Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 8)

SM: To me 20th Century art looks like the ‘anti-beauty’. Is that reasonable? Today I look at the products people are lapping up and they are beautiful objects. Are we returning to appreciating beauty?

BK: I am not going to disagree with you completely, although I will refrain a bit. I don’t think movements of the early 20th century modernism were been anti-beauty. I think they were about re-defining beauty according to a different set of standards and criteria and redefining the perspective from which we understand beauty. What if beauty is not what something looks like, but how you respond to it? Artist need to probe the future. Most designers are not going to be producing edgy, disturbing, or alarming imagery. Unlike artist a designer’s work goes into WalMart. Consumers do not want a jarring experience buying a tape recorder. In this essence design is lagging behind because it is dependent upon the consumer market. I believe art has the obligation to move us forward. I do think design and art are fundamentally dependent upon each other.

SM: The arts played a very significant role in the renaissance movements. Today in Silicon Valley the arts are ignored as a profession. I think we have come to a point in the history of technology where this has to change but Silicon Valley is not doing enough to make this change. Your thoughts?

BK: I think you are correct. Next question! There is nothing you have said that I would not agree with energetically. We have the greatest accumulation of wealth in the history of the world here in the valley, yet where are our masters? Some the greatest architectural masterpieces in the world have come after solving great technical challenges. Where is our master architectural work? I worry about this a lot.

SM: The same problem is happening in other places as well. I am appalled by what is being built and destroyed in India. I have heard rumors of similar things in China.

BK: It is the unavoidable dynamics of modernization. China is a great tragedy. We are witness to the systematic and single-minded destruction of historical legacy. Beijing was laid out as an Imperial Grid, yet they demolished the old walls that defined a civic domain. Now the old residential districts, where multiple families lived around a shared courtyard, are nearly extinct.

SM: Let’s talk some about mass customization. Many companies have tried mass customization. In your opinion has it been successful anywhere?

BK: In most cases it has proved disappointing. Perhaps it is because of the engineering requirements.

SM: I think they are going about it the wrong way.

BK: The one area it is successful is in programmable electronic devices. My first impression of the iPhone was that there were a bunch of buttons I would never use and there was a bunch of blank space which meant it was a work in progress. However, this design has allowed me to continually adapt the configuration of the device to my preferences. In this aspect the iPhone is a model of sustainable, mass customization, design. It is part of the dematerialization of the world which is a very promising sign, although it is culturally disruptive.

SM: The book may follow the same course as music.

BK: It remains to be seen. You don’t need an apparatus to read a book but you do to listen to music.

SM: It has been a delight!

BK: I would love to continue this. If you would like to follow up in the future please just let me know.

This segment is part 8 in the series : Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz
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