...when 140 characters are not enough

Jennifer stealing my dessert

Jilli is updating her facebook profile to let everyone know that she is getting ready to get married.

Almost gone but had to take a picture of the pork barbecue, potato  salad, coleslaw, and cornbread at jacks barbeque in nashville tennessee. On our way to see Jilli in Pensacola Florida.

Thesis and argument
While these attributes of generating new media objects provide a higher level of efficiency and give end-users some creative license to make choices, this model of authorship is not mutually exclusive to new media. A historical perspective of artistic creation, cultural changes, and the dynamic influence of electronic and digital media properties help us to understand how we have developed this logic of selection.

Source of evidence
Manovich traces the historical evolution of art, music, and video creation to provide evidence of how electronic and digital mediums allow for the generation of new objects through the synthesis of pre-existing ones. For example, Manovich describes how the electronic music synthesizers became devices that gave the operator the ability to generate new sounds through the modification of the frequency and amplitude of an existing signal. He goes on to provide further proof of this by examining how digital images, video, and web pages have followed a similar path.

Analytical/Research Methodology
Manovich has used this historical perspective to support the notion that the substantial reduction in the ability to create new objects from scratch is a natural logic of selection, resulting in a new form of control for the end user. He supports this argument by giving evidence of how this approach was used with old media in the production of magic lantern slide shows where the authors selected pre-existing slides in order to put together a presentation. Further, Manovich gives examples of numerous archives of analog old media such as photographs, movie clips and audio recordings. The characteristics of new media technology has allowed this to be standardized, automated, made modular, and integrated into our computer-based culture.

Discursive context
In essence, Manovich is providing practical examples of how the unique characteristics of new media have contributed to the rapid evolution of the logic of selection in the creation of objects. He helps us to understand that so much of our existing media is based upon the modification of an existing signal.

For example, something as simple as having a telephone conversation is grounded in the conversion of our analog voice wave signal into an electronic object, which in turn may be converted into a digital object and then resulting in a reversal of the process on the listener’s end. While we may not fully appreciate the richness of these qualities on a superficial level, these examples help us understand one very important characteristic of electronic media - it does not have a singular identity. We can quickly see how this helps us recognize the relationship to the variability characteristic of new media, allowing “users” to become “authors” when a listener chooses to adjust the volume buttons on their phone. When we take into consideration the introduction of digital media, the level of variability is increased exponentially. This increase provides more choices. A new media object can now be represented in numerous versions and incarnations. These representations are determined by the choices and devices the users select.

It is fitting that Manovich selected the modern DJ as a representative example of an author in our current culture that embodies the characteristics of selecting and varying existing elements into new and rich artistic forms.

While Manovich has focused his attention on the positive characteristics and rewards of the logic of selection, there are many new factors for consideration and greater degrees of complexity that challenge those who are responsible for producing new media such as website content and software applications because of the newly generated power of authorship that is attributed the end-users. Many leaders and organizations do not understand the existence of these characteristics found in new media. As a result they struggle in their efforts because they have not included the logic of selection into their old methods and processes.

These examples given by Manovich in this section of his book provide a contextual understanding of the historical and natural development process that has led us to the logic of selection in our current new media culture.

This is the fourth sub-section of the Literature Review section for my Capstone project.

Here is a listing of links to the previous capstone project posts:

• Capstone Project: Part 1 - Abstract
• Capstone Project: Part 2 - Introduction
• Capstone Project: Part 3 - Approach and methodology
• Capstone Project: Part 4 - Disruptive Innovation
• Capstone Project: Part 5 - The Design of Business
• Kristian Andersen - Brand Experience Design (posted previously and incorporated into Capstone project)

Design Expertise

Another book I started reading is "Design Expertise" by Kees Dorst and Bryan Lawson (Lawson and Dorst 2009). Dorst and Lawson note that they believe design is a complex collection of skills that anyone has the ability to learn. Further, talented designers rely on skills, knowledge and understanding.They point out that we are still in the preliminary stages of defining design expertise and this book could not even have been written a few years ago.

As is expected, it is necessary to define some of the fundamental terms so as to reduce confusion and find some common ground before going deeper. Interestingly, Dorst and Lawson choose to not define the term "design" outright due to its “multifaceted nature” and the wide variety of design disciplines. Rather, they attempt to develop an integrated understanding of what constitutes design by looking at the design process from several different perspectives. It is their intention to construct a composite that will be pieced together, resulting in an accurate definition. It is interesting that they note this is the same approach we (designers) typically use to understand our own design problems.

Dorst and Lawson state that design thinking is not one way of thinking. It has been called multidisciplinary by some and others have gone as far as calling the design discipline "transdisciplinary" (Blevis and Stolterman 2008). Designers employ analytical and creative thinking - not necessarily in sequence or in a linear fashion but rather in an integrated, almost simultaneous manner. We live between two worlds with one foot planted in the world of science and analysis while the other foot is firmly grounded in the creativity of the arts. We don't fit entirely within either one. We often find ourselves engaging in our own game of tug-of-war with our peers as some members of the design community try to become more like one discipline or the other. Yet, this balance serves us well in coming up with solutions to all types of "wicked" problems.

Designers focus their energies on the solution, not the problem. They approach problems as if there is no structure to the problem and do not attempt to analyze all the data. Rather, it is a fine balance between analysis and creativity. Experienced designers place constraints on themselves. Perhaps they will limit the amount of time to conduct analysis (research) before moving on to generating concepts and ideation.

As a result of this hybridization of disciplines found in design, designers are often misunderstood. Dorst and Lawson actually compare us to the platypus, an animal that many considered to be a hoax when it was first discovered. The platypus did not fit within the norms and standards that were then known to biologists. Fortunately, this didn't bother the platypus. They didn't know that they were an anomaly and a challenge to the scientific thinking of the day. They certainly didn't make any effort to change who they were in order to fit within the existing conventions. Perhaps we as designers can learn a few lessons from the platypus. If we do, we might find those in other fields less resistant to accepting our authenticity.

Dorst and Lawson identify five key skills of design: formulating, representing, moving, evaluating and managing. They clarify the meaning of each of these skills, relying heavily on work done by Nigel Cross. These skills are situated within four “levels” of design: project, process, practice, and profession. Finally, they identify three types of thinking employed in the design process: convention-based, situation-based, and strategy-based. These three models are used as the foundation for exploring the nature of design expertise, identifying a proposed path to follow towards the development of design expertise and exploration of possible effective methods for teaching the design student.