According to Dino Dini

According to video game developer Dino Dini in a talk given at the 2005 game design and technology workshop held in Liverpool JM university, design underpins every form of creation from objects such as chairs to the way we plan and execute our lives. For this reason it is useful to seek out some common structure that can be applied to any kind of design, whether this be for video games, consumer products or one's own personal life.

For such an important concept, the question "what is design?" appears to yield answers with limited usefulness. Therefore the design process can be defined as "the management of constraints"; I think there are 2 kinds of constraints, negotiable and the non-negotiable. The first step in the design process is the identification, classification and selection of constraints. The process of design then proceeds from here by manipulating design variables so as to satisfy the non-negotiable constraints and optimising those which are negotiable.

Questions concerning design

I think there are 3 main concerns when it comes to evolving a design theory in conceptual stages. It comes down to questioning the fundamental assumptions behind designing something innovative, therefore allowing the opportunity to creativly explore not only evolving theories but culture, new concepts and historical ideas that all contribute to the field of contemporary design.
This should be applied to design objects and environments, both real and virtual, within a critical and theoretical framework.

1)Paradigms and their cultural contexts;
*How do paradigms relate to the place of design in the articulation of culture?
*In what ways can design express itself as a negotiation between people and their surrondings?
*How can we creatively respond to the ethical implications and possibilities of design in relation to its situation within particular environments.

2)Structure of communicative space;
*What is the "eventfulness" of design?
*To what degree is the meaning of a design dependent upon the context that it is situated within?
*To what degree is the meaning of a design dependant on the occasion it comes into being?
*How can we rigorously explore the poetic and the technological in design as a unity?

3)Representation and design processes;
*What are some of the present conflicts/tensions between symbolic and instrumental representation, and how do we deal with these in our creative processes?
*How can we best unfold and cultivate the relationship between our representations and our more poetic meanings?
*What are the varying possibilities, conditions, and limits of mathematical, virtual and simulated representations?
*What is the role of the body, scale and ergonomics in our design processes and in the representation of our design ideas?
*How can we best apply our creative problem-solving skills with equal rigour to abstract and concrete processes?

Problem of explication

Everyone consciously or not appreciates the problem of explaining things, especially where creative work and any form of art is concerned, auctually or where anything that involves a certin mystery or question.

Perhaps it would be more beneficial explaining to an animal or a child. Things always seem more simplistic and embedded in what can only be called magic. It conveys a sense of the secrecy of the world and of existance that appeals to the imagination.

Memorial qualifications

This chain of thoughts is more of a continuation of a previous post dealing with questioning the fundamental assumptions with funerals. Link is just below for those who missed it or care.

http://republicofcolour.blogspot.com/2010/05/thoughts-on-death.html

Was looking over Vietnam veteran's memorials and inadvertently produced a new orthodoxy, which i feel could potentially raise a fair amount of debate or even consideration. When a new language of commemoration is produced with regards to a war memorial ( or for that fact any memorial in general ), the challenge realisticly lies in invisioning a language that can speak through abstraction without depoliticizing the situation or the site. I feel that the communicative power that a tribute must have is the issue, and more importantly not just for those who have established an emotional attachment by experiencing a trauma or loss first - hand. It needs to be orchestrated for generations to come, for whom the event will be remote.

Consider this, when the veterans of Vietnam are no longer around or the families of its victims, will the memorial maintain its power? What can a memorial do for the other generations.

The centre within structure

It is beyond comphrension to concieve of an unorganized structure, subconsciously or not we always orientate ourselves around a point of refrence, or a centre. The responsibility of a centre is to organize and balance a structure, by orienting the coherence of the systems and elements within its total form. The suggestion of a structure devoid of any centre is simply unthinkable. It physically, metaphorically or even emotionally cannot work.

By following this system of thinking however we end up with a catch - 22. By agreeing with this statement we situate that the centre is at the centre of the totality (which is a fact), however since the centre does not belong to the structure, as it is not part of the structure, the totality therefore has its centre somewhere else.

Its an intresting thought that the centre is not the centre.

Boredom through repitition.

Spent many an hour walking all around the wellington hospital a few months ago and always dreaded the commutes, as it was nothing but boring although it does raise the question, what is boredom? for myself i found the answer lay in plain sight, the corridors and rooms which were simply barren of any mist like discoveries which just caused me to lose intrest, endless repetitions followed by the knowledge that there was little to look foward too. Then it poses the question, what makes anything exciting or better yet , what is exciting? While the degree is always going to be variable i found that salvation lay in the childrens ward which aside from containing the entire wealth of the hospitals colour ( to be honest , it as if that place has had the walls sucked dry of the colour spectrum and just left bleached ) it also had a hanging monkey cut-out above the door, which to me looked like a golden wire of hope.

I have come to the conclusion that we are excited by anthing that influences us, or more simply involves and engages us. The thing about the hospital is that there is was nothing to connect with, the endless repetition of those staircases and expanding hallways is permanently a foreign place that does not excite the audience, it simply bores us. Therefore boredom is an unpleasurable experience through a lack of impulse.

I will say on a side note, the atrium is ok.