Dear Eduardo,
Simon’s definition is: “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.” (Simon 1996b: 111). The comment about engineers doesn’t change this.
Simon wrote about what he thought – and why – in his autobiography, Models of My Life (Simon 1996a). I can’t imagine comparing Simon’s concept of intellectual activity to Sudoku. Simon was erudite and widely read. He had deep familiarity with history and the great achievements of the past. Models of My Life makes this clear.
In my view, Don Norman is right: “everyone designs, but only a few are professional designers.” That’s essentially what Simon says, and I’ve said the same (Friedman 2001, 2012). Design is a broad human capacity that instantiates in specific activities, practices, and professions. I don’t use the English word “design” to indicate graphic design, product design, or architecture. I’m interested in the issues at DesignGov
http://design.gov.au
MindLab
http://www.mind-lab.dk/en
Helsinki Design Lab
http://helsinkidesignlab.org
and Policy Lab
http://thepolicylab.org
If you’ll explain your concerns in your own words rather than a re-write, I’ll try to respond.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Mobile +61 404 830 462 | Home Page http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/people/Professor-Ken-Friedman-ID22.html<http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design> Academia Page http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman About Me Page http://about.me/ken_friedman
Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China
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Reference
Friedman, Ken. 2001. “Creating Design Knowledge: From Research into Practice.” In Design and Technology Educational Research and Development: The Emerging International Research Agenda. E. W. L. Norman and P. H. Roberts, eds. Loughborough, UK: Department of Design and Technology, Loughborough University, 31-69. Available at URL:
http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman
Friedman, Ken. 2012. “Models of Design: Envisioning a Future for Design Education.” Visible Language, Vol. 46, No. 1/2, pp. 128-151. Available at URL:
http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman
Simon, Herbert. 1996a. Models of My Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Simon, Herbert. 1996b. The Sciences of the Artificial. 3nd edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
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Eduardo Corte-Real wrote:
—snip—
Thanks for your notes. I had prefered that you would address the second part of my post and not the first, but let’s do it.
I do not travel with my copy of Sciences of the Artificial but I think that HS “definition” of design starts with the sentence: “ Not only engineers design”. By saying this and not saying for instance “not only designers design” and by not including schools of design in the list in the end of the paragraph, puts Simon argumentation on a side that not engulfs Design. If you read the whole book you will find that the sciences of the artificial are really the sciences of the artificial which in a simplistic way I will simply designate as scientific methods to project stuff.
The distintction between hard sciences and professional training and the prevalence of the first in university that HS complaints about is never confronted with Design as discipline of Art in a broad sense except in the riesling and cigar episode. Plus, I think that what HS calls “intellectual activity” is the kind of processes that we use to play sudoku and not the activity of reading Proust or watching Visconti. If you care to take a look at the authors he refers to we could hardly say that the sciences of the artificial is a book on Design. But yet it is a book on a human capacity that English speakers also call design. Although Francisco d’ Hollanda in 1540’s put in Michelangelo’s mouth that desegno is the source of all sciences, it would be ridiculous to say in Portugese: “um medico faz design” or “as escolas de arquitectura, educacao, gestao, direito e medicina estao na sua essencia dedicadas ao processo do design”. I’m only saying this to stress that the word Design that become global is the same that you (in English) use to designate specific professions ( that isolated normally means either graphic or product Design) or some attributes in some objects.
So in that sense saying tha t all professions design is not helping to answer the question is design thinking unique to Design ? because do not inquires about the nature of design thinking that only designers use. In a sense is similar to say that all professions think.
As for the confusion with Europeans i’ll re write Ford’s sentence adapted to the situation:
“Some of us on this List, of course, especially Z and X, have always considered imaginative designers to be intellectuals (something self-proclaimed design scientists find puzzling, sometimes intimidating). The route to Design greatness with some large exceptions still nominally requires erudition, a familiarity with history and the achievements of the ancients”.
—snip—
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