RELATED TERMS: Avant-garde movements; Modernism; Design practice and functionalism Sir Thomas More published his Utopia in 1516 . The word ‘utopia’ combines two Greek roots, ou- meaning ‘no’ and topos meaning ‘place’, hence literally utopia is a no-place, a non-existent place or nowhere. However, embedded within the word utopia is a pun. The near-identical Greek word eu-topos means a ‘good place’. In creatingContinue reading “Utopia and Utopian Thinking”
Author Archives: aparsons474
Urban Design
RELATED TERMS: Architecture; Closely related to urban planning, urban design is an aspect of urban or suburban planning that focuses on creating a desirable environment in which to live, work and play. Design analysis includes the relationship between buildings, streets, land use, open space, circulation, height, natural features and human activity. A well designed urbanContinue reading “Urban Design”
Unreliable Narrator
RELATED TERMS: “We constantly re-write our own biographies and continually give matters new meanings. To rewrite history in this sense – indeed, in an Orwellian sense – is not at all inhuman. On the contrary, it is very human.” Milan Kundera, cited in McEwan, I. (1984) An Interview with Milan Kundera. Granta, 11, 34-35. SomeContinue reading “Unreliable Narrator”
Transmedia, Cross-Platform and Multimedia
RELATED TERMS: Affordances; Mode and Medium ” … stories and their worlds are crucially shaped by the affordances and limitations of the media in which they are realized.” (Ryan and Thon, 2014: 2) Design practices are often nowadays considered to be a transmedia practice, taking advantage of the affordances offered by different media, from architectural,Continue reading “Transmedia, Cross-Platform and Multimedia”
Time
RELATED TERMS: Place, Space, Placiality and Spatiality From the perspective of design practices which incorporate thinking about the temporality of the design, the discussion of the relationships among the notions of narrative, time and the human by Paul Ricoeur (1984) may be useful. Ricoeur argues that, ‘time becomes human time to the extent that itContinue reading “Time”
Threshold
RELATED TERMS: Liminality; Reception Theory and Reader Response Criticism A threshold is the entrance to a building, or sometimes a transition from one space to another. The threshold is the point at which we move from one space, state, set of ideas or view to another. Before we cross the threshold, we are outside. AfterContinue reading “Threshold”
Theoretical Practice
RELATED TERMS: Actor Network Theory; Avant-Garde Movements; Cinema and Film Theory; Creative Thinking; Critical Theory; Critical Thinking; Design and Theory: Total Design; Design History; Design Practice and Functionalism; Heidegger; Interaction Design; Methodology and Method; Open Systems Theory; Postmodernism; Poststructuralism; Practice; Sculpture; Sloterdijk; World-Building It could be argued that a design, in bringing theory together withContinue reading “Theoretical Practice”
Theatre of Cruelty – Artaud
RELATED TERMS: Alienation Effect – Verfremdungseffekt; Avant-Garde Movements; Epic Theatre – Brecht; Performance and Performativity; Theatre; Tragic Theatre – Aristotle; Antonin Artaud, 1896-1948, wrote the extraordinary theoretical book, Le Théâtre et son double (The Theatre and Its Double) in 1938. Influenced by Balinese dancers he saw in Paris in the early 1930s, Artaud imagined a Western theatreContinue reading “Theatre of Cruelty – Artaud”
Theatre and Drama Theory
RELATED TERMS: Epic theatre – Brecht; Deixis and Deictic Acts; Performance and Performativity; Theatre of Cruelty – Artaud; Tragic Theatre – Aristotle “What is the real thing? The question is an ideal subject for the stage, where the actual and the illusory constantly shadowbox.” (Clapp, 2024) The ‘as if’ and the ‘what if’ at theContinue reading “Theatre and Drama Theory”
Terraforming
RELATED TERMS: World-building The name of the architectural practice, Terreform, was derived from the combination of “terre”, meaning earth or soil, and “reform”, meaning to rebuild, reconstruct or recreate. The founders sought to differentiate their practice from that of “terraforming”. In planetary engineering, terraforming is a process of transforming an alien atmosphere to create a habitableContinue reading “Terraforming”
Incomplete ... 