Dear colleagues,
With the fear of repeating somebody else's comments (I confess I have not been able to read the entire email chain), I would like to share my two cents on the topic, as this is something I have to talk and reflect about with my students very often, arisen from their own need to understand the whats and whys.
After much thought I think one key issue is the natural feeling of proprietary of the term "design". Each one of us feels that somehow we "own it". We give it our personal or professional field interpretation, we explain with it what we do and how we do it (in many cases even who we are). Therefore, when confronted with somebody else's interpretation they challenge our very own existence and practice (and our understanding of it).
If we start by acknowledging that we do not own the universal and final definition of what design is (because "design" means a myriad of things for many very diverse people (many of these meanings somewhat overlaps which makes it very confusing). If we communicate and educate what it is for us and what may be for others, common points and differences, we could probably focus in understanding it better, bit by bit in all its different interpretations, past, current and future ones, interpretations from the west, east, south and north, by gender, by ethnicity, shouldn't be room for everyone? This is not rocket science, this is much more difficult, it's human behaviour!
This is why I love design so much, because is not static, there is always something new about it, because there is no way of getting bored by it.
Greetings from cloudy and windy Vancouver,
Victor G. Martinez Ph.D
Faculty & Researcher
Wilson School of Design
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU)
t. 604.599.2594
e. [log in to unmask]
www.kpu.ca/design
KPU operates on the unceded traditional and ancestral lands of the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt and Kwikwetlem peoples. I am honored and grateful to live and work on their lands.
________________________________________
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Richard Herriott <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 24 May 2019 03:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Help! Our field needs a new name: "Design" is far too misleading for much of what we do.
Can we retain "design" to deal with tangible objects and service design and create a term for the areas on the margins that seem to be about social systems? Or is that already covered by communication design?
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Thea Blackler
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2019 1:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Help! Our field needs a new name: "Design" is far too misleading for much of what we do.
Thanks Graham. I am in full agreement with the final paragraph. We have this conversation every couple of years. No matter what we decide (even if we could all agree), it would make no difference as changing common usage of a word in so many languages is not possible anyway.
Professor Thea Blackler
Discipline Leader for Experiential Design (incorporating Industrial, Interaction, Visual Communication and Fashion Design) Queensland University of Technology
2 George Street Brisbane QLD 4001
Australia
Phone: +61 7 3138 7030
Mobile: +61 410 736494
Web: https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/
Eprints: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Blackler,_Alethea.html
Orcid: orcid.org/0000-0002-9406-2645
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Graham Dove
Sent: Tuesday, 26 June 2018 11:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Help! Our field needs a new name: "Design" is far too misleading for much of what we do.
I am a long term lurker on the list, often amused and/or annoyed by the recurring repetition of particular arguments about which vision and/or definition and/or demarcation of "design" is definitive and/or canonical - typically just a thinly veiled cover for self-aggrandizing. I rarely feel the need to jump into a conversation that my lack of heavy weight tenure makes me unqualified to enter on an equal footing, but just a quick note here.....
The subheading of the article in the NY Times is "The sale of Dries Van Noten to Puig raises some pretty big questions about the current fashion system and whether bigger is always better." Personally I didn't find it that surprising that in the context of this article the designers in question were fashion designers.
Can I make a suggestion please? That when looking to promote our programs or update the list on our latest impressive activities, it might be nice just to do so openly and directly rather than attach it to a straw man argument. I'm not sure writers have the same existential angst about what writing is and whether it should be renamed because someone took a photograph of a haiku poet, and labelled it "writer in practice" thereby not representing those who make a living writing technical manuals (and to be honest if they do then that is pretty depressing also). Maybe we would be better off celebrating the diversity of practice, and taking the things we find useful from wherever we find them, and continue making our own arguments for value wherever we can (however frustrating it might be not to have that value immediately recognised).
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