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Dear Terry and all, I have no first hand-knowledge of Ulm, but Ghislaine Lawrence’s 2001 PhD “Hospital beds by design: a socio-historical account of the 'King's Fund Bed', 1960-1975.” has some interesting observations based on the literature and on interviewing Bruce Archer about his time there in 1960-1961. A few quotations follow. The full text of the thesis can be found at https://archive.org/details/HospitalBedsByDesignASocio-historicalAccountOfThekingsFund/page/n7. "Anxious to heal widening internal disagreements at Ulm as to the 'true nature of design', Maldonado invited Archer there for a year as a guest instructor in 1960." (p.42). "this short-lived experiment [HfG Ulm] (it lasted only fifteen years) was beset for much of its existence by disputes between different factions among the staff, ostensibly about the true nature of design and how it should be taught." (p.42) "When Archer arrived in 1960 the HfG was still vibrant, although factional disagreement among the staff was intense. He identified two main factions: the 'mathematician/scientists' and the 'designers'. Since each apparently considered that he had been brought in to support the other side, he was able to do little to diminish their differences of opinion. But the year of intense discussion with the mathematician/scientists, and observation of the designers at work in their ateliers at Ulm, gave him much food for thought." (p.43) It also includes this enjoyable difference between UK and German perceptions at the time: "Reyner Banham, musing much later on what it was that took a 'devoted band of Britons', including himself, Archer and Richard Hamilton to Ulm in the late 1950's and early 1960's, concluded that it was: . . . a peculiar combination of interests that were mostly transient on the British side but more permanent at the Hochschule, more concerned with its basic orientations and its long-term patterns of intellectual growth. Both sides sought a way out of the local impasses into which design theory had fallen, but whereas the British impasse was one of almost total vacuity, the exhaustion of the 'gentlemen's agreements' of the 1930's and the lack of anything but the arts and crafts to fall back upon, the German situation seemed to us, as revealed by Tomas Maldonado, to be one of excessive rigidity, a cast iron system of categorical imperatives. But this was impressive to us visitors because of its relentless logic and intellectual clarity. I used to wonder why anybody bothered to speak to me at Ulm; I felt so stupid in my lack of dialectical method, and my head ached from having to find intellectual justifications for observations like 'Yes, I would like another bread roll'. Yet it was profoundly exciting to be in a milieu where issues about design could be discussed so intensively, especially if one had just come from London where there was at the time no intellectual discussion of design at all.” (p.43-44) “Archer left Ulm at the end of the academic year in 1961. Other commentators bear out his account of intense factional disputes. The period 1960-62 was identified as witnessing the height of a controversy over theoretical versus practical courses at Ulm, and 'the exact role that analytical methods should play in the design process'. By the time the controversy abated somewhat, Archer was back in Britain and already working on hospital equipment. This was perhaps fortunate. The direction in which resolution occurred would not necessarily have been congenial to him. Maldonado's early views on the role of rationalism and science in design lost ground and the syllabus at Ulm was revised by the sculptor turned graphic designer, Otl Aicher. Topics such as 'operational research' were 'discreetly dropped', although the role of science in design continued to be hotly debated.” (p.45-46). Best wishes Stephen Boyd Davis Professor of Design Research School of Design Royal College of Art Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU Office direct line 020 7590 4343 www.rca.ac.uk On 15/02/2019, 11:13, "PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in on behalf of Terence Love" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote: Thank you Claudia (and Ursula) and all, To explain my interest in this aspect of Ulm needs a little background. From the 1960s to the 1980s, I was mentored in design and design research by a friend John Woollatt. John was a very experienced industrial/engineering designer who studied design research at the very first MSc in Design Methods taught by John Chris Jones at UMIST in Manchester in the 1960s, and was one of the early members of the DRS. Others on this list including Nigel will know him, some may also have been John's mentees. Around 1970, John became an academic, teaching at Newcastle Polytechnic Department of Design which morphed into the famous Northumbria University design school that had amongst its students Sir Jonathan Ive (Apple) and Tim Brown (IDEO). John's academic role was to teach the engineering and science aspects of design: what at Ulm were listed as 'mathematical analysis of operations: group theory, statistics, standardisation, scientific theories, mechanics: kinematic, dynamic and static". This was to enable student designers to start to be able to design the whole of a product, rather than just its exterior. For example, in designing say a power tool or lawn mower, previously the only role of the designer was as a stylist designing the external appearance, with engineers designing all the functionality and manufacturing. This Ulm like inclusion of science, engineering and maths was a move to 'whole design' and away from product styling. In conversations over many years, John described the difficulties of teaching design students at Northumbria the necessary science, engineering and maths without them having sufficient backgrounds in these areas. He said he was having to reduce the academic standard of teaching of 'mathematical analysis of operations: group theory, statistics, standardisation, scientific theories, mechanics: kinematic, dynamic and static" to a level not much above primary school. John saw this as a major failing in design education because high level skills in 'mathematical analysis of operations: group theory, statistics, standardisation, scientific theories, mechanics: kinematic, dynamic and static' at the level where mathematical theories become embodied provides students with a much more accurate intuitive ability compared to traditional awareness and perception of objects. This is evident because it is possible to compare student's skills with students from engineering design schools that teach designers this knowledge and skills. In discussions with others over the years, it appears many other design schools have faced the same problem and many have resolved it simply by dropping any attempt to teach students the science, mathematics and engineering aspects of product design as being too difficult. My interest, therefore, following Ursula's information about Ulm is whether it is possible to answer the question 'Did Ulm managed to address this problem and teach as 'mathematical analysis of operations: group theory, statistics, standardisation, scientific theories, mechanics: kinematic, dynamic and static at the level expected of science, maths and engineering graduates'. And, if so, how and what were the results? ' If Ulm did manage this, it has relevance for design education in many design schools. Best wishes, Terry == Dr Terence Love, School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia CEO, Design Out Crime and CPTED Centre PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] +61 (0)4 3497 5848 ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566 == . -----Original Message----- From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Mareis Claudia Sent: Friday, 15 February 2019 4:00 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 12 Feb 2019 to 13 Feb 2019 (#2019-38) Dear Terry, dear all records of original teaching materials can be consulted in the archive of the HfG Ulm. The staff from this archive did a great job in the last years to categorize all different kinds of material from the Ulm years (including models, pictures, correspondences, teaching materials etc.). They just launched a new website too, where you can find an overview on the archival material: https://hfg-archiv.museumulm.de/en/the-collections/ Of course, for many of you Ulm might not be around the corner. But it is definitely worth a visit, as the archive is located in the original iconic building of the HfG Ulm on the »Kuhberg«. I strongly support Ursula’s attempt to bring the work of the Ulm school more into the focus of the international design research community. Best wishes, Claudia … Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures FHNW Academy of Art and Design Freilagerplatz 1 CH-4002 Basel T +41 61 228 41 58 https://www.ixdm.ch/ … Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Sophienstraße 22a D–10178 Berlin https://www.matters-of-activity.hu-berlin.de/en Am 15.02.2019 um 04:09 schrieb Terence Love <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>: Hi Ursula, Thank you for your posts. I've been searching without success for details and publications on the mathematical and scientific research of the Ulm Design School. I welcome pointers to that research undertaken at Ulm to compare with other institutions of the era teaching and practicing design. I know well the work of Norbert Weiner and Horst Rittel, but my understanding is that their scientific work was mostly done elsewhere? Is there a list of research and research publications from staff while they were at Ulm? I read the notes in https://duepublico.uni-duisburg-essen.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-11608/HFGeng.pdf that indicate teaching at Ulm included 'mathematical analysis of operations: group theory, statistics, standardisation, scientific theories, mechanics: kinematic, dynamic and static" These topics can be taught simplistically or at a high level: from 11 year old primary school simple to post-PhD complex. It would be good to know at what level they were taught in Ulm. Do you know if there are records of original teaching materials in these areas? Best wishes, Terry == Dr Terence Love, School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia CEO, Design Out Crime and CPTED Centre PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> +61 (0)4 3497 5848 ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566 == -----Original Message----- From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Ursula Tischner Sent: Thursday, 14 February 2019 10:02 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 12 Feb 2019 to 13 Feb 2019 (#2019-38) Dear Francois, thanks for your questions about Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, HfG Ulm, Ulm School of Design…. In addition to what Tiphaine wrote. Here a couple of more facts and thoughts about Ulm (a short summary): I had the pleasure of giving a presentation and meeting many of the former teachers and students of Ulm school just a couple of weeks ago at this event: Bauhaus, HfG Ulm - and tomorrow? https://www.apb-tutzing.de/programm/tagung/3-4-19 There were many stories told about the official and the unofficial versions of the history, closing and legacy of Ulm school of design. And there was a fundamental question asked that no one could really answer: Where is the school today that has a similar role as Bauhaus and Ulm had back then? And if it does not exist, how would a school look like that could take that role? There will be more meetings about this theme in Germany rather soon…. if you have any ideas/ answers about this question, I would be excited to read them. I think the Wikipedia Article (here in a much nicer format) describes the official version pretty well: https://duepublico.uni-duisburg-essen.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-11608/HFGeng.pdf As an expert I can recommend Rene Spitz, who has done extensive research and publications on Bauhaus and Ulm and their approaches to design and design education: https://renespitz.de/category/vortraege-und-moderationen/ Obviously you have to understand Ulm in its historic context: Germany shortly after world war II, Germany and many other countries in deep shock about what had happened. Germany seeking to get rid of the dark forces, but they were hiding (and are still) in many institutions. It needed a new approach also in education, where people should be educated as critical thinkers so that they would never again blindly follow a leader. In this situation Inge Aicher Scholl, sibling of Hans and Sophie Scholl (die Weiße Rose), who organized resistance against the Nazis and were killed for that, together with Otl Aicher, her husband, and Max Bill former Bauhaus student founded the Ulm School of Design. Bill became the first rector from 1953 to 1956, and he designed the famous Ulmer Hocker (which is a multifunctional object serves as stool, table, stand, shelve etc..). @ Terence: it is important to understand that Ulm was NOT still an arts and crafts school. It started with a strong influence from Bauhaus under Max Bill as rector, but soon many of the Ulm teachers and students wanted to go beyond the Bauhaus way of doing and thinking and after quite some internal struggles Max Bill resigned and Tomas Maldonado took over as rector. Then the "Ulmer Modell“ was created: "The HfG quickly gained international recognition by emphasizing the holistic, multidisciplinary context of design beyond the Bauhaus approach of integrating art, craft and technology. The subjects of sociology, psychology, politics, economics, philosophy and systems-thinking were integrated with aesthetics and technology. During HfG operations from 1953–1968, progressive approaches to the design process were implemented within the departments of Product Design, Visual Communication, Industrialized Building, Information and Filmmaking. Under the leadership of Maldonado, the school dropped the "artist" focus of Max Bill and proposed a new philosophy of education as an "operational science", a systems-thinking approach which embodied both art and science.“ Beforehand many Bauhaus teachers and students had been teaching at Ulm (and still were), but in the new era, new and other disciplines entered as teachers such as mathematician Norbert Wiener, or Horst Rittel (wicked problems), sociologist Hanno Kesting, philosophers and others. As you certainly well know, Tomas Maldonado https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/Tom%25C3%25A1s_Maldonado/ stood for a critical design discipline, design theory and systems thinking, here a quote from designboom magazine: "maldonado became the director of that institution (HfG Ulm). during its brief existence from 1955 to 1968, the HfG Ulm exerted an influence that no one could have predicted from its small size, improbable location, or short lifespan. originally conceived as a successor to the bauhaus, the school quickly abandoned that model and set out to explore the uncharted territory of designing for mass production. the school became an extraordinary laboratory of design and center of talent. more than twenty years after its closing, ulm is still considered the most important european school of design since the bauhaus. maldonado strongly articulated his position in a seminal, 1970 book la speranza progettuale which was translated into english two years later as design, nature and revolution: toward a critical ecology. as a core theme, maldonado focused on the human environment, which he characterized as “one of the many subsystems that compose the vast ecological system of nature.” following a systems theory model, he claimed that among subsystems, “only ours possesses today the virtual and real capacity of provoking substantial – that is irreversible – disturbances in the equilibrium of other subsystems.” designers are complicit in this process, but maldonado raised the question of how their role could change. the impetus for his book was the urgency he felt to counter the rapid degradation of the environment and, although he recognized that autonomous design action is difficult in any social system, he urged a substantial effort on the designer’s part to play a role in a process of social change. maldonado emphasized autonomy, recognizing it as a difficult state to achieve. nevertheless, he made the sartrean argument that “however things are, the designer must act, he must definitely abandon the ‘waiting room’ in which he has been forced to remain until now. and he must act even if he does not know whether in the end autonomy will not prove to be an illusion.” There were many actors emerging from Ulm that are famous for new developments in design and science, such as Student and teacher of Ulm school Gui Bonsiepe http://www.guibonsiepe.com who was studying design theory with Maldonado and also taught at the Ulm school. He is a leading thinker in design theory and interface / digital media design. The HfG was also a pioneer in the studies of semiotics so lets not forget Klaus Krippendorf, http://web.asc.upenn.edu/usr/krippendorff/ who graduated as Diplom Designer from Ulm school in 1961 and is famous for his work and publications in cybernetics and systems theory, methodology in the social sciences, human communication, conversation, and discours and product semantics. And I think he is member of this list, so he can speak for himself…. :) And then there was Otl Aicher, quite a character, http://www.otlaicher.de co-founder an teacher of visual communication at Ulm, he ran his own design practice in Rotis and designed the Typeface with the same name. He never did what companies wanted him to do as a designer, but questioned everything. He first entered in an extensive research process with each company he worked with that could last as long as three years before he even started thinking about design. Famous examples are e.g. FSB Brakel https://www.fsb.de/en/company/about-us/ and ERCO https://www.erco.com/service/press-release/company-3/pictograms-quickly-comprehended_2403/de/ t.o German SMEs, He would first research their DNA with them, what they stand for and what they contribute to the world, maybe make a book about that and only then he would start maybe designing something. If the companies were to impatient to do that, he would not work with them… He can be seen as one of the creators of the Corporate Design discipline and the inventor of the term „visual communication“. https://www.piktogramm.de/en/ There are many more, like Herbert Lindinger http://www.lindingerdesign.de who also formulated the rules of the „good form“ , good read: Die Moral der Gegenstände, Ulm: Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, 1987 (The Moral of the Things) and others… Why did the school close? From what I understood, it has mainly two reasons: internal struggles and external enemies. The school was always depending on external funding, at a later stage especially from the state of Baden-Württemberg. The politicians were rather conservative, right wing and less and less in favor of the left and radical views and experimental approaches of the Ulm school, so first they cut the funding and then they completely stopped it, when Ulm school refused to become a subsidiary of the Technical University of Ulm. That had been a proposal from the regional parliament. Second reason was, as is understandable from the history of HfG Ulm, that evolved through innovation and change, in line with their own self-image of the school as an experimental institution, that there were many internal struggles and discussions about the right approach to designing and design education. So it was easy to discredit and criticize the school from the outside, what press happily did, as it seemed to be an organization with many difficult and unresolved internal conflicts, and probably it was. But still: Although the school ceased operation after fifteen years, the ′Ulm Model′ continues to have a major influence on international design education. And as I stated before, many of the former teachers and students, went to other schools and developed their careers at other places all over the world. So the influence of the short period of Ulm school of design is still remarkable. To summarize: its achievements are commonly described as: Until the founding of the Ulm HfG in 1953, there was no systematic approach of design education. HfG pioneered the integration of science and art, thereby creating a teaching of design based on a structured problem-solving approach: reflections on the problems of use by people, knowledge of materials and production processes, methods of analysis and synthesis, choice and founded projective alternatives, the emphasis on scientific and technical disciplines, the consideration of ergonomics, the integration of aesthetics, the understanding of semiotics and a close academic relationship with industry. In concept, the "Ulm Model" represented early foundation principles of the design management discipline. Some more links: Women in Ulm: http://www.frauen-hfg-ulm.de/englisch/frameset_1024.html HfG Archives: https://hfg-archiv.museumulm.de Club off Ulm (club of former teachers and students): http://www.club-off-ulm.de I hope that was inspiration for some of you to dive a little more into the subject in case you did not know all of this already… For the others who knew it, maybe a nice little summary. And for those who had more intimate connections with Ulm, please speak out and tell us your stories…. thank you. Best regards Ursula Tischner CEO econcept, Agentur für nachhaltiges Design Albatrosweg 11, 50259 Pulheim Tel.: +49-(0)151-22650776 [log in to unmask] www.econcept.org und Master Eco-innovative Design Institute of Product & Transportation Design FH | JOANNEUM Gesellschaft mbH Alte Poststraße 149, 8020 Graz, Austria Tel.: +43-(0)316-5453-8119 [log in to unmask] https://www.fh-joanneum.at/institut/product-transportation-design/ https://fh-joanneum.at/industrial-design/master/ Follow us… https://www.facebook.com/FHDesignGraz https://vimeo.com/user63132342 https://www.linkedin.com/in/fh-joanneum-industrial-design-ab6abaa8/ Am 14.02.2019 um 01:00 schrieb PHD-DESIGN automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]>: Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2019 07:09:22 +0000 From: KAZI-TANI Tiphaine <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Subject: Re: On Design Research - The Legacy of ULM HfG Hello François, If you happen to read french, you should be very interested in Tony Côme’s work on L’Institut de l’Environnement in Paris, which is one of the educational project that raised (1968-1973) from the dismantling of HfG Ulm. https://editions-b42.com/produit/linstitut-de-lenvironnement-une-ecole -decloisonnee/ <https://editions-b42.com/produit/linstitut-de-lenvironnement-une-ecol e-decloisonnee/> In a lesser extent, the Grapus collective also originated from l’Institut, and the same Institut was an influential model for Patrick Bouchain’s report on artistic and technical eduation in France (1978-1981) that lead to the fundation of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI). http://strabic.fr/Avant-l-ENSCI-Les-Ateliers-Bouchain <http://strabic.fr/Avant-l-ENSCI-Les-Ateliers-Bouchain> Ernesto Oroza is by now running a fascinating research on Ulm which results should be published by 2020. We discussed a lot with Ernesto on how systems theory influnced for better and for worse the later Ulm, and I personally suggest the involvment of Bonsieppe in Cybersyn gives insights on the path Ulm was following in its final years. Bonne lecture, Tiphaine ________________________________ De : PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> de la part de François Nsenga <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Envoyé : mercredi 13 février 2019 07:15:52 À : [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Objet : On Design Research - The Legacy of ULM HfG Dear Ursula and all Still reflecting on the question you raised a few days ago, asking "why - the English speaking members in this List - do not acknowledge and pursue the - legacy of the - Ulm School of Design". And I am hereby kindly inviting those interested to actively join in and pursue this interesting reflection. In my view point, two more specific questions wait for answers to the question why we don't hear much more of the legacy of the ULM HfG approach to Design Research: 1. As a start, which were the specific reasons the ULM school was denied funding by local German institutions, thus leading to its closing in 1968? 2. Ursula, you say: "...when the school has been closed many of the teachers went to other countries and continued with the design research activities. So their influence was certainly global". In addition to David Sless's testimony yesterday, on the inspiration he drew from the research approach developed at the ULM GfH, that led to the actual success of his Communication Org. in Australia, are there elsewhere in the world other similar 'success stories' that might have been directly led, or just inspired like in David's case, by teachers from ULM ? Or even, are there recalls of failed trials that have been experienced while trying to apply and continue elsewhere the ULM Design Research approach? Failed cases of attempts that would be worth to constructively analyse and eventually get inspiration from, like the one I reported a few years ago at the Centre de Création Industrielle, at the Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris? Many thanks in advance to those who will join in contributing to this forward going reflection! 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