Innovation

Getting things into a better order is the great secret of progress, and we are now able to fly through the air, not because the laws of Nature have altered, but because we have learnt to arrange things in the right order to produce this result--the things themselves had existed from the beginning of the world

Thomas Troward

book called The creative process in the individual

Things and how we interact with them have changed rapidly over the decades and the timeline between one innovation and the next is becoming shorter and shorter.

Many of the amazing innovations that exist today were inconceivable not to long ago.

As new things get invented so do new ways of existing and new ways of interacting. Our social dynamic is altered so subtly that we hardly notice. Complacency sets in and the paranoia’s and phobias, taboos and social conduits that once existed before things like the internet and social networking are almost completely changed. Ironic really as now more then ever before, we exist in a society where our every move can be traced and our personalities can be profiled. Is big brother really watching?

We exist now within a web, connected digitally. The spiritual web of interconnectivity so apparent in so many cultures has become literal, in seconds we can communicate with people thousands of miles away. We as a species have never been so accessible and information so easily obtained on anything conceivable, because of this adverts are tailored to the individual your computer, mobile phone, diary can be personalized to your every need, convenience and aesthetic preference. As Marshall Mcluhan states “ In our new global village the consumers will become the producers”

The design thinking process is best thought of as a system of overlapping spaces rather than a sequence of orderly steps. There are three spaces to keep in mind: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Inspiration is the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions. Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas. Implementation as the path that leads from the project stage into people’s lives.

Tim Brown : IDEO

Lecture : Contextualising design

"Design must become an innovative, highly creative, cross- disciplinary tool responsive to the true needs of men."

Victor Papanek : design for the real world

What is design?

How does design relate to people?

Why is it important?

Design is a process, it cannot be defined in one sentence, its denotation is broad and with that comes a limitless possibilities.

Design is collaborative

Design is about being human centred

Design is doing

Design is interpreting

Design is living

Design is communicating

Design is problem solving

A designer creates, the basis of design is a thought, a problem that needs to be resolved, an innovation, or even the embryo of an idea.

Design is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end.’

The Cox Review

Design makes ideas into things, tangible notions that are inherent for the evolution of our development and existence.

Design is human focused, it is ubiquitous, it gives function to form and beauty in aesthetics. Design lays the foundation for innovation.

The Constructivists

Constructivist Suprematism was an artistic phenomenon that changed the way people viewed and perceived art and its purpose in society, particularly in Russia around the very early 20th century.

Constructivists were artists, photographers, engineers, assemblers, sculptors, writers and philosophers. Their belief was that art should be expressive and organic, humanized and given life!

Constructivists such as Alexander Rodchenko aimed to produce work that directly engaged with its witness and encouraged that person to actively participate in the piece.

Often the pieces produces consisted less of realistic images and more geometric shapes, lines, curves and bold highly contrasting colours and shades.

The work of this era was utilized mainly for industrial campaign posters and propaganda flyers but also was greatly displayed through the use of photography and photomontage. Jagged lines and abstract lighting would ensure a feeling was conveyed before any direct link to an already established image could be defined. They key was to make art more ‘human’ more accessible and to inspire and engage the viewer directly.

One major influence during this movement was an artist called Alexander Rodchenko. Working primarily as a painter he moved into the realms of photomontage in order convey the feeling of motion on a 2d plain. He later went on to produce paintings that challenged the common aesthetic. Monochromatic works that “reduced painting to its logical conclusion”.

Kazimir Malevici: Suprematism 1916

The Futurists

I had a lecture today about a renegade group of new thinkers coined THE FUTURISTS !

who were they??

They were ready to abandon the past in light of technology, speed and progressive thought.

1. We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.

2. Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.
   

http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/manifesto.html

Umberto Boccioni, 'Elasticity ' (1912)

The movement, founded by Filipo Tommaso Marinetti, centered on the future, speed, technology, modernity. A complete abandonment of tradition and the past, artistically, socially and politically. The futurists wanted change and separation from Italy's corrupt government.

Architects, designers, artists, engineers of this movement produced streamed lines and complex shapes, crisp, clean, superior, geometric, complicated and intimidating. A need to percieve motion and progression forward!

On the surface I'll admit, I was swept away by the futurists! The work produced was certainly awe inspiring and amazing. Forward thinking!? Down with Corruption?!? Beauty in progression?!? Were do i sign up? ....

Oh hang on a minute I am a woman with views, opinions and a fondness for peace and harmony? .... Bugger! Guess Im out ... The futurists were quite simply (and i mean really simplified, to one word, in my humble and uneducated, instinctive opinion) Anarchists.

A beautiful notion laced with violence, sexism and totalitarianism.

They did however create some impressive and awesome images depicting motion and fluidity, dynamic and intimidating. Swings and roundabouts i suppose !

Giacomo Balla
The Hand of the Violinist, 1912

Beautiful Losers

This was not my first watch of the film Beautiful Losers. I watched it whilst in hospital last year in a bid to attain some much needed artistic inspiration. My first watch left me feeling inspired to produce art that didn't necessarily have a meaning or purpose and that didn't necessarily have to be 'good' by any definition or opinion. It affirmed in me the need and desire to paint and create purely for the sake of doing. And I felt good about it! I was at the time becoming consumed with the 'What does my degree require' and the work i was churning out was god awful!

On my second watch... in a lecture theatre, i approached the film much more critically then the first time, I really listened and still inspired to paint, found myself slightly more enchanted by the group of artists encapsulated in the documentary, because it is clear years on and now successful, the art makers are still dedicated to their craft and their enjoyment and respect of it and their peers is so easily witnessed in their expressions, tones and lack of pretension. They are far more accessible and identifiable.

The film in essence centres around a collective of artists brought together by sharing an ideal, to create. To create what they wanted to see and to produce what made them happy, to deliver a message in their way and seemingly not worry about how that message is received/ perceived. Selfish art. and why not? I found it refreshing in an age were more and more frequently its the signature that sells the piece and gets it recognised and less about the piece itself. They seem to allow the work to speak for itself, lending a new meaning to whoever looks/watches/feels it.

I loved how each artist was inspired by their emotions and external influences, the finished piece was generally just that and there was no blurb or artists sentiment. No bullshit.

Alot of their work seemed renegade, Fluid, Organic.

Many would acuse them of being lazy, criminal, opinionated. All fair statements but so what, in expressing themselves they seemed to have ditched the pretence. Take it or leave it but here it is. I admire that.