INVESTIGATING ARTISTIC COMMODITY DESIGN THROUGH THE SHIFT BETWEEN ART AND DESIGN
Accompanying the rapid development of cultural and creative industries in recent years, there has been frequent collaboration between art and design fields. Although the dimensions of emphasis vary between these two fields, implying the existence of a divergence, coordination can be achieved by reaching a consensus in communication prior to cooperation, thereby creating an outcome that is beneficial for all involved parties. Based on this concept, we analyzed the divergences between the considerations of artists and designers by examining fundamental art and design concepts. This analysis also considered the differences between these fields. Subsequently, we analyzed the present shifting phenomena between art and design. According to the current trend in which artwork is becoming a design commodity, the following 2 spirit-led models are proposed to describe artistic commodity design: 1) the artist-led model and 2) the designer-led model. These 2 models generate innovative form shifts such as reproduction, decomposition, and innovation. The shifting methods corresponding to these 3 form principles are classified into the “3T” models: transfer, transit, and transform. Therefore, we can achieve a common goal that coordinates varied purposes and styles by determining the sprit-led model, form principle, and 3T method that the artistic commodity should display.
Culture-Based Knowledge Towards New Design Thinking and PracticeA Dialogue
For the benefit of the reader, it should be explained that this paper is presented as a dialogue to represent our ongoing conversations. In effect, the dialogue began in 1999 when we constructed a new course for the MA in Design the students at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which explored the potential of designing from the basis of cultural knowledge and understanding. Benny Ding Leong, a Hong Kong-based designer, had been using this concept in his teaching of product design to undergraduate students, as well as in his own work. The strategy is in the process of refinement and the directions chosen are inevitably selective, but the potential it offers could be significant, not merely for Hong Kong and China, but on a much wider scale.
The identity and self-perception of artists-managers
Manager’s and artist’s professional identities seem to be opposite, but there are many indications that this understanding is not justified in reality. Despite the contradictions, these two identities can intersect. The paper aims to define the characteristics of the artists-managers’ identity. The object of the study was qualitative research (n = 22) conducted in the form of in-depth interviews with key informants from the international environment. The practical objective was to verify common and contradicted features of the artist’s and the manager’s identities among artists-managers to understand the possibilities of reducing the intra-psychic tensions and ways of fruitful paradoxical thinking among managers and negative consequences for personalities and organizations. The study reveals common characteristics between the artist’s and manager’s identities and describes artists-managers’ identity. Although artists-managers experience diversity between both identities, they do not see them as contrary; they use paradoxical thinking, being experts in using personal seemingly contradictory characteristics to achieve outstanding performance. Acting in paradoxical contexts and focusing on the positive aspects of seemingly contradictory personal qualities, they find nonstandard creative solutions. By trying to understand and implement their self-construction, there is the possibility to reduce the intra-psychic tensions and negative consequences of seemingly opposite identities or goals among individuals in organizations. There is a synergy between the manager’s and artist’s identities. Understanding the nature and attributes of artistic creativity, aesthetic theories and the phenomenon of artist-manager’s identity can be a valuable contribution to the practice of management and organizational life.