http://ambidextrousmag.org/issues/10/articles/lead_i10p34_37.pdf
Kenya Quotes: (responses to questions)
'How is your approach to design unique among designers?'
"I do no think in a conventional way. I am not creating forms that inspire a 'wow'. I am sensitive to do this because it does not attract."
"We think of things that are nothing in daily life and discover a design that surprises - that becomes progress."
"My role in design is to awaken the power of design. That is to say that amidst the usual daily life, I want to make others think: can something look like this, or can a table look like this?"
"We don't guide people on what to buy - it's crucial to make people realise and understand anew, something about daily life that they thought they already understood.
"In daily life, a cup is a cup, a plate is a plate without a doubt. Without any gradation, which one is the plate?… Rather than making an amazing form for a cup, it's more effective not to understand the difference between a cup and plate."
'Describe yourself as a designer'
"My work is the identity people have with a product, what makes them gather at a place for a product. The product is not a physical object, but a language."
"I am creating information architecture, design that is directed towards what enters the mind from outside through the senses - sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. These are the ingredients…. This builds the architecture of the mind."
'How do you feel about new materials being developed'?
"Because of human senses, various things are capable of being felt. There is a whole new world we still haven't felt. If we looked at a simple map of senses, there are about two hundred sensations on the North America continent alone. But I am trying to find a new way to discover them".
"When we design something, it's always about the outside - the colour, shape and form, texture. The exterior is important, but how you feel it once, in a previous experience, actually intensifies your impression. That is to say, until now I haven't felt anything like this - an experience not had until now."
"Material on its own is not interesting. The way of feeling it has to be well planned."
'Your work is often simple, but it is never simplistic.'
"Kanso', means simple in Japanese. It is an inoperative meaning, different from the English word 'simple'. MUJI products are simple, but they have quality, or there is quality in something simple… Specifically, if something is simple, it can inspire many kinds of imaginations - its capacity is large"
"At MUJI, we only make for them one table. But making the same table for both people is extremely difficult. Therefore, simple means emptiness. Through this emptiness, and ideal image can emerge."
"No Image already exists, but you can insert your own image into that object, and that is okay.
'Is this the same as the Japanese idea of 'ma' - the physical space between things, like emptiness?'
"It's not just 'ma', 'ma' is first emptiness. However with Muji it's simple but the MUJI logo is also famous, it carries many images. For some people, it represents ecology, for some simplicity, for some affordability, for some no design, for some sophistication. So there are a lot of meanings but they never imply the meaning of empty. For that reason it becomes an image and an icon right away."
"Whether it is conscious, or sub conscious, it is straight forwardly simple. In that case, straight forward simplicity and simple quality differ.
'What future do you see for your work?'
"Design that humans can understand. Math and Philosophy text book designs are stiff and if I don't do them it would be a shame. If there was a well designed maths textbook, it would be amazing."
Word for word review of Hara's 'Designing Design', reviewed by Blaine Brownel
Extension on 'Landscapes of the Unknown' Article:
Part treatise, part biography, and part monograph, Kenya Hara’s book, Designing Design, operates as a kind of quiet manifesto for design in the new millennium. While such combinations of design analysis and synthesis usu- ally seem forced, the essays and monograph elements in Designing Design hold together uncannily well, much like the diverse and carefully-crafted dishes in a multi-course kaiseki meal.
One of the most compelling concepts Hara promotes is the process of making the ordinary unknown. In the West, we often describe design’s role in making the invis- ible visible, or shedding light on the unknown. Such use of design in charting unfamiliar territory relates to the notion of scientific progress and technological advancement, but it neglects information about simple things right in front of us. Hara bemoans our culture of knowing facts without truly understanding their deeper implications.
His antidote is a process called “exformation” that seeks to make the world unknown, by locating the fuzzy edges and inconsistencies within the knowledge base we think is already complete. exformation is a tool that sharpens our awareness of just how little we know about the world, and in turn provides refreshing new insights for design. Hara is more interested in questions than answers, and he believes, as he writes in the book, that creativity is “to discover a question that has never been asked.” The exformation process is demonstrated in his Shimanto river studies that integrate roadways with the last of Japan’s pristine waterways, or his sublime MUJI “House” posters that depict vernacular dwellings lost within harsh and over- powering natural environments.
For Hara, design is conceived as a platform to gener- ate dialogue rather than one-way exchange. design should
be an empty vessel with space set aside for the user’s own thoughts and curiosities, a distinctly Japanese ap- proach that we also see in the minimalist structures of the Japanese architecture firm SAnAA and subtly provocative product designs of the Japanese design firm nendo. The provision of such space gets attention precisely because it is so devoid of meaning. Particularly within the sea of visual noise that is the Japanese city, this strategy provides welcome relief to the eyes, and allows the user to enter the conversation as if asked, “What do you want me to be?” In this sense, emptiness is not solitude but opportunity. Like the dramatic pause in no drama, this space in design serves to build anticipation for what is to come rather than provide an easy answer.
considering Hara’s philosophy that design is a vehicle through which to ask intelligent questions rather than provide clever answers, the book appropriately leaves the reader with many questions. Has the pace of life and its increasing number of distractions, not to mention the over- abundance of consumer products and ubiquitous commer- cialism, reached a saturation point for most of us? can de- sign respond successfully to the new global eco-anxieties, political concerns, and economic woes with its traditional attention-getting, solution-providing strategies? Aren’t we all now a little too smart to believe that someone else has all the answers?
Maybe facing our ignorance about the world is the only way to confront new challenges. Perhaps design has to un- learn itself in order to provide something new. Interior and Exterior Package Design for Kenya Hara's 'Designing Design'
Examples of Product Design by Kenya Hara
No comments:
Post a Comment