I know in my gut that "good" design is about "great, light,
deep-thinking and non-thinking". And I have seen people from different
walks and professions nurture and use this ability in themselves and for
others. They do not exert any moral or professional right while doing
so. Neither do they obscure their understanding of what is valuable and
enduring.

When I believe "x" or "y" is good, then hopefully I have appreciated how
much of "bad" exists in it too and I have figured out how to work with
the whole and transform those parameters that can be differentiated. And
that working out is informed by "desh, kal, patra". (The different
facets of context - physical, temporal and capacicity)

Din, the point of "bore" in practice is well taken, and perhaps like
Rashmi says the compass is pointing to where some answers may lie. The
change in the nature of practice itself?

Warm regards,
Poonam



-----Original Message-----
From: designindia@...
[mailto:designindia@...] On Behalf Of rkorjan
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 2:02 AM
To: designindia@...
Subject: [designindia] Re: "good design"

Dear Ranjan, Raja, Poonam and others

During a class I was recently taking I asked the question - does
design lead or does it follow? the ovewhelming response was that
design follows. Follows what? follows trends, fashion, technology,
science, market forces, and so on. Much discussion followed (which i
believe continued into the canteen and corridor) mainly due to the '
shock and awe ' I expressed!

If we were to list the qualities by which we commonly characterise
human nature they would include - irresponsible, selfish, slave to
our
desires, greedy, manipulative and so on.

This came home to me in my class with students in gandhinagar. After
doing field work they were developing scenarios for 2020, for the
children of gandhinagar in areas that we had chosen. (opportunities
for physical growth, food and entertainment, areas for intellectual
growth etc) Several ideas were very interesting but in many cases the
students felt the need to 'package' the concepts so as to create an
interest in the children (welcome little fishes in with gently
smiling
jaws!) as if they would not know a good thing if they saw it. and so
websites and kids magazines were replete with competitions that bring
prizes for otherwise what would be the motivation to participate? and
food joints serving tasty healthy food would be located in kiosks
shaped like burgers, and club houses would have locks held by a
responsible adult or how would equipment stay secure?

It struck me that not just the students, but we all 'design in'
deception, distrust, control because we design in 'our own image' so
to speak, and that image is the dismayilng one i outlined in the
beginning. Ofcourse this image of human nature has been artfully
built
and exploited by marketing and business and politics, and in this
noise the more luminescent side of human nature has been drowned out.
And we continue to create institutions, and services and products
that
perpetuate the conditions for this image to prevail.

But elsewhere things are changing. What is so inspiring about
movements like opensource and initiatives like wikipedia is that they
are based on a different model of human nature - the joy of work,
high
standards of quality, responsibility, generosity, and so on.

I think this is where the compass is pointing.

Rashmi
Studio Korjan





--- In designindia@..., Ranjan M P <ranjanmp@n...>
wrote:
> Dear Poonam
>
> The word "satisfactory underperformance" touches a chord.









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