UNITS |
Elective: 3 Credits |
Understanding the Designed Landscape as a Social, Cultural, and Political Expression
“… even though we gather together and look in the same direction at the same instant, we will not—cannot—see the same landscape”
D. W. Meinig
People change the land. These changes both reflect and are influenced by context. Designers both shape, and are shaped by, their environment. This seminar examines the designer / environment interaction and attempts to understand design as an expression of the complex interactions between designers and society. This exploration will focus on how land becomes place and how this transition is expressive of the physical, social, cultural and political context of the designers who orchestrated the transformation.
We will start by examining how one sees and experience the environment. How these experiences, biases, values and internalized preconceptions determine what is perceived, We will also examine how these factors affect design and the way designers define and approach problems. The goal is to begin to more fully understand how external factors and individual and societal assumptions influence the way we approach and define design issues and, through this understanding, go beyond these barriers to creativity.
Some of the questions we will explore will include:
- What do we see?
- What do we assume?
- How do our assumptions affect our designs?
- How do our designs reveal our assumptions?
- How do our designs affect perceptions and behavior?
