Art and Design

Stories? Bah. Over-played. Just give me the idea, distilled down to a single form, line, color. That’s why design! Don’t fill your design with story, that’s going backwards. Design should take the story out so people can interpret in their own way — means and methods.

Art is story, distilled down to a single meaning.

> If this, then that.

Design is this AND that without the story because it doesn’t matter. Bitter? Dystopian? Maybe.

Design creates the creator.

If language is symbols or symbolic, then design is its own language made up of a meaning all its own. Don’t story the design because we don’t care. We want to know how the design will create our own story.

Graphic

Industrial

Interior

Product

Architecture

Landscape

Urban

AI?

UX

Gaming

Mechanical

Electrical

Transportation

It’s all design and we all use it, experience it, fulfill it, become it in our own way, our own methods for doing things. Designers and architects, please stop the talk-i-tecture. We need designers who walk the walk — no more stories! I can’t take it any more. It’s boring and antithetical to what design is used for.

Design lifts up, not pressure downward. Not life undone by this or that, but life combined by this and that. I don’t believe in non-symbolic references because everything is a symbol or can be viewed that way depending on the person, place or context. I know a bird is a bird, but when I see it fly overhead, I think freedom. If I see a flock, I think abundance. If I see a group of birds in a bath, I think community. This is what I mean by person, place and context.

Art = story + meaning

or, to put it another way:

C:\> If This, then That

Design = Symbology, (good) design ≠ story

or, to put it another way

C:\> This * That = ♾️

C:\> This - That = ♾️

C:\> This is That, but also the 10,000 things, so it’s everything, everywhere, all at once, or ad infinitum.

Allow the maker and creator to distill it down to meet the world on its own 2 feet… or 4, 6 or 8 depending on your mobility rating or POV.

Art as performance art almost always. Is it art if no-one knows it exists? I suppose, yes. If the art makes an actual statement about the world, except being the likeness of something else, then maybe it should be viewed by the world because what then is the point? People struggle when their livelihood is torn down by others who just want it done so they can make a buck. The reaction is to make a statement, but doesn’t it need to be heard in order for the statement to exist? ‘Shut it down’ becomes a sense of regret rather than ego calling it quits.

Art and design are intertwined in that way. We create so we exist and we exist so we can create. It’s all very matter of fact to some, but to others maybe there’s something more. Leaving a mark on the world. ‘I exist therefore I am someone and will leave my thumb print somewhere on this Earth so I know I’m here and other’s know it, too, especially when I’m gone.’ Art explains beauty to the wearer or challenges others to see or wear things differently. We’re all in this together, but maybe sometimes we don’t get it. Why are you driving that over priced vehicle? Why are you wearing something off your shoulder that doesn’t fit? Why do you care about this when I don’t see it that way? Art is the wearer, the doer, the believer. It belongs on the wall and off the wall. It engages with beauty and discourse, but it is not design.

Design asks, ‘Why are you doing it the same way, wearing it the same size, trying to be the same as others? Why don’t we try this again, only differently or better than before? We can do it all again and not wear the same clothes as before, but become our own superstars.’

Art and documentation, the art of documentation. In many ways this is what art is: documentation, but for some it’s a galaxy of truth. It’s a big topic and not likely survived by many or summed up well.

Creation matters more than anything else on Earth. Done.

Art and architecture: Claude Bragdon’s ideas and ideals on what architecture is blended with the thoughts and stories of his time. Theosophy and religion played a role, including the fourth dimension. He brought in a new era of thought according to contemporaries and looked backward and forward to find his own way. Color and light sound as an expression of his fourth dimension exploration.