Abstract
The aim of this article is to discuss the potential of studying contemporary art to foster critical skills in designing. it is hypothesized that contemporary art content guide students to a more meaningful and ethical future professional practice. For this, it is required to equip students with art and humanities content as well as industrial design skills acquisition. Here, contemporary art comes into play as a resource of not only liberal art theory but also its manifestation in art form. This method of art practice founded condensely on criticality is proposed as a tool for critical industrial design studio practice. To explain the role of contemporary art as a resource of criticality, first the the criticality implicit in the nature of contemporary art will be explained with art historical theory. After that, the changes in art after the end of modernism will be explained on the Fountain (1917) as an example. Following this, the features of contemporary art will be matched with the parts that it can enrich in the design process of the students with particular reference to “use” and “viability”. This is discussed in more detailed with the reported experiences of students who have studied contemporary art content during their schooling. Experience from an elective course titled Contemporary Issues in Design is presented in relation to related theory. Reports collected from students indicate the ways in which the content is reflected to product design practice in the studio.
Keywords
design education, industrial design, contemporary art, liberal arts, criticality
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2019.12098
Citation
Pazarbaşı, Ç.K.(2019) Contemporary Art for Product Design Studio: Informed Conceptualism, in Börekçi, N., Koçyıldırım, D., Korkut, F. and Jones, D. (eds.), Insider Knowledge, DRS Learn X Design Conference 2019, 9-12 July, Ankara, Turkey. https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2019.12098
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Contemporary Art for Product Design Studio: Informed Conceptualism
The aim of this article is to discuss the potential of studying contemporary art to foster critical skills in designing. it is hypothesized that contemporary art content guide students to a more meaningful and ethical future professional practice. For this, it is required to equip students with art and humanities content as well as industrial design skills acquisition. Here, contemporary art comes into play as a resource of not only liberal art theory but also its manifestation in art form. This method of art practice founded condensely on criticality is proposed as a tool for critical industrial design studio practice. To explain the role of contemporary art as a resource of criticality, first the the criticality implicit in the nature of contemporary art will be explained with art historical theory. After that, the changes in art after the end of modernism will be explained on the Fountain (1917) as an example. Following this, the features of contemporary art will be matched with the parts that it can enrich in the design process of the students with particular reference to “use” and “viability”. This is discussed in more detailed with the reported experiences of students who have studied contemporary art content during their schooling. Experience from an elective course titled Contemporary Issues in Design is presented in relation to related theory. Reports collected from students indicate the ways in which the content is reflected to product design practice in the studio.