Philosophy and Design

This blog is an ongoing exploration (and hopefully conversation) on the nature of design. This is best begun by asking a series of questions. I ask myself these and more on a regular basis, especially when I begin a new product or project. I encourage anyone interested to respond.

What is design? What is essential for good design? What is design’s role in culture? How can it improve our quality of life, our environment and our search for meaning?

It's my belief that our culture is in need of deep repair. The industrial revolution propelled us forward into amazing new territory but the energy we used to get here and the psychology we manifest to keep us here has devastating flaws. The things we were willing to give up and the choices we made to achieve technological and economic goals were not without problems. More and more the effects of industrialism encroach on all our back yards. A core questions here at Tikun Collective: What is consumption?

What is it to you? Is it good, bad, indifferent?

We need to ask these and many more questions of ourselves, each other and society if we are ever going to repair, heal, evolve past our present conditions. As energy, food and water problems escalate we should be asking ourselves, how can we help things? How can we change?

What does it mean to repair? The act of repairing happens on many different levels; personal, familial, societal, global. We repair infrastructure, computers, marriages, neighborhoods, economic bubbles, damaged genetics. Every day we have the choice to repair a relationship, a machine; to repair some connection in our lives and in our culture. We are at a privileged time, some of us more than others to make new choices and innovate why, how and what we make our world.