The luxury market and comedians have a lot in common. A previous pieces talked about comedians having a sense of hyper-observance of the world, they have a great grasp on reality; The Normal. The luxury owners are similar in that they also understand The Normal. They have to know normal so that they can know the Special. They pride themselves in knowing, understanding, and distinguishing from the norm. Comedians point out the ridiculousness of the Normal, luxury owners reject the Normal, Designers alter the Normal.
Like a newborn infant opening their eyes for the very first time, anyone who commits to becoming a designer must first learn to see Normal. Hyper-observation is the expert skill of a trained designer. They absorb the sensorial-landscape and can recite every detail they see like Jason Bourne. They can look at any human creation and tell you a story of how it came to be. Practicing to see the-way-things-are can help designer propose an alternate future. One that’s better.
Capturing Normal: Learning to see through Photography
The very first assignment that any photography course will give you is to just go shoot. I suggest doing this but only using the viewfinder. It forces you to focus on specific elements of the world around you. You’ll start looking at things like you never noticed before. The second assignment photography classes give you is to shoot from the perspective of highs and lows, the “worms eye view” and the “birds eye view”. This is about perspective. Teaches you to look at things from a “different angle”. Literally. Step 1 helps you pay attention, step 2 helps you look behind the curtain, past the facade.
Replication of Normal: Learning to see through Drawing
Everyone sucks at sketching. At first. But that’s not really the point, to get good. Sketching forces you to stare at something for an extended period of time helps you notice the nuances of a singular object. The thingness. What about the thing you’re drawing expresses it’s existence? What about it tells you that it’s a tree versus a potato. Sketching helps your brain communicate with your hands to replicate that reality. You have to be able to replicate normal before you can change it.
Sensing Normal: Learning to see through Film making
I’m actually really curious about this topic lately as I actually haven’t practiced with this medium enough. (I’ve also been trying to figure out what videocamera to buy if anyone has any advice ) What I’ve learned so far is that it helps understand the world of Time. It visualizes the passing of time and helps you become aware of every second.
Altering the Normal
Once the practice of photography is mastered, the lessons go further to study studio lighting or altering compositions. With this effect you can create alternate realities, surreal image like Man Ray
to manipulate the perception of reality.
DaVinci got so good at drawing reality that he started to alter that reality with his lesser known pieces, the Grotesque. This skill could be applied to any inanimate thingness that desires to evolve.
Keith Loutit who’s work was chosen to be showcased by the Guggenheim creates film that subtly changes the perception of time by speeding it up, and changes the perception by creating an illusion with the depth of field. He shoots reality and re-represents it through a faux miniature set.
Learning to create, replicate, and sensing normal is the first step in taking that Normal world and designing an alternate.
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