Dr. Lintao Tang. Strategy of Future Chinese Design Education Compared with Germany

Transcription

1 Dr. Lintao Tang Strategy of Future Chinese Design Education Compared with Germany Background: Project: Currently: B.A. (1995) & M.A (2000) in Industrial Design, Beijing Institute of Technology PhD. In Design Arts, Tsinghua University (2004); Comparative Research between Germany and China on Design Education and Social Context Lecture in Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University 146

2 Strategy of Future Chinese Design Education Compared with Germany Dr. Lintao Tang Experience on Culture As a German Chancellor Scholarship fellow (Bundeskanzler Stipendium), I studied and researched in Germany from June 3 of 2007 to August 30 of In honest, the past 15 months are peak time of my life. I got lots of wonderful, meaningful and memorable experience. Below is just a small part of them to share with you. I feel something was deep in my mind, more than words. There are three cities of Germany where I have lived: Bonn, Berlin and Darmstadt. I define live as settle down, which means you are not just passing through like a normal tourist, but stay like a local resident. In my memory, Bonn is connected with language course, which is the main task of our first three months. But, I prefer to recall the other side of Bonn: weekend open air concert, bike riding alone the Rhine, football playing and then barbecue with American and Russian colleagues, looking around in seasonal flea market, etc. Berlin, an amazing city, drives me eager to know, to understand and to think about the history of Germany. In Berlin we visited lots of official places and museums, with some comprehensive discussing and talking. But, in fact, what makes me shocking is the image of the city: the logos of DDR, ruins of Berlin wall, icon bears etc. As a designer, I pay more attention on some detail parts of the city. To understand a city, I think, you should focus on the back stage, which lies on the dark side of the city, maybe desolated, neglected, but real. So, when I was in Berlin, I de-colored my camera, took pictures in Existential style. In the 15 month life, I spent most of time in Darmstadt, where is my host university, Hochschule Darmstadt. My life in Darmstadt is peaceful and colorful. In fact, it s my general impression on Germany. Most time Germans stay calm and cool, in a German word Ruhig. But in weekend and festival, they become passionate, or even crazy. In night market before Christmas or some spring festival, there are thousands of people getting together to celebrate something. Following them, I am always exciting, dancing with beer, and talking aloud with my friends. Fireworks split the night, and music scatter in the air. At that moment, I feel the world couldn t be better. As cradle of Jugendstil, Darmstadt witnessed one hundred years design history of Germany, which is another reason why I love this city. At Mathildenhöhe is located Peter Behrens house, the artist community and museum, Hessen Design Center. All these places are just opposite to the department of design of FA Darmstadt. Every time when I get out of my office and stroll in this area, I could imagine the trailblazers of modern design walking and thinking under the same tree, which makes me feel every normal object could be full of story and, on this point, meaningful. The experience density of this 15 month is quite high. From what I see to what I know, and then what I understand, my cognition about Germany accumulated little by little. It could be subjective, but true and honest. It s just my personal impression and understanding. I find the German is calm but passionate. They are friendly but overcritical. They are polite but arrogant. Of course, all these impressions came from my daily life and encounters. Most of Germany media only report the dark side of China, but the people, such as teachers of our language school, really love Chinese culture and like to make friends with us. In Darmstadt, we organized a commemoration and donation movement for the earthquake of Sichuan. Some kind German people had and showed compassion, but some put bad words on us, which really hurt 147

3 my feelings in deep. Sometimes when I was lost in the city, warm help could be found anywhere. But sometimes, such as in the municipal office, cold attitude could freeze my heart. I try to explain these contradictions by our traditional philosophy: every coin has a side of Yang, which face to the sun, and a side of Yin, which is under the shadow of sunshine. Fortunately, 80 percent of my German life is Yang side, warm and comfortable. I never complain about the left 20 percent. In fact, I would like to thank it, which made my understanding more comprehensive. The 80/20 rule is universal and perfect. Experience on Design In an old Chinese poem, it s told to us that there are three approaches to study: walking down ten thousand miles roads, reading over one thousand books and converging one hundred expert s views. Following this instruction, I started my research project about Design Education in October of There are four aspects: Reading books and documentations; Following courses of Prof. Theinert to know education structure of FA Darmstadt; Visiting other universities and discussing with other professors; Visiting design centers and organizations, museums and studios, exhibitions and events. In this period I read a lot. I enjoyed every evening in my apartment, which is the guest house of FA Darmstadt, accompanied music and solitude, indulged myself with books. In order to understand the culture of Europe and Germany, I read some history about ancient Greece and Christianity, which are two keys of Europe culture. Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century, written by Fernand Braudel, is my favorite. The three volumes magnum opus argues convincingly that a meaningful understanding of history can be gained from studying how people ate and dressed, where they lived, and how they obtained necessities and luxuries. In my opinion, it is not a history book but a documentation of design evolution from Renascence to Industrial Revolution. Before the steam engine, it is 300 years slowly improvement and development of material life. Something changed the world, but it is not the reason, but the result. As staying in Darmstadt, unconsciously, I paid more attention on the design of Art Nouveau, which is a very important stage between tradition and modern design. It is a bridge, a ferry, shipped Europe from past to future. At that moment, all the architects, designers, craftsmen try to find a new way to express modern life. They search and probe, practice and argue. In history, we grant the opening of Bauhaus in 1919 as the starting point of modern design. But before that, it s more then 30 years of finding out. Braudel s history concept and the understanding of Art Nouveau taught me the same thing history consciousness. Just as the 300 years development of material life gives the birth to Industrial Revolution, over 30 years Art Nouveau calls out the modern design. We should find the clues and index before and out of them. To be a poet, you should pay more attention on something out of poem. Compared with social context of Art Nouveau moment of Europe, I think China now is in a similar situation. Bird s nest or the new CCTV headquarter are just phenomena. The background logic is that the new is better than the old, western is better than oriental, and modern is better than tradition. When international star architects and designers are playing in the huge fields of China, Chinese architects and designers are struggling in a more complex social and culture context, involving in business and politics projects and confusing on copy or innovation. Anyway, it s in process, on the way. Finally we could find Chinese expression of modern design. 148

4 Although I have discussed design and education with more than ten professors and designers, three of them are most important for me. Their concepts, thoughts and ideas impact on me. Prof. Theinert of FA Darmstadt, my first mentor, is an expert on Design Thinking, which is the most important and difficult part of design education. On his class, he did a lot to set student s intuition free and liberate their mind. About design thinking, there are different approaches in the past, now, and maybe future. Basically we could divide them into two routes: intuition or rational. I think Prof. Theinert made an excellent balance on his teaching, that s why I try to invite him to direct a course in Tsinghua University next semester. Prof. Lehmann, my second mentor, is a wisdom grandfather of mine. We spent a lot of time together, in his Stuttgart home and holiday house in Black Forest. We exchanged concept and shared experience about design and teaching. Now he is working on a book named Design teaching Teaching Design, which will be published in China at He taught me doing design and teaching in a pragmatic way, not in dogmatic way, which means never close your mind to accept new ideas and methods. His profound knowledge and understanding of design gave me a deep impression. In honest, I got a lot from him. Prof. Bernhard E. Buerdek at FA Offenbach told me that the 21st century is the science time of design, just as 20th century is the art time of design. The material archive and huge CNC machine at his department gave me a deep impression. He directs his students design on base of research. He has clear ideas about design and design methods. I know there are many universities on the world sharing the same idea as his, such as TU Delft in the Netherlands, KAIST in Korea. His words incite me to think about the long term argument on design: science or art, practice or research, rational or sensible. Different ideas lead to a different working style and education mode. With so many opinions, I think, it is difficult to understand both what people say and to observe what they do, to know both what aims they want to achieve and to learn how they work. So I just open my eye, ear and mind, to listen, watch and retrospect. On base of Darmstadt, I traveled a lot all around Europe, more than ten thousand miles road. Museum is always my destination: Vitra Design Museum at Weil am Rhein, Red Dot Design Museum at Essen; Bauhaus Museum at Weimar; Benz Museum at Stuttgart; BMW Museum at Munich; Pinakothek der Moderne at Munich; Design Museum at Helsinki; Design Museum at Zurich; Guggenheim Museum at Bilbao. I spent my most wonderful time in different countries. I think traveling is a good way to study design and understand culture, because it is not just go-to see, but experience and understanding. Reading, observing, talking and traveling, in fact, I would like to call this part of what I done as input. Images, information and knowledge of the world pass through my eye, and get into my mind. Without input, there will be no output. Project and Output As the result of my research project and output of this year, my book Social Transformation and Design Education in China Past, Now and Future Strategy will be published at the end of 2008, which is a book with more than one hundred thousand words, and four parts: Background and Context, Probe and Research, Analysis and Understand, Retrospect and Strategy. Counting from 1907 when artists colony was established at Darmstadt, last year was the 100th anniversary of German design. Compared with Germany, Chinese Design is quite young. Due to the comprehensiveness of China s Reform and Open policy, design was established as a 149

5 specialty in early 1980s and developed along with national economy roaring. Recently China s government endeavors to push China from world factory to innovative country, which means design would play an increasingly important role in future. In these ten years design in China boomed, and so did design education. Together with the dramatic development, a lot of problems came into being. Design schools, studios, organizations, enterprises, government, media and press, design awards, all of these related factors together were involved to create this excessive development. However, few innovative design works were born in this hot soil. Copy is a most popular method for enterprise market competition. Original design is valueless and insignificant in public mind. In general, we just solve the problem of Quantity, which is quite easier than the Quality. More and more design schools and students, studios and designers didn t result in high level design works. Focusing on these problems and based on my experience and understanding of German design education, I put my thoughts about future strategy of Chinese design education in my book. On my opinion, real innovative design could follow two paths: one comes from deep research about the user, which is related with all the knowledge about human beings, sociology, psychology, culture, anthropology etc; the other comes from long term research on universal principle, structure, material or technique, just as Frei Otto s research on bubble and then soft roof of Munich Olympic stadium, or Alvar Aalto s five years experiment on bending poly wood. Nowadays in China, we pay too much attention on the former one, but neglect the latter. However, I feel in Germany it s just the opposite. I know a professor at Essen who focuses on Light Structure, and another professor at Munich on Bionics Design. Their approaches are in a similar way, which is a way of Knowledge Creation. They are probing the mine of design knowledge. Enlightened by these professors, I feel very clearly about what I should do as next step. What and how to teach are two main arguments in design education. I got this idea from Prof. Lehmann. With China experience for many years and at many universities, he feels that Chinese professors are just eager to know what, never how. Logical, know what should be the foundation of know how. I think know what in design education includes four main parts: Skill, Experience, Knowledge and Method. I find that 80 percent teaching in China focuses on skill and experience, but by contraries, in Germany 80 percent is about knowledge and method. In Germany, professors only teach students the way of thinking and the way of working, which is most important but so hard to teach. To know how could be another obstacle for a Chinese professor. Above is just the key concept of my book. I would like to call my book a byproduct of my 15 month Germany study and research, because when I came back to China, I felt a lot of things to do, which will give me long time direction. The most important is that I know what I should do and how to fulfill it. Improvement and Next step As most German professor did, I will pay more attention on the material part of design research, which is more important and urgent for China. Now I am trying to establish an innovation lab and a material archive at our department. Our approach is from principle, structure and material research, and then to prototype, and then to real products. It s Research through Design, which means integrated research and design as a continual process. I hope my dream can be realized within three years. I hope our works can have effect on other universities and designers in China. 150

6 Below is a successful project I have done during the last year. Based on folding paper research, I designed the street-lamp of Beijing Olympic Park. It got the Grand Prix of China national design award the Red Star Design Award. I think I have found the way of innovation design and the approach of research. My next topic will be bamboo, an excellent material for products, exhibition and architecture. Definitely, the last year was most important in my career. I have caught every day and know what I should do and how to fulfill it. 151