picture from : http://greggsutter.com/mt/archives/manWomanControlPanel.jpgThis is the photo Frank showed me.
This morning I changed a large scale my research plan before having the tutorial with Frank. It seems like shifting to a different subject, but the fact is every idea that have stayed in my mind during the last 3 months all joined together naturally. I guess this is a good sign.
My interest now is narrowed down to the notion of "simplicity". This is the first comment I received from Tracey, our course director, during the presentation of our work on the first day. This is the aesthetic quality that I appreciate most, as well as something that is very apparent in my design work.
After reading the analysis of the beauty and the sublime in Kant's critique of judgment, I thought it would be interesting to look at the notion of simplicity from a cross-cultural perspective - something that I have been wanting to do since the beginning, but just don't know how to.
Simplicity, for us from the East, is related to a whole system of thinking. For the west, I don't know quite how to get to the core but it seems, from my recent reading about Modernism, Dadaism and Avant-Garde, that there is also a tendency towards simplicity, but through a very different approach. So I might examine the notion of simplicity, from how it is represented in art and design, to look at the different way of thinking. I might conclude my paper by discussing the nature of cross-cultural communication.
During the tutorial, I think I had a quite positive feedback from Frank. It seems to me he also found this subject interesting enough. But he reminds me some very important points:
1. I have only 3000 words to write, so be realistic! Narrow it down!
2. I need to think about how to visualize my research in my practice. He mentioned information design, or using photos to make comparisons. Ashleigh also suggested that I can present my research in different ways. Great advises!
3. Frank's last remark: are they really different? or are they actually the same thing? Um, I shall find the answer in my research.
I also thought of a title for my research, something like: Simplicity is sophisticated....
Maybe this is a good subject to do in a country which is known for its sophisticated culture...:P
