DESIGN = DE - SÍGNIO

100 OBJECTOS DE OUTRO CULTO

2009-09-18T04:52:00.001-07:00

PROJECT ONE

Select ONE OBJECT which you regard as significant and worthy of being published and exhibited to represent the objects excluded from the category 'DESIGN' and its CULT; the equivalent of 'LA BILHA' or the metal POT made to make 'fios de ovos' (see above).

Consider how to present it with an ILLUSTRATION and a TEXT.

In the text include information to describe the objects, its name, material, origin, function/s, provenance, date of production, etc.
Then write a short evaluation of its quality and significance as a cultural artefacts worthy of being singled out for exhibition and archiving.
This may include how the different functions are integrated and what we can learn from the object today, in retrospect; since the exercise is not about promoting a COMMODITY or PRODUCT but a CULTURAL ARTEFACT.

PROJECT TWO: 'ALL THE OBJECTS I OWN'

1. Compile an INDEX of 'ALL THE OBJECTS YOU OWN'.
2. Prepare a photographic ARCHIVE

References:
Christian Boltanski, Inventario dos Objectos que pertenceram a una senhora idosa de Bäden-Bäden, 1973 (Serralves)
and Hans-Peter Fedman, Todas as roupas de uma mulher, 1974 (Serralves).

3. Reflect about what the sum of ALL THE OBJECTS YOUR OWNW add up to (as if you were an anthropologist) and write a short introduction to present the collection from an original, critical perspective.

PROJECT THREE (Continuation of Project Two)

Design an EXHIBITION and present a reading/s of some the key themes and meanings which arise from your COLLECTION of objects.

EVALUATION: CRITERIA . METHODS . IMPLICATIONS

2009-09-18T02:48:00.000-07:00

EVALUATING A DESIGN ACCORDING TO WHETHER OR NOT IT SELLS WELL CAN BE MISLEADING, AS IT IGNORES KEY FACTORS THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS PART OF THE DESIGN PROCESS : FROM DESIGN, PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND USE.

EVALUATING A PRODUCT BY ITS HYPE s HYPE IS EQUALLY MISLEADING AS IT ONLY REFLECTS THE VALUES AND INTERESTS OF AN ÉLITE GROUP.

As an alternative to DESIGNERISM — the formal approach based on fashion and on a restrictive evaluation of oartefacts — I propose to evaluate objects, their designs and functionalities (and their SOCIAL, ECOLOGICAL, ETHICAL implications) not according to whether or not they are 'GOOD DESIGN' ( a rather vague and arbitrary notion), but according to criteria of APPROPRIATENESS.

This means considering:

1. Whether the design performs or not the function for which it is intended,

2. if it does, HOW? [THis will enable us to identify the parameters and the values and design decisions which enabled the designed object to function as intended),

3. the mode and cost of production,

4. its longevity (is it made to last or is obsolescence built in — if it is at what rate?),

5. the visual pleasure it procures (aesthetic function, styling),

6. its affordability and social status: is it available to all (integrated in everyday life) or does it function as a CULT object for a small socio-economic group/élite?

7. The meaning/s the objects elicit/convey/suggest...

8. the integration of all the functions.

THE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN VALUES & MEANINGS
The meaning/s of objects changes through TIME, according to the interest we project on them and according to the ways TECHNOLOGICAL innovations inform our WAYS OF LIFE.

In today's context the device to make 'filo de ova' acquires a new significance in addition to the properties built in through the process of its design and manufacture, with a view to its specific (practical) function.

For those who do not use the object as intended (those who consume 'DESIGNS'; i.e. USE it SYMBOLLICALLY and AESTHETICALLY; independently of its PRACTICAL function) the artefact — in the wake of SURREALISM — acquires an INDEPENDENT existence as 'ART' / 'DESIGN'.

Once the BILHA lost its practical function as a container, in the RURAL CULTURE which produced it,

transposed into URBAN CULTURE, it became a SYMBOLIC OBJECT/SIGN/TEXT, in which the AESTHETIC FUNCTIONS predominates.

In the context of a folk or ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM, the bilha functions primarily as a DOCUMENT of a vanished TECHNOLOGIES and WAY OF LIFE. It can also function AESTHETICALLY.

In ANTIQUE SHOPS the AESTHETIC FUNCTION combines with the DOCUMENTARY FUNCTION (satisfying a sense of nostalgia)

POR ONDE (RE) - COMENÇAR?

2009-09-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

DESIGN = DE-SIGN

Against the view of design as a form of 'styling',
i.e. as an activity concerned with shaping the external appearance of things,
I propose the notion of 'DESIGNING FROM WITHIN'.

(see Gérard Mermoz . Bruce Mau: In Conversation, Baseline #43 )

This entails 'GIVING FORM' to either a specific IDEA/S or to a series of integrated FUNCTIONS.

But this 'form giving' does not mean that we should treat design primarily as a visual activity.

Design (especially graphic design) deals essentially with the invisible; i.e. with invisible elements which the designer coordinates and makes visible only because of our physical limitations, to enable the designed content to take effect through our senses.

In the case of OBJECTS, the designer
performs a number of actions
on specific parameters,
which take effect on a number of levels.
Unconscious elements are also projected and take effect more subrepticiously.

The study of design presupposes being able to
identify all the processes involved,
be aware of all the parameters we can work on,
and be able to anticipate the effects of making specific design decisions.

EXERCISE: Select an object and identify all the functions (intentional and unintentional) that this object needs to or can performs. You can also imagine totally surreal functions which are potential, although not intended.

REFERENCES
Designing from within:

1. Gérard Mermoz, ‘Beyond Looking: Towards Reading…’, review of Bruce Mau’s book Life Style (London, Phaidon, 2000), Baseline #33, March 2001].
2. Gérard Mermoz . Bruce Mau: In Conversation, Baseline ? , Baseline, #43, 2003.

The Designer as Author

1. Deconstruction and the Typography of Books, Baseline, n. 49, 1998.
2. Reading the City of Signs—Istanbul: Revealed or Mystified?, Baseline, #44, 2004.
3. The Designer as Author: Reading the City of Signs—Istanbul: Revealed or Mystified?, Design Issues, Spring 2006.

Educational Project, Bangalore
http://totaldesignbangalore.blogspot.com/
Curatorial project to organise the presentation-interpretation of traditional objects in the context of a modern museum. Check the students individual contributions submitted after three weeks. The roject included curation, scenography and related publications (poster) to communicate the concepts embodied in the museography.

IDENTITY / IDENTITIES
O Homem cuja pátria o faz sentir tranquilo, é um principante ingénuo.
Aquele que integra cada espaço como seu, já é forte.
Mas só é perfeito aquele para quem o mundo inteiro é como um país estrangeiro.

(Click image to enlarge)

'Adoraçao de bilha…' ?

'1000 OBJECTOS DE CULTO'

At a time when Phaidon, and the newspaper Público in conjunction with 'EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN 09, LISBOA', are inviting us to 'worship' '1000 OBJECTOS DE CULTO', with the intimation that these OBJECTS are exemplary and of universal SIGNIFICANCE; thus warranting an on-going (consumerist) 'CULT',
one may re-consider the value and implications of such exercises, which consolidate the value of Capitalist Consumption and the myth of the superiority of Western design (technology, Culture and Civilisation) over and above the artefacts produced in societies that we have called, in turn, 'PRIMITIVE', 'ARCHAIC', 'NON-INDUSTRIAL', TRADITIONAL, ETC.
Cultures which we situate outside HISTORY and the flow of human PROGRESS.

The BILHA gives us the opportunity to reflect about the cult of DESIGN objects and the assumptions upon which it rests, and to consider the implications on a planetary scale.

A first exercise could involve looking at the bilha long enough, until we become aware of what is there (until it becomes intelligible), and are able to formulate what we see in sophisticated, critical terms, beyond TASTE.

Looking at the bilha illustrated above, the first insight I gained was that, at the difference of (industrially produced) design objects, its 'perfection' depends upon its imperfections (Its imperfection is a necessary part of its identity and a condition of its perfection).

This simple realisation invites us to challenge DESIGNERISM, the attitude fetishizes certain kinds of objects and assumes that WESTERN TECHNOLOGIES are superior to the 'OTHER' TECHNOLOGIES, developed by 'other' cultures and societies, as part of a pursuit of survival in an ambient of social solidarity rather than in the pursuit for profit achieved through the exploitation of the masses, by a few.

One may also compare objects produced in the same culture and set them in DIALOGUE to highlight their respective differences and specificities:

100 ALTERNATIVE 'CULT' OBJECTS

As an alternative, we could select if not 1000 at least 100 OBJECTS ; not from our industrial societies, but from other 'civilisations' including rural local cultures — currently relegated to the margins of HISTORY (including DESIGN HISTORY), in the ghetto of ANTHROPOLOGY, outside the flow of 'PROGRESS' and 'CIVILISATION' — and place them in the expanded and unified arena of human achievements (where they belong), in an concerted effort to reconnect ourselves with HUMANITY on a planetary scale.

For this is one of the chief stakes set by ETHICS to DESIGN and to every other disciplines, which offers us an opportunity to step outside the vicious circle of EUROCENTRISM, ETHNOCENTRISM and irresponsible, unsustainable CONSUMERISM…

This modest proposal is an invitation to step out of the complacency which leads us, unwittingly, to assume that our design achievements are superior to those of other societies from whom we can learn: respect for our natural environment, moderate consumption of resources and energy, sustainable living, social solidarity in the family and community, generosity; qualities more worthy of warranting a CULT than objects fetishism which serves as stimulus towards umbriddled consumption, fueled by greed and short-term hedonism.

BILHA WORSHIP

The invitation to engage in 'BILHA WORSHIP' is an allegorical way of suggesting how we may redress the balance and open new avenues for THINKING ABOUT the SIGNIFICANCE and the MEANING of CULTURAL ARTEFACTS in NON-HIERARCHICAL WAYS, as a prelude for defining ourselves — through THOUGHTS and ACTIONS — as responsible citizens, rather than as 'hip' or as 'cool' and 'happy' consumers.

INVITATION CARD

This invitation to rethink our relation to and our role within DE - SIGN — DE-SÍGNIO' — may be formulated more concisely in the form of a visual equation:

'OBJECTS IN PERFORMANCE', at the Pitt Rivers Museum, in Oxford
presents conversations with objects which define the basis of a poetic , visual anthropology, in which the objects are not displayed as aesthetic commodities or as illustrations of types, but as actors engaged in a symbolic re-enactment of the basis of human conflicts in human history:

Histoires #19 (Egyptian.Spray), 2006.

Projects

http://histoires-museographies.blogspot.com/

http://darwinsblindspot.blogspot.com/

http://objectsinperformance.blogspot.com/

http://newartfromsouthasia.blogspot.com/

http://campderivesaltes.blogspot.com/

The NEXT STEP:

I propose to post some items, in the future, as part of the 100 objects alternative series and look forward to seeing some of the objects you select (on the blogs you set up); objects that — on a par with the 'bilha' — you regard as significant achievements of human endeavour, on a planetary scale

and wish you a productive and inspiring search…

To be continued…