beginning of evolution first post industrialization aesthetic movement ... method 2... · countless design developments such as the Deutscher Werkbund, the Bauhaus, the Constructivism,

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first

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t in

dust

rial

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ion

aest

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ovem

ent

futuristic

religious inspiration

rationalism

organicity

reaction to rationalism

minimal

anti figurativism

reaction to mass production

ephemeron

mass production

inorganic /geometric

ethnicity

virtuality

Egiptian

Simplicity

Barroque

Chinoiserie

Gothic

Classic

Virtual minimal

Costructivism

Neo Artisanship

Deutscher

Werkbund

De Stijl

Bauhaus

Art Deco

Organic

Streamlining

High

Tech

International Style

Organic

Regency

Louis Philippe

Aesthetic Movement

Art Nouveau

Neo Classic

Neo Gothic

Pop

Radical Design

Post-Modernism Memphis

Fun Design

Arts&Crafts

Rococò

Neo Rococò

Neo Gothic

Chinoiserie

pre industrialization aesthetics

post industrialization limbo

post industrialization easthetics

Arts&Crafts influence range

pre industrialization flux

Reaction to mass production

post industrialization flux

The end of a phase

The already described phase shift theory by Henry Adams finds in aesthetics a very intriguing eco, the decay of old artisanship methods and technologies and the almost two centuries long cultural limbo that followed this rupture. Caused by the beginning of industrialization, the collapse of Design was characterized by one hundred and eighty years of movement revivals and poorly justified design foreign influences. No new aesthetic or movement throve in Europe till artisans understood that Design should not be killed by industrialization ,instead, fueled by it. Arts&Crafts, a very late reaction to the phase shift, started a new era on design, triggering the development of countless design developments such as the Deutscher Werkbund, the Bauhaus, the Constructivism, and all the movements that followed it.It is a great example of both, the effects of an environmental change that in aesthetics follows a pattern similar the biological corresponding phenomenon, and the extreme spontaneity of human evolution. Although most of what men design is done for a clear and well defined purpose, there is still an astonishing obtusity and nearsightedness in the understanding of large scale phenomena.

Method

Bioledge A Model for Everything A Method for Design|

Tiffany-style Table Lamp. The aesthetics that took Design into mass production

Replica from Rejuvenation

379

pre industrialization aesthetics

post industrialization limbo

post industrialization easthetics

Arts&Crafts influence range

pre industrialization flux

Reaction to mass production

post industrialization flux

futuristic

Egiptian

Simplicity

ChinoiserieChinoiserie

Classic

Virtual minimal

Costructivism

Deutscher

Werkbund

De Stijl

Bauhaus

Art Deco

Streamlining

High

Tech

International Style

Pop

Radical Design

Post-Modernism Memphis

Regency

Neo Classic

Fun Design

Arts&Crafts

Barroque

Gothic

Neo Artisanship

Organic OrganicNeo Gothic Louis Philippe

Aesthetic Movement

Art NouveauNeo Gothic

Rococò

Neo Rococò

religious inspiration

rationalism

organicity

reaction to rationalism

minimal

anti figurativism

reaction to mass production

ephemeron

mass production

inorganic /geometric

ethnicity

virtuality

The cyclicality of aesthetics

The whole design evolution is based on the cyclical rise and descending of phenomena. In aesthetics, the inspiration in shapes of nature alternated with geometric inorganic inspiration seems to happen cyclically, like inspiring and expiring or climatic seasons. The way those phenomena happen however, with the overlap of a larger cycle as the phase change from cultural to industrial, the cycles' duration and mutation may change. Simplifying drastically and purposely the huge complexity of early events: The development of human culture, mathematics, philosophy, language and architecture, started early with Egyptians, Sumerians, Greek and Romans reflected in aesthetics a desire to build from nature up, reorganizing the world anthromorphically. The development of structures like pyramids, columns or the Stonehenge reflect that intention. The huge cycle ended with the extremely religious guided period in Europe, the cultural retrocession called Dark Age, characterized by the throwback of technological and social advances. The reflection on aesthetics is a strong reference to natural and organic shapes. The repetition of these oscillations on design occurred later over and over, always in smaller time scale, again influenced by external events, as the already described phase shift. The Neoclassicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modernism, Postmodernism are examples of this cyclicality.The branching of cultural traitsThis is probably the most obvious of all large phenomena, the recycling and development of cultural and technological traits recombining among themselves and creating a number of descendents that diverge from the common ancestor. In western culture, the phenomenon is also characterized by a shorter lifespan, or rather, a faster mutation rate of the movements. The descendents tend to last unaltered for a shorter period of time, compared to the ancestor, like branches of a tree that are increasingly narrower and shorter, but I a increasing number.

Method

Bioledge A Model for Everything A Method for Design|

Dodge Tomahawk 2003 (concept)

Ross Lovegrove’s Ridon (concept)

380

Barroque

Gothic Neo GothicNeo Gothic

Rococò

Neo Rococò

religious inspiration

futuristic

Classic

Virtual minimal

Costructivism

Deutscher

Werkbund

De Stijl

Bauhaus

Art Deco

Streamlining

High

Tech

International Style

Pop

Radical Design

Post-Modernism Memphis

Fun Design

religious inspiration

rationalism

organicity

reaction to rationalism

anti figurativism

reaction to mass production

ephemeron

Egiptian

Simplicity

ChinoiserieChinoiserie

Regency

Neo Classic

Arts&Crafts

minimal

mass production

inorganic /geometric

ethnicity

virtuality

Neo Artisanship

Organic OrganicLouis Philippe

Aesthetic Movement

Art Nouveau

The death of a concept

Early in human culture, the development of artifacts and buildings with religious inspiration guided the aesthetics of basically all human groups. This motivation expressed clearly in the whole gothic and baroque art, architecture and Design aesthetics ended along with the pre-industrialization phase. Evidently, religion may still inspire artists, architects and designers even today, but for generalization's sake, the religious inspiration as an aesthetic trait of a western culture doesn't exist anymore. It might as well be the under-the-line part of a cycle curve that would eventually reemerge as a future rebirth or revival, like the anti-industrial / anti-mass-production design aesthetics that reemerged in the end of the twentieth century with the new plumage of asymmetry, incidentallity and formal “chaos”. The overall phenomenonThe structure of the timeline itself gives us an idea of what it looks like graphically a master phenomenon, an accelerating cyclical branching with recurrent development of mutations and testing of those mutation, provoking either the death of one element or its thriving, and branching into new mutations.

Method

Bioledge A Model for Everything A Method for Design|

Reliquary with Christ in majesty and saints, vermicule pattern decoration.

Champlevé enamel over gilt copper

Limoges (Limousin, France), late 12th century

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