This Opinion essay didn't present a strong psychological claim as it tried to do, to my personal point of view.
I can relate to the radical comparison between the soap-powders and the detergents, seeing the soap-powders as the gentle and more human side of this market, while the detergent is the "dirty" side, the aggressive one, and between those two extremes come the rest of types - like foams, liquids etc.
the psychological relations between the consumer's condition and the products he buys according to the uprising needs are interesting and project a clear view of the social-psychology involved in the advertisement and production of this particular market.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Mythologies / Plastic / R.Barthes
It is quite obvious that the essay was written during the late 1950's, the era when plastics slowly became "the replacement material" for many products in mass production marketing. the author point of view, although a bit advanced and future visualizing, is seeing plastics as a yet solved phase in the hierarchy of materials. somewhere between the cheap and the luxury projecting materials and somewhere between the flexible rubber and the hard metal.
Well, it is not easy, especially no during the 1950's, to have a determined point of view over a material which during time could almost replace any other material, texture and surface color.
Until recent days, plastic items, usually machine-manufactured, are considered, by the majority of people, to be a substitute or lower grade objects, an imitation of the original material or object. It is not easy to accept a new material that is chemically produced, replacing a natural one, like polyethylene boxes replacing aluminium ones. The natural, known and easy to visualize material is always psychologically prefered over the mysterious kind, maybe that is why the plastic item are considered as "fake", its ingredients, the basic materials are an enigma for the the common public, who is therefore having a hard time accepting plastic objects as the real thing.
Well, it is not easy, especially no during the 1950's, to have a determined point of view over a material which during time could almost replace any other material, texture and surface color.
Until recent days, plastic items, usually machine-manufactured, are considered, by the majority of people, to be a substitute or lower grade objects, an imitation of the original material or object. It is not easy to accept a new material that is chemically produced, replacing a natural one, like polyethylene boxes replacing aluminium ones. The natural, known and easy to visualize material is always psychologically prefered over the mysterious kind, maybe that is why the plastic item are considered as "fake", its ingredients, the basic materials are an enigma for the the common public, who is therefore having a hard time accepting plastic objects as the real thing.
the desk / akiko busch
According to my personal point of view a desk is a conceptual term describing a defined working environment. The designated "desk" could be a personal one, or a public one used simultaneously by one or more persons.
On of the ideas the author is mentioning is the desk filling a role of a place where work can be done efficiently and with full concentration. A desk is a way to make order in usable objects, make order in work methods and line of thinking. It is a "personal corner" even if for a short period of time, you own it while you use it, and you organize your elements and thoughts the way you need to in order to be productive.
As Pablo Neruda wrote, and Fukasawa designed (his sky screen table) sitting at your desk is like opening a door to infinity, to thoughts and never-ending imagination paths.
Bruce Mau wrote once in his commandments for design "don't clean up your desk at the end of the day, what you you see on it tonight will look totally different to you tomorrow morning, and will inspire you to new ideas...", i can totally identify with this idea.
Any surface, of any material, in any shape can be a desk, categorizing a "desk" as one is user dependant, and it is individual and different between the various of professions and occupations.
On of the ideas the author is mentioning is the desk filling a role of a place where work can be done efficiently and with full concentration. A desk is a way to make order in usable objects, make order in work methods and line of thinking. It is a "personal corner" even if for a short period of time, you own it while you use it, and you organize your elements and thoughts the way you need to in order to be productive.
As Pablo Neruda wrote, and Fukasawa designed (his sky screen table) sitting at your desk is like opening a door to infinity, to thoughts and never-ending imagination paths.
Bruce Mau wrote once in his commandments for design "don't clean up your desk at the end of the day, what you you see on it tonight will look totally different to you tomorrow morning, and will inspire you to new ideas...", i can totally identify with this idea.
Any surface, of any material, in any shape can be a desk, categorizing a "desk" as one is user dependant, and it is individual and different between the various of professions and occupations.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Personal geographies
Every organic creature is acting in patterns and in an organized order, even if it is out of impulses, it is routed through lines of information processing and it is supervised by brain, nerves, and other control systems in the body. Every organic creature is made of organized and patterned structure. What is not organic is put into order, pattern and being structured, even if not physically moved, by an organic creature.
Mapping or "orientating" (as the author named it) is, in my opinion, the connection of facts, known or imaginative facts,(like in books)that form together a way of expression and description of what is out of sight or understanding and needs to be taught.
To use a map is to "read" the invisible; it is a guide that is supposed to be trustful and to show the possibilities towards the unknown. But like everything in life, it is not a clear cut of black and white, and the grays between the extremes are the variety of uses and types of maps. Whatever someone does in order to document is actually creating a map, either for personal or public use. The user of those maps is the reason and the cause of the symbols in the key of the map, also called a "legend of a map" – therefore can be understood as the object we need in order to discover what is beyond a closed door, or as the need for someone to tell us the story of what we see in the map. If it is a self use map, drawn by an individual for his own use, no additional key or explanation needed, and usually the map wouldn't be totally defined, it would rely mostly on author's memory and self coding. On the other hand if the user is the public, a map drawn for "outsiders", the key of the map plays an important role in order for the map to act like one and to be read.
A map is the only story told that doesn't have a beginning or an end, and not even a plot. The reader can start in every point he chooses, and to choose any direction he desired. According to the user's needs the story would guide him towards his goal.
We are most of the time using our memory to perform as our map, but it is not always reliable or up to date, therefore the illustrated map is the more common and reliable one, and reliability is the key word, because the use of a map is in some way a cry for help – "I am lost, help me to find my way", as the author described it – "we are at sea". The use of the sea as a metaphor for perdition is because we cannot map the sea, we can create an invisible grid over it and use machines to help us navigate, but there is no way to mark or remember, no order and no patterns that we so strongly need in order to orient our self.
"You are here" actually means "you are at home", now you know where you are, now you are in a familiar territory and you can go on and select your path.
Human beings need to put pieces of information into familiar patterns and frames in order to participate connect and translate them; a map is a visual (in most cases) way of doing it, so one can use the information for himself or for the use of others.
Mapping or "orientating" (as the author named it) is, in my opinion, the connection of facts, known or imaginative facts,(like in books)that form together a way of expression and description of what is out of sight or understanding and needs to be taught.
To use a map is to "read" the invisible; it is a guide that is supposed to be trustful and to show the possibilities towards the unknown. But like everything in life, it is not a clear cut of black and white, and the grays between the extremes are the variety of uses and types of maps. Whatever someone does in order to document is actually creating a map, either for personal or public use. The user of those maps is the reason and the cause of the symbols in the key of the map, also called a "legend of a map" – therefore can be understood as the object we need in order to discover what is beyond a closed door, or as the need for someone to tell us the story of what we see in the map. If it is a self use map, drawn by an individual for his own use, no additional key or explanation needed, and usually the map wouldn't be totally defined, it would rely mostly on author's memory and self coding. On the other hand if the user is the public, a map drawn for "outsiders", the key of the map plays an important role in order for the map to act like one and to be read.
A map is the only story told that doesn't have a beginning or an end, and not even a plot. The reader can start in every point he chooses, and to choose any direction he desired. According to the user's needs the story would guide him towards his goal.
We are most of the time using our memory to perform as our map, but it is not always reliable or up to date, therefore the illustrated map is the more common and reliable one, and reliability is the key word, because the use of a map is in some way a cry for help – "I am lost, help me to find my way", as the author described it – "we are at sea". The use of the sea as a metaphor for perdition is because we cannot map the sea, we can create an invisible grid over it and use machines to help us navigate, but there is no way to mark or remember, no order and no patterns that we so strongly need in order to orient our self.
"You are here" actually means "you are at home", now you know where you are, now you are in a familiar territory and you can go on and select your path.
Human beings need to put pieces of information into familiar patterns and frames in order to participate connect and translate them; a map is a visual (in most cases) way of doing it, so one can use the information for himself or for the use of others.
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