IMD IPD mind meld

Thursday, November 30, 2006

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

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

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

Friday, November 03, 2006

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