How Design Has Contributed To Stereotyping Of Nature - Essay Example

Introduction Design is the act of creating the final form, appearance or final finish of something usually meant to be sold as a commercial product (New Oxford English Dictionary, 2006). It involves imagination, defining, drawing or miniature construction of the intended product as a guide towards building the product itself. The end product may also be referred to as a “New Design”; for instance, the new design of Toyota Corolla. Currently, design applies in technological, economic and political spheres of life defining the way products appear, are appealing and engage the minds of their consumers. Designers are the translators of technological concepts and prototypes into marketable products. All types of products from foodstuffs to houses and landscapes; have undergone some kind of design. In fact design is the new engine of modern consumerism. First developed by Raymond Lowley, and later developed by US Government psychology “think tanks” such as Edward Berneys, in the 1930s to enable USA to experience economic growth; consumerism was a fundamental paradigm shift from product durability to product ephemerality. Ephemeral products are short lived thus encouraging people to go out and buy the “modern”, “latest”, “in vogue” or simply “new” products, while constantly disposing of old ones, Raizman, D (2003). Design In Computers The emergence and development of computers played a crucial role in the new culture of consumerism. As this culture grew; and played a key expediency role for government, encouraging people to concentrate on consumption, thus leaving the important role of running the state to the politicians from the 1950s onwards; computer design became its key component. With the advent of television in the 1960s, consumerism went global and thus dictated the way of life worldwide. Through advertising, television became a conduit of international communication and consumer culture. Guy Julier (2007) notes that design is currently dominated by the belief that the identity of the consumer is defined by the products they buy. Consumerism is undoubtedly well rooted in societal culture. Computer design soon took on aesthetics and ergonomics, which today dominate hypermarket shelves, glossy magazine covers, shop windows and homes. Claudia Dona (1980) noted that the world is overflowing with our own creations which besiege us and often distance us from one another physically and mentally. There is a social distance, which seems physical, between those who drive a certain design of car and those who don’t, even though they live in the same locality. In this way people of equal means become accustomed to living in the same style. The continuous flow of production is encouraged by Moore’s law, Raizman, D.(2003). This law originated in the computer industry and states that every eighteen months there is a doubling of computing power or halving of price. This law has come to dominate not just computer production but strategic corporate thinking as a whole. It operates on the premise of leading everyone into short term thinking and short product life. People feel obliged to spend in acquiring the ever changing computers and computer generated products. Computer sales have thrived on an ever changing program regime with companies such as Microsoft encouraging consumers to keep on “upgrading” software programmes with the “latest”, “most advanced” and “new”. Those who do not hurry up to take up the new “offers” find themselves operating with “old technology” which others have long discarded. In this way they are forced to feel that they must get the new products. The good old days of inheriting a comp down from one’s grandfather are long gone lest one end up with an “archaic” computer. Getting the new products of course means buying, so the computer hardware and software manufacturing companies smile all the way to the bank. Computers are responsible for a wide range of designs of products. Modern cars, houses and even estates are currently “computer generated”. The cars for instance are “streamlined”, “ergonomic” and “cool”. They are always better than the previous model which only appeared a few months before. The same car with the same features in terms of actual engineering technology is resold again and again to the same buyer who only realizes, and in many cases doesn’t, when his garage is full of unused cars. Economically, this results in exponential growth in an environment of rapid change. Human beings are naturally averse to rapid change. So consumerism thrives on aggressive advertisement and constant design adjustments. The work of the advertiser is to convince consumers that they need change, while the designer, by redesigning the same product again and again, creates the illusion of that change. However, such efforts have resulted in a lot of computer waste material that is in most cases, highly toxic and difficult to dispose of. This has adversely affected the environment in terms of excessive and unabated pollution. This is one aspect of consumerism that cannot just be wished away. Design In Architecture Developments in design in architecture can be traced back to the 1800s. Christopher Dresser, one of the indoor design icons of the time was noted as the father of modernism by the board of the Architectural Review in London. He created Victorian household chandelier designs that were considered revolutionary then. He was among the first advocates for industrialism as being superior to craft. He also insisted on the importance of getting the original design right as this would be reproduced in volumes through industry. Meanwhile, art and painting, the mother subjects of house design, also underwent radical changes culminating into the minimalist and post minimalist paintings in the 1960s. While minimalists like Frank Stella rejected relational and subjective painting, insisting on new simpler art forms that they insisted captured representations in art, the post-minimalists like Robert Pincus- Witten re-introduced content and contextual overtones that had been rejected by the minimalists. Both parties succeeded in coming up with new art forms that were to later define consumerism design. In essence, they replaced intellectual with modern popular art. The movement of Post modernism also began with architecture. In 1949 the term postmodernism was used to describe disillusionment with modern architecture of the time. The modern architecture was established by such masters as Walter Gropius and Phillip Johnson. They insisted on pursuing ideal perfection of form and function. Their mainstay was minimalism in terms of space utilization. They dismissed what they termed as frivolous ornament. For some time, these ideals were espoused as the ultimate consideration in house design and construction. The new style thus came to be known as the Modernist International Style, Jencks Charles (1989). And they were not alone, Modernism itself dates back to the late 1800s in the advent of such revolutionary thinkers as Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Ernst March, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx and Carl Jung. They contributed to a new way of thinking in science and other fields forcing established scholars of the time to view afresh long held concepts and tenets that were unquestionable before. In fact, true modernism coupled with mass production finally took root after the World War I when people became completely disillusioned with old ideas. However, critics of the international style emerged. They questioned the significance of the attributes of perfection and minimalism. After World War II people became totally disillusioned again and began deconstructing some of the ideas they had readily embraced earlier. They dismissed modern thought as being full of anachronisms and questioned its benefits to society. They welcomed post modern architectural designs of the likes of Michael Graves. Graves rejected the notion of a pure or perfect detail of architecture. Instead, he drew from all methods, materials forms and colours available to architects. With Graves and his contemporaries the postmodernism movement was born. It was marked by the re-emergence of surface ornaments on buildings, decorative forms and non-orthogonal angles. This was a return to the old way of building, away from the prevailing architectural form. Ironically, the international style itself had earlier replaced the kind of houses built by postmodernism. This fact only goes further to emphasize the cyclic nature of modernism and postmodernism. Clearly one of the factors that led to the failure of the international style of modern architecture was the insistence on the almost totalitarian qualities of modernist thought favouring personal preferences, tastes, variety and freedom of expression. This same approach was the weakness of the modernist movement in general. It came up with ideals that were rammed down the throats of everyone as unquestionable truisms. The fact that modernism took serious root only after the first world war made matters worse, since people clung onto it out of the desperation of the times rather than reason. The skepticism, criticism and subjectivity that emerged came to define postmodern philosophy. The term postmodernism came to be applied to a wide range of movements in art, music, and literature. They all reacted against modernism in the same way as the emerging architecture. Literally, postmodernism means after the modernist movement. It is a style and concept in the arts characterized by distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions, Compact Oxford English Dictionary, (2006). Is thus an aesthetic, literary, political or social philosophy concerned with changes of conditions and institutions. In a nutshell, it is a movement critical to conventional ideas that define modern living, Jencks Charles (1989). All the movements were defined by a revival of traditional elements and techniques that had earlier on been discarded. In contemporary times, Postmodernism opposes consumerism, which dictates how people currently live their lives. It is a radical re-appraisal of modern culture, identity, history or language. It is a re-examination of what people appreciate and believe in as important for modern living. Another term, deconstruction, also emerged from architecture. It was used to denote the application of postmodern criticism or theory to a text or artifact. It was a term derived from the architectural term deconstructivism. This was originally the act of criticism of drawings and designs in architecture. Conclusion All the various changes that have taken place in design have played a major role in dictating people’s lifestyles. Through the use of computers, architectural design and other designs, new notions about nature have emerged and been discarded again. Terms such as beauty, decency and fashion have been defined and redefined by the designers from the Paris haut couture to the Wild West Marlboro cigarette factory. Design dictates the kind of magazine we buy, the car we own, the house we live in, the neighbourhood we live in (according to the landscape design) and the clothes we wear. Since the reality created by designers is itself temporary and ever changing, it is the consumers of this ever changing technology who have to pay for it’s by products. The problem of dumping of toxic waste from this rapidly producing and discarding design industry, is one reality that no amount of fast talking advertisers can shield from the public anymore. Design will change again and with it our perception of reality. References Compact Oxford English Dictionary: 2006: OUP Johnson, Stephen.2001.Introduction: Here Comes Everybody! In emergence London: Penguin Books.11-23 Giddens, A.1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: polity press Jencks Charles.1989.What is Postmodernism? London: Academy Edition. Julier, G.2007.The Culture of Design.2nd Edition.London: Sage Raizman, D.2003.History of Modern Design.London:Laurence King Sparke,P.2004.An introduction to design and culture in the Twentieth Century.2nd Edition.London:Routledge. Thackera, J. (Ed.).1988 Design after modernism.London: Thames and Hudson Read More