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

Figure 22: ‘The Treason of Images’, 1928. René Magritte
This leads us to consider that cultural artifacts cannot be judged solely on the
perceived intention of their maker (which might not be available or apparent),
but on the wider context within which the objects are produced, consumed and
used. From this point of view the world of objects is much more like a sliding
scale with easily discernible ‘art’ and ‘design’ at both ends and a plurality of
composite forms between. This synthetic approach can be seen in regard to
Material Culture which has become an established field within cultural studies
(Miller, 1998 and Attfield, 2000). Material Culture is the study through
artifacts of the values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions of a particular societal
group. The theory underlying this is the objects we make reveal the belief
patterns of the makers, customers, and users of the objects and the cultural
values of the wider society. From this view, the products of each of the indicated
disciplines of building design, sculpture, craft and product design can be seen as
subdisciplinary parts of a larger totality. This more clearly reflects the
continuum (indicated above) that ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one
end to purely utilitarian purposes at the other. It also places a far greater
import on the reception of the object by users or audience (see section 2.9.5).
Design, architecture, craft and art may be discrete disciplines, but they have
common characteristics that bring them into relation with one another. This
research seeks to identify those common characteristics arising from the use of
computer-based tools.
2.9.3 Postmodern reappraisals of Modernist ideologies
As has been stated previously, this is not the first time that creative disciplines
have had their boundaries blurred (see section 2.2). The functionalist
philosophy of design as espoused in the Bauhaus dictum ‘form follows function’
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