After recovering from the eventful week including the look of the shoulder, we are again very excited and started the new week with a lot of reality reference. Finally the first part-course, we have in the media theory with Prof. dr. Martin Scholz dealt with the statements of the philosopher Pierre Lévy and those of the media and communication theorist as well as design scientist Norbert Bolz.
We were once more aware of the importance of always considering sources in their temporal context, and we found that thanks to our Enlightenment pioneers, we are in a time when everyone must / is allowed to decide for themselves and also wears the responsibility for their actions alone. Here, a basic critical attitude must be taken and everything must always be questioned, which in the age of digital communication is even more important, because here the traces between reality and fiction / original and forgery are blurred.
What does the German Werkbund have to do with the destruction of data? With more and more information bombarded, we as designers can also regard ourselves as “data destruction instances”. By making decisions, designing something, we always decide against something else and thereby actively shape our social interaction.
We have recognized the importance of writing as a way of exchanging information (what is the difference between data and information, and what is knowledge?), which makes cross-generational networking possible. For only in this way can meaning arise at all, the meaning lies in the community and is in constant change, just as the language is subject to a constant flow. Lévy describes this joint effort as the “hypertext”.
Communication is highly active and language highly democratic!
On Tuesday we went with Meike Seidel and Gudrun Heindorf to the reflection of the “shoulder view”, where we got really valuable tips on the hand. Help for self-help, so to speak. How did we feel? Before – after – and during “shoulder view” and what do we need to keep going? Uncertainty, this feeling had many of us. – Sometimes before, during and after less, or not before but during and afterwards? Everything was represented and overall very worthwhile that we were confronted with such thoughts so early this semester. Because that’s the engine for a good master thesis.
So, many worthwhile tips, food for thought, literature recommendations, critical questions. All this helps us with our further procedure. Some would rather have been “disturbed” a bit more and others felt they were “disturbed” too much, or are now very insecure, it was definitely “very much kicked.” But what we all have learned: “Talking helps!”
What do we need for our further action? In any case, the right decisions to narrow down / concretize the topic / bring in structure and thus also let things go, the exchange with others, time and many many clear thoughts. “You have to think” how Gudrun could not have put it in a nutshell …
In Aesthetics 1 with Prof. Dr. med. Weltzien was started with the presentation of the papers. Roland Barthes “Reality Effect” has kicked off an exciting presentation series here. What is reality? Reality is not just there. What we believe to be real has emerged culturally and a story becomes history with insignificant details. Even what we do not see and what we would expect becomes part of the narrative / just this break of expectation creates atmosphere.
In the discussion, we also came back to the previous symposium on “Immersion” to speak, which is indeed which is to be found in so many different areas of life and of course also in books, if the author has built well “reality effects”. Keith Negu’s “Creativity and the Cultures of Production” has shown us the interweaving of commerce and creativity, and that commerce wants to continue to regulate creativity. It is also exciting to realize that we, as designers, are indeed “problem solvers”, because that is where design starts. “It takes a reason to get active.”
Jenny Lethgau-Koch
3. October 2018
12. November 2018