Botworld
[Photo of Jack Schulze by Timo Arnall. Quote from interview on the Kicker blog.]
“Some people (they are wrong)” – Jack can speak with parentheses – “Some people (they are wrong) say design is about solving problems. Obviously designers do solve problems, but then so do dentists. Design is about cultural invention.”
Now I love this. Some kinds of design are often a sort of mechanical exercise where every decision made has a “because” attached to it. The wall has to be such and such material because of the heat and sound regulations. The toy has to be such and such shade of red because that’s what people are buying most of.
Because because because. What Schulze says is this is problem solving. It’s still hard, and it still takes a lot of skill and training, it’s fine, you know, but problem solving alone isn’t sufficient to be called design.
What Schulze says is that design has invent, to create new ways of doing things, and to contribute to culture.
Now when you invent something, when you put something brand new into the world, you’re doing something which is essential a political act. You invent and design ‘normative’ products, normative meaning that you design for the world as it should be, not for the world as it is. And by introducing this new product, you move the world slightly in that direction.
Really what Schulze has done is introduce an obligation for designers to understand the cultural and ethical impact of their work, and have an understanding of where the world is going.
All of which suits me just fine, because, as I said, I’m a science fiction fan, and that’s a great way of investigating where the world is going.