11 Ocak 2007

EVERY DIFFERENCE IS THE UNDERLYING CONDITION FOR THE NEXT ONE

Save to say for the spiders and other similar creatures that set up decoys etc. to catch their prays to feed, the action of “running” has somewhat a hesitant meaning / purpose for all creatures that live in the wild world: to hunt or to avoid becoming a pray. One and only rule to stay alive, with regards to feeding for the ones who do not know how to use tools, and with regards to staying alive for the ones who do not have a chance to hide away, is to run! Ironically, the said act of ‘running’ was (is) very much the same thing when it comes to human beings, too; with similar resulting effects, when considered in connection with the times during which no technology is produced (or in terms of today not possessed / used).
Like all living creatures, the brain of primitive (or modern) man, which is furnished / equipped with the ability of “being aware of his environment”, not only learns through his trials and experiments that his not-so-sufficiently-quick, weak legs are bound to lose each and every single race run, but he also comprehends that just hiding himself away without doing nothing extra (or unable to the anything at all) shall inevitably pave way for the paradox of “dying of hunger”. Human being, realizing that he is neither able to imitate the ones who are stronger and faster then himself nor could he ever manage to match up to their speeds –except for a very short while perhaps-, then realizes that he must be or become “different” and thus starts the process of innovation that would last beyond his own eternity; he makes tools and hunts by using / utilizing these tools.
Designing (/ innovation) is an act of reaction –whose sole purpose is ‘to exist / to remain existing’ that is valid even for today- that is solely geared at ‘creating the difference’; it is a subconscious resistance, a facet circle, displayed by human being against humanity’s natural paradox (/ lameness) that would never end: every difference is in fact the underlying condition for the next one. However, for the human being, who has been falling short (and even shorter and shorter) on the natural happiness that is brought about by the existence as a result of each and every difference, it is so expected that each and every design which is aimed with a view of fighting for existence / to remain existing (?), must either possess within itself or along with it / outside it an other difference that would bring about the happiness and (even specific to persona) a pleasure providing quality, or locked into the purpose of brining about a mere happiness and hence solely produced to serve that purpose. And, right at this point, there comes the excessive state of the act of design; the design (with its action, designers and product) goes into such a process that in turn results in a relatively simple but nevertheless (its) complex (ity has been resolved through and by the aid of well advanced computer software) process that feeds itself each and every time, and that is solely specific (but still an industrial) to itself (product) and to its designer (customer) and only competing with itself. In that excessive stage of the design, there are two designers who are tied to / dependent upon one another and who are transformable to each other: Stylist who is in the position of being the real owner (and creates the product in a form / style … he/she wishes along with his/her order) of the product (customer / user/ end user) and, a professionally educated designer of an industrial products who prepares that product in an industrial manner (but specific to person; the stylist). Without a doubt, if should the said product (not at all simple) may possess a quality that transforms the energy, then the production stage / planning is brought into life (into existence) by a (generally) mechatronics (or by a simpler engineering) team which includes the


designer of industrial products, and in such an implementation / application (not necessarily implemented throughout the initial stages though), a stylist can only manage to implement his/her own style / form (only partially) on the product only after a certain stage. For example, in a simple product that has no connection with the energy, though a stylist (the end user in other words) may have a chance to define the actual form (of the product) as a whole when he/she requires a pair of glasses that would fit into the structure of his/her nose bone be produced, he/she cannot have a similar chance when it comes to a compound product like a cell phone that is able to transform the energy. Nevertheless, the hopes, for the next few decades, have still been built upon an ideal where all types of people (people that are born / created with a natural ability to design) for all types of products, may individually act as a stylist for himself/herself by participating in the stages of design starting from the very first / initial stage.
Human being, despite having managed to resolve the contradiction of running (/to get caught) or hiding away (/to die of hunger) that is imposed upon all living creatures by the nature and superseded all his competitors who are much stronger then him in physical terms, still seems unable to set himself free from his existential paradox: he starts his struggle against the other human beings; against the ones who are different than him (his rivals) in order to remain alive. But there are no winners in this race of superiority; human being cannot win over human being –and himself / his fate-. Plastic and other chemical waste that mix into the food chain, ever growing hole in the ozone layer as a direct result of air contamination, irrational waste of water resources through artesian wells… now, the human being, with all the precious resources that he mindlessly wasted while making / implementing his plans made for the purposes of individual or collective goals, has been destroying the nature; the habitat that made us what we are today. And in consideration of the foregoing, the human being is now paying the price by becoming a stranger to himself which has been manifesting itself in forms of various physical illnesses, such as; obesity, bad cholesterol, heart and coronary diseases etc. brought about by fast and manmade / fatty diet or, mental illnesses like insomnia and depression. Despite being more vulnerable than even the most basic creatures in sheer physical terms, the aforementioned process of becoming a stranger, which in fact manifests itself in a manner as arrogant as to hold running competitions at sports fields or swimming competitions at swimming pools, has now reached such extend that even an action, as basic as the running, is nowadays executed upon electrically operated running bands (at home or at sports halls, as individuals) at a cost of making mockery of the very nature that human being has evolved from!
I’m afraid that dissatisfaction / unhappiness / searches of human being shall still be going on in future / well into the future… even at times when every single human being (having being born / created / equipped as a designer) would have already become his/her own stylist in industry. However, looking ahead from where we are now, it is undoubtedly obvious that being and/or becoming a designer of industrial products is the most attractive and satisfactory profession for the future to come.


Özlem (Yan) Devrim
Designer of Industrial Products
Marmara Üniversitesi, 1997