SD2080 tutorial 09.09.05 What is Design & The Green Imperative

1. Main themes of the two essays?

- what is design? What is not design? (not new but betterment Papanek p.7)

- what new dimension design is now opening up, or obliged to?

- An otherwise of design as materialistic and consumerist (Green Imperative)

2. On John Heskett, ‘What is Design?’, Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life,(Oxford 2002).
1. What are the different meanings pg. 3:not of definition but of significance & value) of ‘design’?

i. – pg.1 &2 banal, inconsequential, lightweight, decorative, fun, entertaining, useful in marginal manner and (in the surplus value of market economy)/ (nor style)> no real substance in basic question of (human) existence/ pg. 5: definition by its fields & cannons but not the underlying totality / pg 6: “basic characteristics of human life ; affects everyone in every details of every aspect of what they do throughout each day”; improvement of human-material environment; pg.7: potential in life, possibilities of changes, everyday life in a diversity of cultures/ pg9: “Design is to design a design to produce a design.”: pg. 11 wide spectrum of practice & terminology; pg. 12 arbitrary- compare to other disciplines;

ii. - pg. 13: to define the territory: 1. generic patterns ; 2. history > “human capacity to shape and make our environment …to serve our needs and give meanings to our lives.” (~ give orders to nature) + pg. 18 habitat “unable to distinguish civilization from nature” , “what is to be human” >

iii. pg. 16: design is not about technology but the simple acts of decisions and choices > pg. 17 responsibility: a choices always imply exclusion- i.e. what purposes for who (discriminating design decisions) ; > scopes of design: pg. 19 aspect of human existence: objects, communications, environments and system
iv. what is design history: pg. 20- unlike art history- “layering”

2. Who knows something about design? How is the process and experience of design shared with non-designers?
3. A battle between individuals and inhuman collectives- ways of life determined by USA by commercial companies or by designer with human concerns and users? (p. 194)/ which population you serve? the 10% or 90% (p.195, 196) ~ of globalization ~ to be a technocrats or consider the ends design serves? (p.200)
2. On Victor Papanek, ‘The Power of Design’, The Green Imperative, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
1. All about humanity: what is humanity (p.7-)
2. How does Papanek speak of design – in what ways does he emphasize different qualities than those mentioned by Heskett?

i. Pg. 2- human make things ~ joy; pg. 3,4 : playfulness/ playful innovation; bring order to chaos, system out of chaos; human qualities: order, beauty, fitness, simplicity…

3. What are a designer’s skills? Describe these in a contemporary setting.

i. Pg. 5 ~ please give examples

ii. Pg. 13, 14- changes of our contemporary environment : indoor & disorder with nature~ pg. 17 legacy of modernism and myth of post-modernism ;

4. Can designers really take ethical positions? (and specifically in relation to environmental issue/ sustaninability)

i. pg. 7designer is accepted everywhere regardless of political systems or religious beliefs

ii. aim of the book: pg. 9 ecological responsibilities: not a fashion but IMPARATIVES; rebirth & re-awakening close relationship between nature and mankind >pg. 10 designer as a profession and as personal responsibility ; ~ no technological fix for ecological dysfunction > pg. 12, 13

iii. pg. 19 “designer as always been also a teacher”- pg. 1 How does it relate? (how does it look) ; pg.20 knowledge-base system

iv. pg. 22“sustainable design”- all design are sustainable design; pg. 24 rich web of interpersonal relationships/ pg. 25 aesthetics sensibility ; pg.27 ethical responsibility and spiritual value

4. Further reading:
1. 杭間：設計倫理：從人機適合到人際和諧，《觀察家》，2003年6月，頁04-06。