design that doesn't actually work  

Frank Gehry's chair?
It represents and innovative use of material. Rather beautiful is what i see.
He never intended for our homes to be full of cardboard furniture.
A child's first toy is the box isn't it?
Design school 101 is a piece of cardboard, design a chair.
The paper dress, the tyvek dress. Warhol's Campbell soup dress?
Can't argue with the 'fun' factor. Nor is anyone asking you to wear pants
made out of pull tabs or plastic bottles.
"The throw away concept fitted the mood of the era. Paper dresses required no sewing skills to make adjustments, just a pair of scissors and sticky tape or glue. It was even possible for a party hostess to purchase matching coasters, place cards and paper dresses to send to all her guests."
I follow Paulanna fine. My train of thought is described as abstract.
Not linear. I also follow DCWison for the most part. I find his thoughts charming. (discounting the poetic injustice)
Don't agree with all of it but he's not asking you to drink his cool-aid.
I drive a Mini. All over the 5 boroughs of Manhattan on a daily basis.
The handling is incredible. Safety tests seem to back up any ?'s.
I drove an electric SmartCar ten yrs ago. Met the designer. It was an odd
ride but perhaps because of the silence.

cont...: )
The cow Bialetti is unnecessary.
My classic works flawlessly without effort, and for 25 years.
(If you are having trouble, seek an Italian or follow instructions on many of
the you-tube demontrations : )
Or simply just don't fill with too much water...

continued...
Patrick and Alex are generous hosts.
They have the eyes of artists. A rare visual sense that looks at the past, present
and the future. In design and in daily life i see such a positive and hopeful
vision. This is their creation isn't it? We are guests.
They moderate silly attacks, allow posts about JMC (in hopes that folks get the
hint to google for one minute and research before sending money to crooks
for crappy reproductions)...
I follow their blog. I see what they see. Full of questions about our future.
I live in an amazing city. And a troubled country.
I don't sit on the fence politically. I jump off to the left. No hesitation.
I sit on the design fence well balanced. It needs to be carefully analyzed.
I feel the brakes are about to be pulled on waste.
Most design we see today are objects that had approval two yrs ago. It takes
a bit of time from start to finish. The crap is over.
I'm an artist and a union leader representing a safe environment for workers.
I'm not a writer, i have legal for that. You may pay a bit more but our safety
is important. I tend to join a forum when i see a child sitting in the corner of
a construction site. We see 10 year olds spray painting appliances in a closet.
No ventilation...in NYC!
'Green' is not a roll your eyes joke anymore. Enough of the embroidered 50$
fabric grocery bags. Use common sense.

rockland...
the cow Bialetti makes cappucino, rather than espresso (or at least the Bialetti version of espresso), as the old reliable and beloved Bialetti makes. The cow Bialetti, and its cappucino siblings--the metal Bialietti and the glass Bialetti--do indeed garner an extraordinary number of complaints among internet reviewers. Fully half the reviewers at one site indicated that their machines sprayed milk and coffee all over the kitchen range at different times. Apparently it is very difficult to screw it together and get an adequate seal to prevent the spewing. And many who get good seals without spewing have had to devise their own techniques after considerable trial and error to achieve normal function. It would appear that the new product, something that reviewers all love the idea of, has some flaws that need remedy.

.
Hi DC, I have to confess I have not read all of your posts, I just don't have time and only visited the forum for the first time this week today. But think I can offer you an opinion from someone who actually makes money from designing and manufacturing and struggles with his conscience at the same time. It is very hard work, you might be able to engage (here I am referring to this statement "I decided I needed to engage them and see if I could trigger a dialogue with them about not only what they were designing, but the contexts that they were designing within.") with academics but you cannot engage with designers (the ones I know anyway) using the manner you currently do, I know a little philosophy, am moderately well read for my age but most people are not autodidacts and the manner you use is quite alienating. Most designers recognise the intellectual aspect but he or she is also concerned with nuts and bolts technological and economic problems, if you want to engage with them you have to speak their language, not yours.
Perhaps you don't recognise certain aspects of design which I'm sure SDR and Gustavo will attest to, sometimes its just about hard physical work, repairing machinery, lugging materials around, searching for that cheap/quality material, delivering furniture, doing tax...thats the real world, not the meta-world. The issues which interest you (and I have just read quite a few of your recent posts) manifest themselves in practical problems which designers face day in day out, we are all aware of what the state of the industry is without being told, its lies and exagerations, the forks in the road. Perhaps you could start to offer some creative solutions rather than endless observations of problems long recognised.

Thank you, Heath!
Thank you, Heath!

This is a design site?
DC, throw in the occasional photo to go along with your manifestos. Most here are I assume are visually stimulated.

Frustrated
God knows I've derailed the D.A. forum once or twice, but I find the lengthy, abstruse posts here frustrating. I like clarity and economy in language as well as design.

dcwilson, do you really type...
dcwilson, do you really type your posts or copy/paste them from some extremist socialist websites?