Memory design

Mind and Matter - Nordik 2009 Conference for Art Historians

Design Matters Contributed

Memory design

BACKGROUND My research concerns the use of memory categories in the designs by the companies

Alessi and Georg Jensen. When Alessi's designers create their products, they are usually inspired by

cultural forms, often specifically by the concept of memory in philosophy, sociology and psychology, while

Danish design traditionally has been focusing on form and function with frequent references to the forms of

nature. Alessi's motivation for investigating the concept of memory is that it adds a cultural dimension to

the design objects, enabling the objects to make an identity-forming impact. Whether or not the concept of

memory plays a significant role in Danish design has not yet been elucidated fully.

TERMINOLOGY The concept of "memory design" refers to the idea that design carries the potential to form

identity. Memory requires consciousness - the ability of abstraction and reflection, and at the same time

it requires intuition and empathy. Some forms appeal more to the user than other forms, which may be

socially and culturally determined. Furthermore design first becomes memory design over time. Memory

is bonded with story telling. Both in the way the designer tells a story through his design and in the way

the user recognizes the story in his perception of design. Memory design first requires recognition and then

cognition.

AIM The purpose of my research is to investigate the use of the concept of memory within design by

prominent Danish and Italian design companies with main focus on the companies Georg Jensen and

Alessi. The question is memory also plays a role in Danish design. My project will investigate the hypothesis

that there is a thematic difference in the use of memory between Danish and Italian design and how this

difference is manifesting itself in the design process. Whereas memory is used deliberately in Italian design,

it is perhaps manifested more intuitively as a non-culturally generated memory in Danish design, a memory,

which is founded in the organic, in nature metaphors. In this connection, my investigation will also illustrate

in what extent memory is already embedded by the designers in the development of ideas - or if it is merely

through the use of design that design acquires a memory layer.