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Wednesday, October 8, 2003

Aristotelian Design

Dick Buchanan:

"Design has changed in recent years. Design, in the early part of the 20th century, was about form and function. And while design is still very much concerned with function, the driving theme is now form and content. Designers now control the content of experiences as well as the form. And if we are taking more responsibility for content, we need to understand what that means. There is a lot at stake when shaping content."

Aristotle's "Poetics" is about the art of poetics. Or, in other words, about how to create emotionally-satisfying experiences.

The essence of tragedy is an action (interaction). Tragedy only comes to life in the form of action, not in narrative. It is only through (inter)action that all parts of the whole are brought together for the purpose of evoking emotions for catharsis. Catharsis is not in the audience: it is in the Tragedy itself. Bringing it to design, catharsis is contained and expressed in the object itself. The audience is aware of this, and views it as beauty. It doesn't force emotions upon the audience; the qualities of the object contain those emotions.

For me at least, it's a very different way of looking at design.

posted at 07:42 PM in design theory | comments (1) | trackback (0)

 

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