Disegno Lectures, Task I – Objectification
Choose a concrete object from the category you’ve already decided to work with (face, body, animal, plant, landscape, or urbanity) and answer the following questions:
What kind?
What specific type of object is it?Which task or purpose does this object have as such?
What is its function or intended use in its original context?How is the object medialized?
Through which medium or form is the object represented (e.g., image, sculpture, diagram, toy, interface)?What purpose does the representation of the object serve (as a picture, sculpture, toy, etc.)?
How can the relationship between the object’s function, its representation, and the form of medialization be understood in the context of “Designing Society”? In other words, what does this object—and the way it is represented—say about the role of design in shaping social behavior, perception, or values?
Explanation of the terms
1. Kind
Definition:
"Kind" identifies what the object is — its categorical nature or type. It situates the object within a world of forms, materials, and meanings.
Explanation:
You’re determining the object’s ontological status: Is it natural or artificial? Static or living? Physical or digital?
This classification is never neutral — it tells us what kind of thing we are dealing with and what assumptions guide our perception of it.
Example:
A mask may be ritual (spiritual kind), theatrical (performative kind), or digital (avataric kind).
A tree can be a living organism (biological kind), a printed motif (ornamental kind), or a 3D model (virtual kind).
Philosophical note:
Naming the kind of object is the first act of objectification — fixing what was once fluid into a recognizable form.
2. Task or Purpose
Definition:
This defines why the object exists — its role, function, or goal in the world.
Explanation:
Every object performs or symbolizes a function, and that function links form and ideology.
Practical task: the immediate use (e.g., a bowl holds food).
Social task: the behavior it encourages (e.g., a uniform enforces hierarchy).
Ideological task: the worldview it embodies (e.g., a church cross communicates belief).
Example:
A chair supports the human body, but it also represents ideas of rest, dignity, or social status.
A city square gathers people — but also defines who belongs and who does not.
Philosophical note:
Purpose exposes the ethical dimension of design: how objects regulate bodies, desires, and relationships.
3. Medialization
Definition:
Medialization refers to how an object becomes perceivable — through which medium or form it appears.
Explanation:
It’s the process by which something real becomes visible, audible, tangible, or interactive.
Ask yourself: what medium translates the object’s essence? Drawing, model, film, digital simulation, text?
Every medium transforms the object — re-framing it, distorting it, or amplifying aspects of it.
Example:
A body is medialized differently in painting (gesture and proportion), photography (light and framing), and VR (immersion and interaction).
A landscape changes character when mapped, painted, or rendered in Google Earth.
Philosophical note:
Medialization reveals that seeing and knowing are shaped by mediation. The medium isn’t a neutral container — it’s an active agent in how society imagines reality.
4. Representation
Definition:
Representation asks what meaning the object carries once it has been medialized. It is the cultural and symbolic re-appearance of the object within a system of signs.
Explanation:
Through representation, objects begin to speak — they stand for something beyond themselves.
They can imitate (mimetic), symbolize (allegorical), or critique (performative) the world they come from.
Example:
A toy animal represents nature as domesticated and playful.
A war memorial represents collective memory and authority.
Philosophical note:
Representation is where aesthetics meets politics. It determines how images, symbols, and forms reproduce or resist the values of a culture.
5. Designing Society
Definition:
“Designing Society” is the overarching reflection on how the object — through its kind, purpose, medialization, and representation — participates in the shaping of collective life.
Explanation:
Design never ends at the object itself. Each act of design reconfigures the relations between people, materials, spaces, and meanings.
To “design society” is to recognize that forms are not passive: they govern perception, organize behavior, and project ideals of how life should be lived.
Ask yourself:
What kind of society does this object imagine or enforce?
Whose desires and interests are inscribed in its form?
How does its design structure our attention, movement, or sense of belonging?
Example:
A smartphone interface designs society by conditioning communication, attention, and identity.
A public bench designs social behavior — some invite rest, others exclude the homeless.
A church façade designs collective belief through symmetry, hierarchy, and light.
Philosophical note:
Designing society is the ethical and political horizon of all artistic practice. It acknowledges that every aesthetic decision is also a social one.