Artifacts and Inspiration
Asynchronous Session
Consideration of the Aesthetic Value of Design: Somaesthetics and Design Products View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mei-Hsin Chen
Within this discourse, I explore the nuances of aesthetic appreciation within the realm of design. While conventional views often emphasize an external focus, I turn attention to somaesthetics, which focuses on the embodied experience of the appreciator. Through this lens, I propose a holistic framework for understanding how individuals engage with design objects by considering the intricacies of their somatic experiences. By exploring this dual perspective, I provide insights into the dynamics of appreciating design objects by highlighting the importance of the subject's bodily engagement. Drawing on arguments and examples, I illuminate how our understanding of somatic encounters with design products is deeply intertwined with the relational nature of these artifacts. Ultimately, I seek to demonstrate the practical implications of these findings for both design theory and practice, highlighting the transformative potential they hold for enhancing our understanding and application of design principles.
AI Tools in Participatory Design: A Case Study of New Chinese Style Semiotic Analysis View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Xinxi Liu, Yuan Liu
The emergence of the "New Chinese style" heralds changes in lifestyle and consumption habits. Exploring the symbolization of it helps to expand the idea and role of design under today's fashion system. In this research, through the intervention of creative AI tools and participatory design, we investigate how to help designers develop New Chinese styles of fashion and symbols effectively. As a result, the typical symbolic keywords of New Chinese style clothing mainly affected leading designers' decision-making. We further discuss the intervention of AI tools as if it could provide more involvement and initiative in design education. Based on the interview and questionnaire, the typical semiotics keywords of New Chinese clothing analyzed in this study have a good leading and guiding role for both teams of designers. The use of AI tools in the design process, on the one hand, provides designers with more inspiration for creative design solutions. On the other hand, it accelerates the designers' efficiency from the creative process to the final creative design solutions. Furthermore, in the context of the meta-universe, the intervention of AI tools may help learners understand their ideas through visible proposals. We look forward to deepening this research in the future and exploring the possibility of involving learners from non-design backgrounds.
Culturally-situated Emojis as a Non-verbal Communication Created for Naxi Society, Li Jiang, China View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yun Ji
The Naxi ethnic group is one of the ancient ethnic groups in China with the richest cultural legacy, comparatively the most distinctive cultures, and comparatively the most endangered cultural characteristics. Although there are many culturally distinctive aspects of the Naxi community, most of them are at risk of Sinicization and are currently on the edge of extinction. According to Capella and Palmer(1989), the meta-communicative value of non-verbal cues is higher than verbal cues in receiving information during conversation. As for efficiency, non-verbal signals amount to a more effective way of communicating than verbal signals. Accordingly, emojis as non-verbal signals on the Internet have been dramatically popular globally. This study explores the situation of usage of non-verbal communication within the Naxi community, the habits of members within the Naxi community use emoji to interact online, the reason why creating a new set of emoji for the Naxi community is of great significance based on semi-structured interviews. In this study, exclusive emoji designs for the Naxi community are initially developed. The pictorial properties of emoji can facilitate the acquisition of more Naxi cultural knowledge by the general public, regardless of whether they are in-group or out-group members. In addition to its extraordinary disseminating capacity, akin to a swift vehicle, the Naxi culture can go viral on a global scale. This is the first study on the emoji designed for Naxi culture that contains culturally specific elements such as the Dongba Funerary Scroll, featured costumes for women, etc.
Shifting Formats: Representation of Light in Spatial Design View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gillian Treacy
This paper proposes an exploration of formats in spatial design contexts for expressing and representing light. Lighting design demands careful reflection of architectural tectonics, materiality, texture and loci of each architectural composition in relation to the consequential perception of the lit space. The study provides insights into design studio pedagogy to support the advancement of representational tools for engaging with light and communicating lighting effects in architectural settings. Through this lens, the research focuses on the learning methods and outcomes of groups of design student participants. Emerging dialogues and visualisations challenged the representation and communication of lit atmosphere through critical investigation of; the rationale for dimensional shifts between formats in architectural visual expression (2D – 3D – 2D), translation of meaning between formats and boundaries of perception and imagination defined by the selected format. Students explored both digital and hand tools to express light, journeying from hand-drawn charcoal renders to AI prompts, moving between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional representations. As a visual narrative, this study aims to support designers and educators in reimagining design outcomes by examining the dimensional shift between each format and tool. Through shifting formats, the participants had to re-evaluate their ideas and renew their position of passive observer to immersed occupant as they worked between modes. This study highlights that the exploration of format in expression and communication of ideas has value to the designer, by inviting critical thinking and provoking design thinking out of familiar territories and beyond our assumed boundaries.
