Dear Jacques,
The déjà vu quality comes from saying designing is a
human activity. Calling anything a human activity is
to say very little about it. So little, indeed, it
can sound like many things we've seen and heard
before.
Collecting all the names of human activities that use
the word design reminds me of Arthur C Clarke's short
story "The Nine Billion Names of God" (1953)[1]. If
we work hard enough we'll get there in the end. And
if we use a big computer, perhaps as Terry would have
us do, we'll get there all the sooner.
We'll know all the ways it's called, but we won't know
anything about what designing is. (And that's what the
significance of the 5% will be, Gunnar.)
Best regards,
Tim
Donostia
[1] The Nine Billion Names of God, Arthur C Clarke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Billion_Names_of_God
See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Billion_Names_of_God
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On Jun 14, 2012, at 16:17 , Jacques Giard wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> As interesting as the discussion has been to this point it is already
> taking on a certain déjà vu quality. This is to be expected given the
> fact, as Ken points out, that design is a human activity. In that vein, it
> appears that it is equally a human activity to divide a subject in this
> case, design into as many bits as possible, create categories, and then
> defend our respective positions.
>
> Perhaps we need to stand back for a moment and perceive the design
> landscape with another set of eyes. The sagacity of the Balinese craftsman
> comes to mind when he says, "We do not have art; we only do as well as
> possible." Design appears to have taken the opposite tact. It has created
> boundaries, 500 or so at last count. Instead of creating lines that
> delineate one design activity from another with outdated terminology that
> only serves to create camps that often prefer not to see what we have in
> common but only what makes us different why not declare that design does
> not have boundaries and that we strive to do as well as possible.
> Otherwise, design could become infinitely fragmented and for what purpose.
>
> Jacques Giard PhD
>
> Professor of Design
> The Design School
>
> 480.965.1373
> http://web.me.com/jrgiard/Site/Welcome.html
> Go Green! Please do not print this e-mail unless it is completely
> necessary.
>
>
>
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