Form follows Fetish (Useless)
Marjan Colletti, 2011.
Published in Useless (eds. Frederico Duarte, Max Bruinsma), Babel – EXD’11/Lisboa, 2011.
‘Uselessness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Like pure pleasure, it is disinterested.’
I disagree. And I suddenly feel very unaroused and useless. How can a truly dedicated designer be disinterested in pleasure (sensorial satisfaction, conceptual gratification, physical bliss…). Whether elegant or shocking, beautiful or grotesque, the pursue and experience of design pleasure are insatiable drives of the avant-garde. If pleasure is the aim, desire/libido is the force (and a most useful one).
Thus, beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, but also in the aspiration of the designer. Design intelligence and decision-making are constantly conditioned by beauty and pleasure. Some may pursue elegance, some others rigour; I prefer exuberance, the sublime, digital poetics, the fetish. Useless may be More, but certainly Form follows Fetish.
Hence, although I disagree with describing beauty and pleasure as useless, at the end of the day it is OK that the editors reappraise them by association to the useless and by initiating this debate.
more ++
Like pure pleasure, it is disinterested.’
I disagree. And I suddenly feel very unaroused and useless. How can a truly dedicated designer be disinterested in pleasure (sensorial satisfaction, conceptual gratification, physical bliss…). Whether elegant or shocking, beautiful or grotesque, the pursue and experience of design pleasure are insatiable drives of the avant-garde. If pleasure is the aim, desire/libido is the force (and a most useful one).
Thus, beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, but also in the aspiration of the designer. Design intelligence and decision-making are constantly conditioned by beauty and pleasure. Some may pursue elegance, some others rigour; I prefer exuberance, the sublime, digital poetics, the fetish. Useless may be More, but certainly Form follows Fetish.
Hence, although I disagree with describing beauty and pleasure as useless, at the end of the day it is OK that the editors reappraise them by association to the useless and by initiating this debate.
more ++
