Abstract
Presenting the experience of a design object according to the Heideggerian and Husserlian notions of Intentionality, Reduction, Thingness, and World, generates possibilities within which the relationship between the viewer, the objects themselves and their contextual framework, becomes intensely personal, dynamic and complex. For example, a Ming Dynasty porcelain bowl in a Giovanni Bellini painting of 1529, is first perceived by the viewer as an artefact to be looked at as an ‘Old Master’ painting with all the theories and preconceptions associated with such a context, the work of art. In fact, the bowl is an item of Chinese Ming dynasty porcelain produced in the fifteenth century for export purposes and intended to be sold to the Persian market for use as a serving bowl, a design object, for a pilaf or stew and therefore originally belonging to the world of equipment. Additionally, the bowl is the first representation of Chinese porcelain in Western painting. By altering presentational context and allowing designed objects to become able to move back and forth between their worlds of fine art, design, temporal location, and equipment, the possibility of defining relationships between viewer, artefact and context becomes increasingly problematic. This paper explores how the presentation of objects with a phenomenological contexture may be adopted to unlock previously unexplored histories within designed objects.
Presenters
Anthony RayworthPresident, Design Education, Commercialisation of design knowledge, International Decorative Art & Design Association (IDADA), United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Phenomenology, Experience, Perception, Context, Design, Artefact, World, Painting, Object, Intentionality
