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Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition

Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition Leonardo_36-5_339-422 9/18/03 10:27 AM Page 413 ger, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein to show how they represent a tradition in Western thought concerned with the human agent as situated in, and active within, a pre-organized world of physical demands and possibilities. Accordingly, the mind is firmly embodied in the physical presence of the body (rather than separate from it), just as the body is rooted in the extended domain of the “real world” of objects and events. These references allow Dourish to define his key term “embodied interaction” as “the creation, manipulation, and sharing of meaning through engaged interaction with artifacts” (p. 126). The problem of “meaning” then becomes critical to the analysis (as it usually does); in particular, how meaning in HCI is most economically generated and sustained. Drawing again on the philosophical concepts previously discussed, and some examples from research projects at Xerox and MIT, Dourish tries to show how interactive media can illuminate and enrich our understanding of mediated information. A somewhat abstracted discussion of “intentionality,” “ontology” and “intersubjectivity” gives way to what the author suggests is a more practically oriented section on how certain design principles arising from the ideas discussed might be applied to the construction of real systems. However, as Dourish honestly acknowledges, it’s no straightforward matter to convert generalist philosophical analyses into prescriptive guides for action. Instead his solution is to offer a series of principles intended to alert potential designers to aspects of interface construction that are less frequently considered by “traditional” or “disembodied” methods. These principles, to do with evaluating the social and physical context in which interaction occurs, are less a set of specific rules than a more general “stance” to be adopted (p. 172). And although the author states, “Embodiment is about engaged action rather than disembodied cognition; it is about the particular rather than the abstract, practice rather than theory . . .” one leaves the book with a sense of unease about what “embodied interaction” looks like, and why it’s so different from any “disembodied” system we might imagine. In this sense, the practice/theory divide remains unbridged. Other than suggesting (through examples presented) that interface design in complex situations might benefit from greater degrees of user configurability and internal state feedback, the potentially radical repercus- sions of Dourish’s foundational analysis remain largely unexplored. Questions, for example, about the degrees of separation between humans and machines, about pleasure and frustration, and about the sensual qualities of interactive experience are often implicit but rarely foregrounded. A more “extensionist” development of the ideas might have moved the debate on further and quicker by considering the actual consequences of removing the mind-bodyworld split that has so constrained Western thought. Notions, for example, of distributed consciousness or of the “extended mind” are now gaining currency and influencing the way we think about the “locality” of human being and action in ways far beyond those suggested by this book. I would happily commend this book to the non-specialist reader. It’s a vigorous and worthy attempt to frame questions of interactive design within a wider and deeper intellectual context. I image it will also serve well as a textbook in a number of fields, from information design to the contemporary philosophy of technology. And while I strongly welcome it as further evidence of a shift in ideas away from disembodied abstraction towards embodied action, it also points up the dangers of falling between the practical and philosophical stools, by being unable to sit on both, or securely on neither. GEOMETRY OF DESIGN: STUDIES IN PROPORTION AND COMPOSITION by Kimberly Elam. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2001. 108 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 1-56898-249-6. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, 2022 X Avenue, Dysart, IA 52224, U.S.A. E-mail: . One of the oldest, most lasting ideas in art is that artists, designers and architects use (often unknowingly) repetitions of the same proportion (called “proportional harmony” or “proportional rhyme”) and that, throughout history, certain proportions have been used far more frequently than others. As confirmed by scientific tests that began with Gustav Fechner in 1876, the proportion that seems to be favored is around 5 by 8, or what is historically, commonly known as the “golden section.” This same proportion occurs throughout nature: in the chambered nautilus and other shells, in sunflowers, daisies, pine cones, pineapples, and in the pattern of the eyespots on a peacock’s tail feathers; as well as among a limitless range of manmade constructions: in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Stonehenge, the Parthenon, the Athena Temple at Priene, the Triumphal Arch of Constantine, the Notre Dame Cathedral and various buildings by Le Corbusier. This latest book about proportional rhymes, which was both written and designed by a graphic design professor at the Ringling School of Art and Design, is probably the best introduction to the subject. It is beautifully organized, admirably thorough, and, while technical to some extent, not overly so. Especially helpful are its translucent vellum overlays, in which red line diagrams can be superimposed on (or removed from, as needed) the subjects discussed in the writing. Its other major innovation is the persuasive use of so many familiar examples from Modern-era design history (posters, furniture, a Braun coffee maker, even the 1997 Volkswagen Beetle), including quite a few not shown in earlier books on the subject. It’s a great little book, one that all teachers and students should see. (Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, Winter 2002–03.) LIPCHITZ AND THE AVANTGARDE: FROM PARIS TO NEW YORK edited by Joseph Helferstein and Jordana Mendelson. Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, 2001. Distributed by the University of Washington Press. 152 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 0-295-98187-3. Leonardo Reviews http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Leonardo MIT Press

Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition

Leonardo , Volume 36 (5) – Oct 1, 2003

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Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
© 2003 ISAST
Subject
Leonardo Reviews
ISSN
0024-094X
eISSN
1530-9282
DOI
10.1162/leon.2003.36.5.413
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Abstract

Leonardo_36-5_339-422 9/18/03 10:27 AM Page 413 ger, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein to show how they represent a tradition in Western thought concerned with the human agent as situated in, and active within, a pre-organized world of physical demands and possibilities. Accordingly, the mind is firmly embodied in the physical presence of the body (rather than separate from it), just as the body is rooted in the extended domain of the “real world” of objects and events. These references allow Dourish to define his key term “embodied interaction” as “the creation, manipulation, and sharing of meaning through engaged interaction with artifacts” (p. 126). The problem of “meaning” then becomes critical to the analysis (as it usually does); in particular, how meaning in HCI is most economically generated and sustained. Drawing again on the philosophical concepts previously discussed, and some examples from research projects at Xerox and MIT, Dourish tries to show how interactive media can illuminate and enrich our understanding of mediated information. A somewhat abstracted discussion of “intentionality,” “ontology” and “intersubjectivity” gives way to what the author suggests is a more practically oriented section on how certain design principles arising from the ideas discussed might be applied to the construction of real systems. However, as Dourish honestly acknowledges, it’s no straightforward matter to convert generalist philosophical analyses into prescriptive guides for action. Instead his solution is to offer a series of principles intended to alert potential designers to aspects of interface construction that are less frequently considered by “traditional” or “disembodied” methods. These principles, to do with evaluating the social and physical context in which interaction occurs, are less a set of specific rules than a more general “stance” to be adopted (p. 172). And although the author states, “Embodiment is about engaged action rather than disembodied cognition; it is about the particular rather than the abstract, practice rather than theory . . .” one leaves the book with a sense of unease about what “embodied interaction” looks like, and why it’s so different from any “disembodied” system we might imagine. In this sense, the practice/theory divide remains unbridged. Other than suggesting (through examples presented) that interface design in complex situations might benefit from greater degrees of user configurability and internal state feedback, the potentially radical repercus- sions of Dourish’s foundational analysis remain largely unexplored. Questions, for example, about the degrees of separation between humans and machines, about pleasure and frustration, and about the sensual qualities of interactive experience are often implicit but rarely foregrounded. A more “extensionist” development of the ideas might have moved the debate on further and quicker by considering the actual consequences of removing the mind-bodyworld split that has so constrained Western thought. Notions, for example, of distributed consciousness or of the “extended mind” are now gaining currency and influencing the way we think about the “locality” of human being and action in ways far beyond those suggested by this book. I would happily commend this book to the non-specialist reader. It’s a vigorous and worthy attempt to frame questions of interactive design within a wider and deeper intellectual context. I image it will also serve well as a textbook in a number of fields, from information design to the contemporary philosophy of technology. And while I strongly welcome it as further evidence of a shift in ideas away from disembodied abstraction towards embodied action, it also points up the dangers of falling between the practical and philosophical stools, by being unable to sit on both, or securely on neither. GEOMETRY OF DESIGN: STUDIES IN PROPORTION AND COMPOSITION by Kimberly Elam. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2001. 108 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 1-56898-249-6. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, 2022 X Avenue, Dysart, IA 52224, U.S.A. E-mail: . One of the oldest, most lasting ideas in art is that artists, designers and architects use (often unknowingly) repetitions of the same proportion (called “proportional harmony” or “proportional rhyme”) and that, throughout history, certain proportions have been used far more frequently than others. As confirmed by scientific tests that began with Gustav Fechner in 1876, the proportion that seems to be favored is around 5 by 8, or what is historically, commonly known as the “golden section.” This same proportion occurs throughout nature: in the chambered nautilus and other shells, in sunflowers, daisies, pine cones, pineapples, and in the pattern of the eyespots on a peacock’s tail feathers; as well as among a limitless range of manmade constructions: in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Stonehenge, the Parthenon, the Athena Temple at Priene, the Triumphal Arch of Constantine, the Notre Dame Cathedral and various buildings by Le Corbusier. This latest book about proportional rhymes, which was both written and designed by a graphic design professor at the Ringling School of Art and Design, is probably the best introduction to the subject. It is beautifully organized, admirably thorough, and, while technical to some extent, not overly so. Especially helpful are its translucent vellum overlays, in which red line diagrams can be superimposed on (or removed from, as needed) the subjects discussed in the writing. Its other major innovation is the persuasive use of so many familiar examples from Modern-era design history (posters, furniture, a Braun coffee maker, even the 1997 Volkswagen Beetle), including quite a few not shown in earlier books on the subject. It’s a great little book, one that all teachers and students should see. (Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, Winter 2002–03.) LIPCHITZ AND THE AVANTGARDE: FROM PARIS TO NEW YORK edited by Joseph Helferstein and Jordana Mendelson. Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, 2001. Distributed by the University of Washington Press. 152 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 0-295-98187-3. Leonardo Reviews

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LeonardoMIT Press

Published: Oct 1, 2003

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