WEEK 3: PRACTICES AND PROCESSES

The link I took away from the documentary, lecture and reading was the mind and how we see things. 

For example, a blue pen can physically be seen by anyone, but what each person then goes on to think of as a result of seeing the colour blue could be different due to experiences and feelings which are not shared. What “The Art of Looking” was referring to was not the act of looking itself, but rather what looking at something triggers, and how people respond to it. There is no way of knowing specifically what will trigger individual people to react certain ways, or how they will react, but there are very large generalisations that can be made. When most people are offered a pizza, their reaction is to eat it, but some will not, usually for their own specific reasons. Without knowing these people personally, it is nearly impossible to predict what their reaction will be and why.

A person’s reaction to a catalyst is due to their sub-conscious banking memories and recalling them when they are triggered by the catalyst. This is a similar process to design. Many designers refer to the point, where an idea just came to them out of nowhere, but this is not how the mind works. The sub-conscious works away at something, collecting thoughts, emotions and ideas, until they are brought to the forefront and trigger and idea, or . This idea is sometimes referred to as the “tipping point”.

Similar to designing, when people dream they will not think of anything new; everything dreamed of is from the sub-conscious, such as faces and locations. Dreaming is just the sub-conscious bringing them back up and using them. If designers were able to consciously conduct this task, and make an effort to think about personal experiences, and influences in their lives, would this make their designs better, or more effective?