Ok so I’ve been thinking about the lecture we had this past Wednesday and I have a few statements/questions.
First of, just so I know I have this right: Syntactic is the pieces to the whole. Semantic is the meaning and pragmatic is the purpose. Right?
Well it seems to me that, aside from projects we get in the first year of studio, people generally have an idea of the purpose of what they will be designing. Even if it is something made out of need, like the hammer example, you still know that you need something to put the nail through the wood. So wouldn’t that mess with the purely syntactical thought process?
Also, the examples of the people who focused purely on syntactic or semantic thought are void in my opinion. What they created might be “art” in some people’s eyes, but there is no purpose to these creations. Is it right to be thinking of what we are designing as art when there are people that will be utilizing and/or interacting with our designs?
I’ve always thought that something is designed well when it interacts seamlessly with its environment. That extends to people, the physical world, the human form... I think putting these three ways of thought, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic, in a linear order is arbitrary. All three of these things should be weighed when designing, who’s to say what goes first.
yeah that's really what I was attempting to say during the lecture: that to me, semantics seems to logically come first since it's the context, background info, etc... of what you're designing. I think i said something like "you have to define the problem," at which point Sal got off saying that design isn't problem solving (which i disagree with all together). But either way, i kind of gave up at that point. I definitely agree with you though.
ReplyDeleteI agree that all 3 of these things should be considered when designing and not necessarily in a particular order. You do not always go about designing the same way for each project, each one is individual and unique. For some designing, starting with the syntax may be logical, but for others it may be necessary to start with the meaning or the purpose. Putting a definite order to these three things seems to put restrictions on the design process.
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