Museums: Vessels of Experience

Ada Louise Huxtable

“The true test of a museum is the impact of its contents on the heart and mind, and the sense of beauty or gratification enjoyed by the visitor as a private, personal experience. Whether the new buildings will improve this experience remains to be seen.”

Ada Louise Huxtable, New York Times, May 8, 1960

Designers Need to Speak Up

In practice, by carefully documenting and presenting their design rationale, designers are in a position to educate clients on the merits of superior design. Designers are liaisons between breakthrough ideas and the general public. They build a bridge between the scientist’s research and the user’s product; designers fill the gap between the artist’s vision and the user’s experience.

Granted, designers must be knowledgeable and culturally relevant, but they must also speak up.

From AWIB.tumblr.com

Read more about the role of designers…

See infographics of specific ways design has shaped society.

Separate the Word “Design” from the Word “Aesthetics”

“Aesthetics” represent only one facet of design. Consider human and environmental factors alongside aesthetics:  today user-friendliness is as appreciated as beauty is, and designing sustainably is a no-brainer. Step outside the decorator’s box to take your designs to the next level. Embrace breadth.

Practical Intuition

Modern scientists and engineers often portray intuition as being heady, unscientific, and useless. Quite to the contrary, intuition is a practical tool that can be applied with scarce resources, immediately impacting well-being.

What scares some people about intuition is its apparent vagueness. People want facts and figures, but often happiness does not result from following the numbers. Complicating the matter, the advent of more evidence-based sciences like neuroscience, biomimicry, and robotics, increasingly emphasize physically measurable phenomenon. These sciences lead us to believe that the answers to all of our problems lie in technological solutions.

In defense of intuition, most human dilemmas remain unaddressed or unsolved by empiricism; it would be impossible to replace all of our intuitions with strict evidence. Often, when we part from the facts, the most enlivening connections are made. These speculative leaps can lead us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our surroundings.

Here is Wikipedia’s modern definition of intuition. Notice the emphasis on problem solving:

A Lesson from Modernism

 

In his essay written in 1984, The Most Important Building of the 20th Century, Martin Pawley claims that Modernism was the only framework of ideas that could have addressed the circumstances of the 20th Century. He cites the loss of skilled craftsmen, social upheaval, and the advent of mass production as reasons for the inevitable rise of Modernism. This view accurately portrays architecture as a response to external cultural events, rather than as operating independently.

“Modern architectural thought… achieved its greatest ascendancy in the reconciliation of massive social needs with new resources in conditions of absolute urgency.”

Considering what has happened since Martin Pawley made this claim, how has architecture responded to more recent changes in technology, geopolitics, and weather? If Modernism was the answer to the 20th Century’s necessities, what will be architecture’s answer to the 21st Century’s demands?

Form or Function? Neither.

The graduate centre of the London Metropolitan University design by Daniel Libeskind in 2004.

I want to raise alarm over the fact that design today is more concerned with outcomes than with processes. We are fixated with creating designs that emulate those of the past, catering to the way we have lived for decades. This narrow focus on conventions threatens our innovative drive as a society. Design is supposed to be a two way conversation between the possible and the necessary; unfortunately, we ignore innovative solutions in our love affair with the necessary.

Functionalism, the predominant school of architectural thought today, emerged in the late 1800’s. Dictating that form follow function, Functionalism holds that a design’s arrangement aught to cater to the needs of the user. Ignoring our remarkable ability to adapt to novel arrangements, Functionalism is a language of standardization and ergonomics. To the critically thinking designer, the problem with Functionalism soon becomes apparent:  if more than one form can fill a function, how then do we decide which form to use?

Enter Formalism, an opposing school of thought that is about creating a shape or form, afterwards adapting it to suit a function. Formalism’s emphasis is on how the design looks rather than functions. Formalism is the wellspring of design languages from Classicism to Art Nouveau. However, in spite of its apparent freedom from function, all schools of Formalism are wrought with limited prescriptions for “proper” design.

I propose we transcend the paradox between form and function by learning to view design as an ongoing process rather than a closed loop; the process does not end with the designer, but goes on indefinitely. To design in this way requires trust in the design process, and faith in humankind’s ability to adapt to new situations. It requires designers to humble themselves.

The inventor of the blade could not have foreseen the invention of the spear. The computer was a useless arrangement of circuits until techies dreamed of new software. In design as in art, the creator’s intent is irrelevant, it is the user’s adaptations and interpretations that matter.

Relearning Respect for Light

We used to depend on the sun and the moon for light until we harnessed fire. With fire, night became a time to work, to laugh, and to learn. Later industrialization allowed us to illuminate our roads and buildings on an unprecedented scale; light became a commodity, taken for granted. Although we knew, we easily forgot that light originated from the sun. We forgot that light had been in a delicate balance with darkness for millions of years before the lightbulb. We forgot what stars look like on a dark night sky.

Recently we have learned more about the role light plays in biology. Light is crucial to bone development, moods, and stable circadian rhythms. Suddenly, the idea of light as a commodity is threatened. A global economy, energy scarcity, and emerging research all necessitate increasing expertise in the application of light.

If lighting professionals don’t make a stand, the wrong people could be making the decisions about how we use our light–like politicians. Lighting experts need to share their knowledge with each other and with the public. We need these experts to unite and lobby congress for more evidence-based laws governing the use of light. If we take the initiative early, we can ensure decisions about lighting legislation are made by certifiable experts. It is time we once again revere the timeless balance of light and dark.

Meeting the Shadow

“If we fail to learn or fail to act on what we learn from the spectacle of human behavior, we forfeit our power as individuals to alter ourselves, and thus to save our world.” 

“Know all of yourself, the priest of the god of light advised, know especially the dark side.”

“A right relationship with the shadow offers us a great gift:  to lead us back to our buried potentials.”

–Connie Zweig and Jeremiah Abrahms, Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature

5 Brain Boosting Tips

1. People Person

Relationships have been shown to be beneficial for the brain. Write a love letter, call your parents, or go to happy hour with colleagues.

2. One Thing at a Time

Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time, use this to your advantage. If you have a million things to do, make a list.

3.  Move Your Body

This doesn’t have to be a hassle; stick to simple tasks like taking the stairs, walking the dog, and dancing.

4. Eat Food

Keep your blood sugar stable by eating regularly. Stick to unprocessed foods and replace sugary beverages with tea, coffee, orange juice, or milk.

5. Take a Challenge

Do not stay comfortable for too long. Read a book, act in community theatre, start a new hobby, or join an organization.

The Difference Between Surviving and Living

“A man can ‘function’ in a certain sense 600 feet beneath the surface of the sea in total blackness. He can ‘survive’ in a prison cell six feet square, an underground train, a space capsule or a pothole, but he cannot live there – not unless he drastically truncates the possibilities of action and thought that consciousness confers upon him.” Martin Pawley, “The Time House” 1968, from The Strange Death of Architectural Criticism

On Design Possibilities

 ”A single correct lighting solution for any given lighting task will never exist, similarly a single step-by-step recipe for reaching such solutions will not be possible – but by knowing the design parameters and by understanding the technical options for their implementation, architects and lighting designers are able to find individual answers for design issues.” Light Perspectives Between Culture and Technology

Find Your Superpower

Do you have a superpower? Superpowers come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe yours is writing, teaching, event planning, or photography.

How do you know what your superpower is? Introspection. Simply pay close attention to the things you like to do most; ask yourself what it is about these things that attract you.

When you have a superpower you always want to use it. By using your superpower it becomes stronger; the stronger it becomes, the more recognition it gains. Eventually, your superpower may become a source of income, providing you with your livelihood. It may take years of practice, but it will be worth it.

Authorized Personnel Only (Collage)

What is private property?

People robbed of their homes,
while land is plundered and sold?
Or stores, farms, and apartments
meeting demands of the markets?

I see landscapes divided,
and owned by a few.
But who do I blame?
I want it too.

Digital Divide, Of Course

At the core of the digital divide are social mechanisms of distribution.  Access to hardware, software, and computer science varies across geography, income, ability, race, and gender.  Instead of citing any one of these particular variables as the cause of the digital divide, we will examine the problem holistically–because unequal allocation of any resource is always part of a larger framework.

Research has found that social networks form in clusters, bringing a web-like structure to the dissemination of ideas.  Some nodes are more centralized and connected than others (Krebs 2003, 2005).  Furthermore, each node represents an entity with specific properties–geographic location, resources available, perceptions, etc.

When an innovation originates in one node, that node’s properties determine how soon the idea will be distributed through others nodes in the social network.  An isolated hobbyist tinkering in his garage may have a breakthrough, but that does not mean others can automatically understand or use that breakthrough.  That is impossible.  First, a centralized node has to connect with the idea:  an opinion leader such as a business, organization, politician, or celebrity.  Then others nearby will follow.  The idea begins to spread through the web of social connections in a phenomena dubbed the ideavirus.

However, the opinion leaders that spread ideas are deeply entrenched within their social framework.  Unfortunately, this framework is not always fair, and that delegates access to new ideas to networks closest to the opinion leaders, leaving others behind.

To a huge degree, the digital divide can be largely explained by where individual nodes are in the web of social connections.  Just as one cannot catch a cold virus without contact, one cannot catch an ideavirus without contact. Complicating matters are the objective and subjective properties of the entity in question.  Different nodes have different levels of resistance to the ideavirus.

This unconscious resistance to technology by individuals exacerbates the digital divide.  For example, several individual nodes are connected to one central node–such as many students connected to a central school.  Each of the students has different perceptions and status.  So if the school adopts new technology, some students may be more likely to adopt it, because they have had computers at home or have seen images of their kin using technology.  While disadvantaged students may perceive technology as being for the “computer wiz” (a term that brings forth the image of a white male with thick glasses).

Often, these stereotypes are reinforced by the teacher:  they expect more from the kids already familiar with technology and less from the kids who have had less experience.  These images of where people belong remain deeply ingrained in our psyches.

The first personal computers were owned by a handful of isolated hobbyists.  They were generally white, male, and upper middle class.  This was the beginning of the ideavirus of personal computing.  Because of their location in the social web, it was far more likely for other white males of similar socioeconomic status to be exposed to and intrigued by these early innovations.

Eventually, as more businesses caught the ideavirus of personal computing, distribution sped up.  Corporations began selling computers and software.  A new industry emerged, with the number of potential participants increasing with every new social connection.

It is important to resist simplifying the problem of the digital divide to a mere matter of race, class, or gender.  Unequal distribution is inevitable with any idea.  While the adoption of technology began in particular demographics, the number of people with computing devices is unprecedented.  Perhaps, one day in the future, the digital divide will finally close.  Of course, newer and better technologies will be leaving digital dust.  Likely, creating an entirely new divide.

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