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ABSTRACT
Design anthropology has developed to become an influential sub-discipline occupied with both theoretical and applied knowledge targeted at designers’ real-life challenges. Bearing this in mind, in the last decade we have developed this attitude into a methodology centered around the identification and development of ‘cultural objects’ that can be implemented with insight and understanding within a conventional design process. This methodology isolates and magnifies the cultural aspects of objects and harnesses these to design new hybrid objects that reinterpret and translate cultural values and characteristics into a local context. This paper presents one of the various approaches dealing with the interpretation of philosophic, religious or socio-cultural principles of different cultures through an Israeli designer’s eyes. In this case the re-interpretation of Japanese, African or American cultures of wood and materializing various cultural traits led the students to an intricate and meaningful design process. From the results we recognized two points of significance: understanding that designing and researching through the isolation of a specific material (i.e., wood), the anthropological design process is crystalized and produces profound results that are culturally centered; the second was an insight into how young Israeli designers presented a unique and innovative approach towards contemporary Israeli design through the culture of wood.
KEYWORDS:
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 4–28; and Geertz, Local Knowledge, 4–18.
2. Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics, 14–20.
3. Naiman, Tefillin, 12; and Eider, Halachos of Tefillin, 9–30.
4. Hahner-Herzog, African Masks, 45–60; and Mullin Vogel, For Spirits and Kings, 53–75.
5. Lu, Japan: A Documentary History, 142.
6. Leighton, “Zazen as an Enactment Ritual,” 167–84.
7. Yamamura, The Cambridge History of Japan, 596–630.
8. In short, wabi-sabi is an aesthetic Japanese philosophy juxtaposed Western aesthetics. For example, it favors the marks of time on materials and suggests a democracy of materials. For more information see Koren’s Wabi-sabi.
9. Jahss and Jahss, Inro and Other Miniature Forms, 227–56; and Okada, Netsuke, 9–20.
10. Bellah and Hammond, Varieties of Civil Religion, 121–37.
11. For more information: http://www.kkl.org.il/eng/about-kkl-jnf/our-history/.
12. Bushell, An Introduction to Netsuke, 14–28; and Symmes, Netsuke: Japanese Life and Legend, 8–35.
13. Schwarz, Netsuke Subjects, 82–98.
14. Kinsey, Contemporary Netsuke, 83–4; and Okada, Netsuke: Masterpieces, 84–104.
15. Shillony, The Jews & the Japanese, 21–30.
16. Silverman, Cultural History of Jewish Dress, Ch. 2.
17. Moors, “Wearing Gold,” 208–23.
18. Ross Russell, Gender and Jewelry, 86–9.
19. Bloom and Blair, Grove Encyclopaedia of Islamic Art, 314–5.
22. Dima, Culture, Religion, and Geopolitics, 202–8; and John Markakis, Ethiopia, 75–6.
23. Patten, George Cruikshank’s Life, 38.
24. McPhee and Orenstein, Infinite Jest, 10; and Ralph Shikes, The Indignant Eye, 121.
25. Gombrich, “The Principles of Caricature,” 319, 329.
26. Scharfstein, Art without Borders, 95–6; and Irele and Jeyifo, Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Thought, 343.
27. Kete Asante and Mazama, Encyclopaedia of African Religion, 212–21.
28. See Ram, Israeli Nationalism, 113; and Ram, The Globalization of Israel, 9, 232.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kenneth Segal
Prof. Kenneth Segal is a leading industrial designer in the field of transportation and an associate professor at the Department of Inclusive Design at Hadassah College in Jerusalem. Segal has founded, built and headed two academic departments of Industrial Design in Israel, in Shenkar - Engineering. Design. Art. and Design and the Hadassah Academic College. In doing so, he has been one of the leading figures to define, mold and improve Israel’s design education discipline. A visiting Lecturer at NID the National Institute of Design in Ahmdebad India, Segal focuses on teaching the history of design, design culture and design methodology.
Jonathan Ventura
Dr. Jonathan Ventura is a design anthropologist, currently teaching at the Department of Inclusive Design at Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem, and at the Design Graduate Program in Shenkar - Engineering. Design. Art.; he is also a research fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, London. He specializes in applied anthropology, design anthropology, and social and medical design. His latest publications include: Ventura, Jonathan. 2016. “Uncanny Mechanics: Industrial Design and the Threatened Body”. Design Philosophy Papers 13(1) (Taylor and Francis-Routledge); Yacobi, Haim, Ventura, Jonathan and Danzig, Sharon. 2016. “Walls, Enclaves and the [Counter] Politics of Design”. Journal of Urban Design (Taylor and Francis-Routledge) and various entries at the Bloomsbury Design Library.