After reading Nigel Cross's "The Nature and Nuture of Design Ability," I spent some time this past weekend thinking about whether design ability is a form of intelligence in its own right, on the same level as linguistic, musical, or bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, for example. Cross argues that design ability is separate from these previously awknowledged forms of intelligence. I am not so sure - it seems to me that what is special about design is that it draws on all types of intelligence. Our classes seem to be selected to help us develop fluency between different types of thinking. We spend time in Art 60 developing our visual language, in Calibrating the Instrument developing our improvisational and physical skills, and in ME 203 gaining machining knowledge. I have a hard time pinpointing something that is truely unique to design. I tried listing skills that designers use and associating them with other professions that seem to employ the same type of thinking. These skills cover a huge variety of professional fields - in any single project, designers have to be able to switch between these modes of thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment