Category: Aesthetics and Design
Resilient Design of Public Space in Older Communities of Shanghai
Sustainable Cities and Communities have been identified as a future international urban development objective by the United Nations Centre for Sustainable Development (UNCSD). And as an integral component of urban development, community resilience is one of the most important indicators of a city’s sustainable development level. Shanghai saw an outbreak and rapid spread of the …
Quickly Interactive Healing Installations Nurture Resilient Communities After the Covid-19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has driven the globe into a physical and psychological public health catastrophe. In this “protracted battle” against the entire human immune system and the operating structures of society, many citizens have been forced to carry a substantial psychological burden. Worse still, the majority of mental disorder residents are unwilling to seek psychological …
Seeing the Invisible: Applying Discourse Analysis to the Introduction of Senno Kuden
Senno Kuden (16th century) historically presents the most influential definition of ikebana, which includes both ontological and epistemological concerns in representation. Although the former contributed to the development of the common definition of ikebana as a symbolic representation of nature or the universe, the latter has been largely ignored. This study points out that the …
Pathetic Beauty: Meaning and Connectedness in Everyday Aesthetics
The anxieties and social isolation of modern life stem from an over-emphasis on competitive meritocracy and consumerism. The aim of the current paper is to present a perspective on how resilience to contemporary malaise can be developed through an appreciation of the Japanese aesthetic categorization of mono no aware. This is a form of pathetic …
Value Co-creation in the Multidisciplinary Sharing Between Design and Science: The Case of a Portuguese Cutlery Industry
This article presents the first impressions of the research project on international cooperation between Universities and a Portuguese cutlery industry that, based on Emotional Design and Cognitive Science, aims to create bonds with its customers and distributors. In times of social isolation, the habit of set the table to share family moments enabled a way …
A Different Kind of Beauty: Wabi and Kintsugi
Symmetry and geometrical perfection are seldom seen in the natural world. The aesthetic concept of Wabi draws attention to the state of things “as they are” and appreciation of this natural state. It calls for the shift in one’s mindset and highlights a different, perhaps, less conventional kind of beauty. This beauty has a lasting …
The Voices and Faces of a Community
Dallas has been one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. Yet, how do average people feel about living in the city? What are untold stories beyond gleaming office towers? To uncover and present these stories, I took part in a collaborative project “Faces of Dallas”, a multi-medium choir concert featured in the 2019 …