Reading Response #8

to Artful Design • Chapter 8 + Coda: “Manifesto + Search of the Sublime”

Oluseyi O.

11/19/2023

Music 256A / CS476a, Stanford University

Reading Response: Why I Am Here

From this week’s reading, I’d like to perform some self reflection while taking into account the Manifesto and the entire Artful Design book. On the first day of class, when I was asked this question, I believe I responded with something along the lines of liking composing but not being able to fit it into my schedule, and so I took the class since it was in my CS major and also appealed to that musical side of mine. I’d like to take this chance to think more broadly about why I’m here on this Earth, though I don’t expect to come up with a conclusive answer.

Starting with the reason I took this class, I think along the way, about when I decided to stick with the class and not drop it even when it wasn’t so much about composing music, I think I began being present in the class because I did have a genuine interest in what “artful design” meant and where that would lead me. After reading the Manifesto, I think to me artful design is about purposefully adding that human element and touch to designs, instead of being concerned with just reaching the end. As the book states, it is that interplay between something being a means-to-an-end and an end-in-itself. That means it is ok to add features and aspects that may serve no functional purpose if they serve that playful, fun, or aesthetic purpose. It is those features and aspects that make designs truly come to life and be human.

I am an undergraduate senior at Stanford this year, and have already accepted a return offer at a software company I interned at over last summer. When I go into the industry and begin participating in design for that company, I hope I am able to bring the principles and properties of Artful Design into it, if even a little. While I alone may not be able to change the current culture of the tech industry, which I do believe is engaged in a lot of design that causes harm or is banal/boring, part of the point of the book is that the end goal is to create denizens within the industry who engage in Artful Design, and not just to have a few visionaries leading the charge, though I wouldn’t imagine myself a visionary anyway. It is just the hope that by trying to engage in Artful Design in my own work I can inspire others as well, and hopefully along with other people who engage in such design can gradually change the industry from within.

I used to believe that my artistic/creative side was entirely separate from my engineer/designer side, and I recognize now due to this class that things are not as black and white as I initially thought. I’m not sure how exactly I’ll do it, but I’d like to continue to engage that artistic side of myself more when doing my engineering and designing work as a software engineer. Thank you for teaching me this and sharing your philosophy with me!