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Dry
Story and Painting by Lehan Winifred Ramsay
Lately I have been thinking about the effect that Apple had on design. On the one hand, Apple has introduced a very strong kind of design that is immediately recognizable, not only for being Apple but also for being GOOD design. But inside of that, Apple threw away some of the important core meanings of GOOD design. They threw away durability (with products that have to be replaced too often), they threw away heritage (with products that can NOT be kept) and they threw away flexibility (with products that can not be re-used.
I have always thought that Apple design was very Japanese, and it is interesting to use Apple as an example of “Japanese Design”. It is very beautiful, it has an other-worldly quality about it, it’s sometimes as if the design is enough to justify its existence, no function needed. That brief, slick, cute and eerily perfect product? Before Apple, it was Japanese Design.
But after the earthquake of March 2011, in a time of new understanding of the frailty of our environment and our responsibility to it and ourselves to care for it, it may be time for a re-think. Part of re-thinking is about changing perception. If we consider that Apple is the world’s most successful example of “Japanese Design”, and we look at those problem areas – durability, heritage and flexibility – can we make a blue-print for a new definition of GOOD design?
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
I must say that I’m a big Apple fan, not because of their design, but their stability and longevity. I’m on to my second iMac in 12 years, my ipod is over eight years old (it doesn’t even have bluetooth). Having said that, I don’t own an iPhone, I have a Sonim mobile which is waterproof, and Mark-proof. Don’t own any iPads, tablets, capsules, etc. Don’t even take the mobile to work because, we actually have land-lines there (contrary to what the young people seem to think!).
As for design, yes there’s plenty of Japanese design that I like, but, bear in mind that most Japanese technology is stolen, borrowed or bought.e.g. Damasc steel, the transistor, as well as all of their martial arts!
A agree with Gez, lot’s of Finnish (and Danish) design is cool and practical. More recently I’ve been taken by New Orleans houses, from French/creole plantation houses, to Edwardian/Victorian structures of stone or brick, to little timber ‘creole’ houses, all in different bright colours.
As for Australian design, some are gorgeous, but most is just plain ugly. I guess with good folk like Lehan around, we may see a change??
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Sorry to by-pass the Apple products…
I just want to say once more how much I admire Japanese design, the covers of their books, the paper, in which the gifts are wrapped, their gardens, the presentation of their food…simply beautiful!
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Lehan, I love your painting, it’s simple and peaceful, if you can say about a painting. Well, maybe timeless says it all. I would not easily tire of looking at it.
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Was that cherry branch inspired by a damp-induced moulding crack in a plaster wall, with the shadowy vase being an area patched with polyfilla? I volunteer this not as an art critique but as interesting example of how one’s own experience creates a point of view which influences perception.
From my point of view, I can’t afford to spend several thousand dollars on an electronic product with an eerily perfect exterior and poor functionality. And that certainly isn’t what I got when I bought this little Macbook. Apple electronic products have a comprehensive elegance that incorporates all elements of the human interface, including technical elegance. Functionality is essential to this. I still get a kick out of the back lit logo though.
Personally I would tend to look on Japanese Design, Apple Design, and Haute Cuisine as being different manifestations of comprehensive elegance, rather than one being a manifestation of the other.
My daughter’s iPod just got replaced under warranty. Part of the problem with durability is that they use (b)leading edge technology for things such as screens. Once they bed down the glass for the screens, for example, they won’t keep cracking. I’m sure the Japanese went through a similar process with, for example, lacquers, or with the process of forging steel into swords.
Better for the environment to recycle old electronics than keep it around the house. You certainly wouldn’t want to use it other than as a curio. Even in the antique market the value of items is partly dependent on their usefulness in a modern context.
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No, it wasn’t a cherry branch, it was a plant with purple berries, it was called Murasaki, it sat in a sake bottle on the shelf for a long long time until I painted it.
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I sometimes include a stalk of dianella tasmanica berries in my flower arrangements, such as they are. The berries themselves are the size of fat blueberries, but deep purple. A few drop off every day but its worth it. It’s native to Tasmania.
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Actually, it looks like my friend Jimmy’s, tummy after he had stitches; the night of the flick knife fight 🙂
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Just up my alley. Good design and Japan (and Finland) go together. It can be taught but is mainly instinctive. It comes for a need to not only appreciate beauty but also the ‘need’ to look at beauty. Australia is sadly lacking in good design and seems more keen in repeating what has been or copying yesteryear. Nowhere is that more visible than in our domestic architecture or our interiors. Throughout the decades there have been bouts of protests, the best of the protest was ‘Australian Ugliness’, by Boyd. It remains the definitive statement on how we live and think. On the whole, we are happy with the status quo and are not unduly disturbed by ugliness.
Why there are not more howls of protests at our hideous street-scapes is beyond me. The horrible signage everywhere. The endless stream of car sales yards on our public roads. Why are they not in industrial areas? I could go on but won’t. A great pity, especially for tourists that come here and take back messages.
Good article Lehan and nice painting proving simplicity is the essence of beauty.
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Just speculating here, Gez. Isn’t there a strong contrast between the flowers of Australian flora and northern hemisphere flora. The latter appear to reflect millenia of selective breeding with an eye to the aesthetic possibilities, whereas the former, in my view reflect a more pragmatic need for plants to survive and reproduce in a harsh climate. Function over form ?
Is this pragmatism looming large over aesthetics ingrained in Australian consciousness – to whit, Gez’s assertion about ugly architecture and miserable streetscapes.
Interestingly, we tend look for the beauty in things with a northern hemisphere filter. What then of indigenous art – that has its own aesthetic. One, for my taste that is very mysterious, complex and visually appealing.
What say you, Waz ? Any you, Asty ?
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Emmjay, I have been thinking how mystified my view of indigenous art once was. Yet since I have been gardening, I am awe struck that the inspiration of dot painting has been right under my nose all along. On a leaf there were two insects having it off I tried to photograph (noooooo, not because they were having it off!) with perfect white dots on their abdomen end, the colours a mix of ochres and greens exactement off a dot painting.
These chunky lizards built like Sumo wrestlers in the garden, they are so patterned like the brillance of indigenous art including the map-like images declaring a water hole, I feel like I have to rub my eyes to be sure what I seeing when one runs out from the shade of an overhanging rock. I no longer see indigenous art as any more mysterious/complex than any dramatic/artistic representation. It is not house bound, however. It speaks of exposure to the elements and knowledge of the immediate, particularly of it best features, best profiles, of definitions.
I see indigenous art as much more literal than I had originally supposed. I feel I have not before been observant as I have now been taught to be by the art I had loved and now find is all around me so I can enjoy it a trillioneth fold.
Australian streetscapes in my experience are in the main made hideous by signs and clutter.
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Regards pragmatism apropos street signs, I reckon it might get up a thesis in a university to stimulate a student to struggle with language and meaning, but the essence of street signs is administrative malfunction that leaves out the essential meaning of environment to the human soul and just bangs it in.
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When I wrote about Australian design I did not include indigenous art which, in my mind is unsurpassable in its beauty and design. However, we are not surrounded much by that in public space nor in our architecture. The indigenous art is instinctive and even though passed on through the generations, I doubt whether it is ‘taught’ as such.
I am sure that Northern Hemisphere has had more time to develop its design, including selective breeding in flora, but also still notice that efforts in keeping the original more primitive forms continue as well. I am not sure that function over form need result in ugly design, more the opposite, the better the function the more likeley it will be beautiful.
I personally feel we have copied the Yanks in our street-scapes and public spaces. When something makes a dollar who cares about the visual assault on the passer by?
Is it freedom or is it an imposition on others not to be visually assaulted?
I suppose I am getting away from Lehan’s article whereby the design, durability and functionality is discussed.
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The old Australian homesteads are beautiful and funktional, simple and practical. I also love the old shearing sheds, I could live in one…
Glenn Murcott’s architecture is also to my liking, RM Williams boots are the best, beautiful,durable,lovable :), I will keep my dish-rack, designed by an Australian living in London, even I don’t need it anymore, old sandstone houses are of timeless beauty, so is Goulburn courthouse…
These are just some of my favourite examples of good Oz design.
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…and of course: Pigs Arms!
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Viv, this comment is being written on a MacBook Air – a small, but not too small ultra-portable that weighs about a kilo – half the weight of many other fully featured laptops. It has a beautiful screen and keyboard – that sadly is flawed by having too many dashes 🙂 The battery lasts for the best part of the online time of a normal work day – say 4-5 hours. This is very good by contemporary standards.
The wireless mouse is a triumph. As Lehan says, it is good to look at, great to use and it does have an other-worldy quality. Oops – there goes another dash.
My iPhone is also a treat. It is easy to use, immensely flexible in the things it can do, and I really prefer it over every other mobile I have used in the past – (oops) especially the truly dreadful Samsung Wave (may it rot in hell). To be fair, I gather that the new Samsung is a huge improvement – and we should also remember that I am using the fifth version of Apple’s phone – so sometimes they don’t get it right first time either.
I would like to say how much I enjoyed this piece from Lehan – sorry, I couldn’t help another dash here – or here- it’s crisp, thoughtful and thought-provoking (oh God, another one) and as well-designed (I give up) as one could do in 500 words or less.
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Emmjay, I have to dash off… the backyard lawn (grass) needs slashing…will come back later…
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Not too bad, Emmjay albeit a pointed comment from H has thrown me off making further detailed comment on the comment you make in answer to Vivienne’s comment; not to mention how truly dashing your appearance really is on this occasion. A new hair conditioner?
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Dash it all, sir!
Then again, I see you have already.
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Having no Apple products means I don’t know if you are correct. But your painting Dry is superb.
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Nice, isn’t it. I feel bit spooky in view of how dry it is here. Eerie. Hokku.
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Sandshoe, is it dry where you are? Here we are practically drowning, I could not mow the lawn, backyard is still too soggy…
We sold our farm because we had too many years of drought, you never get the rains when you NEED them. 🙂
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H, yes, it still hasn’t rained other than one morning’s drizzle. This week the temperature is climbing again. I have smothered some new areas of the garden in pea straw
I feel nostalgic about your farm, Helvi.
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