Nature & Aesthetic of Design

I found David Pye’s writing on design very interesting, espe- cially his perspective on creativity, design, and its relation to happiness. But one point he made seemed to be particularly relevant to this project. In his article he discussed the varying levels of potential to alter materials from their original state; how we have developed a multitude of ways to alter the shape of original materials, but even with all our developed technology, we still have very limited means of altering a material’s innate properties. I came across this idea in a very simple way while working with the wood and bandsaw; while I could map out and define exactly how I wanted the shape to turn out, the ir- regularity of the wood in certain places made it difficult to cre- ate exactly what I had in mind. By its very nature, the wood had harder spots in it that were more difficult to cut through and in turn, more difficult to control the resulting product. This initial difficulty then in turn involved using other means to shape the wood, such as sandpaper and a rotating sander, to cater to the properties of the wood which I couldn’t change or control.