The Approach of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts: Design education based on regional traditions and cultural diversity

Abstract

Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts of China (GAFA) has always been attentive to and accepting of local styles, such as the Guangdong regional culture of "inclusiveness and accommodation", the Lingnan artisan spirit of "folkways and optimism," and the strong tradition of "business orientation and pragmatism" that Guangzhou shares with Hong Kong and Macao. Design faculties at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts focus on the inter-linkages and complementariness between traditional craftsmanship and modern design, being one of the first to experiment with basic training in new styles of design as well as in the construction of new design theories. Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts is among the first to orientate itself towards the market and the social practice. Given that Guangdong's economy assumes a "leadership" role in China's sustainable development, the design at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts has always emphasized pragmatism, concreteness, and high degrees of completeness, all of which brand the design at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts with a distinctive focus on "application". For these reasons, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts sets up its design education in a way that is markedly different from that at other academies of fine arts.

In recent years, design education in China has been undergoing rather profound changes. As other academies of fine arts in the country, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts has been closely monitoring these changes and implementing necessary adjustments in an effort to "keep up with the times".

—To the extent that it is difficult to clearly define the activities of the Beijing Olympics and their impact, design educators are having an unprecedented tough time attempting to define the tangible or intangible boundaries for design education in contemporary China. To the extent that it is difficult to trace how the concept of the Olympic Games is generated, disseminated, rejuvenated, and recycled, we are having an unprecedented tough time attempting to offer an "accurate account" of the key steps in the evolution of design concepts: the origin of design creativity, strategic path, value-adding modules, and the assessment of the effect. In this ongoing process of "being made chaotic" and "being rendered ambiguous", we have at least come to feel the urge exacted by the impending trend or momentum in China for Chinese design education to make a timely and expectedly elegant transition—to "infiltrate" but not necessarily "inject", to "be responsive" rather than deliberately "indoctrinate", which in fact has become a trait shared by the Chinese value, the Chinese way, and Chinese design education.

—Whether it is predicated on "multiple interaction" or derived from "extension strategy", design should rightfully employ "precision agriculture" on the soil of "light reading" that is typical of our age. Whether it is following the "consumer logic" or extending the "added value ", design should rightfully pursue "intensive cultivation" of intelligence service products, which is somewhat different from "art". In contemporary China and, for that matter, the whole world, the independent stance of information and its inter-related nature subsequent to massive multiplication result in each unit (of information) being primarily "light" vis-à-vis space and time. Of course, this lightness is not "superficial" or "shallow"; instead, it should be understood to be "concise and lively"; this lightness is not "simply symbolic"; instead, it should be understood to be "cognitive in a convenient and spirited way"; this lightness is not "just games"; instead, it should be understood to be "differential interaction". "For example, Bird's Nest and Water Cube of the Beijing Olympics bypass, as far as architecture is concerned, the polemics on "depth" in terms of spatial design. They "transgress" into (architectural) "surface", which used to lie within the domain of visual cognition. This elicits a differential reaction from the audience, in the form of "light" reading, thus accomplishing the resonance breadth and implanting depth of the "Beijing Olympic memory". Relying on the same strategy of "cognitive integration" and "memory reliance", the features of the product, which is based on creativity and intended for servicing others, are established by smooth linkage of original shape design, symbol interpretation, concept extension, capital appeal, social inertia, and media contagion.

—Design's rhetorical concept of the new era has deviated considerably from traditional occupational norms such that, in this time and age, it is no longer possible for design education to disregard the outside world and indulge in narcissistic "internal language" and "internal logic."

—"The new style of design education" should probably make more reference to social platforms and social vocabulary, with more focus on" organizing and refining social resources" rather than on "creating artistic masterpieces".