virtualization of design and production a thesis - Bilkent University

Complementary to Marxist view, recent debates by Baudrillard explains that the
object can also be perceived as a sign. In this understanding, the object frees
from its material and utility and finds itself within a play of signs in differential
relations with other signs. Sign value of objects, as Baudrillard suggests,
constitutes the basics of ideological consumption logic. This linguistic
perspective is distinctively observable and even reinforced via advertising
medium since the advertisements promises through the signs and connotations as
Roland Barthes argues.
On the other hand, particular advances in the design and production industry,
along with the introduction of CAD/CAM technology and its ever expanding
variations, seems to change our understanding of the designed products. The
contribution of technology to our lives is apparent in the sense that it contains the
power to transform our experiences just as it transforms the design process. The
integration of computers into the process is increasingly replacing the
conventional tools that have been used previously, in order to save time and
investment. The huge memory that computerized systems keep within, gives way
to rapid manipulations and alternations in the virtual models generated by the
computers. The data of these virtual models can also be converted to another
format for hand free rapid prototypes of every geometry. Thus, the capabilities
that these computer systems provide result in the decrease in material concerns
and entire virtualization of the design and production phases.
The increase in the variations along with the decrease in material concerns opens
diverse perspectives for the production firms. Now that they have eliminated the
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