“A PROPOSED REFERENCE FRAME ON AESTHETIC

IN DESIGN BETWEEN RATIONNAL AND EMOTIONAL

BEHAVIOUR”

Pierre-Henri DEJEAN

UTC- Université de Technologie de Compiègne Laboratoire CQP21 (Conception et Qualité des produits et Processus Innovants)Phone +33 (0)3 44 23 44 23 Poste 4600e-mail : Pierre-Henri.Dejean@utc.frAddress : UTC- Centre de Recherches Pierre Guilleumat

BP 60319 - 60206 Compiègne - France

Key Words: aesthetics, product design, rational, emotional, culture

Abstract: This study explores the development of an aesthetic framework that aims to

provide designers, and other stakeholders, with parameters to understand emotion, taste, and

aesthetic judgement under their own cultural influence. This framework will help designers

with tangible criteria for judging cultural influences affecting industrial design while reducing

the influence of subjective opinions or being mere followers of trends. To address the

complexity of the topic, a systemic (systems thinking) approach is adopted so as to be able to

capture the elements of the problem. Therefore, the aesthetic framework adopts a systemic

approach, which allows us to compare its constituents and identify the interplay or “links”

between these different elements.. A literature review lays out the basis elements of interest to

the study followe by further relevant references to broaden the analysis. Once the framework

is built, we will determine its validity by conducting empirical research and training.

1. Introduction : Aesthetic issue in an engineering environment

Regarding the very popular saying “ tastes and colours we don’t discuss” designers often obstruct the aesthetics question. Usually one does not know how to talk about aesthetic because they do not have logical arguments about aesthetics, or one expose a personal judgement. Before design course exists in engineering school such as UTC, DELFT we can notice that the same phenomenon occurs with engineers in relation to the design, and we had have to modify this situation by the introduction of tangible dialogue between humanities and technologies. Engineers have not words and concepts to argue about aesthetic quality of their works, however they are sensitive at the “ beauty” of technical solutions. The skills and responsibilities assigned to engineers focus on technology, reliability, costs ...It is different for the designers, who is required for its aesthetic competence, and especially industrial designer. They have to harmonise technological and aesthetic creativity. As researcher and teacher in a technological university to work in order to propose a repository to our students appeared as a duty. So, to talk seriously about the aesthetic taste in design, we sought historical references based on philosophy about art and finally we try to understand the interrelationship of concepts about feeling (sentimental), rational and cultural influence. At the end we have drawn a schematic representation of our concept that we will explore

now. Our interest is about individual representation of aesthetic more than a general point of view. Our goal was to develop knowledge and tools in order to help industrial designer to have a better control of aesthetic dimension of the product.

2. The Aesthetic: a collection of different concepts

When designers speak about individual’s taste in aesthetics, they speak, of course, aboutwhat aestetic should be. Historically one could find some treaties of aesthetics or how to be good. From the ancients´viewpoint, Socrates considers aesthetic from the perspective of geometry (rationality) and Vitruvius is concerned with proportions, the canon, and rules of composition. In the modern time Le Corbusier introduced the Modulor as an aesthetic reference.

The definitions in dictionaries and encyclopaedias give further sense to the term: “the direct perception of the beautiful”. So, we can see some important definitions of “aesthetic”in, for example, “Le Nouveau Petit Robert Dictionnaire” (1993). Here the word "aesthetic" signifies primarily that which is: "science of the beautiful in nature and art; philosophy, psychology and sociology of art; aesthetic character – beauty; aesthetics is the science of the feeling." “Grand Larousse Universel” (1991) defines aesthetic in several ways, but it is always associated with the feeling of beauty, and considers also the term “contemporary aesthetic”. The “Encyclopaedia Univaersalis” (Ed.2002 Paris) and the “Dictionnaire De La Langue Française” (Paul-Emile Littré), qualify the termr exactly the same way: “Aesthetic - science which determines the character of beauty in the productions of nature and art; (...) the science of beautiful (...) aesthetic appreciation /aesthetic judgement”.

Diderot (1765) gives an answer full of educational ambitions: What is taste, he asks “An ease acquired by repeated experiences in grasping the true or the good, with the circumstance which makes it beautiful, and of being promptly and keenly touched by it.” This vision illustrates the shift from universal point of view (fundamental) to the individual one. This point of view, opposes the right to have one's own opinion, one's own feelings, to the obligation to follow the dogmas imposed by the accademia. This author´s feelings about the question closer to these last definitions. The reason for this is that in the industrial design field the attitude is one concerned with the relation between the user and the product..

Norman [2004: 19] analyzes aesthetics from point of view of effects on users.. He argues that attractive things make people work better - they produce positive emotions, they provoke a mental process that makes us more creative, more tolerant of difficulties.

As we are clearly on the side of the user, we adopt this individual approach, even if we also consider the academic point of view.Umberto ECO, (2004) said in the introduction of his book "History of the Beauty" he also defined that the "beautiful" – like "charming", "pretty", "marvellous" "sublimates", "superb" etc. – is employed to indicate something which pleases. In these directions, the “Beautiful” is equal to “Good”, and the various historical times did not establish a link between these two concepts. So, we can say that indicate something that pleases and so taste. David Hume said a standard of taste end about two extremities: judgement and sentiment. We think that the judgment is the rational and the sentiment is emotional.

Since this paper is concerned with the user, this individual approach is adopted, while paying some regard to a more academic point of view. Umberto Eco, (2004) wrote that the concept of the "beautiful" – like "charming", "pretty", "marvellous" "sublimates", "superb" etc. – is employed to indicate something which pleases. In these directions, the “Beautiful” is equal to “Good”, but that at various historical times the link between these two concepts is stronger and weaker. So one can say that it indicates something that pleases and so relates to taste. David Hume (REF) described a standard of taste situated along a range bracketed by judgement and sentiment. By judgement Hume means the rational and sentiment refers to the emotional.

3. The construction of the systemic (systems thinking) model

With the construction of a systemic model we try to understand the individual taste and determine which are the relations of rational and emotional ends. Regarding the engineer and designer´s culture and habits we look for a diagram based upon a systemic model to try to understand better the considerations. Users of the model will be able to go back and forth between the schematic representation and the associated ideas.

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Our modeling work was faced with the great difficulty of taking. in. account at the same time the collective, and individual dimensions while. the. two. exist. Several authors have more or less directly. attacked this delicate question

The Model: Our first circle (see Fig. 4) relates to individual taste with two poles or centre of attractions, the emotional and rational. The second circle relates to culture.

Aesthetic model

Required parameters are missing or incorrect.

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3.1. The Individual Taste

Hume (1997) said that it is natural for us to seek a Standard of Taste; a rule, by which various sentiments of human may be reconciled; at least, a decision afforded, confirming one sentiment, and condemning another . There is a species of philosophy, which cuts off all hopes of success in such an attempt, and represents the impossibility of ever attaining any standard of taste. The difference, between judgment and sentiment is very wide. So, we do not want to seek a Standard of Taste. But, we want to know the relation of judgment, sentiment and cultural influences.

David Hume in « Of the Standard of Taste » said that “the great variety of Taste, as well as of opinion, which prevails in the world, is too obvious not to have fallen under every one's observation. Men of the most confined knowledge are able to remark a difference of taste in the narrow circle of their acquaintance, even where the persons have been educated under the same government, and have early imbibed the same prejudices”

This shows. the. fullness. and.the complexity of the problem. It's the. intellectual desire. and. philosophical need to share the same opinions, values. ... which confers to. the individual the. feeling of belonging. at. a. community and impossibility. relative. to achieve. this. purpose, see the danger of leading to conflicts.

We fall back here. on the. well known proverb: tastes and. colors no discussion! But.for. as much to stay in the! . We do not want to stay in it! . Our position is to enter the black box

At our level we do not want to look for a standard of taste. But we want to know the relationship between judgment, feeling and cultural influences.

The Emotional Taste of the Individual

On the individual aspect now, by confronting the authors and the current experience we come to distinguish two dimensions of the feeling, which relates to the emotion, and the. judgment that relates to reasoning.

Hume said “all sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to something beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that standard. According to Hume, it does not want to analyse or judge. It wants the pleasure of the beauty. It is only this.

Among a thousand different opinions which different men may entertain of the same subject, there is one, and but one, that is just and true; and the only difficulty is to fix and ascertain it. On the contrary, a thousand different sentiments, excited by the same object, are all right: Because no sentiment represents what is really in the object. But when we tell about sentiments Karlsson said that the passion, both direct and indirect, are founded on pain and pleasure (by which it seems that he must he mean pain and pleasure in prospect)… upon the removal of pain and pleasure there immediately follows a removal of love and hated, pride and humility, desire and aversion, and most of our reflective or secondary impressions. (T20) Hume said, “All motives – the mental states which cause actions – are desires or aversions (no other mental states cause actions).” Karlsson (2000)

The secondary impression explains an action. Karlsson writestell that this action is to explain why someone was moved to engage in it; to explain this is to explain what it was he thought good, for what he was moved to do was to pursue some good, and he was moved by a desire that he formed in the wake of coming to believe that some particular thing was a good. It is vital to this explanatory scheme that we desire a thing because we think it is good (this is the “because” of causation); it is not good because we desire it. Something is, however an end because we desire it (T. 23). So, may be we can identify what is emotions and what is rational but these two points to be together when there are actions. But, only emotions could become actions.

Our model synthesizes and Image this state. On one side, the emotional dimension. Experience shows that it is often present and dominant during the first contact with the product. It can be described as the Wahoo effect dear to marketing. At the other end rational dimension refers to the.reasoning and to knowledge. Most.often it is forged by analysis and use of the product. So the status of the product. to. user's eyes can evolve with use. This is how one can hear reflections such as “not very beautiful. in. first. Impression but. we like it in the end because. it. works. well and is well. designed. The mechanic can. so. fall. in. ecstasy in front of an engine .concutively, then. than. this. Intelligence will not appear to the non mechanic. However at the price of one. pedagogical demonstration it will be able. change one's mind.

This leads us to evoke the determinants of reasoning but also of feelings, we mean the pool of knowledge and representations of individuals, that is, the culture which has a collective dimension.

The Cultural Context and the Emotional Taste of the Individual

Hume said “One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others. To seek the real beauty or real deformity is as fruitless an inquiry, as to pretend to ascertain the real sweet or real bitter. According to the disposition of the organs, the same object may be both sweet and bitter; and the proverb has justly determined it to be fruitless to dispute concerning tastes. It is very natural, and even quite necessary, to extend this axiom to mental, as well as bodily taste; and thus common sense, which is so often at variance with philosophy, especially with the sceptical kind, is found, in one instance at least, to agree in pronouncing the same decision.” Hofstede (1994), said that One among us is there the ways of thinking the sentiment and potential action which are the result of a continuous training. That confirms the force of the culture on the sentiment and by consequence the aesthetic taste. But, the cultural programming differs from a group and a category of people to the other and each nation is very implied in mental programming dominating.

3.3. The Rational Taste of the Individual

Karlsson said that when he analyses Hume’s text, that the domains of sentiment and the understanding (the latter being the province of reason) are disjoint; (…) that a judgement or opinion could itself constitute a desire or aversion. How does Reid (Ref) understand a rational principle? This is clear from his text. A rational principle, in particular, a rational end, is one which “can exist only in beings endowed with reason. Reason is alone alone or of itself impotent in the sense that it is the faculty of sentiment out of which desires and aversions are formed; if man were not a sentimental creature, but only an intellectual one, he would never form desires or aversions for anything, and would thus thus never form motives to act. But since man is a sentimental creature, and since, on Hume’s own account, his desires and aversions are causally produced by certain opinions which he has formed (including some to which he led by reason), it is a pretty fussy sense in which reason – or better, the understanding – is impotent. On Hume’s very own theory, it would be further from the truth to say that passion is the salve of the understanding.

The Cultural Context and the Rational Taste of the Individual

Karlsson said about Hume that his planin in that paper is to use certain of Hume’s views are as a vehicle for bringing out some of the salient points about rational ends. And he wrotesaid that “here as I turn out, Hume must mean by “cause”, proximate cause; because reason, an “operation of the understanding” can, Hume Tell us “exist” or prompt” a passion (T469,462, but see 457) which in turn can bring about an action; that is to say, a judgement arrived by “unaided” reasoning can produce a desire or aversion which then moves us to act. For it may notice that although we do not imbue things with value by desiring them, we do imbue them with value in a certain way and to a certain extent, and nothing would have value. So, he explain that even an opinion not arrived at by reasoning can excite a passion and thus serve as a remote cause of action.

3.2. The Culture of Individual

In previous research we have established the relation between culture and product design, (Dejean Souza 2009) . We consider here how the cultural background influences the feeling of the consumer... and furthermore their taste. Definitions of culture in dictionaries can be incorporated with multiple elements such as history, common traits, geographical location, language, religion, race, hunting practices, music, and art. Peterson (2004) said, “Definition of culture including multiple elements such as these, we can further consider culture to be what people think, what they do, or how they feel. We could also include insights based on elements of human psychology, sociology, or anthropology.”

4. The “beautiful, useful” matrixWe have also designed a tool to analyze the consumer's expectation and valuation about the product. We have used words that are widely known and unambiguous: beautiful that refer to aesthetic value, and useful that refer of the functional value. To give an example, a product getting the maximum score (3) has good and useful will be considered as OK; a product that scored 0 for utility and 3 for beauty could be a fashion product or this score may show a lack of ergonomics. To score 0 for beauty and 3 for utility would imply a product in need for aesthetic improvement.

5. Validation The validationlorization of this research was made inon three domains:, the teaching, the practice, and by the academic recognition. For teaching, a course and related practical work has been running for eight years and is aimed at engineering students as well as at art schools. The concepts are easily understood and the tools are commonly used. The richest use is in multidisciplinary group, where these tools prove to be excellent means of dialogue. The practice has become common in our projects. We include the aesthetic dimension in the requirements during the brief such as in the design step and in the test. From theAbout academic side our major paper in the Technique de l’Ingénieur that is a kind of encyclopedia is one of the more successful.

Conclusion

The value of object may be looked at from two perspectives. Given the properties of an object, then its value depends upon our pleasure-responsive states. On the other hand, given our pleasure-responsive states, the value of an object depends upon its properties. The value of an object is no more subject-relative than object-relative. This is what was meant earlier when we emphasised that we “imbue things with value” only in a certain way and to a certain extent.

Hume’s propositions 4 and 5, according to which desire and aversion, and only desire and only desire and aversion, move us and these are creatures of sentiment, even if unaided reason can lead us discover that a thing has (or is likely to have) pleasure or pain in store for us. (p. 31)So Hume is also on this count opposed to robust motivational rationalism, or at least to those forms of it which have actually been advanced.Despite Hume’s clear opposition to the more robust forms of motivational rationalism, the implication of the interpretation here presented is that (in contrast to what is commonly thought) Hume is, in the end, a weak motivational rationalist. “reason” in Hume’s sense motivates (it doesn’t have a merely cognitive role) – not, to be sure, independently of sentiment, as some more robust motivational rationalists would like to allow, but not as the mere slave of the passions either, since (given our sentimental make-up) certain “determinations” of our reason cause us to form the desires that in turn move us to act.

Exploitation of the work of authors having ventured to talk about aesthetics and taste demonstrates enough.

quickly the complexity of the issue. For the design called , according to its foundations to create products for the

greatest number, we will retain here two ideas: the dynamics of formation evolution of the taste compared to a

product, which according to our model evolves between two pole the emotional and the rational, and the delicate

question of the collective and individual dimensions of aesthetics that opens up a vast democratic debate. Taste.

is an individual affair and therefore must be placed at the rank of liberty. On the other hand, the vision and even

the contact with most of the objects goes beyond the simple direct user and thus takes on a collective dimension.

A driver can find his car very beautiful while it horrifies the passersby ... Implicitly authors such as Diderot are

more in favor of individual freedom while others like Vitruvius, Le Corbusier aim to give. design rules

suceptibles to lead to a common taste which we know is almost impossible to reach ... difficult compromise ...

but it’s an important part of the work of the designer

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DEJEAN P-H, SOUZA M. «Intégration des facteurs culturels dans la conception de produits Les Techniques de l’Ingénieur, Paris 2009.

DEJEAN P-H, MOURTHE C. « Esthétique et design industriel- Vers la prise en considération de la

culture, du rationnel et de l 'émotionnel de l 'individu ,” les Techniques de l’Ingénieur Paris 2010

révision prévue 2020

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