In this seminar, we looked at style and began with the question,'what is style?'. My answer to this was: 'a consistent theme' and the dictionary definition is 'a particular procedure by which something is done; a manner or a way'.
We discussed clothing style and the main conclusion was that it comes from inside and that clothing is just one element of style. We looked at a video which described style as a 'sense of life' and used the analogy that clothes are the package to the parcel and don't reflect the whole thing.
'I invent, distort, deform, lie, inflate, exaggerate, confound and confuse as the mood seizes me. I obey only my own instincts and intuitions' (1960- Henry Miller). This is one persons perspective of style and Miller saw style as a fluid motion.
It is interesting to look at peoples perception of style such as Truman Capote who said, 'mirror of an artists sensibility- more so than the content of his work' which lead us onto form and content. We were asked 'can there be content without style?' and 'can one act outside of style?' To which the answer was no as there needs to be style within a content and for the second question, you can't act outside of style. Even those who try not to be stylish are following a style they have formed themselves. It is impossible to be without style.
We then went onto look at a familiar designer, Marcel Breuer. He designed a modern day chair by making it minimal. Breuer believed, 'purposeful construction of logical designed objects' whereby the 'essential forms for functioning instruments require he styleless utility of design'. This means redacting the product until it is logical, which is exactly what Breuer did with his chair design. This 'styleless', which I would argue is a style, was logical problem solving.
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These chairs are still often used today and shaped chair design until this day. Susan Songstag said something along the lines of: atipathy (a strong desire) to design is always atipathy to a given style. There is no style-less legal writing, only wrighting of more or less grace and adaptness and belonging to different stylistic traditions and conventions. In other words, it is impossible to be without style as being without style is still conforming to some sort of style. Not following stylish patterns does not mean you are style-less. You have to like style because everyone is with style. Each style is agreeing with one style and disagreeing with another, this is style.
From this chair, it was obvious that Breuer was opposing stylish ways at the time and redacting the style from the chair to create a new style.
Each style fades in and out and reappears somewhere and can be the smallest thing to the biggest thing.
This lecture was easy to follow and triggered some interesting points. It has widened the way I look at design as I haven't before thought of style. These lectures will come in handy when I am later writing essays that may include some of these concepts. They do not fit with my current studies so much although I feel some give me a new and different perspective which helps with my project work and how I approach my studies. The most important aspect of these lectures is the fact that it makes you think and question and view things in a very different way.
