The Sensual Fundamentals of Design

"The way we talk about specific subjects, the gestures that accompany our words and the way we see things are all parts of our everyday lives. Seeing things differently, however, talking with our hands and sounding out surfaces to find out what they are like inside so that architecture may become meaningful – all this is rather more unusual. We tend to see many of the things that surround us fleetingly, only to forget them moments later. This forgetfulness is like a protective screen against the prevailing flood of pictures with which we are confronted. We have, however, learned the lesson of forgetfulness so thoroughly that we are in danger of losing our very selves. Self-forgetfulness should not be allowed to become a guiding principle if it leads the majority of people to believe nonsensically – that specific talents are necessary for individual seeing and individual action.

Our sensual, sensitive perception is an innate quality that we learn – or forget – how to handle during the course of our lives. To try to draw one's face in a misted-up mirror; to dig a line that reminds us of someone we love in the sand; to scribble Chinese-looking characters that no-one can decode on a serviette; to place things (for example butter) in the sun and watch the changing of the shadow pictures; to finish off a ladder in a stocking with lipstick so that the "imperfection" becomes part of the picture; to admire an old master in the art museum, to make some personal additions with a felt-tip pen on a postcard of the picture, and to stare at it for so long that self-enjoyment sets in of its own accord.

Pre-pictures (models) have many faces; when we realise this, we come closer to obtaining after-pictures (copies) and – maybe – to pictures of our own, and to those of other people."
(Peter Jenny)

Besuchen Sie die Homepage von Peter Jenny.