BOOK REVIEW<\/p>\n
Kathryn Moore, Overlooking the Visual: Demystifying the Art of
\nDesign<\/i> (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2010).<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Gareth Doherty, Graduate School of Design, Harvard
\nUniversity, Cambridge, Mass.<\/p>\n
In this mesmerising book, Kathryn Moore turns traditional
\nassumptions about design, and design education, upside down and
\ninside out. Moore tells us that “a radical redefinition of the
\nrelationship between the senses and intelligence is long overdue”
\n(1), and not just demolishes existing perceptions, but through
\nthe 254-page book, offers a vision for the re-conceptualization,
\nand teaching, of design.<\/p>\n
Moore tells us it all went wrong with the Enlightenment when an
\novert rationalism became dominant, relegating the sensual,
\nincluding visual, knowledge to the sidelines (17). “The crux of
\nthe problem,” says Moore, “is that an intractable rationalist
\nparadigm dominates our thinking to such a degree we no longer
\ngive it much thought” (6). Materiality becomes separated from
\nintelligence but, Moore argues, to consciously adopt a
\nspecifically sensual approach serves to acknowledge this
\ndifference and reinforce the binary. Influenced by philosophers
\nsuch as Gilbert Ryle, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Rorty, Moore
\nsuggests that in order to re-evaluate the way we think about
\ndesign, designers need to engage with ideas at all stages of the
\ndesign process and that artistic practice needs to engage with
\n“space, words, shadow, light and form” (9).<\/p>\n
We cannot understand theory without practice and vice versa, and
\nthis integration of the theoretical and practical is inherent
\nwithin the book itself where copious illustrations and design
\nprojects are as every bit integral to the book’s argument than
\nthe text itself. The sequence of images of a sublime sea remind
\nus that the sea has smell, color, and memories. Just like the
\nvisual. Part of Moore’s argument is that the visual is not just
\nabout what we see but is itself a political and emotional
\nconstruct. Through eight highly engaging chapters, with titles
\nsuch as “The sensory interface and other myths and legends,”
\n“Teaching the unknowable,” and “Objectivity without neutrality,”
\nMoore outlines a vision for landscape architectural education
\nwith design at its core.<\/p>\n
The book is dense and theoretical, but well written and lucid. It
\nfits within a growing literature on the anthropology of design,
\nand a movement in design away from the design of objects and
\nprocesses to the understanding of context and how and why we
\ndesign. Moore has a lot in common with artists like Olafur
\nEliasson, who sees the political ramifications of the emotions,
\nand anthropologists like Albena Yavena, who recently published an
\nethnography on the design process of the Office for Metropolitan
\nArchitecture. Not alone does Moore outline the problems with
\ndesign education but proposes alternative models. This active
\nagency of the designer that comes through in the book is part of
\nthe reason this book, or chapters thereof, should be essential
\nreading for design educators, and students, and indeed for anyone
\ninterested in processes of design.<\/p>\n
Kathryn Moore is a Professor at the Birmingham Institute of Art
\nand Design, Birmingham City University, UK. Moore is past
\nPresident of the Landscape Institute, the UK representative of
\nIFLA, and an experienced educator and practitioner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BOOK REVIEW Kathryn Moore, Overlooking the Visual: Demystifying the Art of Design (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2010). Reviewed by Gareth Doherty, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. In this mesmerising book, Kathryn Moore turns traditional assumptions about design, and design education, upside down and inside out. Moore tells us that “a radical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[42,179,808],"class_list":["post-24776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words","tag-design","tag-learning","tag-theory"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-6rC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}