Reflection Paper Week 2

For today’s class we were supposed to watch a movie by Tao Ruspoli, ‘Being in the world’. Within the class we had a very lengthy discussion about the movie and we broke things down and made connections from it to ourselves as designers. Very early on we talked about craftsmanship and how some people become so skilled at what they do that they get into the zone and do what they do best without even thinking. We discussed the sketching process and self reflections. Furthermore we discussed the differences between an amateur and a master, Sir mentioned Nigel cross who said that designers think through their materials. We talked about how masters are more focused in what they do whereas amateurs are more easily distracted by their surroundings. Discussing about Masters and their relationships with their tools. Along with that we talked about how masters have passive knowledge and they don’t think, they do, they don’t slow down or stop, they keep doing because they’ve been doing it for so long that they have it in their mind, they know what to do and how to do and their body just follows. Another topic from the movie that we discussed was of course, philosophy. We mainly had two stances, western philosophy structured by Plato and Aristotle and then we had Heidegger who was a German philosopher, was against the western philosophy. According to the western philosophers the mind and body were two separate things and the way people interacted with the world was that they would input information, process it and then give an output, that is actually how computers work and that came from this philosophy. Heidegger was against this and said that both mind and body are one, neither can work separately for without a body there is no mind, you can’t think. We also had a very interesting discussion about good and bad design and about how good design is invisible which makes so much sense to me now. Artist vs designer debate. Designers make things that are functional and the better the design is the more likely it is to be invisible. Art on the other hand requires some kind of encounter some kind of discussion. Design is all around us and we depend on it, everything that we use is all designed. We don’t even think about it and that is what makes all those things good designs. Good designs enhance what you do and make you even more immersed in your actions. We also talked about usefulness and how most useful things are invisible, the only time we stop and think is when there is something wrong with the tool we are using which is really something i never had thought about before. We type on our keyboards without looking or thinking but if you step back and think about it, it is rather fascinating, its like our body remembers every key, knows when to press the key, how hard etc. Early in the lecture intelligence vs autonomy was also discussed how self driving cars are not really intelligent. AI has been fed information, every detail has to be given to the computer, however it does not think by itself. Furthermore we talked about how designers are concerned with quality of life and to be fair that really does make sense no? Like, if a design was bad, no one would be using it, every design that we use makes us feel good and comfortable which is why we still use it. As designers we have to look at immense depths to understand what a good design is and how we can improve the people’s quality of life. Related to that, Sir mentioned something about Pakistan and how sometimes people are not bothered by a low quality of life so in that place do we really need good designers because people don’t really care either way right? I would say that is wrong actually because if i came to a restaurant and the road was bumpy, if the restaurant is cozy and makes you feel comfortable then i do think its worth hiring good designers, i think its definitely worth doing something that will make people’s lives easier. Since i had internet issues during the class i did miss out on a few points and the last thing i heard Sir say was ‘Almost all design is re-design’. Really, today’s lecture was eye opening in many ways and made me realize many things that i feel like i should have known sooner.