John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

In this sense ‘design’ is distinct in that the term itself is used as both a noun and
a verb, placing emphasis on what practitioners do, rather than what they
produce (Flusser, 1999 and Fairs, 2004). ‘Art’ and ‘architecture’ are products -
whereas ‘design’ is a process by which aesthetic, cultural, social, technical and
economic potential is imagined and then translated to give order to objects,
environments and activities. Macdonald (2005) argues that design is no longer
discipline or media-based and is a quality and a way of thinking and doing.
Friedman describes design as
“…an interdisciplinary and integrative process constituting a professional
field and an intellectual discipline.” (Friedman, 2000, p.5)
The term ‘design’ is derived from the Latin signum, meaning ‘sign.’ Therefore,
etymologically, design means ‘de-sign’ (Flusser, 1999) the removal of extraneous
signification leaving only what is desired. Friedman locates the origins of design
in craft practice and guild tradition with the first cited use of the noun ‘design’
occurring in 1588 (Friedman, 2000). He claims the evolution to a distinct
practice of design happened only in the aftermath of the industrial revolution,
and asserts the move from a practice to a profession is an innovation of the 20 th
Century. He stipulates there is an ongoing debate whether the arena of ‘design
knowledge’ constitutes a discipline, a field, or a science 32 .
Craft practice is another area that is undergoing self-examination (Connectivity,
2007 and Follett, Moir and Valentine, 2007). Craft is usually used to describe
creative practices that traditionally are defined in relationship to the use of
specific media such as: wood, clay, glass, textiles or metal. Bunnell (2004)
makes the point that craft is also both process and product. However, Robert
Aish makes a distinction between design and craft:
“We can characterize design as being different to craft (because the
designer does not directly act on the material, but has an indirect, and
arguably more powerful, way of controlling materialization)." (Aish,
2006, p.203)
McCullough (1996) defines ‘craft’ as ‘handskills learned by doing’. Jackson
(2004) points out the implication is the use of the hands
32 A discipline is normally characterised not by its domain of application but by the way in which it gains knowledge.
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