The New Zealand poet, James K Baxter (1926-1972) was a most professional poet who maintained meti... more The New Zealand poet, James K Baxter (1926-1972) was a most professional poet who maintained meticulous records and fair copies. He sought and gained social recognition and international publication. Towards the end of his life he turned away from his professional artistic way of life and literally walked into the wilderness. Where he ended up was a small Maori community at Hiruharama (a transliteration of Jerusalem). Here Baxter attempted a spiritual, social and poetic experiment: he attempted to make his life vivid. The first record of this experiment is to be found in the sequence, Jerusalem Sonnets, consisting of thirty-nine meditative and diary-like poems. The poet announces in the final sonnet, thirty-nine, that he had “hoped for fifty sonnets”, such was his formal temperament even in the mode of mystic voyager. In the Jerusalem Sonnets, Baxter seeks to make explicit (vivid) the spiritual dimension of culture in the everyday life he set out to follow. In his effort to ground t...
A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether something el... more A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether something else. We know chair before we know this found chair. We know chair-ness, and yet for us, there is no such thing-in-itself as a chair. Strange enough? Yes, but an ordinary thing, a thing as-itself, like this found chair, is also something else. Especially if it is designed. Especially if it is French. And then we see the same is true of other stuff, especially if it is a Juicy Salif. Especially if it is from the childhood of Ettore Sottsass. Especially if it is the thing just there in the corner, on a shelf, in the laundry, awaiting its use. In designing, we are always seeing things in their potential and realized specialness. Let’s call this special way of seeing things the Continental approach. The Continental “Beautiful music – Dangerous rhythm –
"A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether someth... more "A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether something else. We know chair before we know this chair. We know chair-ness and yet there is no such thing-in-itself, as a chair...
The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability: Annual Review, 2006
From little things, big things grow. The biology of growth has its social counterpart in metaphor... more From little things, big things grow. The biology of growth has its social counterpart in metaphors of growing. Which seeds are planted,how they grow, are economic and ecological concerns. ... Constraining global transport of physical goods while leaving information flows ...
Fanservice is the random and gratuitous display of a series of anticipated gestures common in Jap... more Fanservice is the random and gratuitous display of a series of anticipated gestures common in Japanese comics (Manga) and animated cartoons (Anime). Fanservice gestures include such things as panty shots, and glimpses of breast. These vagrant moments of libidinous possibility underwrite the anticipation of sensual fulfilment; they indicate the genuine access of the personal aesthetic experience to a realm and/or moment of reality in which the physical and the imaginative are co-extensive. The connection between the eye and desire is re-established in defiance of the general requirement in society to deny the glimpse. This paper will explore ways of looking revealed in Anime and Manga, in relation to the desire and lust for objects. How much of this special seeing can be universalized in terms of design? How might this way of seeing be used to extend our understanding of personal aesthetic engagement with objects?
In the notion of design is hidden the notion of designer, just as inside the notion of the create... more In the notion of design is hidden the notion of designer, just as inside the notion of the created world there is the notion of a creator. Designers tell stories of what they design, how they design, why they design and what it is to design. Along with their personal and existential stories, many designers offer explicit accounts of what it is to work (undertake socially significant tasks) and what it is to produce works (socially and possibly spiritually significant outcomes). These stories, from designers, offer general accounts of the uses of designing as a human project; they also offer insights into the larger possible significance of design as a social activity for an evolving society. As Ettore Sottsass asks: “And what else?”
ion, the tool of enlightenment, treats its objects as it did fate, the notion of which it rejects... more ion, the tool of enlightenment, treats its objects as it did fate, the notion of which it rejects; it liquidates them. . . . The distance between subject and object, a presupposition of abstraction, is grounded in the distance from the thing itself which the master achieved through the mastered. . . . The universality of ideas as developed by discursive logic, domination in the conceptual sphere, is raised up on the basis of actual domination. The dissolution of the magical heritage, of the old diffuse ideas, by conceptual unity, expresses the hierarchical constitution of life determined by those who are free. (1972: 13-14) Within the magic of production, the designer, as maker, can establish a poetic of domination. The mastery of material processes then becomes a mastery of the non-human. The indifference of making can then become the ground of an artificial freedom. In Studio Theoria the grounds for authentic making need to be explored as the grounds for a poetic that equals our e...
While Art and Design share a large number of concepts, there is a fundamental tension, at the lev... more While Art and Design share a large number of concepts, there is a fundamental tension, at the level of both theory and practice, between Art and Design in the articulation of their concepts. For example, reference is common to both domains. A painter may sketch and make a painting of a chair; a designer may design and build a chair.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1162 07479360152103859, Mar 13, 2006
... 3 Aldo Rosi, circa 1989, Milanese construction in Luca Basso Peressut and Ilaria Valente, e... more ... 3 Aldo Rosi, circa 1989, Milanese construction in Luca Basso Peressut and Ilaria Valente, eds., Milano Architetture per la città 19801990 ... In their final statement, the conference team; EzioManzini, Tomás Maldonado, Victor Margolin, and Silvia Pizzocaro; attempt-ed to draw ...
The New Zealand poet, James K Baxter (1926-1972) was a most professional poet who maintained meti... more The New Zealand poet, James K Baxter (1926-1972) was a most professional poet who maintained meticulous records and fair copies. He sought and gained social recognition and international publication. Towards the end of his life he turned away from his professional artistic way of life and literally walked into the wilderness. Where he ended up was a small Maori community at Hiruharama (a transliteration of Jerusalem). Here Baxter attempted a spiritual, social and poetic experiment: he attempted to make his life vivid. The first record of this experiment is to be found in the sequence, Jerusalem Sonnets, consisting of thirty-nine meditative and diary-like poems. The poet announces in the final sonnet, thirty-nine, that he had “hoped for fifty sonnets”, such was his formal temperament even in the mode of mystic voyager. In the Jerusalem Sonnets, Baxter seeks to make explicit (vivid) the spiritual dimension of culture in the everyday life he set out to follow. In his effort to ground t...
A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether something el... more A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether something else. We know chair before we know this found chair. We know chair-ness, and yet for us, there is no such thing-in-itself as a chair. Strange enough? Yes, but an ordinary thing, a thing as-itself, like this found chair, is also something else. Especially if it is designed. Especially if it is French. And then we see the same is true of other stuff, especially if it is a Juicy Salif. Especially if it is from the childhood of Ettore Sottsass. Especially if it is the thing just there in the corner, on a shelf, in the laundry, awaiting its use. In designing, we are always seeing things in their potential and realized specialness. Let’s call this special way of seeing things the Continental approach. The Continental “Beautiful music – Dangerous rhythm –
"A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether someth... more "A thing found is a found thing; das ding an sich, the thing-in-itself, is altogether something else. We know chair before we know this chair. We know chair-ness and yet there is no such thing-in-itself, as a chair...
The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability: Annual Review, 2006
From little things, big things grow. The biology of growth has its social counterpart in metaphor... more From little things, big things grow. The biology of growth has its social counterpart in metaphors of growing. Which seeds are planted,how they grow, are economic and ecological concerns. ... Constraining global transport of physical goods while leaving information flows ...
Fanservice is the random and gratuitous display of a series of anticipated gestures common in Jap... more Fanservice is the random and gratuitous display of a series of anticipated gestures common in Japanese comics (Manga) and animated cartoons (Anime). Fanservice gestures include such things as panty shots, and glimpses of breast. These vagrant moments of libidinous possibility underwrite the anticipation of sensual fulfilment; they indicate the genuine access of the personal aesthetic experience to a realm and/or moment of reality in which the physical and the imaginative are co-extensive. The connection between the eye and desire is re-established in defiance of the general requirement in society to deny the glimpse. This paper will explore ways of looking revealed in Anime and Manga, in relation to the desire and lust for objects. How much of this special seeing can be universalized in terms of design? How might this way of seeing be used to extend our understanding of personal aesthetic engagement with objects?
In the notion of design is hidden the notion of designer, just as inside the notion of the create... more In the notion of design is hidden the notion of designer, just as inside the notion of the created world there is the notion of a creator. Designers tell stories of what they design, how they design, why they design and what it is to design. Along with their personal and existential stories, many designers offer explicit accounts of what it is to work (undertake socially significant tasks) and what it is to produce works (socially and possibly spiritually significant outcomes). These stories, from designers, offer general accounts of the uses of designing as a human project; they also offer insights into the larger possible significance of design as a social activity for an evolving society. As Ettore Sottsass asks: “And what else?”
ion, the tool of enlightenment, treats its objects as it did fate, the notion of which it rejects... more ion, the tool of enlightenment, treats its objects as it did fate, the notion of which it rejects; it liquidates them. . . . The distance between subject and object, a presupposition of abstraction, is grounded in the distance from the thing itself which the master achieved through the mastered. . . . The universality of ideas as developed by discursive logic, domination in the conceptual sphere, is raised up on the basis of actual domination. The dissolution of the magical heritage, of the old diffuse ideas, by conceptual unity, expresses the hierarchical constitution of life determined by those who are free. (1972: 13-14) Within the magic of production, the designer, as maker, can establish a poetic of domination. The mastery of material processes then becomes a mastery of the non-human. The indifference of making can then become the ground of an artificial freedom. In Studio Theoria the grounds for authentic making need to be explored as the grounds for a poetic that equals our e...
While Art and Design share a large number of concepts, there is a fundamental tension, at the lev... more While Art and Design share a large number of concepts, there is a fundamental tension, at the level of both theory and practice, between Art and Design in the articulation of their concepts. For example, reference is common to both domains. A painter may sketch and make a painting of a chair; a designer may design and build a chair.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1162 07479360152103859, Mar 13, 2006
... 3 Aldo Rosi, circa 1989, Milanese construction in Luca Basso Peressut and Ilaria Valente, e... more ... 3 Aldo Rosi, circa 1989, Milanese construction in Luca Basso Peressut and Ilaria Valente, eds., Milano Architetture per la città 19801990 ... In their final statement, the conference team; EzioManzini, Tomás Maldonado, Victor Margolin, and Silvia Pizzocaro; attempt-ed to draw ...
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