This week I read some more books about design. Because I realized in my previous bibliography log, I was still lacking some literature from the design department, and I managed to add some more literature related to design and culture into my bibliography list.
The book pictured above by Penny Sparke, talked about design as a modern concept, design developed as a direct result of the expansion of the market for consumer goods and the democratization of taste. It also talked about the impact of technology on craft and design. The new means of producing goods caused the work of the traditional craftsmen to become fragmented into a number of new, differentiated tasks. We, as designers were then uniquely placed to express modernity in the contexts of both production and consumption.
That seemingly simple modification represented an important shift from the working process of the craftsman, who depended upon tacit skills, to that of the designer, who needed to engage in rational planning. The combination of advanced technology and advanced consumer culture provided a challenge to designers, whose role was to package products such that the technology and culture interface was appropriately expressed.
Emphasis was placed on the importance of providing an interface between users and the world of materials. Writing about the way in which designers were needed to perform the task and to make culture out of technology. Paolo Antonelli claimed that the best contemporary objects are those whose presence expresses history and contemporaneity. While at the same time speaking a global language that carries memory and intelligence of the future. 
Another interesting book that I found this time, is by Ezio Manzini, that talked about design as social innovation.
Three contextual challenges define the nature of many design problems today. While many design problems are at a simpler level, these affect the bigger picture that is also linked to complex social, mechanical, or technical systems. Three issues one of which is “projects or products that must meet the expectations of many organizations, stakeholders, producers, and users. Today, the Peranakan crafts do not fulfill these criteria.
Example of the slow food movement in Italy. Consider ourselves as co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production. In other words, it proposed a new way of looking at food consumption, but not only that, driven by the same basic motivation, it has operated on the supply and valorization of food products that otherwise would have gradually disappeared, as they were not economically viable in the economics of the dominant agro-industrial system. In practical terms, it has cultivated food awareness on the demand side, and on the supply side, it has addressed farmers, breeders, etc., and backed them by connecting them to each other and to their market.
It is a very interesting example where I can totally learn from and apply to my Peranakan culture. Also according to this book, in order to create social innovation, the role of designers is to participate with their skills and abilities and with their culture in the construction of action platforms and sensor systems that give people, the social groups taking part, a greater possibility of being what they want to be and doing what they want to do. In other words, it should give them a greater possibility of defining and putting into practice their own life projects and doing so in an active and collaborative way. Put people in the position of learning how to build collaboratively. And all this is possible today because we live in a highly connected world.
Bibliography check:
Fischel, Anna, et al. Design: the Definitive Visual Guide. DK Publishing, 2021.
Isar, Yudhishthir Raj, et al. Heritage, Memory & Identity. SAGE Publications, 2016.
Lee, Peter. Sarong Kebaya: Peranakan Fashion in an Interconnected World, 1500-1950. Asian Civilisations Museum, 2014
Manzini, Ezio, and Rachel Coad. Design, When Everybody Designs An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation. The MIT Press, 2015.
Rowley, Sue. Craft and Contemporary Theory. Allen & Unwin, 1997.
Schafer, D. Paul. The Age of Culture. Rock's Mills Press, 2014.
Schein, Edgar H. Organizational Culture and Leadership. Wiley, 2017.
Sparke, Penny. An Introduction to Design and Culture: 1900 to the Present. Routledge, 2013.
Timberg, Scott. Culture Crash: the Killing of the Creative Class. Yale University Press, 2016.
Velayutham, Selvaraj. Responding to Globalization: Nation, Culture, and Identity in Singapore. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007
Wise, J. Macgregor. Cultural Globalization: a User's Guide. Blackwell, 2008
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