The World of Ideas as a Way to Focus a Design Episteme

Pankratova Aleksandra Vladimirovna PhD in Philosophy Associate professor, Department of Design, National Research University “Moscow Power Engineering Institute” 111250, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Krasnokazarmennaya, 13 S, kab. 605 sashaoscar@mail.ru Other publications by this author

IntroductionOne of the most interesting phenomena of our time is design.

Design is indicative of the understanding of modern culture, since the formation of design as a social practice took place in parallel with the formation of the modern cultural paradigm. The principles and ideological foundations on which the design was formed are the foundations of modern culture as a whole.

Since design is a semiotic system, when studying design as a cultural phenomenon, the principles that underlie design thinking, the principles of sign formation in design are of interest.

Therefore, the object of this study is a design episteme - a system of principles of thinking and logical connections in design, formed as a result of the historical genesis of design.

The subject of the study is the transformation of the design episteme in the modern cultural situation.

The purpose of this study is to explicate the transformations that are currently taking place in the design episteme.

The design episteme was formed in the era of modernism, therefore, it is characterized by features, in principle, characteristic of modernism: materialism, orientation to science, denial of the past, rejection of tradition in favor of innovation, rejection of the transcendent signified.

Due to these characteristics, the design episteme initially contained a logical contradiction, which has now led to some deadlock in the development of design as a phenomenon.

The entire culture of modernism and postmodernism (within which the formation and development of design as a social practice took place) is a period of conscious rejection of the transcendent signified.

The transcendent signified in culture is a reference of cultural artifacts to God, to spiritual content, to universal spiritual values, to the historical past.

A culture that denies its own spiritual foundations necessarily turns into a consumer society, because if a person's life has no higher meaning, then comfort becomes the only goal of life. "The language of symbolic realism disappears and Divine transcendence is reduced to the level of everyday concepts" ^{[10, p. 591]}.

Design was formed as a universal tool for organizing a comfortable life, as one of the main tools of the consumer society. J. Baudrillard, characterizing the consumer society, manifests "the end of the transcendent" ^{[1, p. 240]}.

The focus on the material, on the absence of transcendental meanings, led the semiotic design system to use simulacra signs as the main sign form.

If the transcendent signified in culture is denied, then culture ceases to be vertically oriented ^[4]. That is, there is no hierarchy of values in culture, including an aesthetic hierarchy. Everything begins to be recognized as equally valuable.

A simulacrum is a sign without a signified, an empty form without a referent. Almost all modern design, as the main tool of hyperreality, consists of simulacrum signs.

The signs used by the design do not refer to any referent, they do not even refer to such concepts as "comfortable", "functional", "convenient", "beautiful", since in modern culture these concepts have lost their meaning.

An important semantic core of modernism in general, and hence the design episteme, is the orientation towards equality. The beginning of the modernism era was marked by the reign of ideas about social equality in society. These ideas were inspired by the struggle of global corporations and international financial capital with nation-states. Global corporations interested in turning the whole world into the same consumer environment turned out to be the first consumers of modernist international design.

International or supranational design is the main ideological component of modernism. Architects and designers of modernism believed that design could become an alternative to revolutions (or their accompanying tool) in the struggle for social justice. If all people live in the same subject and architectural environment, then there will be no social inequality.

It was this ideology that determined the stylistics of modernism – the rejection of ornaments, regional and national decorative elements in favor of smooth flat surfaces, geometric shapes and minimalism. This style is the only option that is suitable for everyone and is quite economical.

The art of modernism is also becoming international, since the new materials and means of expression that the art of the avant–garde finds are a nationwide language of rejection of traditional art, of the art of the Christian paradigm.

Modernism and international design are ideologically based on the idea of rejecting hierarchy, including aesthetic hierarchy. The idea of equality, brought to its logical conclusion, leads to the conclusion that there is nothing more beautiful and less beautiful.

This position has taken a dominant position in the art and design of modernism and postmodernism. Aesthetic relativism is still a common background for any creative activity. Beauty in the art of modernism and postmodernism is an optional property, artists and designers create for other purposes.

In modern design, aesthetic relativism has turned out to be an immanent quality of the episteme. Designers do not think in terms of beauty, a thing is evaluated not by its aesthetic qualities, and not even by the quality of functionality. The design value of any thing or image in the modern world is an accidental quality, it develops spontaneously under the influence of various factors, from the name of the author to the frequency of mentions in social networks. That is, the value of design today is a simulacrum.

This situation leads to a defocusing of the design episteme. If there are no criteria by which a design work can be evaluated, then thinking itself, the design episteme itself, turns out to be devoid of logic, deprived of the ability to carry out logical operations, analyze and synthesize design objects. Any design work or work of art can be declared valuable. So, the value of the Benxi painting increased when the painting began to self-destruct at auction.

Neither designers nor consumers have clear criteria by which to determine the quality of the design.

In the traditional paradigm, such a criterion is beauty. Moreover, beauty in the traditional/Christian paradigm is an anagogic quality. That is, the ability of a work of art, thanks to the perfection of its form, to refer the viewer's consciousness to the transcendent principle, to God.

In this state of defocusing, the design episteme has existed for quite a long time, but now the process of simulation in design has intensified.

The body of the material: examples of aesthetic relativism in designAesthetic relativism in design is the defocusing of the design episteme.

If there are no criteria in the design by which a work of design can be evaluated, then the very system of thinking, the logic of design, disintegrates. Design turns out to be a phenomenon consisting of a set of accidents.

As a body of material, let's consider examples of defocusing a design episteme from various directions of modern design.

Graphic design. The most striking example of defocusing a design episteme in graphic design is the work of a neural network named N. Ironov as a full-time designer of the Artemy Lebedev studio.

The neural network works much more efficiently than a living person, as it is able to produce infinitely diverse content faster. At the same time, no quality criteria can be applied to neural network products, since infinite variations imply variations of completeness. All the graphic content produced by the neural network is a vivid example of a simulacrum sign, since it does not refer to any idea, to any signified. At the same time, the signifier in this product tends to zero, since the form itself is random and not particularly rendered graphemes. The very introduction to the design practice of a neural network speaks of a certain impasse in the designer's profession. The only advantage of a person over a neural network is the ability to produce ideas. But ideas are no longer in demand in design, in the practice of design, an endless game of signifiers is sufficient, which themselves strive to minimize their own form. A neural network very effectively replaces a person in those conditions when there are no criteria for evaluating a design product, when everything can be recognized as "designer".

Another example of defocusing the design episteme in graphic design is the redesign of almost all Internet content. In recent years, almost all major services and sites on the Internet have been redesigned. The redesign in all cases consisted in almost complete elimination of color, recognizable composition, and characteristic graphics. Today, at first glance, it is difficult for the recipient to determine which social network page he is on, since all sites look almost the same. Sberbank, Russian Railways, Mail.ru today they have become almost indistinguishable. Today, the company cannot stand out from a number of competitors due to its design, since the entire design has become fundamentally the same.

Designers argue this situation by the fact that in conditions of information overload, consumers need the most lightweight graphic content. But at the same time, they do not take into account the elementary age differences of consumers: with age, vision deteriorates, and a design completely devoid of contrasts and accents is difficult to perceive.

Interior design. The same situation is observed in interior design as in graphic design. The idea, the concept disappears from the designers' works. All interiors are executed in a style close to Scandinavian modernism. Quotes, games with styles, references to various cultural codes have disappeared from design solutions. A striking example is the interiors of fashionable public spaces today. Today, the transformation of old factories into public spaces and cultural centers is becoming a positive trend of the time. However, the peculiarity of such centers is their absolute similarity to each other. Designers are not confused by the fact that the habitat of the creative intelligentsia implies a certain originality of the design solution. Designers create exactly the same public spaces in places with different histories and in different cities.

Industrial design. The most popular thing today, which almost everyone has, is a smartphone. But it is in the design of smartphones that there is absolutely no diversity. If the design of push-button phones twenty years ago was striking in its diversity, today even smartphones of different price categories do not differ fundamentally. Today's consumer cannot demonstrate his superiority or wealth thanks to a smartphone in any way except by presenting the brand and year of manufacture of the product. But these are not design characteristics. The design does not affect the difference of smartphones at all, but the design of smartphones still exists. Design in this area exists, again, as a fourth-order simulacrum, as a game of empty signifiers whose form is minimized.

Fashion design. Modern fashion has become as democratic as possible. The main trend of post-coronavirus fashion has become the ability to appear everywhere in a tracksuit. The most popular item of clothing among young people is an oversize hoodie. Such a thing completely hides the figure. The trend of modern fashion is desexualization. A person no longer demonstrates his gender identity, does not emphasize his beauty. Clothing no longer performs the function of decoration. Pure functionality remains in the clothes. But naked functionality in clothes is impossible, since clothes are one of the tools of social communication, that is, a sign. Clothing cannot refuse the iconic function, so clothing that demonstrates pure functionality is a simulacrum of the fourth order.

A striking example of such clothing, which tries not to show anything, is the Uniqlo brand, which recently left Russia. This brand, which is very popular all over the world, contains absolutely inexpressive wardrobe items, inexpressive colors and fundamentally banal forms that do not refer to any style. Such clothes turn a person into a statistical unit. The design here, just as in the previous examples, does not play the role of an identifier, a marker, but is reduced to the endless production of an expressionless form that does not refer to any content.

In all the examples we see complete aesthetic relativism, strengthening of simulation up to the use of a fourth-order simulacrum, reducing form and aesthetics to zero, erasing the very specifics of design activity.

Results and discussion: the current state of the design episteme and the way out. The concept of the world of ideas as a way to focus the design epistemeThus, in any direction of modern design today, aesthetic relativism is observed as a leading principle.

Aesthetic relativism in design is expressed in the fact that aesthetic hierarchy is not taken into account when creating a design product. Any quality is recognized as equally valuable. The absence of an aesthetic hierarchy leads to the rejection of those fundamental principles that in the previous paradigm determined the creation of any work of art:

- properties and laws of composition;

- principles of color harmony and color creation;

- stylistic games and knowledge of the history of art and design.

If any move in design is recognized as equally successful, then the very existence of properties, laws, the history of art and design turns out to be unnecessary. The absence of selection, criteria, aesthetic relativism leads to a complete defocusing of the design episteme.

Defocusing a design episteme is a state of discourse in which there are no clear principles for constructing phrases, no rules of syntax and logic. In such a situation, the designer can do anything. But this situation is dangerous for the designer profession, since anyone can be recognized as a designer. The meaning of learning design is lost, the neural network begins to cope with design much better.

In this situation, in order to preserve the designer profession and the design phenomenon itself, the design episteme must be rebuilt, that is, fundamentally different principles of thinking within design are found.

The current design episteme was built on the principles of modernism, that is, the basis of the modern design episteme was a materialistic horizontally oriented paradigm.

The opposite paradigm of thinking, which was just abandoned at the dawn of the appearance of design, was the Christian paradigm. The Christian paradigm is vertically oriented, assumes a strict hierarchy of values, including an aesthetic hierarchy.

The idea of the beauty of things in Christianity is based on a concept proposed by Plato and developed in Neoplatonism – the concept of the world of ideas or eidos.

Eidos is an ideal example of a thing existing in the transcendent world, in an out-of-the-world quality.

 If the idea of the world of ideas becomes the basis for building logical connections in the design episteme, then the design episteme becomes a vertically oriented system with a clear hierarchy of values and criteria for evaluating works. The concept of the world of ideas is able to build a focus of design thinking, to give a guideline.

We consider the world of ideas as a concept that has historically passed from Neoplatonism to Christianity. Plotinus writes: "Therefore (here, in the sensory world), for every thing that is only an imaginary entity, in order to be beautiful, and even before that, in order to exist, it is necessary that a shadow fall on it and the image of that true beauty is reflected in it; so that here every thing exists, and beauty always possesses only so much how much participates in the beauty of the true essence" ^{[7, p. 118]}.

There are different opinions about whether the Christian paradigm accepts the concept of the world of ideas. But if theological consideration can have different dogmatic shades, then from a philosophical point of view, from the point of view of meaning formation, continuity is obvious.

V. N. Lossky, who systematically expounded the dogmatic theology of the Eastern Church, writes: "Ideas are wisdom in action, if you like, even "images" (exemplarisme), but dynamic images, images of "will—thoughts", "thoughts-words", in which the "logos" of things are rooted: Divine by the word, the world is called out of its non-existence, and there is a word for everything that exists, a word in every thing, for every thing, a word that is the norm of its existence and the way to its transformation" ^{[5, p. 338]}. The ideas of things in the Christian paradigm are the thoughts of God in dynamics.

Ideas-volitions, which Dionysius the Areopagite calls "patterns", "predestinations", or "anticipations", are not identical with created things ^{[5, p. 107]}. Divine wills are the creative ideas of things, their "words", their "logos". The church fathers refine and concretize Plato's teaching about ideas. In addition, in the Christian paradigm, eidos are complemented by dynamics. According to L. I. Taruashvili, the main aesthetic setting of the ancient paradigm is tectonicity – the visual impression of immobility ^{[9, p. 13]}, Christianity begins to appreciate the opposite qualities — lightness, the ability to soar and fly. Therefore, if Plato's ideas are static and tectonic, then the eidos in the Christian sense are filled with creative dynamics. Eidos are thoughts of God filled with creative energy.

In the vertically oriented philosophy of Modern Times, the understanding of ideas as the primary basis has not fundamentally changed. In "Reflections on the First Philosophy" R. Descartes gives an example with a triangle. The subject's imagination can suggest any triangles, but the essence of the triangle is not born of consciousness. "It is unchangeable and eternal, not invented by me and does not depend on my mind" ^{[2, p. 215]}. By the idea Descartes means "that which is comprehended by the intellect directly" ^{[2, p. 256]}.

Descartes notes the hierarchy of degrees of being of a thing: the closer a thing is to an idea, the more real it is, and therefore more perfect. Descartes explains this idea to Hobbes, who asks the French philosopher what a "big reality" is, how "one thing can be more of a thing than another" ^{[2, p. 261]}. Descartes responds as follows. "Greater" and "lesser" realities are possible precisely to the extent that the substance is more real than the mode. If there are real qualities or imperfect substances, then they are more real than modes, but less real than perfect substances ^{[2, p. 262]}.

Thus, the hierarchy of degrees of perfection turns out to be the fundamental aesthetic setting of the Christian paradigm, going from Plato and Aristotle through Augustine the Blessed and Thomas Aquinas to Descartes and the philosophers of Modern Times.

There is a direct connection between a vertically oriented worldview and the acceptance of degrees of perfection, which means the world of ideas.

A pattern is being built: the horizontally oriented positivist paradigm denies the eidic hierarchy of being, which means the criteria of beauty, and leads to aesthetic relativism, which means it calls into question the very existence of design.

The vertically oriented worldview (Platonism and Christianity) contains the concept of the world of ideas as a condition for the existence of criteria of beauty. In such a paradigm of thinking, design will always have a specific task – to make the material and virtual environment more beautiful, logically organized and convenient.

To understand exactly how the artist of the Christian paradigm sees eidos, one can turn to P. A. Florensky's concept of "synthetic perception" ^{[6, p. 265]} — the perception of an object from all points of view at once, not as we see the object with our eyes, but as our consciousness perceives it. Synthetic perception allows you to see and portray a noumenon, not a phenomenon; a thing as such, not its perception.

This idea becomes clear thanks to a thought experiment conducted by the modern philosopher A. K. Sekatsky, who proposes to present a camera with an infinite shutter speed, shooting from all points of view at once. Such a camera will not record something flickering, temporary. Everything that is subject to change will not remain in the picture. From the lyre, for example, one harmony will remain — lyricism. "If lyricism remains from the lyre, then from the table — so much, from the horse — horseness; and we would be able to see them if we showed such restraint." That is, "we would see the imperishable, those divine primordial images-eidos, standards of things and meanings" ^{[8, p. 176]}.

That is, the designer, based on the concept of the world of ideas, will strive to create not a transient thing or his own idea of it, but an archetype, an idea, an ideal state of a thing.

ConclusionsDesign originated in a horizontally oriented paradigm – during the period of dominance of positivist views on science and society.

The logic of the development of design as an exclusively materialistic phenomenon has led to complete aesthetic relativism, the absence of criteria of beauty.

If there is no scale of beauty, there is no hierarchy of meanings, then any criteria are denied, and functionality also ceases to be a criterion for design. In such a situation, the very profession of a designer is in question. If any degree of completeness and beauty can be declared a design decision, then there is no professionalism in design, and therefore no such profession.

The decline of design, which is a consequence of the logic of the development of the design phenomenon, is observed in the complete defocusing of the design episteme at the present time. Designers have nothing to rely on, there are no laws left in design thinking.

The salvation of design as a phenomenon of culture and the sphere of professional activity can be the transformation of thinking itself, the design episteme, the transition to a vertically oriented worldview. The designer will have a scale, a system of criteria, which will mean the appearance of a logical structure of the designer's thinking. Such a scale in which "The Super?Essential Beauty is called Beauty because It communicates its own charm for everyone to everything that exists; and because It is the Reason for the well-being and elegance of everything" ^{[3, pp. 177-178]}.

The idea of the eidic hierarchy of being can become a working concept for determining the criteria of beauty and the logic that the designer will rely on in his thinking.