Dear Teena

all language exceeds - anticipations of excess and anticipations of the significance of the excesses are parts of discourses - narrative excesses foreground particular issues - lyrical excesses foreground similar but different things - dramatic excesses are mostly silly given that action, if it is action, needs no commentary.

cheers

keith russell

oz newcastle

>>> teena clerke <[log in to unmask]> 07/01/08 10:38 PM >>>
Hi Fil et al,

but I seek not harmony (at risk of misrepresenting Chris Alexander's 
meaning with which I am unfamiliar), or analogy, rather, ways to 
describe the material conditions of the life in which I practice 
design (experienced synchronously, as part of, entwined with, in 
synergy to, not separated from, the other aspects of my life) in 
terms other than either distress or eustress (with thanks to Glenn 
for the explanation).

I suggest that this kind of storytelling is not 'reflection' as you 
described it ('the kind of free association, letting diverse 
experience blend with your struggle.  A prelude to discovering an 
analogy.'). In this story, there is no 'letting' happening, no 
'prelude to discovery' constructed and no 'analogy' sought, but an 
intention to represent that particular design experience, complete 
with the 'excess' in my telling of it. Taussig (1993) suggests that 
the value of any story (as a mimesis or copy/imitation/representation 
of perception/experience) lies in the 'excess' - the bits that people 
'add' (why are they there, what motivates them, how do they function, 
whose interests do they serve and for what purpose?) as well as how 
they are structured as narratives. Indeed I have a purpose, but it is 
not reflection.

And while you notice similarity in our accounts, I notice difference 
in representation - as follows:

>
>Your account, Teena, of all those ancillary activities sounds:
>
>a. just like what I do when I'm trying to solve a hard 
>programming/design/engineering problem;
>
>b. surprisingly similar to the typical examples of setting up the 
>conditions for analogical reasoning to occur spontaneously in your 
>brain; and
>
>c. consistent with the tasks that 'creativity researchers' have 
>considered in their work.
>


My point is, I am not certain my story represents the other parts of 
my life as 'ancilliary activities', but more probably foregrounds 
their importance in my design processes. Interestingly, you provide 
quite a different account in your post to Lubomir as follows:

>
>I have, in the past, been asked by other designers how I teach 
>design, for e.g., and told them, and they're surprised to hear it 
>was in line with how they taught design.
>
>"You must be a font designer, like me," they say.
>
>"Uh, no; I'm an engineer."  I reply.

I really like this story, with its excess and movement. In the 
reading, I might ask, why did you tell this story to Lubomir, what 
purpose does it serve, how does it perform your intention in this 
context? And further, how does it compare to the bullet points in the 
post to me? Why have you used such differently structured narratives 
in your responses to each of us? This is interesting to me.

cheers, teena

Taussig, Michael, 1993, 'Mimesis and alterity: a particular history 
of the senses', Routledge, New York




>Hi all, see embedded comments.
>
>teena clerke wrote:
>>Hi Glenn,
>>
>>in picking up on your post, substituting 'task', 'challenge' or 
>>'puzzle' for 'problem', still seems to construct the design space 
>>as a site of struggle in some way - which might also seem contrary 
>>to the idea of design as collaboration (or is collaboration also 
>>seen as a site of struggle, challenge, puzzle?).
>
>Chris Alexander suggested the 'seeking of harmony' for such an 
>activity, I think.
>
>>
>>In thinking through what this might mean while walking my children 
>>to school, I wonder what might happen if we trouble this perhaps 
>>adversarial construction to allow for a 'collection' of words 
>>('working across multiple design sectors') rather than a single 
>>(problematic) term, that provide for descriptions of the design 
>>space as other than problem/task/challenge? Words like synchronic, 
>>serendipitous, synergous, might open a broader space for discussion 
>>about certain phases of the design process that disrupt the binary 
>>of 'smooth/problematic' temporal narratives of how it works in 
>>design - I prepare my children's school lunch, wonder what I might 
>>cook for dinner, worry about the (lack of) thesis writing, and 
>>think through a tricky wine label design I have been working on for 
>>six months. I go hear the Dalai Lama speak and lunch with a 
>>self-described 'housewife who sits in the corner' from Warren, who 
>>is also the ex-Mayor of Nyngan, and from a family of fifth 
>>generation Merino sheep farmers who recently switched to wine 
>>production and exporting - she pragmatically suggests a way 
>>forward, while I am 'inspired' to produce an entirely different 
>>illustration than the one that remains problematic for me and the 
>>client. What are these sites? Do they arise from my struggle alone? 
>>Do they emerge from synchronous random events that are not about 
>>design and also not about struggle? Or is this simply another site 
>>of struggle? (after all, I did go hear the Dalai Lama speak). Are 
>>they then legitimate sites/spaces for design work? Can the 
>>housewife/ex-mayor be a collaborator in my design work? Is there 
>>space in this collaboration for other (future) work?
>
>This sounds like 'reflection' to me - the kind of free association, 
>letting diverse experience blend with your struggle.  A prelude to 
>discovering an analogy.
>
>There's also recent work that suggests the white matter of the brain 
>does the heavy lifting during 'problem solving' (sorry, they're 
>term, not mine) in conditions where the solver lacks a canned 
>analytic technique to follow.  And the solution gets kicked upstairs 
>to the cortex once it's found.  The result is a moment of sudden 
>realization when a solution appears whole, as if from nothing.
>
>Your account, Teena, of all those ancillary activities sounds:
>
>a. just like what I do when I'm trying to solve a hard 
>programming/design/engineering problem;
>
>b. surprisingly similar to the typical examples of setting up the 
>conditions for analogical reasoning to occur spontaneously in your 
>brain; and
>
>c. consistent with the tasks that 'creativity researchers' have 
>considered in their work.
>
>The guy who's work in this area appears the most popular in this 
>part of the world is R. Keith Sawyer (e.g. 
>http://news-info.wustl.edu/sb/page/normal/46.html).
>
>>
>>Can we conceive of a productive and 'collaborative' space as a 
>>coming together (is this merely unproblematised collaboration?) of 
>>things/ideas/views/perceptions, that produces other things 
>>(ideas/processes/partnerships/products), or from which other things 
>>might emerge, not in a strictly linear, sequential or temporal 
>>manner, but, as Deleuze and Guttarri (1975, previously referenced) 
>>suggest, rhizomic, and/or as Patti Lather (2007) suggests 
>>'polytemporal', in that working on a current issue/job/outcome that 
>>already is, I might also predict that which is yet to come (a line 
>>of flight predicting a future thought/enterprise/process). Am I not 
>>collaborating with myself in a polytemporal space which 
>>specifically focuses on possibilities rather than resolutions? Not 
>>sure.
>
>How exactly the brain does this, I don't know.  I don't even know if 
>someone else, like Sawyer does know.  We will eventually.
>
>Till then, what you've written sounds like a perfectly reasonable 
>potential model, for at least some people's processes.
>
>Cheers.
>Fil
>
>>
>>cheers, teena
>>
>>Lather, Patti, 2007, 'Getting Lost', State University of New York 
>>Press, Albany
>>
>
>--
>Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
>Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
>Ryerson University
>350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada
>Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
>Fax: 416/979-5265
>Email: [log in to unmask]
>http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/