Finally i’m continuing the semester project, Here/There, glad to collabrate with Richard. Some thoughts, straight from here and there in my mind:

– close the gap between remote places with creative design

– communication often is too impersonal, cold, unemotional

– look at what every human being been has learned from childhood and is familiar with:

– interaction with others (gestures, body language)

– burning: aura, magic, telepathy, imagination

– gestures and body language as subliminal communication

– clothes as an expression of style and social status

– camouflage—attention

– local adaption—global attention

– überall und nirgends (”irgendwo/an einem unbekannten Ort sein; häufig den Ort wechseln”)

– nah und fern

– record movement of air in one place and send it to another

– shoot airwaves over distances

Thinking about the topic of my diploma next year and what I’m doing or trying to, I read a discussion about Computational Design at www.generatorx.no.

As more and more of us begin to call themselves Computational Designers, I think it makes sense to consider the actual definition again. In the broadest sense, Computational Design can be put as “the design of products and processes through the use of digital means”. But it is by far more than just doing something with the help of digital media, i.e. using some fancy software. The point is to take the challenge of getting down to the real capabilities of digital media.

Nobody else could draw a better picture of the scenario than Prof. Dr. Mihai Nadin, who mainly shaped the definition. If you have the time, there are two great essays by Nadin on Computational Design and design in general, highly recommended for reading for anybody who works in the design field or encounters it:

1. Computational Design: Design in the Age of a Knowledge Society

2. We are what we do

Nadin had founded the worlds first Computational Design Programme at the University of Wuppertal and did a lot of research on anticipation, the topic of my intermediate diploma.