Dear Don and Diane,
Thanks for raising memory of such a delightful term.
The term 'Imagineering' was widely used in engineering courses in the UK in the 1960s to 1980s as a trendy term to refer to engineering design.
I see from Wikipedia that the term imagineering was used as early as 1942 in advertising by Alcoa to refer to Alcoa's engineering design practices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagineering)
I didn't know Disney had later included it as part of one of their trademarks and I'm a little surprised bearing in mind its common earlier use.
Cheers,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love
MICA, PMACM, MAISA, FDRS, AMIMechE
Director
Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
Perth, Western Australia
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www.designoutcrime.org
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
==
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Don Norman
Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2018 11:23 PM
To: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Imagineering design, rambling to thoughts on design education.
Thank you DianeYiour note gives me an excuse to ramble a bit, describing my experience in Imagineering and then my thoughts on Design Education (brief).
NOTE: This piece is not intended to be controversial. Just comments on two topics that i know the list cares about.
*Imagineering*:
My main knowledge about Imagineering comes from my visits to Disney's Imagineering teams in Burbank, California. (Behind the scenes visit, complete with the signing of an NDA. NDA => sworn to secrecy). (They were considering hiring me to be as a Disney Fellow. I loved Disney, the creativity and the people, but I also decided that is not what i wanted to spend my life doing.)
The task of Imagineering has multiple components, some of which are purely technical, but many of which are the type of design I truly love -- thinking big -- and that represents an important missing piece of much of contemporary design.
At Disney Imagineering I watched the development of a raft ride, with big rubber rafts tumblng back and forth, tossed by "waves" which were simulated by huge air bladders that could be inflated and deflated rapidly. (A raft might hod a dozen or so people.)
I watched development of a ride by having a truck stretch a bungee cord the entire length of a large parking lot (empty of cars), attaching a skateboard to it, having the "Imagineer" sit on the board, and then, let the bungee cord go.
I call those activities prototyping, which is a critical part of design.
The other big-thinkers in design that I admire are architects and city planners
So is Imagineering design? Much of it is, yes.
Imagineering Design
Theater Design
Architectural Design
....
no problem
*Now the Ramble begins*
The only other group i know that design such wonderful experiences are, hmm, theme park designers, ride designers, theater design (lighting, costumes, sound, staging). We need more truly big thinkers in design. And more Cheif Design Officers in major companies that develop major strategic plans for the company (via design research).
*Theater*
Interestingly, my university offers a Design MFA, but not by my Design group, by Theater:
The Design program trains students in the best professional practices of regional and commercial theatre. The design faculty are award-winning working professionals also committed to teaching. The design training program stresses an interaction with the works of many visual artists from a wide range of disciplines. We teach students traditional methods, but also encourage spontaneity, free of preconceptions. We train students to create designs that "comment" on the play and the text, not merely "illustrate" it. Students' talent and design work are showcased at a number of venues that have directly resulted in many national grants, awards, and other work opportunities for our alumni.
I had never seen this description nor was I aware that they gave an MFA in Design until I looked it up for this email. The folks in theater are incredibly creative and fun to interact with. For a long time the URL design.ucsd.edu got you into theater. We thought that was fine. (That URL doesn't seem to work anymore. And when I went to the Theater part of the UCSD webpage, I discovered the Design MBA.)
*Design Education*
The Design Lab that I direct is contemplating the offering of an MDes degree. We decided NOT to offer an undergraduate degree in design: We would prefer our students to get deep knowledge in a topic before coming into design. We do offer an undergraduate minor and we are contemplating a PhD specialization in design: A specialization is basicallly a minor, but at the PhD level for someone whose PhD major is some other field. Again, we wish depth in a substantive area.
don
On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 8:54 PM, Nijs, Diane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ...
>
I am a list-member from a, for This list, rather strange background: The
> Creative industries. The interesting thing is that in these industries
> quite some crucial, business generating 'design' happens under the
> umbrella of 'imagineering': Designing a generatie image, called 'High
> Concept' that sets the stage for collectie and continuous creation.
> This is an Activity/art that was never called 'design'. And those WHO
> practice This 'art' are NOT called designers but imagineers.
......
> In essence, Imagineering is NOT about designing a 'solution' but about
> designing for 'evolution', designing To generatie New order in a
> system, or, as Complexity scholars might say, designing for emergence.
> It is design that inspires others To design or act aligned with One another.
...
> I wrote a book on This issue that Will Be published by Edward Elgar
> early 2019.
Thanks,
Diane
> My concluding words: I very much look forward to the book.
Don
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