Unit II Summary

In the "Reverberations" unit, we focused on the impact of past ideals on future forms in the design sense. How we illustrate our design concepts is a product of our societal values and traditions which are always changing and always influenced by past experiences. These  changes are reflected or reverberated in both art and design and ultimately shape the culture within society. The best way to think about how the design cycle works in societal terms, is to think about a diagram with different peak levels and width expansions.

In considering culture and its role in polar opposite areas of the globe, the east and the west have very different ideas of what and how design ideas are conveyed. The distinctions between the two are the results of several different factors such as environmental and political, but ultimately, culture is being shaped.

The west is constantly changing there ideas as a result of an identity crisis that came with western expansion and the breaking away from the british empire. The United States does however borrow from ancient greek elements to establish their national identity. This was to communicate order in the midst of chaos and celebrate mans governance accomplishments via portraying them as greek deities through Palladian design. The east however, sticks with the tried and true nature of their design expression, staying consistent with their ideals. This mimics what we conceive as eastern culture in general, their society being traditional and oriented towards more disciplinary ways of life. This shows that design plays a fundamental role in national identity.

Reverberations also communicates the idea of revival and reform.Sometimes complete revival takes place in the art and design world. This occurs through drastic changes in the society at hand as a whole. The US had to borrow from and "revive" our roots to establish a commonality with our nations true beginnings and be safe, but with drastic changes like war, comes revolution and reform. Take for example the changes in design post Revolutionary war. The US's attempt to completely break any attachment to British imperialism was evident in furniture design as well as building structures. This example of reform illustrates an effort to get the country on a mindset of change from the behaviors that provoked the circumstances, which in that case was Britain having sovereignty over the new world's ways of life.

All in all, designers and artists are the primary factors that act in the formation of culture as a whole, but culture determines what and how design ideals are portrayed. They shape and create it through shared ideas of taste and value within a society. Designed features of items and places as well as art, tell stories of a time and place that give us a better understanding of the lifestyles of our ancestors, and helps us to better understand where we are going. Reverberations is about how we take from the past to make the future stronger and more sophisticatedly established.