A Sense of Design: The Embedded Motives of Nature, Culture, and Future - Principia Designae: Pre-Design, Design, and Post-Design - page 47

needed; we need to, for example, create items to solve problems instead of
continuing to use traditional approaches that promote determining the best solution
from all feasible solutions.
From a view of design as embedded knowledge in society, this section explores
the myth of design by discussing art design in connection with a sense of culture.
The cognitive features of humans dynamically correspond to the constructed
meaning of art. Thus, we can address the construction of meaning from a social
cognition perspective. This process is characterized by an autonomous system
(which forms a self-organizing system).
Usually, artifacts created through functional reason are categorized as crafts.
Handcraft production processes hold the power of absorption. Such absorption is
expressed as “Flow in Work,” which is connected to a person's happiness beyond
boredom and anxiety (Csikszentmihalyi 1996 , 2003 ) .
In conventional design, the notion of the “problem of design” was expressed to
solve the sub-problems of society. Engineers or designers do not necessarily realize
that their individual creativity is oriented toward the embedded knowledge of
society. They have contributed to humanity's past prosperity without recognizing
how it has disrupted the earth's balance. In the past, the original purpose of design
was to beat competition in the market. Today, we are still trapped in this mind-set.
Our generation should provide helpful sources to develop a new design framework
for new design thinkers, even though we are not able to change the basic nature of
human creativity that constructed society's “embedded motives.” Usually, society's
embedded knowledge generates design problems. The desire for a “better life” is an
example. When the knowledge of humans dictated that the power of nature should
be obeyed, we aimed for a simple life. Engineers and designers solved design
problems to improve the usability and function of basic products. Indeed, these
improved products reduce workloads related to housekeeping, working,
manufacturing, etc. For example, brooms were replaced by an electric vacuum as
recently as 20 years ago while even more recent developments have led to vacuums
that automatically vacuum the floor. Moreover, several products were designed to
enhance our lifestyles. Newly designed products provided fun and joy, making
people's lives happier. These outcomes resulted from human knowledge. There-
fore, we can represent embedded knowledge in society as the power to solve
“embedded problems” for design, which forms a sense of culture.
4.3.2 Culture as a Mirror of the Social Motive of Design
What does it mean to speak of a sense of culture? This section focuses on the inner
sense of individuals and the embedded sense of society from a cultural perspective.
The former is beyond perception or cognition; rather, it is the natural appreciation
or comprehension of the external world. This inner sense activates intuition or
insight as an underlying motivation deep within the mind.