Final Post: Relating History & Theory learnt to the Six Cities project

While learning about the history and theory of art and design I have come to realise the change in the work that I have produced and realised the origin of some of the practices that I follow and use everyday.

The great exhibition is exactly the sort of atmosphere and show that the six cities festival wants to create. This was really influential in how I perceived the six cities design project. Before the lecture I perceived it like a concept show or even a carnival. But the great exhibition gave me a real focused view which helped in creating a foundation for my initial ideas.

Jonathan's lecture of the gothic architectural really helped me too look at Dundee in a different way. As part of research I aimed to pick out design features of Dundee to outline to the locals and visitors (the target market) what they are and why they are design features. The lecture helped me pick out things I wouldn't have done before with the gothic styled centre church window a prominent example.

The Art nouveau and Art Deco lectures were again essential in the research part of the design process. Timorous beasties adopted an art noveau style of pattern which I would have not noticed if it wasn't for the lecture. It helped me identify certain design styles and helped me to differentiate my idea so that it is unique in a crowd of design items.

The Russian movement lecture outlined and inspired me to look to others for competition and not for inspiration. I was very competitive to create the best product available which I thought was the key to success. But I deliberately didn't look at the work for others for inspiration. I thought 'blue sky' as much as possible with my team steering me in the right way.

The Futurism lecture and the lectures after, took place too late to make an impact on my project. But as a person the futurism lecture has inflamed my passion for Italy. I don't know why I like Italy so much....there is no logical explanation. But where has this influence come from? I guess my brain chooses to like Italy as there design is well documented/promoted/and successful.

As I was educated in England History lessons have largely been based on the World Wars and the Romans. My religious faith and it's up bringing has lead to me having a vast knowledge of Islamic culture, its history and design. This has largely influenced my design as I am aware of design tricks implemented in those days. I understand propaganda, symmetry, ratios of interest, balance, the history of colour, the use of colour, the history of paint, the use of paint, the properties of certain shapes, moods, atmosphere etc This has greatly influenced my preferences and relates to a style...my style which can be clearly definable as mine with the group with my choice of font, colour, texture, technology etc. I have learnt that my preference of design is my style which I have shown in the final product made which I have clearly reasoned in the presentation to the viewers.

The above is the reason why my final product looks the way it does. But can I make such comparisons to any thought? I'm thinking that does this blog mean anything. I have shown what I have used as my influence in design for the festival but can I relate any theory to anything that befits my product? I think so as a design principle could be applied to any product which was not intended. So analysing can be done in more ways than one... mainly two....in terms of affect and effect. Effect in terms of intention and affect in terms of practice. The thing that I can take away with me from this is my theory on three theories of design:
-Function follows form
-Form follows function
-Form independent of function
and my interpretation of affect and effect as internal and external success factors of design.

I know it's not my best blog. I've tried to carry out the task given which i have had difficulty relating to a book or a website as reference to my thoughts. I guess it's personal. My style!

IMRAN LOBANIA

The Great War

Jonathan gave a really interesting and interactive lecture.

The question raised was:
Which one is more important Effect or Affect? To give an example relating to the lecture he showed us two posters. One from the U.K. and another from mainland Europe. Analysing the poster I was quick to realise that the U.K. Poster had a better affect than effect and vice versa for the european mainland poster.

Just to make things clearer what is the definition of effect and affect. Well from my understanding:
Effect- is in "theory" what a poster does
Affect- is in "practice" what a poster does
Do you agree with this?

The posters in question are:
British


















The British poster is much more to the point! The main aim of the poster is to PERSUADE people to join the army. They do this by giving the men knowledge and another reason to join the army. Hence the poster has great affect but not effect as the visuals are not imaginative or creative...more realistic to help the viewer empaphise to see what would happen to them if they joined the army.



The European poster is much harder to understand despite the lack of languange. It requires more intelligence to understand what the purpose/message of the poster is. Therefore it takes a great time to think and reflect upon the message tried to be given which won't be done at a glance at looking at the poster. Hence this poster is less affective. But the effect using imagination and illustration and the theory of thinking is far advanced than the other poster.

So here the U.K. poster has been heralded as the more succcessful poster. Or is it? I think throughout the time of my blogs i have refered to culture and in this case the audience and viewers of the poster. The european culture is more in touch with the artistic side. Hence art and design movements have largely occured in France, Italy, Russia and Austria. So to think that the posters if swapped round would make same statistical reading would be foolish. The culture dictated how the posters had to be made. Europeans don't like being told what to do. They have a passion for perfection with every aspect from language to lifestyle. Do you truely believe that this poster was not in line with these trends? I think both posters was successful in converting the minds of as many people possible as far as posters can. It was the gullable minds of the British and other campaigns which helped larger turnouts for the British than the Europeans. Do you agree or disagree?

Please comment...reply's given on this board.
IMRAN LOBANIA

Russian Revolution

Why were the Russians so successful in creating designs far before it's times? As hard of a question this is to answer I aim to show my one narrow view to spark off a few theories of your own. Please comment.

Richard Carr outlined how, for example, the architecture drawings that were produced were far before it's times in terms of design. The pictures shown were really appealing to me now in 2007 and if built in Dundee would look more spectacular than many, if not all of the new buildings being built now.

I think it is because of "Blue Sky" thinking. Thinking of ideas to a solution or just to better something which was so lateral to anything that is, was and is going to be produced in design was the key to producing future designs. Trying to think of something that is never done before is hard in this day and age where design surrounds us and clouds our creativity. What if you had no home....what if you had no food...what if you were deprived of the luxuries that surround us today...would it help our blue sky thinking. YES! That is what is dragging us down we aspire to have things that already exist and don't aspire to have things that we want that don't exist. The Russians did this and I feel that this is what gave them the edge. Do you agree?

The inspiration from America should be mentioned but can't backfire the above argument as they wanted something better than America and something America didn't have! Comments appreciated and replied on this page.

THANKS
IMRAN LOBANIA

Futurism...What do you think?

This is a concept/style of design influenced by Italian designers and is the starting point of Italians moving into design/Art. Is it? I think that the Romans personified design. They were the empire which took the best of one countries solution to a problem to solve the same elsewhere. They were the people who gathered and promoted education and philosophy which sparked of what they are in great detail now. No stage in history could be matched with the influence that the Romans had on design. They weren’t the inventors of the solutions...they took them from one country and showed the empire... the start of mass design! Pompeii art has particularly sparked this source of my passion for the Romans.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/pompeii_art_gallery.shtml)
The BBC are well known for the programme "What the Romans did for us" presented by Adam-Hart-Davis. (Won Television award for the best TV programme series). He inspires me and feeds me knowledge into the barebones thinking to this innovative empire.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/tech_01.shtml
And recently BBC radio 4 is having a group of discussions on the roman life and the empire and how the time after that empire has never been as successful.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/romanway.shtml)
Do you agree that Romans were the pioneers for the strong link of Italy's design?

Back to futurism as a concept/style of art/design. A quote of poetry that made my pen write it down was
"Beauty of car better than a race by a winged creature of Greece" Do you agree?
To a degree I do. The form of a Greek creature is to be defined. If it is of a form of woman drawing my attention to God's perfect and most beautiful creation then I would disagree. But films like the fast and furious...sports like rally racing and FORMULA 1 are purely funded by the interest of people and the beast that they drive. The concept of a race is of no interest as they are the same but the passion that people have with the beauty of the car i.e. the kit ups in the fast and furious creates a spectacle to be admired. Competition to create new technologies in these areas is fierce sparking innovation from technologies that even NASA use and vice-versa. This passion is futurism in my eye's...do you agree?

Comments appreciated
IMRAN LOBANIA

THE CARR IS BACK! The Vieneese Succession

Bring back the professional... Richard shows the real advantage of experience.

The Vieneese Succession really outlines the austrian based influence of Design. Coffee houses and the major influence in the theory behind philosophy, religion and literature really developed to the extent that some of the teachings are used today.

Freud being mentioned is essential as his theory is so revolutionary it is still used and applied today. But in my opinion the experiments that he carried out to come to his theory would be different in different cultures of todays day and age.
"Sexualty starts from childhood"
Do you agree?
I agree to this theory as in Islam (The pioneer thinkers from the early age where every thought can go back to the Arabs) Sexuality is said to start from the age of 12. In this day and age and in this u.k. culture where "Scally's/Neds" are increasing in number they too agree to this statement as the youngest female that has had a baby is 12. This is when the children start to realise the attraction to the other sex and not just an act copying there parents.

Back to Design I think that it was great the Richard Carr refered back to Mackintosch and his products and influence of this design era (between art nouveau and art deco). It was interesting to here that Mackintosch was more well known on the continent than in Scotland! This was an interesting point which made me think. Why are designers more successfull abroad than in the U.K.? Well i think that it is the culture of the u.k. which does not help budding designers in this country. The country does not like change. Once it is settled on one type of design it takes longer for people to adopt to new changes. Why are we 2 years behind in technology than Japan? Is it that we are not bright enough? No we are leaders in research and have a reputation for engineering. Are we lacking in influencial designers? No we have a reputation for being amongst the best in design i.e. (most cars have been designed by British Designers, Renalut, Aston Martin, Ford) It is because the country does not create a market for new and innovative designers to aim for: there is no money/interest in new products (until recently). The U.K. market is too small and not suitable for new innovative products to be launched as the culture is slow to change and too small compared to the U.S. and China who can create "copy cat" products quickly and easily.

What are your thoughts, comments appreciated and replied on this page so keep an eye out.
IMRAN LOBANIA

Contemporary Arts...Yeh right, more like I love William Morris Lecture

Contemporary Arts>Arts and Crafts>William Morris

This lecture in my opinion was a glorification of William Morris. When Richard said lecturer's have bias and their own views this lady lecturer took the biscuit!

William Morris (1834-1996)
To me he was just another cog in the machine that is design history. Nothing more or less than designers that used design principles as a multi-diciplinary aspect of design. Are you really trying to tell me that a designer in the past only designed one thing? I don't think so! Mackintosch a prime example applied his design to every aspect from products to wallpapers to architecture so William Morris...who gives a DRGKI$£+(%${RWI! Your views on this would be greatly appreciated good or bad.

But the only part in the whole lecture that appealed to me was:

"You can make a tool of a creature or a man of him"

What does this mean?
I think it means that humans in a production line are better than machines. This is because of the products individuality although modular. The product made by hand has a certain beauty that cannot be matched by any machine. A hand carved table finished in lovely varnish would look better than one produced by a machine as it has more unique features and adapted beauty to suit the eye. Where as a machine produces mass items with no unique feature from the next item produced by it.

Overall In my opinion and shared by Morris, the best designer is God(Mother Nature). His design is of such beauty and scale that no human can match. The human itself is Gods best creation. If you can create something better than a human being it is only then you can be considerd the best designer in the world.

Another quote not picked up by my fellow bloggers is

"the creation of form as an inner process"

This again shows that design is limited to what the human mind can control. If it is not thought of by a person then that design would not exist. Or does it? Is there any type of design that is not designed?

Tell me what you think.....comments appreciated and answered on the same page so keep an eye out.
IMRAN LOBANIA

Form Follow Function, Function Follows Form, FUNCTION AND FORM ARE INDEPENDANT

Well I understand the theory of why form follows the function. For example in terms of an engine it looks as it does because of the materials it has been made from and because of it’s job that it has to do.

I also understand why the function follows the form. For example the humble screwdriver can be simplified to a simple form but it looks as it does for purely aesthetic form first and then function secondly as it is sort of standard. But I was arguing (previous Friday) the fact that the aesthetic of a product can be the function of the product. In simpler terms it’s the product’s job to look good, bad, or simply how it does look. The example given by Gus was house lighting. Every house light does the job but the fact that it looks like the way it does is so that it differentiates to every other product on the market. Therefore is it form follows function? No definitely not. Is it function follows form? I don’t think because the form (how it looks) does not affect the function of the product in anyway. I think that the aesthetic of a product IS the function of the product.

Later discussion of a previous week has revealed a new problem. With my recent blog about the environment one of my group members asked...where would recyclable items fit in? A Good example of a recycled product is the chair which is half a bathtub. We agreed that it fits into both statements. The form follows function as the function was intended to be a chair and hence it was created. Or the other statement that the function follows form where the form of the bathtub created a new use as a chair.

As the main point of having these statements are so that every product is designed in one way or the other I think a new statement should be added. The statement being "Function and form are independant". This would introduce new products such as the recyclable ones and maybe incourage more people to re-use more products and not waste them by sending them into trash where they are burried in mass landfills. That is our resources being buried once again like all the material was in the first place. A time may come that we will have to dig into these areas to use the resources left.

Note: The recyclable product mention is a reused product. Not the type where the material is cut into peices (mosaic) or materail meted and reused. The products made as a result from these sort of processes can be put into the standard two statements of function and form.

Do you agree…disagree? Tell me what you think, comments appreciated. IMRAN LOBANIA

Why can be not just create O-Zone? (Environmental Design)

Hello all! As there were no lectures that I could Blog productively on, I have decided to do one on the current debate on the Environment.

The government has plans to tax the car user soooo much in the future to the extent that people stop people using cars at all! This as a view of having no cars on the road is great....all fine...but what are we supposed to do without them? Plus this will effect only the mass less wealthy people and not the wealthy ones who it is the main aim to cut down.

My view on this is that the Government is taking this the wrong way. It is taxing so that people leave their cars. But their is no alternative. The transport system in the U.K. is really bad and expensive. So that is not the alternative.I own a bike. It is impossible to ride on the roads without atleast one time in your journey a "fat cat" in his Landrover beeps you and almost runs you over. So that is dangerous. Walking? Do you know how long it takes! In our busy life style we donot have the time to spend walking to places such as school, activity centres, work, shops etc. Plus are the streets safe for your children to walk on? With paedophilia on the increase and the prisoner re-offending rate increasing would it be wise? There is no other transport option. That is where design must step in....Why have a car at all! Why try producing a car which runs on electricity but takes more energy and pollution making it (Honda Prius)! Why not have a Chuklevision cart using the mechanics knowledge of gears to make things easier?

The taxation on energy is also stupid. Taxation on the humble washing machine and light bulb! What is the alternative, the government are not doing enough...they say they are to implement 20% renewable energyby a fluctuating time. So why 20% renewable energy and 100% tax? It's just out of proportion. What about the government's street lighting? Is it necessary in some areas? Do they have to be soo close together. Do they use energy efficient LED's instead of Bulbs?

So what difference will it make if all polluting transportation in the U.K. were banned. A recent report reveals that China will increase their pollution production to replace our saving in just 76 days!

So to the title question. Why in a day and age where science is developing so fast have we not yet found a way of creating/repairing the o-zone layer. If you can clone the cells of a human being can you not make a simple gas. If it is complicated why not clone the gas!...or something beacuse that is a short term fix that we need if the world is to survive.

Maybe it's just me and the process is actually more difficult....following the theory of my last blog , why has the cure for cancer and aids not here? Why is the o-zone layer not repairable? Maybe the answer is that our brains are reaching a peak or has peaked in history with minds such as Einstein, Newton & Brunel and now we are having to adopt so much more thinking that we cannot cope with the harder/high thatquantity of challenges are to follow.

This is an important issue....please comment even if you agree, disagree or have no veiw at all.
Thanks
IMRAN LOBANIA

Why has innovation slowed down in design?

A new discussion point that i was chatting to my friend on msn messenger included:

Has innovation slowed down looking at history?
We concluded conclusively that invention and innovation has become slower. Things that we compared from the technologies today and the past included:
- The invention of the car (from nothing to an automobile) = We havn't found a way of making a car totally environmentally friendly that can be mass produced at an affordable price (we were predicting to be having floating cars by now!).
- The first man on the moon and the technologies to go into space (from scratch)= We havn't yet been able to put a human on Mars yet and we are still confused about pluto.
- The exploration of foriegn countries (at a time with no planes/proper navigation) = We havn't even found a way to explore our deepest ocean's yet etc.

And now to the question of the post assuming that i can actually go on forever about how we are not as advanced as our predecessor's.

Why has innovation slowed down in design?
I think media and society in this day and age are to blame. Why are most NASA scientists total unsociable geeks? It is because they are not taking into account the manipulation of the mind that the media and properganda is inflicting upon us.

The media is controlling the minds to an extent that fashions and trends are no longer a personal view of the mind. Instead they are adopted as a way to stay sociable and to stay fashionable. So design is now leaning towards a more fashionable product rather than a new cutting edge never seen before product hence suppressing design into a form which conforms with the taste of today. Why not try and make a product for the taste of tomorrow?

There are many issue's concerning this and the media is just one....the main one in my opinion. I can't wait to hear jonathan's view of this....but other's must join in the debate that could change the view of designers to become more innovative and creative.

IMRAN LOBANIA
Comments appreciated

DECO RULES!

The portugeese footballer and the form of art!

I have to mention how at the beggining of the lecture I was really touched how Mr Carr backtracked to show the furniture slide and how he thought it was clostraphobic. If you read one of my previous post's you'll realised he'd echoed my words. This was flattering because he either looked at my post/got told about my post and responded or that we have the same level of thinking. Considering that the guy has a really good level of thinking (hence almost standing ovation after each lecture) it's flattering that he has the same level of thought.

Anyhoo...
... The Art Deco lecture clearly showed why I did not like the Art Nouveau lecture.

"I am a man of straight lines, I am a stick man"

I found it hard to do research as i could not follow most of Richards sources as i ahve spelt the names worng i.e. anna lassiert....i can't even google her!

Anyhoo my own research had to be done *Sigh*

These are some example of what I like in Art Deco:
- Architectural: The Chrysler Bulilding is instantly recognisablie because of it's spire. It's in an Art Deco style which suits the building along with the use of it's strong silver stainless steel colour.







- Furniture: This is the side of Mackintosh i like. The firniture is absolutely amazing and the switch that he made just shows how he was a major influence in both styles of designs but more so in deco as he made the change unlike some others.








I have very little time and hope to do my own blog of research into my choices of design.
Comments appreciated. Thanx.