Our Design Theory class continues to feature spirited debate. I thought these lectures were fascinating, especially Brian Cantwell Smith's talk about a new way of looking at the world of computation that doesn't include the view that computers are inherently discrete or digital. Meaning that even though we like to think of computers as being built out of these interchangeable (homogenous) and binary (this or that) 0s and 1s, they actually have more detail than that.
Mr Cantwell Smith goes on to argue that this new fluidity is applicable to binary ideas and ways of classifying the rest of the world. I though this really resonated with the way our discipline of graphic design is going. Graphic design is more and more these days meshing and merging with other fields. It's not longer so easy to say that a specific set of skills or ways of working defines what a graphic designer is. (or other designers for that matter) To quote the current AIGA national president Sean Adams, designers these days are becoming "media promiscuous" jumping from print to web to experience design, and hybrids of what used to be discrete divides in the practice of graphic design.
One of the most interesting things about Mr. Cantwell Smith's new way of looking at things is that it is both critical of the way we see the world now, but is also incredibly optimistic. It's the kind of criticism that opens up conversation rather than closing it off. Or as Mark Owens would say, "it's the warm embrace."
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