Desma 10 Fall 2018 Design Culture - an Introduction Meeting 2 (October 5, 2018) Design Culture - Basics Design Semiotics Visible and Invisible Design High and Low Design Design and Art
Designing for Extraterrestrials Design issues between humans can be difficult; what about those between humans and extra-terrestrials?
This plaque was a message to extraterrestrials, sent away from our solar system with Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecrafts (1972). It was designed by the scientists Dr Carl Sagan and Dr Frank Drake.
Originally Sagan intended for the humans holding hands, but soon realized that an extraterrestrial might perceive the figure as a single creature rather than two organisms. One can see that the woman's genitals are not really depicted; only the Mons Pubis is shown. It has been claimed that Sagan, having little time to complete the plaque, suspected that NASA would have rejected a more intricate drawing and therefore made a compromise just to be safe.
Sagan himself later claimed: The decision to omit a very short line [indicating the woman s vulva] in this diagram was made partly because conventional representation in Greek statuary omits it. But there was another reason: Our desire to see the message successfully launched on Pioneer 10. In retrospect, we may have judged NASA's scientificpolitical hierarchy as more puritanical than it is.
The NASA plaque has inspired a huge amount of commentaries, many of them critical or otherwise interesting. Serious social and cultural issues have come to surface. Here are some of the variations. You can find more from the Internet. Unmanned Spaceflight.com
The Amazing Levitation Trick Infographer Edward Tufte s ironic redesign (http://www.edwardtufte.com/ tufte/space)
Where / What is Up and Down in Outer Space? The Simpsons Jennifer Diane Reitz, Jenniverse.com
Tattoo design for space aliens (or other humans? Some tattoos are designed to be exhibited openly, others are more intimate. To what category do these belong?
Voyager Golden Records, records shot into deep space on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts in 1977. Contain collections of sounds and images from life on Earth. Contents selected by a committee led by Carl Sagan: 116 images, natural sounds, music from Bach to Chuck Berry, spoken greetings in 55 ancient and modern languages, printed messages from Jimmy Carter and Kurt Waldheim...
Would these images and sounds be any easier to understand by extraterrestrials? By the way, where is the player device? Optical laser discs - new then - are already obsolete... at least on Earth. Pioneer laser disc player - now obsolete
We need Design Semiotics!
Semiotics (from the Greek word Semeion, sign) Founders: linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913, used semiology ), philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914, used semiotics ). Later masters: the French Roland Barthes, the Italian Umberto Eco, the American Thomas A. Sebeok.. Semiotics (Semiology) is the study of signs in cultural life and communication practices. Historical origins in medical science (Hippocrates) - symptomology, search for symptoms and signs of illness. According to semiotics, we can only know reality as mediated by signs; in other words, through the processes of signification - giving, communicating and reading meanings (by forming, sending and interpreting signs).
Useful book about signs:
"Semiotics involves the study of signification, but signification cannot be isolated from the human subject who uses it and is defined by means of it, [or] from the cultural system which generates it." (Kaja Silverman)
Ferdinand de Saussure on "Semiology" (Semiotics): "Language is a system of signs that express ideas, and is therefore comparable to a system of writing, the alphabet of deaf-mutes, symbolic rites, polite formulas, military signals, etc. But it is the most important of these systems. A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable; it would be part of social psychology and consequently of general psychology; I shall call it semiology... Semiology would show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them. Since the science does not yet exist, no one can say what it would be; but it has a right to existence, a place staked out in advance. Linguistics is only a part of the general science of semiology; the laws discovered by semiology will be applicable to linguistics, and the latter will circumscribe a well-defined area within the mass of anthropological facts." (de Saussure, Course of General Linguistics, 1916)
Code and Message In daily life we constantly send and read messages. They consist of signs. The signs (normally complexes of signs) are based on codes, culturally shared agreements. Codes are systems of relationships. Simply by living in a certain environment we internalize codes that affect our (semiotic) behavior, whether we are aware of them or not. We can learn more about signs and codes through education, specialization, etc. We construct and send messages with signs that are based on codes. Semioticians agree that no cultural messages are possible without referring to codes.
Umberto Eco: the semiotic model of signification and communication - Eco, Apocalypse Postponed, 1994
Stuart Hall: Modes of Decoding Messages Signs are encoded (formed) and decoded (read). They are encoded in the production process within a cultural setting. They are decoded by viewers/readers in another cultural setting. According to Stuart Hall, there are three basic modes of decoding (reading) messages: 1) Dominant-hegemonic reading They can identify with the hegemonic position and receive the dominant message of an image or text (such as a television show) without questioning it. 2) Negotiated reading They can negotiate a different interpretation of the signs without fully accepting their intended meanings. 3) Oppositional reading They can take an oppositional position: completely disagree with the ideological position embodied in a sign or reject it (for example, by ignoring it or thrashing it.)
Stuart Hall: Encoding / Decoding (1973, 1980) Source: Daniel Chandler: Semiotics for Beginners (http://visualmemory.co.uk/daniel/documents/s4b/)
The Sign Consists of Signifier / Signified (Saussure, Barthes) Signifier ( form ) /signified ( content ) are like the sides of a coin. They cannot be separated from each other. Signifier represents the"form" of the sign, the signified the idea ( content ). The relationship between the signifier and the signified is based on a cultural agreement. For example the word "horse" (equos) does not resemble the animal it refers to but we learn to know its meaning even when the animal is not present.
Eadweard Muybridge, Horse in Motion (late 19th century)
The sign nature of horse depends on the language system. Some languages are pictographic in their origin.
The principle of difference: "The identity of a given signifier or a given signified is established through the ways in which it differs from all other signifiers or signifieds within the same system."
The principle of combination (syntax) in the fashion system. Selection and combination is the same principle when using language (speaking, texting, etc.
Roland Barthes: Denotation and Connotation The distinction between denotation and connotation is central to Barthes' semiotic theory. He claims that when we read signs and sign complexes, we can distinguish different levels of meaning in them. - Denotation is the "literal or obvious meaning" or a "first-order signifying system." The denotative meaning of an image refers to its literal, descriptive meaning ( horse ). - Connotation refers to "second-order signifying systems", the additional cultural meanings we can find from an image or text ( Napoleon s horse, racing horse, black horse, Ferrari, etc.)
Connotation (additional, associative meaning)
Roland Barthes identifies connotation with the operations of ideology (which he also calls "myth"). According to Barthes, "Ideology or myth consists of the deployment of signifiers for the purpose of expressing and justifying the dominant values of a given historical period (the signs express not just "themselves", but also all kinds of ideological systems that surround them)."
Advertisement for Panzani pasta, analyzed by Roland Barthes in his classic semiotic study Rhetoric of the Image - Linguistic message. Denotational and connotational (denotation: explicit meaning in French; connotation:"panzani - Italianicity") - The image: a series of discontinuous signs - "Return from the market" connotes "freshness" and "domestic preparation" - Three colors: Italy ("Italianicity") (Redundancy with the linguistic message:"french" knowledge that an Italian would not perceive.) - Other signs: serried products, "total culinary service." A concentrate in a tin can is offered as equivalent of the natural product. - Other signs: the tradition of still life painting (given the product added high art quality?). - An additional sign:"this is an ad" (in a magazine and emphasizes labels). In: Barthes, Image - Music - Text
Italian Flag
Luis Meléndez (1716-1780), Still Life with Apples, Grapes, Melons, Bread, Jug, and Bottle
Charles Sanders Peirce Says: Check this very useful source: Daniel Chandler: Semiotics for Beginners http:// visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/documents/s4b/
Charles Sanders Peirce's Triad of Signs: Icon, Index, Symbol Sign"is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object. (Peirce) Signs fall in three categories: icon, index, symbol. The categories may overlap, and are flexible. A photograph is both an icon and an index; so is a painted portrait of a person, particularly for someone who knows the person. All types of signs may have symbolic meanings. The richest signs are usually combinations of different types.
Index = "a real thing or fact which is a sign of its object by virtue of being connected with it as a matter of fact and by also forcibly intruding upon the mind, quite regardless of its being interpreted as a sign." Examples: the weathervane, a pointing hand, a symptom (of a disease, etc.).
Icon = resembles its conceptual object in certain ways. It may share certain properties that the object possesses, or it may duplicate the principles according to which that object is organized. Examples: representational images and diagrams (graphs etc.).
Symbol = the relationship between the sign and its conceptual object is arbitrary, based on an agreement (occasional resemblances are possible). Examples: words in natural languages, notational systems, the national flag.
Origins of the Peace Sign Designed 1958 by Gerald Holtom for the British nuclear disarmament movement by combining letters N and D from the semaphore signal language ( Nuclear Disarmament ). - Also said to have been inspired by Goya s painting The Third of May 1808. Gesture of despair would have been inverted and circled. - Adopted by the Students Union for Peace in the USA. Lost its original denotation and became a general sign for peace. N D
Visible and Invisible Design Many designs are meant as visible - to draw attention to their message, owner, designer, manufacturer, etc. Fashion! Most everyday designs are invisible. They are meant to be functional, to make our daily lives easier, and possible. They may be good or bad, but are everywhere! Some designs function (almost) unconsciously, others request conscious attention. Traffic lights are visible, but psychologically they function as if they were invisible. Our relationship to them becomes automated. Visible vs. invisible design can be a matter of life and death, particularly in warning systems (the marking of the emergency exit), and in systems that regulate traffic.
Audible and Inaudible Design - Everyday sounds can be audible, inaudible or both, depending on the situation and the listener. Habit can turn signs that are audible into inaudible signs. - Muzak (Elevator Music) is inaudible sound design meant to have an effect on shoppers behaviors by being barely noticeable (malls, department stores). - Alarms are (and must be) highly audible design but people get used to them. Use of headphones or ear plugs can be a problem! - Freeway noise is not designed; rather a by-product of design(s). Design is used to limit it (mufflers, sound walls, etc.). It can function as a sign - for what and whom?
Street Arts Are they Visible or Invisible Design? Depends on for whom and in what situation. Street arts are not interpreted in identical ways by everybody. Some require very specific codes to be readable as signs.
One of the greatest invisible designs of all time.
The Paper Clip has a long design history... Predecessor: the peg, known already 3000BC. Unknown invention from the 2nd half of the nineteenth century. First patented in 1899 by the Norwegian Johan Vaaler. Made possible by steel wire. Based on Hooke s law 1679: Ut tensio, sic uis ( as is the extension, so is the force ). Symbolic meaning: in occupied Norway during World War II wearing a paperclip became a symbol of resistance. Success: 20 thousand million produced yearly. From Henri Petroski: The Evolution of Useful Things, 1993.
The Lesson of the Paper Clip: nothing is too small or unimportant to be designed, patented, produced and used!
Excursion: Visible and Invisible Design on Railways
Sign on the platform of the Komagome railway station, Tokyo. Some signs are immediately clear even for foreigners who have no knowledge about the Japanese language.. This sign is highly visible. Its position next to the railway tracks also helps.
Culture specific design from the Tokyo underground. Visibility vs. invisibility related with the time of day?
Me, Loo, I need Design too! Some designs related to the toilet were discussed. Everyone needs this facility, but its design are not universal. Confusions happen. Sometimes the design is flawed. Sometimes of unfamiliarity of cultural conventions (codes) causes problems. Toilet design should be sel-explanatory. Long instructions etc. may be a sign of poor design.
The two buttons are fit together almost like a disproportional yin and yang. - Derek Houng, former Desma 10 student
Really?
High and Low Design High design ~ design for display", luxury design. Often bought for symbolic value (power, wealth), which is at least as important as practical use. Highly visible design. Low design ~ design for living", practical designs for everyday use. Function often dominates, symbolic value secondary. Everyday use makes these objects invisible.
High design - Prada store in New York (designed by Rem Koolhaas & OMA)
Alessi Coffee and Tea Piazza by Michael Graves, Alessi, 1980-83. Part of a collection of coffee and tea servers by 12 famous architects.
High design in mobile phones: Vertu. Went bankrupt is 2017. http://www.vertu.com/
High Design may be expensive but it does not necessarily manifest good taste. Well, it can be the other way around... Perhaps we can talk about Highish Design or Highish Junk Taste? The Grand Master of Exclusive Junk Taste?
Emperor / Dictator Jean Bedel Bokassa on the Throne (crowned in 1977)
Have a Nice Weekend!