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

The authors discuss the trend toward consumption of artisanal products in developed economy markets, and query whether artisanal value lies in the “branding” of products as artisanal or in the “saper fare” or intrinsic traditional craftsmanship. Using some examples from Tuscany, we examine the added value of innovation in Global Value Chains (which coordinate disparate activities such as branding, design and making across geographies), in contrast to the elemental value of traditional, localized, and historic crafts practice. In this comparison we discuss the philosophical basis of “saper fare” (traditional Tuscan ways of knowing and doing); how craftsmanship imbues a product with intrinsic identity or “aura”; and the crucial role of “genius loci” (spirit of place) in understanding the craft artifact and process. We argue that GVC-enabled processes have relegated highlyskilled Tuscan artisans to subservient roles as suppliers of labor to global luxury designers and brand managers. Finally, the authors propose that “advanced craft” –comprising customizable and agile methods enabled through digital production techniques– can combine with the Italian saper fare to place skilled artisans at the center of the process of thought-in-action, empowering craftsmen and designers to share information as cocreators and designers. Advanced craft thus holds the promise of enhancing the Tuscan region (and Italy’s) share of value created.

Cuatro películas del director alemán Werner Herzog son analizadas por sus características comunes en cuanto ensayos-fílmicos de viaje. Estas obras, menos conocidas, medio metrajes, que supuestamente arriesgan menos, o por otras palabras, de búsqueda física de creación documental en el acto mismo de observación, sirven justamente para ilustrar su recorrido personal por las formas de hacer documental más “convencionales”. Este articulo sostiene qué: por un lado, en estas películas el autor hace uso de una puesta en escena que toma del naturalismo de Paul Rotha y su dispositivo romántico, entre otros autores; y por el otro, qué lo que les añade Herzog es necesariamente lo qué las aleja de una definición contenedora. Es decir, para nosotros, el valor de estos ensayos fílmicos reside en el uso de las herramientas clásicas que son resinificadas por la marca autoral. En el presente articulo se reflexiona sobre la dificultad en determinar modalidades y cerrar películas en definiciones, en el cine documental, partiendo del estudio de casos de un recorte de la filmografía de un autor.

La “gran recesión” de 2008-09 en los EE.UU. fue un momento decisivo en el desarrollo de la dinámica de los negocios y se constituyó en una instancia muy prometedora tanto para la creación de una nueva generación de compañías americanas como para la revigorización de empresas ya establecidas. Estos son 1. el surgimiento de la economía colaborativa, 2. la interconexión tecnológica, 3. la adopción de propuestas de valor propositivas o relacionadas con una causa y 4. la adaptabilidad a los recursos limitados. Este artículo analiza el surgimiento del diseño en el escenario de los negocios en la post-recesión de EE.UU.; se describen los atributos que los diseñadores comparten con los empresarios, incluyendo la capacidad de adaptación, el riesgo y la tolerancia al error, la multidisciplinariedad, la creatividad y una mentalidad orientada a la resolución de problemas. Se describen estas nuevas funciones y formas de trabajo combinado con las capacidades y los recursos intelectuales disponibles en la educación superior. En concreto, se presenta a Parson´s E Lab: una incubadora negocios de diseño-escuela que busca replicar el ambiente dinámico de aprendizaje en el escenario de los negocios en la post-recesión en Estados Unidos, a través de un modelo en red, orientado al diseño y socialmente comprometido, que contempla los cuatro ejes clave de la estrategia empresarial de start-up en el entorno posterior a la recesión.

In a moment in time when Colombia seems to be entering a postconflict state after over six decades of violence, Colombian nationals are engaging in the reconstruction of a national identity, especially through cultural production. Colombian fashion designers, creating one of the most visible images of identity –clothing– are an essential part of this process of re-creation of the nation. In this paper, I study the ways in which Johanna Ortiz and Pepa Pombo, two important Colombian designers that are widely known both in the country and abroad, selling their products through high-end international fashion retailers, use traditional elements of the national identity to create a new image of Colombia, as the basis of their creations for export. I study how Johanna Ortiz takes inspiration from the orchid, national flower, and the elements of traditional costume, and how Pepa Pombo borrows hand-woven techniques of textile manufacture and geometric, abstract and tribal patterns in textile design from the indigenous communities. I argue that, in de-constructing the stereotypes that associate these elements with the violent and corrupt ideas of armed conflict and drug cartels, and reinterpreting them in their own design aesthetic, they re-construct the Colombian nation and re-create the national identity under a positive light, thus providing a new image of Colombia both for export and for the Colombian peoples to identify with.

How do creative impulses and lived realities interact and inform one another throughout the design process? This project examines the mechanics of the creative process by observing the work of three graduate fashion design students as a first step toward understanding the nature of the design process and the symbiosis between object and process, using ideas borrowed from modern linguistic theory as the starting point for investigation. Referencing Cholachatpino’s et al. (2002) categorization of the microsubjective order of the fashion process as “a dynamic process and not a linear continuum”, along with Ingold and Hallam’s (2009) notion of cultural improvisation and related theories from the field of linguistic anthropology, this paper argues that the fashion design process is open to the kind of improvisation inherent in any ongoing lived experience, the final product representing a culmination of the ideas, desires, decisions, obstacles, and other circumstances shaping its production. Ideas are not translated into their material form in a fluid and uncomplicated manner; in fact, there are many intervening forms of disruption, diversion, reformulation, and rearticulation, not unlike our everyday use of language in conversation. Reconsidering the design process with an eye toward explaining its collective, nonlinear, and experimental nature allows us to recognize that design has the potential to inform us about society and give us the tools to actively change it.

Historically, corporations have targeted homogenous consumer groups through mainstream and social media. However, due to the radically shifting global marketplace and consumer demographics, corporations are developing heterogeneous visual narratives that fluidly cross cultural boundaries, engage the growing socially-minded consumer groups, and positively impact communities. Across organizational settings (e.g. for profit, non-for profit, and academia), these narratives are being disseminated to culturally diverse audiences to promote social change on a local, national, and/or international level. In this paper, the authors examine commercial imagery that creates compelling visual and written narratives to engender social and cultural change. Select campaigns developed by large corporations (e.g. Levis, Nike, Apple, and Dove) are presented to better understand cultural contexts, local/global consumer environments, and social impact. The authors then consider the function of these concepts as tools students may use to create successful visual narratives, and as illustrations of the challenges that may exist in a culturally diverse academic setting. Unique classroom settings are contextualized through four presentations on the topic, each in a culturally diverse setting. These settings include The United Nations Education First (UN/EF) Summer School; The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia; The Kaliningrad State Gallery, Russia; and Parsons School of Design, New York. The students’ diverse perspectives provide insight into how visual and cultural language function in a commercial and educational context on a local, national, and international basis.

We have crossed a new situation where the self-portrait as an artistic genre has always been a favorite subject for artists who chose to be models of their own work in order to address different topics or to simply paint the human figure with a model that was always on hand. Today, one does not need to be a professional artist to create a selfportrait; photographic devices are simplified, associated expenses are greatly reduced, and almost everyone owns (or has access to) a camera to portray themselves. Additionally, the emergence of social media allows the public to display images that would not otherwise be shared a few years ago. Today, we can all view the artistic creations made by a great number of people who communicate personally through these images. It is a new situation that affects not only artists but also viewers of these works, as viewers are saturated with viewing personal portraits without applying thoughtful, analytical elements.

El exitoso avance del diseño y sus industrias relacionadas requerirán de la implementación de un cambio que permita pasar del desarrollo de metodos tácticos de diseño a métodos estratégicos que respondan efectivamente a las crecientes y complejas necesidades de los consumidores. Uno de los métodos fundamentales consiste en evaluar cómo el concepto de “valor” que tienen los consumidores evoluciona a lo largo del tiempo. Ese “valor” está creado generalmente por factores como la oferta y demanda, la diferenciación, la edad, las tendencias, los materiales y/o la marca en sí misma. Parsons presentan sus trabajos.

This study examines how designers in professional practice are evolving the concept of “value” in designed products and systems. Contemporary culture’s obsession with design, coupled with a knowledge-based economy and an over-saturated marketplace, requires designers to create and contextualize their work in unique ways if they are to stand out and attract consumers. To succeed, designers must shift their focus from creating mere artifact to developing highly complex narratives and design processes utilizing sophisticated research methods that, in turn, create new forms of perceived value. In addition, they must collaborate with other disciplines, understand interconnectivity of global systems, and adopt a “designer-as-social scientist” approach. This professional shift from “what to design” to “how to design” is radically altering design education. This study aims to provide design educators and program directors with an awareness of how they can improve their students’ preparation for entry into professional practice. It also aims to provide designers with an awareness for how they may develop and strengthen their professional practice.

The body, in contemporary society, is a space for reconceptualization. Postmodernism is rewriting an iconography and a particular body aesthetic around the “commodity-image”. This new image impacts the different categories of the social, fictional, performative, and fashionable, which in turn alters the construction of the individual’s and the collective’s identities. The design of clothing in particular has created a new relationship between apparel and the body. It is now necessary to reflect on the different visions of this relationship that has not always been a sustainable relationship. The post-industrial design society has new challenges to solve through interdisciplinary engagement; these mark the present and the future of design processes, teaching, and design practices.