What Am I Talking About?

I talk a lot of gibberish, but this is the age of conversation, and apparently somebody is listening while I am blabbing.

From the desk of B. Glazo:
Drew writes about the changes - including a move to Amazon - here. You still have time this week to grab a couple copies at the initial price level. It would be nice for the book to get a good bump before holiday time descends upon us. I mean, when was the last time you were able to be part of the Internet crashing to a standstill? Everybody seems to be talking about the news - Chris even suggests trying to explode the web on December 14 :)

Remember it comes down to helping Variety - its mission is children.

The quality, breadth and diversity of these contributors continues to astound me.

Gavin Heaton, Drew McLellan, CK, Valeria Maltoni, Emily Reed, Katie Chatfield, Greg Verdino, Mack Collier, Lewis Green, Ann Handley, Mike Sansone, Paul McEnany, Roger von Oech, Anna Farmery, David Armano, Bob Glaza, Mark Goren, Matt Dickman, Scott Monty, Richard Huntington, Cam Beck, David Reich, Luc Debaisieux, Sean Howard, Tim Jackson, Patrick Schaber, Roberta Rosenberg, Uwe Hook, Tony D. Clark, Todd Andrlik, Toby Bloomberg, Steve Woodruff, Steve Bannister, Steve Roesler, Stanley Johnson, Spike Jones, Nathan Snell, Simon Payn, Ryan Rasmussen, Ron Shevlin, Roger Anderson, Robert Hruzek, Rishi Desai, Phil Gerbyshak, Peter Corbett, Pete Deutschman, Nick Rice, Nick Wright, Michael Morton, Mark Earls, Mark Blair, Mario Vellandi, Lori Magno, Kristin Gorski, Kris Hoet, G. Kofi Annan, Kimberly Dawn Wells, Karl Long, Julie Fleischer, Jordan Behan, John La Grou, Joe Raasch, Jim Kukral, Jessica Hagy, Janet Green, Jamey Shiels, Dr. Graham Hill, Gia Facchini, Geert Desager, Gaurav Mishra, Gary Schoeniger, Gareth Kay, Faris Yakob, Emily Clasper, Ed Cotton, Dustin Jacobsen, Tom Clifford, David Polinchock, David Koopmans, David Brazeal, David Berkowitz, Carolyn Manning, Craig Wilson, Cord Silverstein, Connie Reece, Colin McKay, Chris Newlan, Chris Corrigan, Cedric Giorgi, Brian Reich, Becky Carroll, Arun Rajagopal, Andy Nulman, Amy Jussel, Kim Klaver, Sandy Renshaw, Susan Bird, Ryan Barrett, Troy Worman, CB Whittemore, S. Neil Vineberg

Emergence of Poetics

The emergence of poetics in design is an underlying motif of complete design: that which encompasses the emotional and physical need to inhabit, utilize, or observe. The emergence of the poetic in design is regulated by, not by the designer, but by the design’s user. The world of users – at – large, constitute the ability to begin, exist, and finish the body poetic.

Aristotle speaks of mimesis in man’s natural activity, and the pleasure derived thereof. Moreover, by leveraging the mimetic nature to engage the audience in purposeful unexpected use, we have built what Aristotle defines as “superior” theme. The correlation that we can derive from this, in light of Zambonini;s writings, can be see in the process of Design. The process of designing with the audience, in order to better impact this audience, is the basis of the poetic in design, in my view. This process will inculcate the ability to encompass the underlying emotional needs and physical (practical) needs of the audience. The poetic here is defined as the “completeness” of a designed artifact or space.

The beginning (start), middle (existence), and end (conclusion) are defined as the body-poetic in the designed artifact or space. Aristotle appropriately touches upon this aspect in Chapter 7, where this information has helped lend my sense of order in this the amalgam and amorphous world of poetics. The structure so defined, is helping to define my personal interpretation of this course – and the writings (which at times are very confusing and often increasing my frustration with the course). His use of “beginning” is appropriately stated as that which does not necessarily have a connection to the previous, but brings rise to some other fact or ideal. I have implemented this aspect of thinking in understanding the processes which formulate design, in order to understand the poetic in design. The “whole” is constituted and “unleashed” by a complete development of design in conjunction with the audience’s way of receiving and understanding.

It is through this involvement and process that we can see the poetic existing as an artifact or space of appropriate scale, impact, and efficient usage (my interpretation of poetics in design). The scope of architects today are far reaching, as they define what and where we exist and live. In this avenue of reasoning, we can find raison d’etre of understanding the poetic. In order to achieve optimal efficiency (in usage, impact, and scale), the designer is bound to developing a set of plans that inculcate the desired audience in the process. Through this, the necessity to bring rise to ideals of the designer’s intention are presented as unobstructed, given that the start, middle, and end are independently created through the audience’s feedback. This gives space to give rise to the said fact or ideal, and allows for the message to be communicated freely.

In my understanding, the poetic is nurtured through the desired usage, inhabitance, or observance of the designed artifact or space. By the designer seeing the intended audience executing these tasks, in vivo, he sees the poetic of his work (the unfettered ideal) nurtured and subsequently living. The start, middle, and end are used in this context as understanding that the design’s poetic itself has a requirement of knowing how to begin and exist, and end, thus completing the requirement of being a emotional encompassing design.

Trials and Tribulations of Management

I was recently invited to become the project manager for a new company, and its associated business plan and launch program. I was hired, because I had worked with the sponsoring company before as a consultant and they saw that I was results oriented.

It was difficult though, I was responsible for managing a team to bring a product to launch, while simultaneously being out of the inner circle of creative of the sponsoring company. Not only this, but the owner of the sponsoring company was a designer. Hence him hiring me to manage the people, time, money, and other resources to bring product to launch.

Berkin talks about making things happen, and that is exactly what I was required to do here. Nonetheless, there were some experiences that were didactic and humiliating.

An ordered list was the priority of my start of project planning with the company. Moreover, inculcating the creative views of the team was paramount to my success here, and that includes working with them on the priorities list. This is something that I did not do originally, causing unspoken animosity. The team thought that I had assumed (and egotistically) the list was without regard to their thoughts. That I was there to order them.

Recommendations in this avenue, going forward, would be to have that initial pre-meeting meeting. One where voices are heard, accepted, discussed, and established. Moreover, I find it beneficial (especially with creative, in the interest of making deadlines) to set aside a meeting time for this. A few hours, but the catch here is that this is the limitation of input. In order to move forward, we can’t sit and discuss a creative possibility over a certain limit. This limit forces constraints upon the discussion, and therefore ensures that results will be generated.

Directly following this step, is the outline of tasks, milestones, and resources projections. The important step here, is a consideration towards the systemic nature of a creative project. This systemic factor is why there is a project manager. If something were to change in the finance aspect of things, or a delivery date, then this will have a rippling effect throughout the project plan. Berkin was right when he said “make sure that they always map to each other” in reference to the deliverables, resources, and overall plan.

Email suggestions to matunga4@yahoo.com.