For my proposed reading submission, I want to review the book “The Genius of Design” by Penny Sparke; 2009. What I enjoyed the most about this book was the part named “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” for many reasons. When the subject of the space moon walk in 1969 was introduced I thought it was interesting because it was said to be the quintessential technological achievement in mankind’s history that was supposed to lead the way to new technological achievements to the future. Robot house keepers, jetpacks & routine flights into space for a day of leisure. However, real life did not pan out to be so. The economic downturn in the early 70s that followed, caused people to rethink their materialistic attitude they had toward future innovations & made their thinking more practical. Designers in particular, had to constantly re-evaluate their roles with shifting economic crests & troughs. The 80s brought back the economy’s strength, once again causing designers roles to change with the times. Designers often had to deal with problems of over utilization & rehabilitated their roles to face problems like design’s social, cultural & ethical roles. I think this book gives interesting perspectives on a designer’s ever changing roles with the world around us. Especially in these economic times when peoples sense of practically in terms of design affects us designers directly in the products people consume.
The design of the first picture reminds me of my country’s plan of building one of the best library in the world, Im Indonesian and this plan should be installed on Trisakti University, but, this still be a consideration whether this library is really needed or just wasted on its future. Green library, is the plan name, but i am not quite sure that this library’s technology will be proven at short-term, according to my country’s financial condition.
Thank you for your comment & for reading my blog. It would be nice to see more forward thinking in terms of conceptual design, R & D as well as sustainability towards humanities future. I hope that the people in power are able to see the larger picture when it comes to our future.
This design is incredible! You most certainly know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Great job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!