What is a Designer, things; places; messages - Norman Potter 1969


What are the key elements within these texts that relate to your practice?
Are either of these texts relevant to 21st century design practice?

Norman Potter wrote ‘What is a Designer’ in 1969. This essay talks about the importance of understanding how to achieve the best design. He explains the need for the designer to be thorough in his/her design approach. Firstly asking yourself whether or not you are qualified to answer the brief, using the example of surgeon going into theatre who does not understand how to perform an operation, therefore the surgeon is ill equipped and should not be there in the first place.

He expands on the idea that to each stage of the design process there is method, which if followed correctly should allow for the appropriate solution, consequently achieving the perfect design. In the introduction he eludes to the fact that during the process of making there is certain ‘artistic licence’ employed, though this obscure reference does not attempt to show the artist/designer in the most favourable light. He writes:

“The idea that the myth of creativity can be domesticated, and perhaps told how to behave – in terms at once ‘scientific’ and ‘verifiable’ – seems always to fascinate those who seem somehow denied by the myth, or outside its provenance.” 59

He then makes reference to Jung; ‘Jung speaks of alchemists in this context’ but does not go on to explain Jung’s opinion. This leaves me thinking that he is glossing over ideas connected to ‘validation of’ creativity, because this suits his needs for the article. He sets the tone for the article by speaking to the reader with authority, and from this point forward he continues to challenge the readers understanding of process, so that ultimately he creates a picture which illustrates the difference between good and bad design, throughout the article creating juxtapositions between the two.

He talks of the confusing world in which the designer must live in order to understand his/her own motives, what does the designer want to achieve? Who is the audience? Can the budget extend to this idea? Does the product meet/exceed expectations? All of these questions will create challenges within the process, which the designer should endeavour to answer.

“Nobody starts from nowhere; in which case it is better to determine your sources of inspiration, to go after them, and to try and understand what they are about. Otherwise a designer’s vision is simply being programmed by ‘the surface of the face of things’.” 66

Ultimately Norman Potter is trying to instil the importance of process and method, highlighting the fact that when we think we have finished we should go back and check, because we probably haven’t, and maybe we have not even started. He talks about the need for creative interpretation, starting at the beginning may not give you the answer, whereas looking on from a different angle could highlight potential weaknesses.

“When something goes wrong, it can usually be traced back to the beginning, from the acceptance of false premises. Hence on the one hand the importance of questions, and on the other the resourcefulness of the attitude that prompts them.” 73

Using hindsight we are able to identify problems, though it may be as useful to identify the problems elsewhere or in some other example before making that same mistake ourselves. This is problem within in my work. Being overwhelmed with information and trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, so I can then move forward with useful stuff instead of a handful of dust.

“..mouse-like issue is the result of seemingly elephantine labours..”60

This text in today’s design world is still as important as it was 30 years ago, processes may have changed, we may be looking at design which is more focussed on mass production but the fundamental aspects of this text still hold true. Design needs to be well thought out if it is to succeed. As long as this is understood then this information can go-on being meaningful for years.

Robert Smithson and non-sites

Non-sites and my own thoughts...


This is a piece by Robert Smithson, a Land Artist who worked in the 1960’s – 70’s, his work was a mixture of gallery based projects and also land sculptures, which were collectively called ‘Earthworks’. This piece is called Spiral Hill, and it is very similar looking to the slag heaps found around 'The Eden Project' and St Austell.

Picture of 'Slag Heap's' near St Austell

Robert Smithson married Nancy Holt, also a land artist who famously produced ‘Sun Tunnels’ (1976) in Utah State, this piece recently featured on Channel 4’s “The Sculpture Diaries” (14th Sept 2008.) The tunnels are concrete tubes of a nine foot diameter and eighteen feet long. The tunnels have small holes drilled into them, which apparently align to star constellations and sunsets in the winter and summer solstices.

www.clui.org
see these photos in context, "Sun Tunnels'

Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt were highly acclaimed artists, they were the forerunners of the land art movement in America, with artists such as Robert Morris, Sol Lewitt and Donald Judd. These artists were generally known as minimalists and conceptual artists, often working with ideas to do with perception, society and philosophy stripping ideas back to the minimum and representing these in their sculptures. Their works reflect aspects of current opinion not dissimilar to today’s artists working with provocative social ideas. At the time of Spiral Jetty and Spiral Hill Robert Smithson was making links between industrialisation and land use, for example in an interview with Moria Roth, he describes his own understanding of Non-Sites.

“Non-Sites are the actualisation of the dialectic between the site and the non-site”

page 92 Robert Smithson

Non-sites can be interpreted as areas of land which have no use, due to the fact that they are a throw back of industry – through using land in an industrial way, for example in mining, the wreckage that is left does not lend itself to any kind of renewal. Huge amounts of money and labour would be needed to regenerate areas such as this. Non-sites can also be understood as areas either physical or mental which do not fall into any description bracket, somehow intangible.

Trying to find the links between my ideas and my history has always been quite confusing, but I just remembered a fact, stupidly because it has been staring me in the face for the last however many years. I was brought up in Warwickshire next to the Grand Union Canal, and my father lived in the nearby village of Long Itchington. En-route between my mum’s home and my father’s home was a village called Stockton, it’s only claim to fame – The Cement Works and Cally Pits. Both of these locations were quarries, The Cement Works, was originally called Nelson Cement Works, then later bought out by Rugby Cement. Cally Pits is in Stockton, and separate from Rugby Cement, but at some point the two could have been connected as they are about 1 mile apart.



Veiw of the lake at Cally Pits, the concrete structure in the middle is part of the old workings of the site - maybe a water tower. Below is a close up image.


These pictures are taken from a photographic website; http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/40380

View of ‘The Cement Works’ from the ‘Blue Lias’ at Stockton. The chimney in the background is part of the Cement Works and can be seen from miles around. The Cement Works are now being redeveloped into a recycling site which will provide energy to power the nearby Rugby Cement. When looking from the road you can see how big the quarries are, and dotted all around the area for miles are similar flooded quarries, obvilousley a relic from the past.
Having grown up with fields, and as a kid played in the area I am not surprised that the landscape has left some kind of imprint. Where I lived was quite remote so I instead of going and messing around in town I would end up in a field or on the canal with my sisters stepping in ditches - kind of annoying at the time because I did want to be in town, but looking back it was fun.

Eden and the Landscape

Project statement from Sue;

’You are leaving home. You don’t know if you will ever return. You are part of an exodus into an unknown future. Pack a small, portable box or suitcase.

Choose 7 things that you think will be essential, or precious to you. You may choose intimate things that tell your story, that remind you of who you are. You may choose things without which your life would be unbearable.

Think quickly: you don’t have much time. Pack lightly, you are a nomad now. We are leaving...’

Sue will talk about WildWorks and ‘The Beautiful Journey’ in the Foundation Building, then we would unpack people’s boxes/suitcases and hear the stories of their choices. In the afternoon there will be a workshop with this material – visualising in 2D or 3D the kind of worlds we seem to be imagining. This could happen at Eden or, weather permitting, in nearby landscape."

This was the brief, so on Tuesday of last week a group of eight MA students ventured off on a gigantic bus that took us to the Eden Project. I was looking forward to falling asleep and then waking up about five minutes from Eden as the bus came to a stop, but this was not meant to be and instead, we ended up talking about the American election, which was due to happen the next day so very significant, (would be polite to fall asleep at this point) and how we all hoped Obama would win …thankfully he did, and as a result America has a much brighter future to look forward to.

I was glad that I did not fall asleep because when we reached St Austell, I suddenly became aware of my surroundings, and began to see the kind of impact the mining industry has had on the local landscape.

China Clay Pits near St Austell, Cornwall
© English Heritage.NMR.Aerofilms Collection
Reference Number: Aerofilms/AC281617,
http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk

These visible traces may be immediately apparent when looking, but you can be sure that the evidence that you or I see is only minute representation of a much larger scale operation that has caused on one hand great wealth, by providing income for not only the miners but also the countries economy, with the money generated from tin/china clay mining and all the subsidiary trades that existed as a result of the mining. And then on the other added largely to the economic downturn of Cornwall as a whole.

“However it was in the 19th century that mining reached its zenith, before foreign competition depressed the price of copper and later tin, to a level that made Cornish ore unprofitable. At its height, the Cornish Tin Mining Industry had around 600 steam engines working to pump out the mines. Adventurers put up the capital, and the mine would hopefully return them a profit. During the 20th century various ores became briefly profitable, and mines were reopened, but today none remain. The collapse of the world tin cartel in 1986 being the last nail in the coffin of tin mining”

Extract taken from; ‘Cornish Mines and Mining History in Cornwall’, http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/mines.htm

One sight that immediately struck me was that of a mini mountain of earth that has got wild grass growing all over it, obviously a slagheap from the quarries. (photo) It looked just like the ‘mash potato mountain’ out of ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, the bit where he goes into a trance like state and starts to sculpt his vision out of mashed potato at the dinner table (has to be one of the best movie moments of all time).

http://movies.infinitecoolness.com/







Anyway I’m digressing, it does have that same kind of impact. You know it is anomalous within the landscape and that it shouldn’t really be there, but all the same it is so you have to accept it.

On arrival at Eden, we were met by Sue, and after some very quick introductions she sent us off to have a look around Eden, recommending that we walk around the outside of the grounds before entering the biomes.

The first thing you recognise is the bowl shape of the site, and immediately the connection to the quarry becomes apparent. Eden was once a quarry for China Clay, one of Cornwall’s natural resources, nearby St Austell being one of the main locations where the china clay is still mined.




The site is planted with dark autumnal plants that produce banks of colour up and down the slopes, dotted throughout is a mixture of art and educational material all of which add to the overall experience of Eden.

Stepping into the entrance corridor of the biomes is like walking into any other building with air conditioning but, when you look to the left you are presented with the rain forest and then to the right you have the dry cold of a winter of the mediterranean.


The sight of the hexagonal windows in the background brings back the fact that you are in a biome and not walking lazily through the rainforests of northern Peru. It is a great thing to do, you really have to pinch yourself - after you have stripped away the three in one anorak. The sights and sounds are like no other, once in the mediterranean biome you are taken back to that moment in time where you could smell the orange trees and rosemary, and you can see the aloe growing in the sand.


For the Wildworks project Sue asked us to bring in objects that we wanted to carry with us into the future. This left us with a relatively open brief, so we were free to choose what we wanted. People brought objects with sentimental value and also practical use. People then described what they had chosen and why it was important for the future.



People chose to interpret the brief how they wanted, some make which had multi functions, people were much more literal with their choices, including myself.

• Candle stick holder of my dads - self explanatory.
  
• Diary with spare pages - memories and future ones.
  
• Pencil to write with - self explanatory.
  
• Masi beads - to remind me of elsewhere, and (as pointed out to me) a possible trading object.
  
• Photo album - self explanatory.
• Heart shaped stone representing love.
  
• A clay sphere which I made some years ago to remind me to be resourceful.
  

Most of these objects are evocative of memories and people which I would not like to forget, I didn't feel that it would be important to place to much value on impersonal items because I thought that regardless of the situation the future would be new, and to my mind there would be lots of items left over, detritus or otherwise which would be useful.

After this point we listen to Sue talking about different aspects of society, mostly focussing on global warming and the chaos that this is creating. She asked us to get into groups and make our vision of this future, a world which may exist after a disaster.

We all had different ideas about what the world would be like, and each of us tried to portray these aspects within our own world vision (handmade box).


There are lots of elements to the design:

• The tent is made of the most hi-tec and durable material available. Acting as not only a place to sleep but big enough to hold a small community.
• The flame which comes from an oil well represents hope; and also it is a saleable commodity but with an added message of caution because of the trail of destruction that has been left in it's wake.
• A well to provide clean water.
• A city scape in the background and mountain range suggesting life elsewhere.
• Araura Baurialis, a magic like phenomena, my idea to suggest a kind of god.
• Flying taxi's, because I'm certain these will exist to all of us in the future.
  
• A dog, because they can survive most things.

I found this to be a really interesting day, filling me with thoughts about what the future holds, and again reiteration of the fact that we are responsible for what happens and the decisions which we make today, will impact on the future.

So, in my quest to discover the difference between art and design I started looking on the internet and I came across a blog by writer/designer Craig Elimeliah called Art V's Design.

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/art-vs-design

This article is an attempt to show the practical differences between Art and Design, and make clearer some of the distinguishing factors between the two, by comparing both practices and the choices which are made in order to reach a conclusive outcome. In my opinion the writer makes some valid points; 'design in the commercial sense is a very calculated and defined process' this is an accurate statement within the right context, he then goes on to compare design to engineering and many other masculinised processes, leaving you with the impression that he is rather talking about his own practice as compared to that of an artist.

After which he starts to explain his own understanding of Art, and the language he uses changes to become almost feminine; 'Art is something that can elicit a single thought or feeling such as simplicity or strength, love or pain and the composition simply flows from the hand of the artist.' There is some truth in what he says, but it is quite limited and to suggest that an artist can only think of one thing at a time is quite annoying, supposedly this woolly definition he gives is reflected in his own knowledge of art.

What I found more interesting was the debate that this article inspired. Maybe he was intending to cause offense, with his frames of reference to both artists and designers, by doing this he could spark a debate - if this is the case then he was very successful.

'What I was trying to point out was that an artist has no predestined ideas, no specs, they simply feel and they express through the art.'...

He rephrases and corrects himself on several occasions impressively arguing his (somewhat lost) point. Only to be corrected and challenged further by eager participants.

'The only difference between art and design is CONTEXT. That's it. period.' by xpez Thu Sep 07, 2006

The blog is interesting and contains a huge set of ideas and thoughts about the distinctions between art and design, it's worth taking a look.

These first three weeks have re-awakened ideas and thoughts which have lain dormant for sometime.

My aim is to unravel idea’s that exist within me or outside of me – but that I do not yet understand.

This month has been a voyage of discovery.

• Looking deeper in to ideas of making, the ways we make, how we make and why?

• Learning about the values of process, understanding that the process informs the design.

• Understanding that there are differences between art and design.

art 1 |ärt|
noun
1 the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power : the art of the Renaissance | great art is concerned with moral imperfections | she studied art in Paris.

design |dəˈzīn|
noun
1 a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is built or made : he has just unveiled his design for the new museum.
• the art or action of conceiving of and producing such a plan or drawing : good design can help the reader understand complicated information | the cloister is of late twelfth century design.
• an arrangement of lines or shapes created to form a pattern or decoration : pottery with a lovely blue and white design.
2 purpose, planning, or intention that exists or is thought to exist behind an action, fact, or material object : the appearance of design in the universe.

Taken from: ‘Dictionary’ Version 1.0.2 (1.0.2)
2005 Apple Computer, Inc.

The distinctions, for art:

‘ the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination…. to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power’

and for design:

‘A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is built or made’

So art is to be revered for it’s beauty, and design admired for it’s intelligence.

Any how, I think that this is interesting. I began to think that Art & Design were one in the same, but I’m learning this is not the case. Appreciating the Albert Hall for it’s beauty is accepted, and why people photograph themselves in front of it, but to classify it as Art would be wrong.? The answer I suppose is not in the dictionary.

The start of something new!