Exploring Cultural Dimensions of Designing – What to Reflect on when Cooperating with Design Students from Various Cultural Spaces

Is design a uniform practique? Or is ist culturally coded? Do people around the globe follow the same procedures? Or are there different processes, different tools and methods, and even different values behind design decisions? How can we become aware of the cultural implications of our own design understanding – this blind spot we usually don’t see?

 

When doing a joint workshop of Students from Basle, Switzerland and Gaberone, Botswana, we had a chance to put a special emphasis on these issues. We asked our students to keep a journal focusing on design processes and issues and modes. We were interested in what students would observe when interacting with and cooperating with students from another school placed in another surrounding.

 

Three semantic fields and a range of questions for this task were developed by Regine Halter which I summarize here, so that they are usable for others.

 

The three mentioned thematic fields are:

 

Experiences, observations about the collaboration of different design cultures and styles of communication

 

Differences in the methods used – for example in drafting and sketching – in choosing and using material, tools, resources, media

 

Competences gained, insights into problems and needs in other cultures and customs of use

 

For each of these fields, here are some questions that can lead further:

 

 

Experiences, observations about the collaboration of different design cultures and style of communication

• How do the students you are working with approach the task? How do you yourself approach the task?
• How is design understood here when dealing with this specific task or problem? How do I myself look upon this?
• How is the task or problem communicated? Rather as a technical problem? Or as a general question? …? How about my own view on this?
• Further more, how is this issue discussed in public and media – in my own society and the one visited? What do I think about that?
• Are approaches and solutions different due to culture?
• How did our interaction work? Were there conflicts? Or where conflicts rather avoided? Did I avoid them? Why? How did I understand my colleagues? What judgements did I make about the behaviour of others? What feelings did cultural difference evoke? Did I feel helpless?

 

 

 

Differences in the methods used – for example in drafting and sketching – in choosing and using material, tools, resources, media

• Did unfamiliar views, perspectives show up when choosing methods, due to culture?
• How about resources and materials used?
• Where my perspectives, and proposals concerning methods and material taken up?
• Did we compromise? On what? Why?

 

 

Competences gained, insights into problems and needs in other cultures and customs of use

• Was there any special occasion that opened up new perspectives concerning problems and need of culture visited?
• How would I describe my own learning process, if there was one?
• Are there questions, interdependencies that I did not realize before?
• What do I see differently now?
• If globalization is a design task – how can I comment on that with regard to my experiences?
• Did the experience influence my understanding as a designer? How?
• What influence does the collaboration with other cultures have on my future work?