Comments for Pravartaka Blogs http://www.pravartaka.com/blogs design to transform Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:08:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 Comment on Will 2007 be a definitive year for design? by arvind http://www.pravartaka.com/blogs/2007/01/03/will-2007-be-a-definitive-year-for-design/#comment-4 Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:24:32 +0000 http://www.pravartaka.com/blogs/2007/01/03/will-2007-be-a-definitive-year-for-design/#comment-4 Postscript: Under the subhead #5 "Refocus Design Research", I would add that design needs to move away from its historical anthropocentric/materialist focus and adopt a planetary/ecological/spiritual focus instead, and that this could open up massive and exciting avenues for new research. Postscript: Under the subhead #5 “Refocus Design Research”, I would add that design needs to move away from its historical anthropocentric/materialist focus and adopt a planetary/ecological/spiritual focus instead, and that this could open up massive and exciting avenues for new research.

]]> Comment on PHD and Design by daru http://www.pravartaka.com/blogs/2006/07/26/phd-and-design-kiran-kulkarni/#comment-3 Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:37:19 +0000 http://www.pravartaka.com/blogs/2006/07/26/phd-and-design-kiran-kulkarni/#comment-3 Agree with you completely. Solo interaction with tools like a computer restrains thinking and channels it into solutions faster than you can build a world of fantasy. Human interaction and expansive interactive thought amongst individuals is one of the most powerful tools. It is one on one, it is fluid and opens up unlimited possibilities. The experience of using a computer as a tool is impersonal (the computer lacks a personality). While using it with people who are more blips on the computer screen, leaves one at sea. An endless sea where you lose yourself. Though being in an industrial outfit, the tool becomes powerful. It synthesizes your ideas and makes them coherent and tangible to the not so design initiated. Is that not what they want finally? With so many hands ready to grab your neck, you succumb and produce. Before you know it you are already onto a solution(or many). Experience is compressed, it has to find time, it has to find a way. Processes get intense and there is always something to show. One thing that you miss out on from Design school is the vast continuum of time that you submerge in: Design is a continuous process that occupies your mind. As far as Design Research and a PHD in design is concerned, I am totally stumped. Is the purpose to achieve a definiteness? Or is it open ended? People tend to lose themselves in the Design process itself. I wonder to what metaphysical level will the 'PHD's ascend. Maybe Kiran you can throw some light on it. Really interested in knowing what the PHD guys (Sher...) are up to..... Agree with you completely. Solo interaction with tools like a computer restrains thinking and channels it into solutions faster than you can build a world of fantasy. Human interaction and expansive interactive thought amongst individuals is one of the most powerful tools. It is one on one, it is fluid and opens up unlimited possibilities. The experience of using a computer as a tool is impersonal (the computer lacks a personality). While using it with people who are more blips on the computer screen, leaves one at sea. An endless sea where you lose yourself. Though being in an industrial outfit, the tool becomes powerful. It synthesizes your ideas and makes them coherent and tangible to the not so design initiated. Is that not what they want finally? With so many hands ready to grab your neck, you succumb and produce. Before you know it you are already onto a solution(or many). Experience is compressed, it has to find time, it has to find a way. Processes get intense and there is always something to show. One thing that you miss out on from Design school is the vast continuum of time that you submerge in: Design is a continuous process that occupies your mind.

As far as Design Research and a PHD in design is concerned, I am totally stumped. Is the purpose to achieve a definiteness? Or is it open ended? People tend to lose themselves in the Design process itself. I wonder to what metaphysical level will the ‘PHD’s ascend. Maybe Kiran you can throw some light on it. Really interested in knowing what the PHD guys (Sher…) are up to…..

]]> Comment on Do designers need some ‘Unlearning’ by daru http://www.pravartaka.com/blogs/2006/05/17/thoughts/#comment-2 Sat, 20 May 2006 06:26:40 +0000 http://www.pravartaka.com/blogs/2006/05/17/thoughts/#comment-2 One part of the story is what we learnt at Design school. Yes, it is rather difficult to reserve comment on peoples attire or at least think about it. A lot of times there is an immediate statement when I see someones clothes or a product. If I like it I exclaim, Yes I like it. If I dont, I am neutral or too preoccupied to think or comment about it. But most of the times I dont say much. People wear what they do. Mandela can wear his crazy printed t-shirts if he loves them. Thats him. All the same, what bothers me most is what is expected out of Designers, the way you dress, move, walk, talk, and do extraordinary things make one believe that you need to be superhuman. OK one day I decide to wear comfortable (read sloppy) clothes because they have been 'broken in' well are cuffed and scruffy( not that bad really but normal) and I get glances. 'Hey! You are a Designer. Why do you dress like that. We expect you to be Strikingly Different, Maybe Weird and so on. One day I wear a kurta in my factory and I get 500 comments. 'Arre yeh to Designer hai, isko allowed hai'. Can I be a normal human, Happy with what I am doing, or do I need to be ever charismatic, charming everyone and providing class entertainment..... One part of the story is what we learnt at Design school. Yes, it is rather difficult to reserve comment on peoples attire or at least think about it. A lot of times there is an immediate statement when I see someones clothes or a product. If I like it I exclaim, Yes I like it. If I dont, I am neutral or too preoccupied to think or comment about it. But most of the times I dont say much. People wear what they do. Mandela can wear his crazy printed t-shirts if he loves them. Thats him.

All the same, what bothers me most is what is expected out of Designers, the way you dress, move, walk, talk, and do extraordinary things make one believe that you need to be superhuman. OK one day I decide to wear comfortable (read sloppy) clothes because they have been ‘broken in’ well are cuffed and scruffy( not that bad really but normal) and I get glances. ‘Hey! You are a Designer. Why do you dress like that. We expect you to be Strikingly Different, Maybe Weird and so on. One day I wear a kurta in my factory and I get 500 comments. ‘Arre yeh to Designer hai, isko allowed hai’. Can I be a normal human, Happy with what I am doing, or do I need to be ever charismatic, charming everyone and providing class entertainment…..

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