Taxonomy
Claire Bula MFA Studio II Fall 2020 Professor Nick Rock December 12, 2020
Introduction
The words we choose are important. Precise use of language helps us examine the exact meaning we’re trying to convey and it helps listeners or readers understand that message without ambiguity. However, words can be defined differently from person to person. Definitions are often influenced by life experience and personal perspective. The intention of the speaker, or author, can be distorted based on the listener/ reader’s perception of the word and the dictionary definition doesn’t always align with the public vernacular. This publication reveals the influence and importance of word selection in my Design Inquiry Presentation, as well as my personal perspective on specific definitions. It also includes an appendix of significant terms that helped shape this presentation, but were not actually spoken in it.
MFA Design Inquiry Presentation
Appendix - Influential Terms
A Author - A writer of a book, article, or report. Authority - Something people really only have over their own lives.
B Brand - The totality of an entity’s (usually a corporation, but now also applies to individuals with the rise of social media) reputation including visual identity, action, and behavior.
C Canon - An accepted principle or rule. A criterion or standard of judgment ‘the canons of good taste’. A body of principles, rules, standards, or norms Codification - the action or process of arranging laws or rules according to a system or plan. Control - An imaginary construct. Cosmopolitan - Having wide international sophistication: Worldly. Composed of persons, constituents, or elements from all or many parts of the world. A city with a cosmopolitan population. Having worldwide rather than limited or provincial scope or bearing.
D Decentered - to cause to lose or shift from an established center or focus especially: to disconnect from practical or theoretical assumptions of origin, priority, or essence Deconstruction - A philosophical or critical method which asserts that meanings, metaphysical constructs, and hierarchical oppositions (as between key terms in a philosophical or literary work) are always rendered unstable by their dependence on ultimately arbitrary signifiers Default - Failure to do something required by duty or law: neglect. A selection made usually automatically or without active consideration due to lack of a viable alternative. A selection automatically used by a program in the absence of a choice made by the user. Using the default settings Design paradigm - The constellation of beliefs, rules, knowledge, etc. that is valid for a particular design community. Determinism - the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. The opposite of determinism is some kind of indeterminism (otherwise called nondeterminism) or randomness. Determinism is often contrasted with free will. Duality - A theory that considers reality to consist of two irreducible elements or modes. The quality or state of being dual or of having a dual nature. A doctrine that the universe is under the dominion of two opposing principles one of which is good and the other evil. View of human beings as constituted of two irreducible elements.
E Epiphany - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. Euphemism - a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. Experience - Something physically perceived through multiple senses. An event that is encountered over a period of time; which can be as short as seconds or as long as decades. Something - knowledge, skills, memory, feelings - carried with you throughout your life. Becoming better equipped to handle an event you encounter over and over again. Explicate - analyze and develop (an idea or principle) in detail.
F Floating signifier - signifier with a vague, highly variable, unspecifiable or non-existent signified. As such a 'floating signifier' may mean different things to different people: they may stand for many or even any signifieds; they may mean whatever their interpreters want them to mean. Such a floating signifier—which is said to possess "symbolic value zero"— necessarily results to "allow symbolic thought to operate despite the contradiction inherent in it".
H Harbinger - A person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another. Hegemony - leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others. Leadership, dominance.
I Inessential - Not necessary, extra, something able to be given up without feeling any sacrifice or loss. Isotope - A series of visual symbols (pictograms) to convey information in a simple, non-verbal way
L Liminal - Relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process. Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
M Make - To conceive, as an idea. To construct, in a physical sense.
N Normal - The current state or stasis. A constantly changing state, although perceived as a static state of being; whatever currently is. Nostalgia - A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.
P Paradigm - Typical example or pattern of something; a model. A set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles. Parergon - Something subordinate or accessory, especially an ornamental accessory or embellishment. Subordinate activity or work : work undertaken in addition to one's main employment Pluralism - A condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist. The practice of holding more than one office or church benefice at a time. Provincial - A person who lives in or comes from the provinces. A person who lacks urban sophistication or broad-mindedness. Only interested in what you already know, geographically, socially, and culturally. Incurious. Insular. Unwilling to learn about other people and cultures. Thinking the way it’s done where you’re from is the only way to be.
R Reductivism - Another term for minimalism/another term for reductionism
S Success - the accomplishment of an aim or purpose
T Time - The system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another. Duration regarded as belonging to the present life as distinct from the life to come or from eternity; finite duration. A human construct that can feel limiting or eternal, depending on the circumstances. Elastic in nature.
U Ugly - not preferred by an individual’s aesthetic. Not visually appealing from one person’s point of view. Whatever you think is ugly.
V Vestige - Trace, mark, or visible sign left by something (such as an ancient city or a condition or practice) vanished or lost. Vernacular - The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region. Architecture concerned with domestic and functional rather than public or monumental buildings.
W
Work - exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil. Productive or operative activity.