How Technology Changed Design Process

How Technology Changed Design Process Consider for a moment the argument of good vs. evil. Neither can seem ably exist alone, without the other surfacing or breaking the mould at one time or another. Now consider the historical friction between the arts crafts era of design and todays computer aided magnificence. As soon as design aids such as AutoCAD, and laser cutters were created, people began to argue for the loss of design origins and individuality; some may even say its soul and character. Those who were enticed by this new technology that allowed production to be executed in half the time on twice the scale, were in awe, and naturally as with all two sided battles, alliances were formed. Gone are the days of hand carving and endlessly tiring man hours in workshops shouted the people of the future, what takes you a week and four men, takes us a day with a computer, with no need for getting grubby. The conceptual age of design was truly revolutionized by computers, no argument there, but was it necessarily a good thing? No! shouted the people of tradition, where you exceed us in production you lack in character, where is the heart and soul? The attention to detail absorbed through precise workmanship and craft? (Pemble, 2010) Once again I feel that their argument is sound, but is it not also a prime case of people fearing what they do not understand? As is the case with all arguments, it often takes a step back and a good long look at both sides of the case to induce or create a compromise that allows both sides to advance further than they imagined. For this we need to begin in Weimar, Germany, the year is 1919 and the Bauhaus school of Art design is formed. Throughout Europe, world war one had clearly left its mark. The German state lay in disarray and its economy lay in tatters and after the initial turmoil over the future of Germany. Whether it be soviet communist or capitalist German, several factors were set in stone, the way of imperialist grandeur and ornamentalism design had to change, the transformation of emotional Expressionism to the matter-of-fact New Objectivity (Minusfive 2006). This gave the German organisation, Deutscher Werkbund, founded in 1907 and considered the forerunner to the Bauhaus, a newfound vessel for their visions of design. The Werkbunds aim was: to harness the new potentials of mass production, with a mind towards preserving Germanys economic competitiveness (MinusFive 2006). This kind of agenda for change become apparent in many areas of design, it may have originated in architecture, with the Werkbunds idea of economical production for housing and the built environment, but it spread to even the most men ial of objects, combining industrial methods with artistic flair, an example I suppose being envelopes. Up until 1840 all envelopes were handmade, cut from paper and constructed before being used to send mail. However, in that year a British man George Wilson derived a method of mass production from the geometric layout called tessellation. This enabled multiple envelopes to be cut simultaneously minimising the waste cut paper. Only five years later the production of envelopes was revolutionized further by two men, Edwin Hill and Warren De La Rue, whom pioneered a steam pressing machine that enabled the cutting, folding and gumming process of envelopes all to be done in one stage. As was to happen less than a century later to various crafts, the traditional method of production died slowly at first, then all together outclassed and outperformed by its machine age successor. Here is where the compromise between industrial and traditional methods is required. During my journey in which I created my own envelope design, I was able to see the merits and disadvantages of both ends of the spectrum. The first step was to take a standard sized envelope and dissect, analyse, and recreate it, several times, to get the feel for and a thorough understanding of its design. I then, from a purely conceptual view, came up with my design, which was to be a clasp sealing disc shaped envelope. I then repeated the process i used for an existing design, for my own, entailing technical drawings, models, prototypes, and experimentations, until I came up with my finalised design. Here is where the best of both worlds comes into its own. If I were to embark on this project in an identical fashion, but in a 3D virtual computer world via programs such as CAD and 3DSMax, it would be quicker; however there would be no feel for the design, certainly no character, and there would be no way of knowing if it worked, or how it were to assemble. Tactility is one of the charms of handmade works. It was at this point that I was encouraged to investigate the more industrial side of production, so after transferring my design from hand drawn plans to an AutoCAD design, It was then onto the laser cutter, which essentially is a robotic device that reads the lines, line weights, and colours of lines to determine where needs to be cut or scored on the material placed under the laser. Now here comes the difficult part, but does prove to be the part that pays off, as the laser cutter is undeniably fiddly to setup and calibrate with regards line weights, fold lines and cuts. In this sense, there is still no smooth transition between man and machine, as it took several attempts for the laser cutter to understand the design, however that said, once calibrated it is the perfect tool for recreating a single design on a mass production level. Modern methods have thankfully taken the stress and immense man hours required out of hand production and tradition, but the integration and principles of tradition and good design should never become fully digitalised like its successor. Just like the argument of analogue vs. digital regarding timepieces, each will have their role as one simply wouldnt exist were it not for the original. The point of this investigation for me is that both modern and traditional crafts both have their roles, and as many influential figures agree, neither should be neglected nor overlooked, for they both hold merits. Technology has indeed renovated the design world, but in todays society it does on occasion overpower and fail to do itself justice, leaving the piece cold, generic and grey, failing to do itself justice. This as with most aspects of the design world boils back down to the roots of the Bauhaus. Take for instance the idea of Bauhaus furniture design, it wanted to maintain the traditions of soul in design, along with logic, so for instance a better thought out design made with more economic materials and technologies, but still manually overseen or produced would therefore potentially be the perfect design formula. Enter Mies Van Der Rohe. Originally from Aachen, he moved to Berlin in 1905. At the age of 19, he was unqualified and spent his time hopping between building sites. Not exactly the start in life most would stereotypically associate with a famous architect, whom set about change we feel the benefits of today. The tasks of design and construction were combined in his early education, not separated by increasingly common divisions between architect and builder. (Zimmerman C. 2006, p.7) Mies van Der Rohe was trained as an accomplished bricklayer and stonemason under apprenticeship of his father, but also trained as a proficient draftsman, after taking a keen interest in design whilst he worked for a specialized plasterwork company. He saw the need for an understanding of both the ends of the construction spectrum from the initial spark of an idea, to the laying of foundations, so that he may design more efficiently. Riehl House was his first commission under recommendation of a colleague at Bruno Paul architects, and was finished in 1907. The young Mies proved himself able to design and build competently, even skilfully, and capable of productively engaging the most contemporary issues of the architectural world in Berlin at the time. (Zimmerman C. 2006 p.19) This was only the beginning of a long and fruitful career for Mies, and this subliminal theme was present throughout his career, the breakaway from tradition and supposed acceptable form, in favour of modular, efficient modern materials in design. This ability to draw and recollect from the design ethos of yesteryear, and combine it with the forefront of technology to create something that is not only perfected in its balance, but also pleases a wider audience is an ability he seldom neglected. A prime example is of this is dark red masonry built Lange and Esters House. The esters and Lange buildings were both surfaced in dark brick; but they are only partially bearing-wall structures. They were among the first modern buildings to free brick from its load bearing function. (Zimmerman C. 2006 p.33) It gives the appearance of a traditionally built house of the time, yet modernised in aesthetics slightly, and due to its modular skeleton of steel it allows the large open views that it contains, and for the first time in German architectural history, the spatial design dictated the structural calculations. Just like with his most prolific of projects like the Seagram building, IIT centre and exhibition hall in Berlin (ironically his career peaked both as he left and later returned to the city) he used the most modern of approaches to construct the building yet he still remained true to the classical ideals of open flowing space, secular views, and the overall mastery of the space provided. I suppose a pinnacle case study would be that of the Barcelona Pavilion. After being accepted into the Werkbund in 1927, Mies was commissioned by the German Reich to design and build the 1928 World exhibition in Barcelona. With its beautiful classical onyx and marble walling, and chrome framed glass facades of multiple shades, it was the epitome of form with function, a piece de resistance of the Bauhaus vision. Instead of the normal layout of conventional housing or building, it followed Mies combination of Rhythmic movement and carefully composed views. (Zimmerman C. 2006 p.39) Though beautiful, like all individual prototypes it was slightly flawed (due to insufficient budget and lack of specialised materials, the prolific flat roof was susceptible to water damage and nearly ruined the entire structure), but just like the method of trial and error in many of the hand crafts, Mies learnt from his mistakes, and embraced them with his future projects, like the Seagram building and IIT, whereby he perfected his steel frame designs that have revolutionized todays construction. The Seagram building was undoubtedly in this paradigmatic fashion. It is often seen as the finest high-rise building Mies ever built. No longer looking back to past historical design for legitimation, the building presents the architecture of capitalism with its most essential, concentrated face. (Zimmerman C. 2006 p.16) Just like in my investigation into envelope design, sometimes things can be flawed; the important part is learning from it and being able to continue. This is where I feel that by doing all of the experimenting stage by hand, with copious amounts of trial and error, I managed to succeed in a design that as viewed by others was vitally flawed, my point being this. The initial design criteria given to me was that the envelope had to be capable of holding this essay and any accompanying notes, drawings, work etc and my design being circular was therefore flawed, considering all of my notes and work is on rectangular pieces of paper. It may seem like a very simple answer to a glaring omission, but I have simply decided to enlarge the size of the envelope, and changed its own criteria in that it will be more like a folder, capable of holding my work. Just as alterations were needed to my envelope, drastic alterations were needed to the world of design. The winds had changed direction, and change was coming. As with a lot of the architects of the time and followers of the Neues Bauen, people frowned upon this new rationale of design. By 1933 many architects of Neues Bauen understood their precarious status in national socialist Germany, and many emigrated. (Zimmerman C. 2006 p.14) With the tension growing rapidly in Germany, and the intolerance of the now empowering Nazi party quickly showing itself, the design world soon became a focal point. With its grand imperialist nature, the new Reich wanted its capital to show this. However tradition ruled the waves. As soon as the National socialist party came to power the Bauhaus was voluntarily closed by its members, knowing the view of the new Reich and how its left wing ideals would be dealt with. Nazi writers like Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Rosenberg had labelled the Bauhaus un-German and criticized its modernist styles (MinusFive 2006) Many architects of the time soon began to emigrate, restrictions upon Mies own work was imposed and his security was soon threatened. In 1938 he made a career changing choice and emigrated to the United States of America. Here I feel began the true nature of ingenious design. By that I mean the ability to cover the entire spectra, correcting the negatives and reinforcing the positives, and fulfilling the Bauhaus ideals of singular design. The Seagram building was by any standard, miles ahead of its competitors. Yet it achieved this without claiming to be the future, or resenting the past. With classic interiors, a classy dark outside skin of externally mounted bronze, and topaz tinted glass; it not only looked the part, but also integrated frontier technology, to aid in wind buffering and reduce UV glare/heat. Its latticed modular steel framework also represented the way forward, not only with its curtain walling efficiency that allowed simple mountings for the traditional venetian blinds, but also with regards a lighter, stronger, more adaptable construction method that retained so called classic features. However, the buildings piece de rà ©sistance is what many of todays skyscrapers have to thank. Before Mies got his hands on the commission, he looked at the competitors, the other structural locale, and also back at his previous concepts. He then did what no one else had done. He set the tower a reasonable distance back from the street and created what we see throughout todays cities, urban landscaping. By creating this public space, this void filler that bridged the public and private sector he thereby integrated the Seagram immediately with its environment, it was this sort of thinking, that put Mies one step ahead, enabling him to cater perfectly for both ends of the spectrum by simply thinking outside of the box, where no others considered or dared to. It paid dividends, whilst also setting the trend of vertical design for decades to come. Conclusion Balance is what enables many things in life to perform at their respective bests, from the balance of work and social, to the balance of a relationship, and none more so than the design world. When it comes to the argument of traditional vs. Modern, the initial stages of design should always respect their roots, thus keeping to hand drawn methods, crafts, and human investigation like sketching and model making. It is all too easy to rely solely upon CAD and other such programs that have made some of todays design rather inert and cold, without human charm, and the only possible preservative of these features is the maintaining of traditional methods and heritage to keep the human signature alive. The investigation I carried out made this all too apparent, that relying upon technology to carry a design from inception to creation is a vitally flawed theory, and that without sacrifice of man hours and effort with my own skills, my envelope would be nowhere near as thorough or well desig ned, not saying that it is a perfect example, but what designer is without his or hers mistakes? Far too many things in life have slipped into the vast abyss that is history and all because weve become too eager and thirsty for this new age of production ease, of technological employment, whereby objects are no longer designed, they are manufactured, devoid of all the initial ingenuity. The radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass-production was reconcilable with the individual artistic spirit. (MinusFive 2006) Within the last century, the Bauhaus is the only thing that has come in the way of the seemingly unstoppable machine age. It questioned craftsmanship vs. Mass production, usefulness vs. Beauty, and mainly whether a singular proper combined form could exist. In many areas it succeeded, especially in furniture design, with the likes of Breuer and Stam, whom renovated modern furniture with the cost effective use of steel, providing form and the most necessary function. At the end of the day, the dispute over the necessitation of design evolution will rage for years to come, the important factor which I cannot emphasise enough is the compromise, the balance, the equilibrium, and however many other words there are to describe the simple fact that both are equally as important as the other. One of the main objectives of the Bauhaus was to unify art, craft, and technology. The machine was considered a positive element, and therefore industrial and product design were important components (MinusFive 2006)

John Di Pippo :: English Literature Essays

John Di Pippo My name is John Di pippo and I'm 18 years old. I weight 153 pounds, and I'm about 6 foot. I have short brown hair, and my eye's are hazel. I see myself as an emotionally strong person. I usually never get worked up about things or overreact in most situations. I'm calm and mellow and don't let my worries get to me. One down side of me being like this is that it makes me lazy. I have a bad habit in just letting things go, and doing stuff the last minute or not doing it at all. Another one of my weaknesses is that I'm very shy around people I don't really know. I'm also quiet around people I don't know which makes me seem opposite of the way my personality really is. My sisters are the only real close family I have. My parents died when I was very young and my uncle was my legal guardian. I wasn't really close to aunt, uncle and cousins so I never felt comfortable. My sisters and I always felt like it was never our home and in a way it was true because it wasn't. When my sisters both turned 18 we moved out and got our own apartment. Most of the time we always got along, and I understood that I had to take of myself more then most kids would have to at my age. I learned to be a lot more responsible about many things. I lived with both of my sisters, Roseann and Stacy, for about 5 years, and Then stacey got married right after she graduated Iona. She now lives with her husband, Vinny, and has a daughter with another one on the way. To this day I still live with my older sister Roseann. I also have some aunts, uncles, and cousins that we still keep in touch with on birthdays and holidays. The schools I went to were, Jefferson Elemenatry School, Issac Young Middle School, and New Rochelle High School. It's hard to remember much from elementary school but what I do remember is when my parents died they left me back in 2nd grade. Other then that my elementary school days were okay from what I remember. I had a good amount of friends and usually stayed out of trouble. I still hang out with some people who I went to school with back then.

Philosophy Essay Essay

Alan Chalmers, a British-Australian philosopher of science and best-selling author, suggests a common view of science by which scientific knowledge is ‘reliable’ and ‘objectively proven’ knowledge that is derived from facts of experience, experimental procedure and observations. This essay aims to discuss the problems that are likely to be highlighted by a Popperian hypothetico-deductivist when confronted with Chalmers’ adverse views on the validity of the scientific method. Both Alan Chalmers and Karl Popper – renowned for the development of hypothetico-deductivist/falsificationist account of science – represent the two major, contradictory theories (falsification and induction) regarding the functionality of science. I will be structuring my argument around these two models and the several complications surrounding the inductivist’s account of science that are seemingly solved by Popper’s alternative. In order to gain a thorough understanding of the topic being discussed, let me provide an introduction to inductivism, the issues raised by this method and the falsificationist account that aimed to solve these issues. Introduced by Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle (5th century BC), induction is a process that begins with the observation of natural phenomena and ends with the assembly of a scientific law to describe the general regularity of said phenomena. This intuitive process was accepted within the scientific community for centuries yet the basis of Aristotle’s method relies entirely on human ability to simply observe natural phenomena, see a pattern and make observational statements. If there were to exist a large number of observational statements that were repeated under several varying circumstances in which no conflicting observation was made, these observational statements could then be promoted to universal or generalised statements that refer to all events of a particular kind given certain conditions (SCIE1000 Lectures Notes, 2014). Now to address the problems associated with this account of the scientific method that might be pinpointed by hypothetico-deductivists when confronted  with Chalmers’ view: the problem of induction, the questionable objectivity of this method and whether it can provide any certainty about laws that govern our universe. Chalmers states that, â€Å"scientific knowledge is reliable knowledge because it is objectively proven knowledge (Chalmers, 1976).† Due to the fact that inductive inferences are based on observations of natural phenomena, a crucial assumption of the uniformity of nature – which cannot be proven – must be made, meaning that there is always room for contradictory evidence to arise. Similarly, the problem of induction refers to the inability to classify knowledge gained by inductive methods as either a priori (logical or mathematical reasoning, requiring no previous worldly experience) or a posteriori (requires some knowledge of worldly happenings) as the former would be an uninformed, irrational statement and the latter would require knowledge of every possible happening in the universe in order to justify the law at hand. For this reason, there is absolutely no certainty provided by this process, as there is always the probability that future contradictory observations may deem any inductive inference invalid. The weakened principle of inductive inference then states that, at best, the inductivist method gives a probability of an event occurring given specific circumstances (SCIE1000 Lectures Notes, 2014). Chalmers also boldly claims that his common view of science is unquestionably objective and that speculative imaginings play no role in this process; however, there is obvious subjectivity evident in the discovery of scientific hypotheses. The subjectivity of speculative imaginings expressed by an individual experiencing a brief moment of intuitive thought processes allows consideration of an hypotheses that may have otherwise been overlooked. As a response to inductivism and the problems recognized with this method, Karl Popper proposed a knew scientific method that aims to establish the best current ‘law’ available at a given time until it is falsified – hypothetico-deductivism or falsification. The name itself, hypothetico-deductivism, explains the process of stating bold, testable ‘laws’/hypotheses and drawing deductive inferences regarding the hypothesis’ ability to withstand exposure to rigorous testing and attempts to falsify  it. So, rather than attempting to prove the legitimacy of scientific laws fabricated by intuitive induction, falsificationism aims to deduce the best, current law to describe natural phenomena based on the inability to falsify it, therefore making the current provisional law acceptable until a time when it is falsified by conflicting evidence. Falsification effectively trumps the method of induction as it strives to provide information about the world and its ‘laws’ by outlining what they are not rather than making grand generalisations about universal happenings when acknowledging only a portion of the evidence that could possible be out there. Unfortunately, due to the complex nature of science, similarly to inductivism, falsification is not a flawless method. In my opinion however, I find the method of falsification convincingly more rational and commonsensical than inductivism. Due to limitations of space, I will explain briefly one of the few issues associated with falsificationism. The issue at hand that is faced by the method of falsification is that, â€Å"Popper presents cases where one theory is being tested against our experimental data, but hypotheses are tested in groups. When we â€Å"test† a theory, we are assuming a lot of other theories in the background (SCIE1000 Lectures Notes, 2014).† The issue then is that if anomalous data is encountered, should it be derived that the entire theory – consisting of several individual hypotheses – is rejected and if not, how is an individual hypothesis isolated from the rest? This rejection of a theory, in my opinion, doesn’t have detrimental affects to our understanding of science as this particular theory may be falsified yet the creation of a new, falsifiable theory is not out of the question. Also, unlike Chalmers, however, falsificationism does not claim any degree of certainty or ‘proof’ of their claims which compels me to believe that Popper had a greater grasp on the uncertainty that is the universe. Conclusively, Popper’s response to Chalmers’ claim that science is reliable due to its objectively proven nature using inductivism would highlight three key issues and propose how his method of falsification solves these issues. The problem of induction that occurs within inductivism – the inability to classify inductive inference as either a priori or a posteriori – and also  the assumption of uniformity of nature are abolished in Popper’s method where all scientific laws have the ability to be falsified upon the observation of new, contradictory evidence. Although falsification is unable to provide any degree of certainty, it does not make bold claims about the workings of the universe that are likely to be uniformed and incorrect. And lastly, objectification is dismissed in falsification, as the method by which a hypothesis was created is irrelevant to whether or not the claim can be provisionally accepted or rejected based on real-world observ ations. Bibliography Chalmers, A. (1976). What is this thing called science?. 1st ed. St. Lucia, Q.: University of Queensland Press. SCIE1000 Lecture Notes (2014). 7th ed. Brisbane: University of Queensland, pp.187-225.

Descartes Arguments for Substance Dualism - 2259 Words

Does Descartes provide a convincing argument for the claim that mind and matter are distinct substances Descartes’ Argument For Dualism In his Meditations Rene Descartes aimed to reconstruct the whole of science by trying to prove the distinction between mind and matter. He gives an argument from doubt, and another from conceivability. I will give a brief summary of the foundations Descartes builds his thesis on, and then looking at his arguments and whether they are capable of persuading us that dualism is a logical stance to hold. To what extent if any is Descartes successful in showing there is a real distinction between mind and body In Descartes’ Meditations, Descartes aims to reshape the whole of science by starting from†¦show more content†¦Thus Descartes premises are false and fail to convince us of substance dualism. Moreover, Descartes relies on having a thorough knowledge of mind and body. We may conclude with Descartes that thought is necessary to having a mind, and materiality is necessary to having a body, it does not inevitably follow that there is an entity whose sole nature is to think. Descartes is limited by his subjective viewpoint that it could not be the case that extension could be another property of mind. He needs to prove the stronger argument that it is not possible for the mind to have extension as one of it’s properties. Descartes tries to make this proof in his Divisibility Argument: Similar to this is the Argument from Distinctness which argues for the logical possibility of separating mind from body. To do this, mind and body would have to be distinct and thus it would prove both things. - I can imagine myself as a thinking thing existing apart from the body (as shown by the different essences in the argument from essence.). - It is conceivable that a thinking thing can exist without a body - It is possible that a thinking thing can exist without a body - A thinking thing is not a body The first premise has some major issues if we refer back to our objections to the argument from essence. We came to the conclusion thatShow MoreRelatedFor Years, Philosophers Have Debated The Mind-Body Problem,1195 Words   |  5 Pagesphysical world. Philosopher Descartes believed in substance dualism, the belief that the mind and the body are two different things. In this essay, I will examine Descartes’ substance dualism theory. First, I will review Descartes’s theory and reasons that support it. Then, I will review objections with Descartes’s argument. 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