Monday, August 18, 2008

Form and Function

I had a reader letter for DOMAI from John:

There is an old joke which involves an artist and an engineer. Naturally they are at a bar-and they are arguing about which profession created the female form. The artist is eloquent about his claim. "Only an artist would have thought of the brilllant articulation of space on the female body-the geometric procession from spheres to triangles. The light and shadow play as deep clefts meet tall plateaus. The change in tone, color, and texture as you move around the body. Clearly artists had to have created the female form." The engineer is equally eloquent. "But those simple things mean nothing compared to how all the parts work together. Touch the body in one place and it emits a sound from another. A simple act can bring a new life. The female body is an instrument more finely tuned than anything in the greatest symphonies. This has to mean that the female body was created by none other than engineers."

Now I have read all your past newsletters, letters, and articles, and I am surprised none of them has come forward with this simple truth. What the artist and engineer are really debating is form vs function. It is debate as old as the ages. And what makes your site stand out from others is you focus on the form and not the function.

Which boldly leads me to take a leap at an old debate. It is not that hard to define pornography. It is the depiction of function. And what is art? It is the depiction of form. I dont presume I am the first to argue this-I just have not seen it where it belongs-on Domai-the epitome of form.

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As a follow up, Irv Thomas (author of Derelict Days) wrote:

What you sent happens to remind me of an argument I had many, many years ago with an instructor in an Art in Architecture class that I was taking. The topic of the test had been Good Design, and we were supposed to speak to a range of instances, whether they were good design or not, the primary criterion being Form follows Function, as was then in vogue.

Where we disagreed was on a single instance: a vehicle shaped like a hot dog (being actually a hot dog stand on wheels). I knew what answer he wanted, but I said instead that it was good design!

He objected, predictably: "A vehicle should look like a vehicle, not a hot dog."

I took a mark against my grade, but stood fast on my point: "It may have been built as a vehicle, but its purpose was advertising and sales: it is Good design!"

I answered:
Surely, and if he'd been a good teacher he would have seen that too.

In any case, what does "look like a vehicle" mean? Unless the form actually inhibits function, what's wrong with it?

What does a chair look like? It can look like anything, so long as you can sit on it.

Of course it's a good ethic to let form be subordinate to function, but you can go too far and neglect form altogether.

4 comments:

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Reminds me of those people in a bar arguing about whose is the oldest profession of all. (I should point out that there ISN'T a hooker in this joke.)
THE DOCTOR : "Taking a rib from Adam to create Eve, that was a medical procedure."
THE ENGINEER : "Before creating man and woman, the Universe had to be designed and built. Engineering work."
THE PHILOSOPHER : "Before building anything, Order had to be brought upon Chaos and Nothingness. That's the role of Philosophy."
THE POLITICIAN : "And who in the first place, do you think, created the chaos?"

Incidentally, if God created man to His image, he should have sought a better design for the central processor.

Anyways, man was to God's image BEFORE becoming crooked from that missing rib, and getting that huge scar at his side. I kinda understand Eve going for an afternoon tea-and-fruit with the Serpent. That's when woman invented Freudian symbolism...

I have to agree with Irv: his was a very valid point of view. Especially in today's consumerist world.
Plus, hot dogs are quite aerodynamic in shape!

Alex said...

So the latest Wienermobile is based on a BMW Mini Cooper.

I've seen a couple of Weinermobiles around, strange looking things.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

"Bow to the mighty Wiener!" - (Helmut, thong-clad bouncer at the Spartacus elitist night club for discerning men)

I know, I've been playing Magna Cum Laude too long. But dang, that minigame of taking photos of Helmut's weiner was tough! Taking blackmail photos of the streaking frat boy was much easier.

Good form AND function is what a good videogame is all about.
Especially a videogame with full-frontal nekkid hotties! :-)

(BTW, shouldn't a weiner ALWAYS be, you know, "mobile"? ;-)

Johnnie Walker said...

I took a mark against my grade, but stood fast on my point: "It may have been built as a vehicle, but its purpose was advertising and sales: it is Good design!"

Art class, like diving or figure skating in the Olympics - the mark is up to the opinion of the judge. A different judge would give a different mark. I can see why some people prefer math and science. Either it's right or it isn't.