The human body: From its instrumentality to its axiological precedence in the contemporary art of design

• Authors: Staniszewska Elżbieta
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Heidegger’s notion of ‘handiness’ combines two meanings, which in my view should be separated. They both refer to ways of characterizing tools in a given culture. Every culture uses tools, and they are all used so they are ‘handy’. The question is: Handy with regard to what? Two answers come to mind. The first one suggests that handiness is typical of the aims achieved in a given culture, which are linked with that culture’s system of values. Having been fulfilled, the aims seem to disappear, but new ones emerge and the cultural values are all the time appreciated. The aims and values constitute a part of the vision of the world accepted by the members of a given cultural community. In such a context, we can understand the handiness of tools as their optimum quality in facilitating the achievement of the aims which maintain the current cultural values, and so the existence of a given culture. The second answer links handiness with fulfilling the requirements of the human body. When considering the body in terms of its biological categories (as an organism) we can bear in mind its universal characteristics such as limbs, height, differences in body measurements, etc. In such a context, Martin Heidegger’s handiness can be understood pragmatically, as the features of a tool when adjusting it to the human body. In this paper, I propose a thesis that contemporary design loses handiness of the first type, while concentrating on making tools more and more comfortable for the human body. The cultural aims and values traditionally recognized in a given culture lose their priority, or seem to be ignored. At the same time, every tool user is given a chance to develop handiness of the first type. Whether we use this opportunity or not is another problem.

Keywords

EN

tool; the handiness of tools; Martin Heidegger; design; beyond practical values; bodily comfort; everyday aesthetics

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. KEN w Krakowie, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii
• Journal: ARGUMENT: Biannual Philosophical Journal
• Year: 2015
• Volume: Tom: 5
• Issue: Numer: 1
• Pages: 79-86

Dates

published

2015

Contributors

author

Staniszewska Elżbieta

• Kazimierz Pulaski University of Technology & Humanities in Radom, Poland

References

• Boucher, F. (2003). Historia mody. Dzieje ubiorów od czasów prehistorycznych do XX wieku. (P. Wrzosek, Trans.). Warszawa: Arkady.
• Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.
• Foucault, M. (2008). Ciało skazańców. In: M. Romanow‑Broniarek & K. Damm (Eds.). Antropologia ciała (pp. 253–259). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
• Frejlich, C. (Ed.). (2013). Rzeczy niepospolite. Polscy projektanci XX wieku. Kraków: 2+3D.
• Frejlich, Cz. & Lisik D. (2014). Polski design 2000–2013. Kraków: 2+3D.
• Guidot, R. (1998). Design 1940–1999. (J. Wiatrowska & E. Wolańska, Trans.). Warszawa: Arkady.
• Heidegger, M. (1996). Being and time. (J. Stambaugh, Trans.). New York: State University of New York Press.
• Julier, G. (1993). Encyclopaedia of 20th century design and designers. London: Thames & Hudson.
• Kmita, J. (1982). O kulturze symbolicznej. Warszawa: Centralny Ośrodek Metodyki Upowszechniania Kultury.
• Kmita, J. (2007). Późny wnuk filozofii. Wprowadzenie do kulturoznawstwa. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Bogucki.
• Krupiński, J. (1998). Wzornictwo/Design. Studium idei. Kraków: Studio AA / Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie. Retrieved from: http://www.krupinski.asp.krakow.pl/pdf/janusz_krupinski_disegno_eik.pdf (30.05.2015).
• Oliveti, Ch., Uzzani, G. et al. (2009). Design. (P. Cichawa & A. Koper, Trans.). Warszawa: Solis.
• Piskorz‑Branekova, E. (2010). Polskie stroje ludowe (vol. 3). Warszawa: Muza.
• Sparke, P. (2012). Design. Historia wzornictwa. (E. Gorządek, Trans.). Warszawa: Arkady.
• Staniszewska, E. (2012). O sztuce designu. Radom: Wydawnictwo Politechniki Radomskiej.
• Sudjic, D. (2014). B jak Bauhaus. (A. Sak, Trans.). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Karakter.
• http://gadzetomania.pl/46891,korek i problemy z jego wyciaganiem
• http://graduationprojects.eu/pl/2004/Anna Ostrowska
• http://www.starck.com/en/design/categories/industrial_design/glasses