Metáfora

La metáfora está siempre en el pensamiento científico. No es un artificio poético, sino una forma de soprender lo imponderable, fugaz, recóndito o esencial. oculto en la opacidad de lo real. La metáfora combina reflexión e imaginación. Descubre lo real de forma poética, mágica. Aunque no lo revele todo, y esto puede ser imposible, siempre revela algo fundamental. Capta una connotación insospechada, un secreto, lo esencial, el aura. Tanto así que ayuda a comprender y explicar al mismo tiempo a captar lo que hay de dramático y épico en la realidad, desafiando la reflexión y la imaginación. En ciertos casos, la metáfora descubre el pathos oculto en los movimientos de la historia.

Octavio Ianni, Teoría y metáforas de la globalización.

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schools of thought

Every school of thought is like a man who has talked to himself for a hundred years and is delighted with his own mind, however stupid it may be.

J.W. Goethe, 1817, Principles of Natural Science

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Para mi padre.

Parece evidente que si te escribo acerca de algo no te estaría escribiendo a ti, sino por ti y, en consecuencia, creando un objeto, no tratando de presentar un contexto en el que pudieran experimentarse ideas. También estaría implicándome en el peculiar papel emocional de pedirte que leyeras algo no como una comunicación directa, sino como una pieza acabada, de la cual tú sólo podrías ser un observador pasivo. No estoy interesado para nada en la pasividad, de modo que para mi el proceso de componer es un proceso activo para plantear a través del contexto de estas palabras cómo pienso y, por tanto, cómo estoy pensando. El contexto y el contenido interactúan y me hacen tan presente como puedo serlo sin la alienante postura de describir una realidad objetiva... sea esto lo que fuere.

Edwin Schlossberg.

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Atrincherarse en lo empírico

La experiencia directa no había funcionado: tenía que resignarme a la erudición. Así va el mundo: la cosa parece próxima, inmediata, pero hay que dar un rodeo largo para llegar a rozarla, siquiera fugazmente, con la yema de los dedos. Nada de lo que nos interesa verdaderamente nos es directamente accesible. El cuerpo que suponemos desear es una superposición de proyecciones culturales inculcadas por el sistema tortuoso que quiere justamente impedirnos su goce; nuestro plato preferido, la única opción que nos deja un repertorio rígido canonizado por la costumbre. El pasado más remoto, la puesta de sol que estamos viendo o la naturaleza exacta de la punta de nuestra lengua, sólo tienen un sentido o por lo menos alguna descripción plausible en algún capítulo o en algún volumen de una interminable biblioteca. Atrincherarse en lo empírico no aumenta el conocimiento, sino la ignorancia.

Juan José Saer. " El río sin orillas"

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THE EVOLUTION OF IGNORANCE

A friend of mine who combines a professional interest in Africa with a hobby of collecting antique maps has written a fascinating paper called "The evolution of European ignorance about Africa." The paper describes how European maps of the African continent evolved from the 15th to the 19th centuries.

You might have supposed that the process would have been more or less linear: as European knowledge of the continent advanced, the maps would have shown both increasing accuracy and increasing levels of detail. But that's not what happened. In the 15th century, maps of Africa were, of course, quite inaccurate about distances, coastlines, and so on. They did, however, contain quite a lot of information about the interior, based essentially on second- or third-hand travellers' reports. Thus the maps showed Timbuktu, the River Niger, and so forth. Admittedly, they also contained quite a lot of untrue information, like regions inhabited by men with their mouths in their stomachs. Still, in the early 15th century Africa on maps was a filled space.

Over time, the art of mapmaking and the quality of information used to make maps got steadily better. The coastline of Africa was first explored, then plotted with growing accuracy, and by the 18th century that coastline was shown in a manner essentially indistinguishable from that of modern maps. Cities and peoples along the coast were also shown with great fidelity.

On the other hand, the interior emptied out. The weird mythical creatures were gone, but so were the real cities and rivers. In a way, Europeans had become more ignorant about Africa than they had been before.

It should be obvious what happened: the improvement in the art of mapmaking raised the standard for what was considered valid data. Second-hand reports of the form "six days south of the end of the desert you encounter a vast river flowing from east to west" were no longer something you would use to draw your map. Only features of the landscape that had been visited by reliable informants equipped with sextants and compasses now qualified. And so the crowded if confused continental interior of the old maps became "darkest Africa", an empty space.

Of course, by the end of the 19th century darkest Africa had been explored, and mapped accurately. In the end, the rigor of modern cartography led to infinitely better maps. But there was an extended period in which improved technique actually led to some loss in knowledge.

Paul Krugman

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Del diario digital del maestro John Chris Christopher Jones

14 july 2002 what is designing?

12.54 After someone reminded me of my definition of design (in Design Methods, 1970, page 3, quoting a paper I wrote in 1966) as:

the performing of a very complicated act of faith

I awoke in the night feeling that that was not my final definition at that time... then I remembered that, after reviewing definitions by eleven design theorists, I proposed a more comprehensive definition than any of them:

to initiate change in man-made things

...but now, more than thirty years later, and in a changed world, I am no longer happy with man-made nor with things...

So, remembering J W Goethe's remark that human life can be thought of as just two entities - thought and action - and remembering a host of other considerations, too many to describe, my mind-in-the-night would not sleep until I had re-phrased my comprehensive definition as:

thoughts and actions
intended to change
thoughts and actions

And now, just before lunch, I am sufficiently pleased with that (more a poem than a definition, more self-reflective than the others) to give it this place in my digital diary through which to encounter 'the world' - if such exists in an existence less discrete and less static than is implied by the idea of design as the shaping of fixed objects (it's only the existence of existence that's fixed!)...

Yes I am still writing about design - though in language quite different from that in which I first learnt to speak of that activity.

So what thoughts and actions, if any, will this new definition provoke?

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El Sujeto

"Esta idea afirma que el único lugar donde puede efectuarse la combinación de la instrumentalidad y la identidad, de lo técnico y lo simbólico, es el proyecto de vida personal, para que la existencia no se reduzca a una experiencia caleidoscópica, a un conjunto dinscontínuo de respuestas a los estímulos del entorno social. Este proyecto es un esfuerzo por resistirse al desgarramiento de la personalidad y para movilizar una personalidad y una cultura en actividades técnicas y económicas, de manera que la serie de situaciones vividas forme una historia de vida individual y no un conjunto incoherente de acontecimientos. En un mundo en cambio permanente e incontrolable no hay otro punto de apoyo que el esfuerzo del individuo para transformar unas experiencias vividas en construcción de si mismo como actor.

"Ese esfuerzo por ser un actor es lo que denomino Sujeto, que no se confunde ni con el conjunto de experiencia ni con un principio superior que oriente y le dé una vocación. El Sujeto no tiene otro contenido que la producción de si mismo. No sirve a una causa, ningún valor, ninguna otra ley que su necesidad y su deseo de resistirse a su propio desmembramiento en un universo en movimiento, sin orden ni equilibrio. El sujeto es una afirmación de libertad contra el poder de los estretegas y sus aparatos, contra el de los dictadores comunitarios. Doble combate, que lo hace resistirse a las ideologías que quieren adecuarlo al orden del mundo o al de la comunidad.

"No se puede, por lo tanto, separar las respuestas a las preguntas planteadas: la apelación al Sujeto es la única respuesta a la disociación de la economía y la cultura, y también la única fuente posible de los movimientos sociales que se oponen a los dueños del cambio económico o a los idctadores comunitarios. Afirmación de la libertad personal, el Sujeto es también, y al mismo tiempo un movimiento social."

Alain Touraine en ¿Podremos vivir juntos? 1997

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The Dictionary (Des-tionary) of Design

En nuestro afán por traer luz y lucidez a todos los pueblos del mundo y sus respectivos diseñadores, copiamos y republicamos caníbalmente el siguiente texto, por considerarlo inspirado noble y oportuno. Dada la naturaleza de los chistes, nos abstenemos de traducirlo en nuestro inglés - español español - inglés criollo, y mucho menos de comentarlo ingenuamente, no vaya y sea que hagamos el ridiculo, dijo Yavé a Moises.

Aesthetic What I like (see also Kitsch)

Analysis A technique of measuring the temperature of animals. Has nothing to do with design

Apple The ultimate temptation for a designer as in "An Apple a day keeps the IBM away"

Art Anything you can get away with

Art Works Rarely

Art Nouveau Literally new art - out of style since 1890 (see also Futurism)

Asymmetry A device for measuring the intelligence of donkeys (from ass and matron ( Greek)for measure) (don't see Symmetry)

Attention Holding Device Usually a women

Balance Something all designers lose sometime or the other

Beauty The lie in the eye of the beholder

Bibliography Books that I ought to have read.or The list of books available on this topic in the library. or A recursive term - A bibliography is made up of other bibliographies

Bold / Individualistic Approach Didn't do any data collection

Calligraphy Art form that reminds us that one must never cry over spilt ink

Chairman Someone who knows nothing of what is going on during a presentation

Chaos Two or more designers

Closure The mind of the designer after generating the first concept

Colour Scheme What remains in the paint glass after the previous guy has mixed his paints

Combination A couple working together on a project actually meant for one person

Communications Design The art and practice of making unlookable what was already unintelligible

Composition An essay

Concepts Things made after finalization of product or design to show that a lot of work has been done

Consumer The man who matters to the sales department but not to the designer

Continuity The repetition of a single style in various forms by a designer irrespective of the problem

Contrast The difference in payment between a new and an established designer

Creative Whimsical (see also Creativity)

Creativity Method of achieving the whimsical (see also Creative)

Cubism Art movements that treats them as though they were blockheads

Culture Free Product A Bastard

Dadaism The art of getting away by sheer muscle power (dadagiri)

Data Collection Something done to justify travel and photography expences. Entails intense literature survey through Design journals, books, etc., to find previous solutions to the problem at hand

Design Used in plural as designs eg., "He has designs on the clients money"

Designer(n) A person involved in the above

Design Brief A job of undercover fashion designer

Design Terminology Something that helps in making a successful presentation (see also Presentation)

Documentation Planning for show off

DTP A movement that aims at achiving Death To Printers

Dummy Designers view of his client

Elegance of solution/ simplicity Refusal to do hard work

Ergonomics Yet another character created by Goscinny and Uderoz

Experimental Absolutely useless (see also Innovative)

Exploded View A plaster model that fell down

Extension Uneasy way out or An easy way out

Fade In The realization that ones favorite design concept cannot work

Fade Out Something that happens to designer when he works late into the night

Figure and Ground The amount charged for the design (the Figure) and the reasons for the same (the Ground)

Final Design Solution The point at which you stop thinking

Foams Something the manufacturer/Printer does when he sees your design

Form Slips of paper to be filled out for official use. Usually in various colours (see also Product Form)

Futurism Art movement that went out of style in 1920 (see also Art Nouveau)

Gestalt A dinner table pleasantry usually spoken with the mouth full. Means Get Salt

Gradation Pattern of grades received by a class after end semester evaluation

Grey Value The moral sense of designer

Grid Something done to lions eg., He grid his lions for the fight

Guide Someone who doesn't

Hi-Light Saying hello to a bulb

Hi-tec image Something that sells or Something the profs do not understand

I-con A designer's admission of guilt

IBM PC A rather in-Personal computer

Injection Moulding The ultimate solution to all Product Design production problems

Innovative Useless

Jargon Something a designer uses to get away with his designs

Kitsch What others like

LaserWriter A machine which has raised the standard of letters home (see also toner)

Lateral Thinking Thinking while lying down-sleeping

Macintosh Computer A machine which calculates the dimensions of raincoats

Market Research Reading up all the Sunday supplements

Mass Appeal A case of sour grapes for most designers

Mental Block Outgrowth on a designers neck in place of a head

Methodology Something that tells you what went wrong (after it went wrong) but can never help you get it right in the first place

Minimalism More through less

Mock-up Model Design concept meant to make fun of the client

Mouse Pad Usually a hole in the wall

Negative Space The amount of working space available to the design team in most companies

Organic Architecture Architecture taken over by the natural elements - namely in ruins

Organic Design Design that is aimed at succeeding in the above

Origami High Fidelity (see also Polygamy)

Originality Copying from some unknown designer

Perception An attribute all designers lack

Perspective Something else all designers lack

Point of Visual focus Usually the feminine model used to advertise the product

Polyesters Lots of esters in a row

Polygamy Low fidelity (see also Origami)

Presentation To make a mountain out of a molehill

Problem Identification The most important part of the design process.Comes after Problem Solution

Problem Solution The stage before Problem Identification. Or a bitter syrup

Product cycle Anything from uni-cycle to multi-cycle (including Bit and Tri cycles of course)

Product form Slips of paper that you fill in order to register for product design courses

Project report The Official story or The only truly creative part of the entire project

Proximity The probability of signing for someone else in the attendance register

Quality Something always lost in the race against time

Registration Something printers do at the beginning of the semester

Similarity The strange commonality between your design and one that appeared in a design journal two weeks ago

Specifications Little cryptic squiggles on drawings to make whole thing look complicated

Symmetry place where all designs go to at the end Toner A knob on a record-player

Trend Something all designers like to set but end up following

Typography The art of letter writing (though not necessarily better writing)

Ulm The beginning of all our problems. Pronounced as zulm

Unity Something a design group never has

User Hypothetical creature whose profile changes along with the product being designed

Visual Communication Something that has to be explained verbally to be understood visually

Visual Impact Expression on the clients face when he sees the bill or the product

Wire Frame Model A very skinny lady advertising a product

Xerox Copy Cat

Yen Somthing that give a designer enthusiasm (specially to participate in Japanese competitions)

Zen Nothing to do with design though designers argue to the contrary

ZZZ The usual reaction to a presentation

Compiled by Punyashloke Mishra (VC 1988-90) with a little help from his friends

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