we get to the ol' "is Apple's
focus on aesthetics good/bad design?" Likewise, in figure c) we can use
the z-axis to get into how such conversations are situated within a given
demand (could be capitalist markets, social needs, or otherwise).
Most information we exchange is quality, yet most of the time, email is a
mediocre medium. I'm not saying we should draw, or that my drawing is good
etc, but more acutely - *where is a multiplicity of actions that can be
designed within all the discussion*, as a way to design how the
conversations take form over time?
- Mitch
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