Industrialization? Urbanization? Globalization? Is it about Efficiency? Expediency? Introducing Scientific, Medical, Technological Solutions? Is it about Modernization, a blind belief in Science and Technology? Has Humankind been able to improve living conditions or the environment? Is it Progress, when the human biology is being ignored, even crippled, when all ecological connections with the environment are […]
In Words
Aesthetics:
Not Value Collisions, but an Invigorating Humanistic and Democratic Value Dialogue “If an ox had hands and could paint a picture, his god would look like an ox.”—Xenophanes of Colophon Aesthetics: ‘Pure’ and ‘Absolute’ or ‘Obsolete’. If one were to take Kenneth Clark’s analysis of John Ruskin’s nineteenth century concepts about art and aesthetics and […]
A Memory of Human Survival with Dignity
In the mid-seventies I was director of the Institute of Design in Chicago. I started in fall, when swarms of migrating birds would negotiate the city with buildings mostly constructed with glass-curtain walls. Around Crown Hall, the design and architecture studios, every morning one could find hundreds of bird carcasses. Students, staff and teachers, would […]
Indulgences
Got a call from Benedict XVI, you know “good old Joe, but call me Al, Ratzinger”, formerly John Paul’s second Attack-Rottweiler, now Papa. He wondered if you didn’t need some earthquake insurance for the trip to Italy. He mumbled something about indulgences. I asked, “Do you mean beer?” He explained: “Not in Italy. No, no. […]
Psychological Testing
Background PSYCHOLOGICAL tests aren’t magic, so let’s get that clear right at the beginning. They assess and evaluate information that you give to the examiner, which is why the formal name of psychological testing is psychological assessment. You give this information either in the form of answers to interview questions or as answers on paper—or […]
Rip Van Winkler
The various roles of this story play in the shadow of the complex dynamics of their time, as collected in the chronicles of several German cities in the mid-20th century. Back then, there was a simple, average, basically contented young man named Rip Van Winkler. He was a good neighbor, who was always obedient and […]
Płakowice Castle, My birthplace
I was born in the village of Plagwitz, close to Löwenberg, in Germany, now Lwówek Śląski in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship in Poland. Members of my family were evacuated in February of 1945 to escape the onslaught of Russian troops, ending up and finding refuge with in-laws at the Dutch/German border. The Löwenberg area became […]
Music as a Guide
Music is full of phenomena which make up the construction of various styles and philosophical intentions of pieces when composed. So, why is it not at all possible to find parallels between the aural phenomena of music composition and the visual phenomena of typographic design, just to break away from the monotony of Bauhaus or […]
Openness and Closedness
If one prefers not to copy or plagiarize someone’s else’s concepts or work, still, for the emerged frames of perceptions, which make attempts to freeze the understanding, conclusion or position, one is obliged to learn how to translate the wonders of today into positive realities for tomorrow. About how easy it was for a young […]
Is “Meta” Better than Reality?
Can Life be Better without Reality?An “off the top” Response Unfortunately, I will always have to start at the beginning: Design has its intellectual roots in science and art and the daily human encounter with nature (and its physical/social environment/ecology). Otherwise, design is an empty vessel. It has no specific hold on knowledge because it […]