Page 76 - Studio International - September 1968

CAS Occasional Papers Those students of design who are no longer prepared to
Paper 2 Flow charts, logical trees and algorithms for rules tolerate being buffeted by the philosophical bladders of
and regulations the Coldstream-McLuhan twins will wish to look be-
B N Lewis, I S Horabin and C P Gane yond the mirror-lined walls of the palace of art for some
HMSO 4s Od net help in Operation Bootstrap. For them, CAS papers 2
Paper 6 The elementary ideas of game theory and 6 are worth an incinerator full of those glossy
Maurice Preston and Alan Coddington picture books and other comic-cut characters at present
HMSO 3s 6d net sitting on exalted shelves.

Paper 2, Flow charts, logical trees and algorithms for rules
These papers are about choices and instruments and regulations, is about the design of some intellectual
for making choices in the process of doing things by tools and how they may be constructed to work effec-
design. tively. The authors are not typographers in the accepted
The emergence of design as a unifying discipline in sense of that word; their disciplines lie in psychology,
many areas of higher education is well known and cybernetics and management, and their concern in this
a substantial theoretical foundation has been laid for paper is with the frustration and confusion we all ex-
the development of patterns of thinking which extend perience when having to find the nub of complex pieces
across the boundaries of specialist areas of knowledge. of information which have been structured in the word-
Already the concept of design science is being explored. after-word, line-upon-line form of typographic prose.
Discussing this at the 1965 Design Method Symposium Their contention is, that by using the yes/no system
S A Gregory stated : 'In general the development of the of the mathematician's device known as an algorithm,
classical sciences has lead to the fragmentation of it is possible to design communication structures by
human experience and potentiality, although accom- means of which a wide range of mental and physical
panied by a deepened knowledge. Today the need is for tasks can be carried out with maximum efficiency and
the development of sciences covering the key inter- minimum effort. Apart from interest for the typogra-
disciplinary themes, of which design is one'. pher, whose delight is the organization of information
In comparison with these developments 'design' in in ways which make sense, the construction of algo-
colleges of art presents a totally different picture. Here rithms is a valuable means for developing analytical
the dominance of the practice of art over the methods powers and clear thinking about problems, and its place
and aims of design has denied tutors the chance even to in the preparation of material for machine computation
begin to develop a theoretical foundation for their work. is well known.

Ever since 1836 when 'design' education was first Paper 6,The elernentary ideas of game theory, deals with
instituted by the state to provide the skills needed for some basic concepts relating to the complex strategies
decorating fancy goods to boost British exports at a involved in decision-making. In this sense it may not be
time of decline in trade with Europe, art schools have of such immediate value to students as Paper 2, but,
been cut off from the mainstream of scientific and because doing things by design requires decisions to be
technological development, and design activity has weighed and made at every stage of the game, the paper
been frozen at the primitive level of craft practice can serve to show the place of more humble efforts in the
focused principally on the appearance of objects. At broader context of design as the business of managing
this level design operations can mean little more than affairs properly.
pattern making.
Furthermore, by riveting attention on the appearance Both papers will serve to indicate that when those
of things, art education has isolated itself from the rest responsible for design education cease to be mesmerized
of the world's interest in the nature of systems and the by the look of things and become concerned with the
relationship which exists between elements in systems. need to make systems work, the relationship between
This, more than any other single factor, is leaving art language and mathematics will become clearer and the
education buried in the debris of yesterday. place of these disciplines within the structure of design
Even now, when the inadequacies of the system are education will gradually emerge. When this happens
being revealed, the legacy of one hundred and thirty- design activity in colleges of art and design will be able
two years of mistaking the appearance for the essence to reach out to workers in other fields and so begin to
is confusing the issue. play a creative part in the development of a universal
A major misconception which arises from this confusion design philosophy.
is contained in the criticism that art education does not fit
students for work in industry.Whilst this criticism is
true in a limited sense, it obscures the real problem
in education which is not about acquiring specific
skills but about how best to develop in individuals the
attitudes and knowledge required in a period of radical
change in the operations and aims of society itself.
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