Izma Shabbir

Reading Response 8

In reflection of Chapter 8 and our discussion in class, I am grateful to have taken this class this quarter. Our discussions around design, ethics, and 'artfulness' are just the discussions that I have been craving. At Stanford, 'design' means many things, and I appreciate the lenses which the book, Kunwoo, and Ge bring to the discussion. The beginning of the chapter starts off with the idea of "What we make, makes us." While we were discussing this in class, I thought about how the subject "US" felt like a non-negotiable. If I make something, or as a community, "we" make something, it will always affect many people. There are very few things that solely impact a single individual. Even a class project can have an impact beyond what we can understand. This quote can even be re-stated as "What I make, makes us." The "US" part is the crucial subject. I have been thinking about the claim "design in presumptuous." It feels true -- there is a deep sense of agency that we all must hold to believe that our world is designable. The idea that if I believe something should be better, and go ahead and go through a 'design process' to make it so, requires an immense amount of privilege and confidence. To go one step further and to design for others requires a sense of confidence and presumptuousness that many humans do not have. Design is power. Additionally, we discussed Winston Churchill's discussion on the design of buildings -- "we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us." This felt like Churchill's way of describing manifesting -- we build spaces for what we want to take place in those spaces, and then those things happen. Is it a coincidence that manifesting and manifesto are from the same root word? Another aspect of our discussion that has been resonating with me was the idea that we design with an outcome in mind. What is that outcome? Is it a feeling? Is it a sense of pride? When designers design without naming the outcome, they still have an outcome -- it's just poorly defined or potentially harmful. It reminded me of Ge's quote from class today and his reminder to "build towards who you want to be and you'll become who you want to be." This cycle of manifesting and becoming feels very serendipitous as I chart my way as a designer. Thank you for the wisdom, and thank you for this beautiful ethos of design and humility. I have loved this class and going through the readings every week -- it feels really wonderful to have such a special part of campus that believes so wholly in the merits of artful, ethical design.