Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article offers a survey of Byzantine musical imagery, focusing on the diverse thematic fields, both in the religious and secular spheres, associated to such images. In spite of the scarcity of visual testimonies, partly due to doctrinal matters to be studied as well, those that remain do reveal themselves to be most rewarding in showing evidence of the richness and diversity of musical instruments and dances. The analysis of this complex and abundant iconographic corpus confirms once more that Byzantium kept on being a cultural and artistic melting pot for more than ten centuries.

Maiestas Domini recorded from the classic world to the Middle Ages». Since archaic times the representation of human power has enjoyed special attention. It has been used to support the exercise of power through rituals and cultural signifiers that render it visible. The Iliad binds the foundation of royalty to divine power as sent by delegation of Zeus. Hesiod emphasizes the exclusive source of royal power derived from Zeus, and Callimachus,glossing Hesiod, corroborates this divine origin. Romans recreated the Greek mythological universe in the Latin texts applied to Roman emperors. Likewise, the Church assimilated this theocratic conception and representation of power and reinforced through biblical textsthe theoretical foundation of divine delegation. The theory thus extended throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Modern World.

¿Qué aporta la palabra a la enseñanza del diseño? La mediación verbal es fundamental para el desarrollo de instancias didácticas: exposición, consignas de trabajo, coloquios, crítica de proyectos. La imposición de un lenguaje sobre otro no es insignificante; la palabra nunca agota los sentidos latentes del lenguaje gráfico. Específicamente en las correcciones individuales, docente y estudiante interactúan mediante la palabra; también hablan con su gestualidad, risas y silencios. Como resultado del análisis, emerge un modelo triádico para caracterizar las funciones de la palabra del docente (lenguaje verbal, gestual, gráfico). El docente interviene en el proyecto del estudiante 1. preguntando, 2. reformulando teóricamente y 3. proponiendo resoluciones. Estas estrategias marcan la escena, según el posicionamiento adoptado.  Las competencias dialógicas de los docentes facilitan u obturan la comunicación. A su vez, el contrato implícito que guiará el diálogo, en tanto praxis intersubjetiva, tiene implicancia directa en el desempeño de ambas partes implicadas. 

The teaching of design, by the very characteristics of their doing, tends to keep tacit the arguments that support it, nevertheless, during the training they build in the students the approach on the discipline. This process, which is carried out in an institutional framework, is planned by the professorships that dictate the subject under the pedagogical proposal of each of the titular teachers, which will be finally interpreted and implemented by the teachers of his team, in direct link with the students. The students, on the other hand, come with their life histories and their background of previously acquired conceptions in their familiar and social context and their previous formation, from which they are going to incorporate the new knowledge, modifying these preexisting structures. The diversity of proposals and protagonists that converge in the framework of the teaching invite to reflect on the different instances that shape these conceptions of the students during the learning of design and that build their future professional profile and their cosmovision, while in the professional practice these conceptions are going to be transferred to the designed objects, directly influencing the users and the habitat with which they interact. The possibility of making this process transparent in each of the professorships could allow for the critical analysis and revision of the objectives and practices presented and to evaluate the consequences once implemented, in order to improve teaching, to increase knowledge of reality and increase social commitment.

Este artículo aborda el enfoque del diseño italiano de materiales, basado en una larga tradición de desafíos de intercambio entre prácticas intelectuales. Sobre la base de sus estudios anteriores, los autores, centrándose en el diseño y la historia de las empresas, explican el enfoque y las razones del proceso osmótico entre la tecnología y las humanidades en Italia y cómo estos intercambios desafiantes repercuten tanto en la producción como en los desarrollos futuros. Una visión general del paisaje cultural europeo de los tiempos ayuda a centrarse en las principales teorías que todavía representan un bastión de las Humanidades del Diseño. Explorar el significado semiótico de los materiales mejora las exploraciones sobre sus aplicaciones así como las investigaciones nuevas y en curso en el campo del Diseño de Materiales, también en términos de sostenibilidad e interacción.

In the contemporary panorama of design, materials are gained an important role. We are the witnesses of an incredible acceleration in the evolution of the design practices and processes related to materials developments and applications. In the present issue, we want to introduce and formalised the concept of “diffuse materiality” for describing these significant changes in the field of materials for design. In fact, all the classes of materials are transforming in something different: plastics become bio, composite materials change into smart, agricultural wastes turn into growing materials and those of industrial production in advanced materials, and the organic material becomes the border of the future design. For defining the concept of diffuse materiality we focused on the European context, and we collected various contributions from scholars describing their personal approach to materials. In the following introduction, there is a short description of all these articles.

Knowing in detail the process of consolidation of design as a profession becomes the main way for designers to approach the history of design. There, it is where history is established as a study scenario that enables us, among other things, to discover, recognize, reconstruct and interpret the meaning of the acts performed by humanity over time (Bloch, 1993), which are constructed as historical facts in turn that are established as an imprint and route made by various men and women. In this way and taking the above as a starting point we ask ourselves: what elements are those that constitute a fact to be considered as something historical? Is it possible that any past event by the simple fact of being a past event acquires its validation to be studied by History? These questions, among others, are the structural axis on which we intend to give shape to the historical concerns of the designers in formation.  

The article proposes to put in evidence the alluvial layers that constructed and conceptions of the world that support the pedagogical practices of the design careers within the framework of the universities explaining their tensions in the light of a genealogical study that serves as a basis to consider the conditions of the teaching device to face the problems of technodigital civilization in a politically globalized but internally torn world. 

Textiles are traditionally designed to keep a given expression; a floral pattern is supposed to stay floral. However, contemporary technology and material development is changing both production and expression and requires rethinking in production and the design practice to meet the future of textiles.  Through experimental, practiced based design research this project focus on the notion of change as a central design variable. The textile colours are crafted from plant dye to evolve over time.  The objective of this project is to show an alternative dimension towards sustainability through changeability built into an expression. Instead of replacing an object when we need/want another color, function or expression, the changing expression could be integrated in the materiality and design itself. Creating a design that appears and develops over time, with a starting point, but without an end.

The aim of this paper is to reflect on some of the assertions made by Donald Schön about the Project Workshop, questioning his claim about the possibility of learning but not about teaching design. In order to base our position, we will not only characterize Schön’s gaze as that of a stranger, but we will also resort to other authoritative voices on the subject, voices that come from both designers and design teachers. In order to broaden our arguments we will also point out what remains invisible to Schön’s gaze: the theories of and about Design, theories, worth saying must be taught. And finally we will describe of what Schön is surprised at learning by definition and problem solving, an issue that is presented by many pedagogues as an educational innovation but that in the Design workshop has been done for a very long time ...