Dear Terence,

Thank you for your message.
I suggest the approach you put forward is unhelpful to addressing the issue
of the relationship between Design and Art.
There are many people, some of them famous designers, who have written that
Design and Art are linked.
Simply saying something - no matter how famous the author - does not make it
true, correct or accurate. It's simply their personal opinion - regardless
of how famously they are viewed and respected. This is a basic position in
any academic research. If the authors are academically competent, they
should be able to say exactly how Design and Art are linked in ways that
provide sound proof or reasoning that will stand up to the standards of
reasonable scrutiny common in other academic fields. So far this kind of
reasoning and analysis about the relationship between Design and Art has
been mostly absent in the design research literature.
Most of the writing about the relationship between Design and Art- as in the
quotes you give - is superficial personal speculation without evidence or
justified reasoning. This kind of writing is more often than not less than
useful because it distracts Design PhD candidates into believing that it
provides  is justifiable standards of theory and evidence
If design research is to move on and become a realistic academic research
endeavour , I suggest it  is necessary for the theory and theory literature
of Design research to move beyond personal opinion and name dropping. It's
another aspect of Art culture that continues to compromise Design and design
research as professional fields.

On a practical tack in terms of training doctoral students, it seems helpful
to ask them to never use quotes. The response sequence is predictable:

1. 'We were taught to use quotes all the time in undergraduate'

2. 'How do you write things in your own words? What is a précis? How do you
know whether you are correct and  right or wrong?

3. The start of reasoning skills

4. 'Why didn't we learn this in undergraduate or Honours?

I can understand that there is a huge body of design literature that follows
exactly the same direction that you have proposed. It hasn't led to a sound
body of PhD level theory in Design. Carefully reviewing the situation seems
to suggest that substantial changes are needed. One of the most fruitful
changes  that seems to offer the best leverage in terms of removing the
largest number of problems, is for Design education develop its own culture
and identity separate from Art culture  and education methods.

Best wishes,
Terry

-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Terence
Kavanagh
Sent: Monday, 14 June 2010 5:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: art and design.

Colleagues

Just to return to the beginning of this thread:

David Pye in 'The Nature and Aesthetics of Design' [Barrie and Jenkins,
London. 1978] is worth consideration in this respect.  It's still, I
believe, a great read.

"Design is neither a problem-solving activity nor an art. It is both. All
arguments about what designers ought to do seem bedevilled by the habit of a
mind which thinks 'either...or'
either all intuition or  all logic, either all artist or all problem solver.
This is extremism, and extremism in any cause whatever, good or bad, is
evil". [p.94]

and....

"But many times the two parties to the controversy, the artist and the
problem solver, are both together in one skin.  Every good designer is made
up of both.  Nor does he think of art as God and problem solving as Mammon,
but thinks of the two as inseparable parts of one whole, like the mind and
body of man, each dependent on each other and each affecting the other.  He
does not think there is room for both.  He knows there is need, absolute
necessity for both". [p.95]

and off the top of my head.....

I reckon that Lowey; Glaser; Montezemelo [not strictly a designer- more a
design leader]; Sotsass; Ive; Mellor; Koolhass; Hewlett; Miyake; Wrikkala;
Day [Lucienne and Robin] to name a tiny few, would agree.
 [You won't have difficulty adding your own favourites to the list!].

Best wishes

Professor Terence Kavanagh
Dean of Faculty for Social Sciences and Humanities
Chair of Design and Applied Arts
Loughborough University

PS:  As with most design schools in the UK we are holding our undergraduate
degree shows and I refer you to the web-sites:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/degreeshows/  &
http://www.twentytendesign.co.uk/

and...

I strongly recommend:

http://pmbryan.com/