14. Artistic research 1 (1)

We are living in an era where people have excess choices. What is the relationship between "people" and "objects"? How we choose, and how we perceive our current life is a very important thing.

I often feel that I am always torn between "Essentialism" and "Aestheticism" when designing. After a long period of study and research, I feel that graphic design can easily become a work that focuses on "appearance" and "shell", producing extreme visual results. I have been trying to fight and resist with this tendency in different ways and in different projects, but in some projects "appearance" has become the fulcrum of concept expression.

Therefore, I hope to think about the future design method by observing the relationship between "objects" and "people", and design projects in a truly necessary design form.

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Essentialism

What is the nature of art? What distinguishes a piece of work from an illustration to a masterpiece? A first response may be to list a bunch of artworks. But this does not help distinguish/explain why these items are on the list. “They are all beautiful”. Another response. But different people find different things beautiful. In fact objects considered universally ugly are still considered to be artworks. Thus the question remains.

Essentialism is one method to answer the metaphysical question of what is art. The theory rejects that art is based on aesthetics or perceptual representation, as the ancient Greeks like Plato thought.

To be an Essentialist about art one holds that art, all types of art, all styles of art, in all cultures, and across all time, has a fixed set of essential or defining properties. Philosophers put this by saying there is a fixed set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the application of the concept of art.

To be an Essentialist about art one holds that art, all types of art, all styles of art, in all cultures, and across all time, has a fixed set of essential or defining properties. Philosophers put this by saying there is a fixed set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the application of the concept of art.

For Danto, an art work must be a human artefact, that is, something made by a human. The work must have intention. It must have a content, a message. Art is therefore representational like human speech or gesture. It must also exist in an “atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an art world.”

The Transfiguration of the Commonplace

A Philosophy of Art

Warhol’s Brillo Boxes are an art work because they exist inside an art world. This art world takes in the knowledge of art up to the date of the installation, in that New York gallery, by that artist. Taken all together like this we conclude that the work is art. But if I were to remove a part of the art world, like put the work in a supermarket store room, it would longer be a piece of art.

If art is dependant upon an art world and we agree that art has changed over time (from cave painting to post modern masterpieces)… can it be concluded that Essentialism in the eye of Danto is a relativist theory? This certainly does not make sense when looking at our definition of Essentialism. The definition is clear in its statement of a ‘fixed’ set of necessary and sufficient conditions. And as it turns out, Danto is no relativist.

Danto believes there is only one correct theory of art. But that theory has only being gradually made accessible to us through time and history. So a Brillo Boxes piece would not have been art in 17th century Holland because that essence of art was yet to be realised. Art was about imitation at that point in art history. In the 19th century art moved to be an expression of emotion which then developed into the age of ideologies in the 20th century. Danto sees post modern art as art after the end of art. It is a rehashing of past styles in a random/chaotic sequence.

Danto account suggests there is no further development of art to come. But this is an open question. And to date it seems Dantos Artworld ontology of art is a good theory of what is art through time.

Representative personage：Ross Lovegrove

Ross Lovegrove is a designer and visionary who’s work is considered to be at the very apex of stimulating a profound change in the physicality of our three dimensional world.

Inspired by the logic and beauty of nature his design possess a trinity between technology, materials science and intelligent organic form, creating what many industrial leaders see as the new aesthetic expression for the 21st Century. There is always embedded a deeply human and resourceful approach in his designs, which project an optimism, and innovative vitality in everything he touches from cameras to cars to trains, aviation and architecture.

Winner of numerous international awards his work has been extensively published and exhibited internationally including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum NY, Axis Centre Japan, Pompidou Centre, Paris and the Design Museum, London, when in 1993 he curated the first permanent collection. His work is held in permanent collections of various design museums around the world including Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA), Design Museum in London and Vitra Design Museum Weil Am Rhein, Basel, CH

DNA spiral staircase

This is the staircase Ross Lovegrove designed for his studio "Studio X".

Every daily necessities has its own amazing features, such as this handrail staircase, it is not those graceful lines that impress you, but this seemingly weak line that can actually bear your weight , and stables your step on the staircase.

Solar Tree

The plant-like rhizome supports the solar panel, which is composed of 20 steel pipes. In the morning, the solar energy is fully absorbed. In the evening, the LED lights starts to work and become a lighting system at night. The luminous plant buds flash with dazzling light in the dark, It seems to remind the public that the light of environmental protection will never die.

Go Chair

The plant-like rhizome supports the solar panel, which is composed of 20 steel pipes. In the morning, the solar energy is fully absorbed. In the evening, the LED lights starts to work and become a lighting system at night. The luminous plant buds flash with dazzling light in the dark, It seems to remind the public that the light of environmental protection will never die.

http://www.rosslovegrove.com/