Skip to main content

Calmer times

My Masters has been on much calmer ground, having discovered Tony Fry. Hallelujah, a design theorist and philosopher, voicing similar issues and searching for solutions. He has brought clarity and vigour into my research. As a person who considered themselves fairly intelligent, I realise how little I know and how much more I need to know. More profoundly, I've discovered that some of my initial views were incorrect. Indeed I was a raving hippy activist!

The Masters has been a personal journey. Where before I felt a bit of a rough diamond, I feel a little more polished. As passionate as I am about my subject, I now understand that no-one wants to hear rhetoric; they simply switch off. It feels good to talk about my research in a calm, informed and academic manner where people feel more compelled to listen.

I cringe when I look back. I wasn't/am not a Luddite but believing that we are becoming cyborgs with the increasing adoption of 'connected' technology or that technology is to blame for the fractured, unsustainable society we live in, seems very naive to me now. Perhaps it is not so different to the thoughtless opinions posted on social media that I've been critical over.

Technology is simply man's natural evolution, born out of our curiosity and imagination to create.

The smartphone, my main gripe, became successful not because the technology was enforced on us but because we as a culture embraced it. As with the origins of the wristwatch, the mobile phone was a symbol of success and yuppiedom. This gradually became more affordable for the masses. It filled a need, keeping us mobile and in contact 'just in case of emergencies'. With wi-fi and 3G, the smartphone soared; our needs were met with entertainment, social media and endless apps, all in one device.

I am correct that this smart device transforms how we behave; however technology has always done this historically. It is the speed at which mobile and wireless technology has progressed that we are seeing change in a much shorter timeframe, both economically and ecologically with climate change and social unrest; Syria being our recent example.

The same technology I blamed for fracturing society is also the one that has helped boost the economy in third world countries, aid refugees fleeing their homes and given a voice for groups that have cited change.

Through Fry's work, looking at various cultures, capitalism and politics, I have come to realise that it is we humans that are the destructive species. We differentiated ourselves from animals as 'human' the moment we started making/creating objects and tools. These were ontological things that evolved mankind into the Agent of Enlightenment.

The Industrial Revolution was a massive surge in our evolution towards technology, not to mention the catalyst towards the unsustainable. With mass production things became affordable. Our needs were filled and media fed our desires, directing us into a consumeristic culture of plastic and wastefulness. Capitalism surged as Credit became available and it has become our Agent since. 

Fry argues that we need an Agent that is Sustainability and that Design, and Education, should be redirected from a service industry to one that can redirect change, by being ontological.

Obviously this is a massive task and not only does it undertake politics and capitalism, it will also take time. Fry states that we will go through dark times with fierce climate change and social unrest. For someone who was on a rampage for change, and not known for being patient, this came as a huge disappointment and I felt deflated for a time.

However Fry has been inspirational with his call-to-arms for designers/makers to act and 'make more time', by redirecting change ontologically. As a designer servicing the 'system', I've worked in industrius IT organisations where I've defended designers as solution makers rather than makers of pretty things. Since reading Fry, I now feel empowered.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kids and iPads

So I have not long come back from a meeting with my daughter's teachers. She has not been happy and has had problems on-and-off with one girl in particular; a troubled girl who has been projecting her own unhappiness onto Cady. A recent spout in school had continued on iMessage as soon as the girls returned home. Texts in angry CAPS, back and forth. It got so heated and personal that Cady came to me in tears and I was made aware of the situation. I eventually rang the girl's mother; a warm, lovely and hardworking professional. She in turn rang the school to inform them of some concerning issues with the use of social media and text messaging. I hasten to add that our daughters are 9 years old. Yes I am responsible for giving my daughter access to the iPad. I tried to delay it for as long as possible but the majority of peers in her class had their own and I was repeatedly hounded. Initially she used it for games as I refused her an Instagram account until again, peer pressu
1 comment
Read more

19th Century Slums - The Uncomfortable Parallels

BBC's Victorian Slums I've recently finished watching BBC's Victorian Slums, a 5-part 'reality' show where a group of 21st-century Brits move into a Victorian Work House,  painstakingly brought back to life in the heart of London's East End . The Work House was a place for those with little prospect of a living wage, or a sickness or disability that prevented them from working. Starting from the 1850's to the 1890's, each episode reflects political and industrial changes through each passing decade. The slum dwellers, made up of modern families, couples, single mothers, the disabled etc, experience Victorian hardship and insecurity first-hand, facing the grim reality of life for the urban poor and the truly squalor side of the industrial revolution. Watching the programme, there were some uncomfortable parallels within our modern society that I drew on. Work was on a temporary basis, much like our present 'zero-hour contracts', and fo
Post a Comment
Read more

A Postgraduate Experience

A Part Timer's Story When I began the 'Design Futures' Masters course in September 2015, 18 years after graduating with the same title in my undergraduate studies, I had introduced myself with a big bang; sporting a mass of flaming red hair, ranting about the state of the world and how inhumane we've become in our digitally connective world. I had appeared mad as I ranted to what I now regard as mere rhetoric. But equally, I was ferociously passionate in my subject, adamant that I could solve the issues over the course of the Masters. How naive I must have seemed! I had only two months prior undergone a thyroidectomy, a last resort to a genetic disease that myself and my partner had coincidentally suffered from. Graves Disease, a largely unknown hyper-thyroid disorder, had reaped misery and darkness in our life's since our teenage years, and especially during each of my father and mother's passings in my 30's. Having battled through so much, leading up
Post a Comment
Read more