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A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Encoding Symbolism: Immateriality and Possibility in Design
As embedded in culture, design objects are always reaching out to various cultural contexts incorporating different dimensions and resonances of meaning. Design, then, is always a practice of representation where every structure of sensually appealing materiality has an immaterial double in a process of signifying meaning in a way that reflects or affects culture. Traditionally, this structure has been analyzed in cultural theory with an emphasis on the effects of design in culture. Instead, this article reverses the perspective and employs the concept of symbolism in order to understand how and within which properties design contributes to the cultural creation of meaning. Through the categories of the immaterial and the possible in design and a series of examples, the article analyzes the dimensions of the symbolic in design and describes the role of the symbolic as a structure of transforming and organizing meaning in and through design objects.
Encoding Symbolism: Immateriality and Possibility in Design
As embedded in culture, design objects are always reaching out to various cultural contexts incorporating different dimensions and resonances of meaning. Design, then, is always a practice of representation where every structure of sensually appealing materiality has an immaterial double in a process of signifying meaning in a way that reflects or affects culture. Traditionally, this structure has been analyzed in cultural theory with an emphasis on the effects of design in culture. Instead, this article reverses the perspective and employs the concept of symbolism in order to understand how and within which properties design contributes to the cultural creation of meaning. Through the categories of the immaterial and the possible in design and a series of examples, the article analyzes the dimensions of the symbolic in design and describes the role of the symbolic as a structure of transforming and organizing meaning in and through design objects.
Encoding Symbolism: Immateriality and Possibility in Design
Folkmann, Mads Nygaard (author)
Design and Culture ; 3 ; 51-74
2011-03-01
24 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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