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.