Aesthetic Production Research Articles

A broom to the head: ‘Cleaning Day’ and the aesthetics of emergence in Dakar

Senegal has a long tradition of the collective management of public space via community cleaning. Since the explosion of the popular ecology movement Set Setal (meaning clean and be clean in Wolof) in the early 1990s, ‘set’ or hygienic aesthetics have been central to the construction and control of urban space and deployed to include and enfold but also expel citizens. In January 2020 the Senegalese President Macky Sall called on the population to join him in ‘Cleaning Days’, bypassing ‘set’ practices. Cleaning Day was met with a response ranging from indifference to anger and open conflict. In this article I use Cleaning Day as a lens to analyse the production and reception of set aesthetics in a time of ‘emergence’. Focusing on the power of subaltern practice to resist the encroachment of a state in search of meaningful symbols, I challenge the idea that contemporary urban aesthetics is geared towards the creation of a perceived continuity of interests organised around an aspiration to a global urban standard.

Learnings about design from recycling by using post-consumer polypropylene as a core layer in a co-injection molded sandwich structure product

In pursuit of a circular economy of plastics, there is a need to use more recycled plastics for new products. Polypropylene (PP) constitutes a major fraction of post-consumer plastic wastes, and mechanical recycling is currently the most sustainable recovery strategy. Sandwich-structured multi-layer products with recyclate cores are a seemingly easy way to satisfy demands for recyclate utilization without compromising on product aesthetics. We present the case of a reusable plastic transport box with a recycled content of 45 wt% manufactured by a co-injection molding process. The box was characterized by spectroscopic and thermo-analytical methods. Mechanical performance was tested on both specimen and product levels. A comparison was made to transport boxes fabricated entirely from virgin or entirely from recycled PP, respectively. A number of contaminants including foreign polymers were identified within the recyclate core layer of the sandwich-structured material. While these contaminants had no deteriorative effect on stiffness-controlled performance, a strong influence on strength-controlled and impact-related properties was observed. We argue that the presence of inclusions of both polymeric and inorganic nature is an intrinsic quality characteristic of post-consumer recyclates. These need to be considered in any design-from-recycling philosophy to guarantee functionality, reliability, and safety of products with recycled content.

Eksplorasi kreatifitas desain melalui konsep upcycle material produk furnitur paska pakai

The number of post-use or damaged furniture products before their time becomes a problem especially for ecological problems in the work environment. This research tries to explore the creativity of product design based on the principles derived from the concept of green design. One of the principles of green design derived is the upcycle concept. Through the upcycle concept approach, this research tries to construct ex office material into an explorative and ecological new design. This research uses a case study of ex office / campus furniture products that are no longer in use due to damage. The design model based on upcycle concept and formalistic design is used as a basis for design and to analyze design results. The results of this study in addition to creating explorative design products, also explain the principles of ecological regenerative design values, namely optimizing the use of waste materials, durability of product life that can be extended, as well as supporting environmental protection and increasing product values and aesthetics.

Consumer acceptability test on the organoleptic factors of dedawang pindang fish in Dedawang Hamlet, Bawean Island, Indonesia

This study aims to measure the level of consumer preference for organoleptic factors of pindang fish produced from the traditional scavenger business of Dedawang Hamlet, Telukjati Dawang Village, Tambak Sub-district, Bawean Island - Gresik Regency.The research was conducted from July to September 2020 involving 221 respondents from various backgrounds as panelists to assess the level of preference for pindang fish. The test material came from one of the scaling efforts carefully selected by the researcher. The organoleptic test includes 8 (eight) things, namely: taste, deviated odor (indication of deterioration), specific aroma, color, appearance, consistency, packaging aesthetics, and durability. The results showed that the durability factor (score 93.57), product aesthetics (score 90.48), smell (score 86.35), and distinctive aroma (score 81.35) were the main attractions for consumers buying pindang fish. While the appearance (score 53.07), consistency (score 63.51), color (score 65.41), and taste (score 68.17) are things that need to be improved to increase attractiveness to consumers. Keywords: organoleptic, pindang, consumer acceptability

FULE—Functionality, Usability, Look-and-Feel and Evaluation Novel User-Centered Product Design Methodology—Illustrated in the Case of an Autonomous Medical Device

The overall goal of the novel Functionality, Usability, Look-and-Feel, and Evaluation (FULE) user-centered methodology for product design proposed in this paper is to develop usable and aesthetic products. Comprising several product design methods, this novel methodology we devised focuses on the product designer’s role and responsibility. Following the first three formative assessment phases that define the product’s functionality, usability, and look-and-feel, the summative evaluation phase not only assesses the product, but also provide guidelines to its implementation, marketing, and support. A case study devoted to the design of an autonomous medical device illustrates how the FULE methodology can provide the designer with tools to better select among design alternatives and contribute to reducing bias and subjective decisions.

Environmental and public health impacts of plastic wastes due to healthcare and food products packages: A Review

Plastic products have gained contemporary extensive utility, became indispensable and the commonest material used in product packaging in healthcare, food and other articles essential to humanity. These packaging materials, produced from plastic bases like the bio-degradable, epoxy resins, polystyrenes, expanded polystyrenes, polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride and polycarbonates also contain several unsafe substances incorporated into them to aid their production and product aesthetics. The innovative exploitation of plastic-based packaging materials in healthcare, food and related products has evolved to the extent of harnessing single-use and discard after-use packages which have merely given rise to the prevalence of menacing plastic wastes generally, creating heaps of plastic wastes in several spots, defacing the cities, contaminating the environments and upsetting the ecosystem deleteriously with its public health outcomes. The atmosphere, animals and humanity are confronted with threats of extinction due to the discharges originating from the harmful constituents of these plastic wastes which saturate and contaminate the ecosystem. These jeopardies could be abridged if the bulk of plastic junks due to the healthcare, food and allied packages are properly managed or recycled at the end of their useful life. The emerging economies that is mostly affected by these challenges should adopt plastic waste management approaches, especially recycling, reuse and establishment of enabling policies on the manufacture, use and disposal of plastic-based packaging products. Effective majors will ensue if the government and policymakers would enhance enlightenment efforts at various levels of each society coupled with strict regulations over the management of plastic-based packaging materials.

Organic and Inorganic Pigments from Commercial Inks Used in Eyebrows’ Microblading: Approach for Assessing the Safety Use by Bacterial Reverse Mutation Assay

Background and Objective: The aesthetic products’ safety should not be neglected to the detriment of the market. This study aimed to evaluate the mutagenic potential of commercial inks. It was formulated with organic (P1) and inorganic (P2) pigments for eyebrows microblading using a validated method by regulatory agencies, the Salmonella/microsome assay, to assure the safety of use. Methods: The assay was carried out in three steps: preliminary toxicity, medium without (-S9), and presence (+S9) of metabolic activation. The strains, auxotrophic to histidine (His-) TA97a, TA98, TA100, and TA102, were exposed to both types of inks, in triplicate, compared to negative and positive controls. Data were statistically analyzed, and values with mutagenic index ≥ 2.0 were indicative of mutagenicity. Results: The inks with organic (P1) and inorganic (P2) pigments were not toxic to TA98 and TA100 S. typhimurium tester strains, even at concentrations applied in humans. Both inks were not mutagenic either in the absence or presence of metabolic activation in the tested concentrations, including that applied in humans. The assay showed that P1 and P2 were not direct (-S9) or indirect (+S9) mutagens as commercially formulated. Conclusions: These results indicate that applying these inks on organisms with microsomal enzymes, including humans, is safe since no compound in the inks became more toxic to induce the bacterial reverse mutation.

¿ESTÉTICAS HABITACIONALES DE LA EMERGENCIA?: UNA REFLEXIÓN SOBRE LAS CASAS EN ARGENTINA EN TIEMPOS DE COVID-19.

This paper proposes the notion of housing aesthethics of emergency to highlight the way in which people develop material tactics of certainty through modifying their homes in times of crisis, in this case, related to the Covid-19 virus. To this end, I present some vignettes of my own ethnographic research conducted in the Municipality of Morón (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and references from social anthropology —and beyond— to articulate reflections on housing and the future. Thereby I introduce questions about people’s daily changes and their practical translations. Specifically, how they find certainty ‘in the provisional’, composing specific domestic landscapes. This essay seeks to enhance understanding of how aesthetic production —understood in broader terms— constitutes a mode of living in times of crisis.

Generation

This essay examines some of the multiple resonances of the word generation, with an emphasis on the relationship between intellectual and aesthetic production and the figure of maternity. Beginning with Jacques Derrida’s critique of generation as an origin that grounds self-presence, which he associates with forms of violence from matricide to genocide, it considers the possibility of a ventriloquial mode of generation, through which others—including the differential flow of survival—speak, and which we are compelled to bear. Claudia Rankine’s Plot, a poetic exploration of the relationship between aesthetic production and pregnancy, is read as an exemplary instance of such ventriloquial survival.

Beauty of Energy-saving Makes You Impulsive! A Study on the Relationship between Product Aesthetics and Consumers’ Impulsive Purchase Intention

Appearance design greatly affects the influence of products on consumers, and product aesthetics plays an increasingly important role in consumers’ purchasing behavior. This article constructs a model of the influence of product aesthetics on consumers’ impulsive purchase intention, and puts forward corresponding hypotheses on this basis. Finally, the model and hypotheses are tested and revised through empirical methods. The data of this research shows that the aesthetic design level of products positively affects consumers’ impulsive purchase intentions, and positive emotions play an intermediary role between the two. At the same time, through analysis, this research confirms that consumers’ CVPA levels have an impact on products. Green stands for energy saving, and consumer behaviors that are conducive to reducing consumer spending and environmentally friendly can be favored. These can make consumers think of beautiful things, thereby enhancing impulsive consumption behavior. The relationship between aesthetics and consumers’ impulsive purchase intention has a moderating effect.

«НЕЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ» МОДЕЛИ ЦИФРОВОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ

The article considers the problem of forming specific models of the digital economy. The authors aim to carry out a systematic analysis of current trends in the modern economy in their comparison with the previous contexts of the development of the socioeconomic thought and cultural features of modern society. The method of critical analysis allows rethinking the stable ideas that have developed in science and identifying the uniqueness of the digital economy. The authors examine the concepts of the classical economic theory, economic rationality and irrationality, behavioral economics, gift economy, cultural industry, consciousness industry, information and aesthetic production. They conclude that the economic and social studies of recent decades highlight irrational motives of the behavior of participants in the economic system, which contradicts the classical economic theory. The digital economy is actively taking up new trends, creating conditions for the transformation of traditional sectors of the economy and the emergence of new business models. We have witnessed how information and knowledge have become the strategic resources of the modern economic system as a result of which we can observe a narrowing of material production and a simultaneous rapid growing of the “information industry”. Despite all the criticism of technological mediation, the digital approach allows addressing the mental and emotional life of a person through new economic resources and categories such as information products, intellectual resources, symbolic good and utility, reputation capital, etc. It is quite obvious that the assertion of the priority of intangible assets in the market encourages not only the use of Internet information platforms, but also an unconventional view of the digital economy. This view is based on the identification of the processes of mental measurement of information as an object of the economy; these processes no longer fit into traditional models and radically change the ideas of wealth, profit, efficiency and other economic concepts. The scale of such changes suggests a change in the economic paradigm, for which a creative approach aimed at finding non-standard solutions is the most popular service on the market. In this situation, it can be assumed that as an alternative to the “economy of formally rational standards”, aimed at a quantitative, calculable result and indifferent to the content of interactions, the “gift economy” will acquire a new meaning. In the authors' opinion, with the excessive technology-based modern living conditions, the “gift economy” -a model prioritizing human relations - as a format for the development of the digital economy should contribute to the further progress of society.

Decolonizing Blackness, Decolonizing Theology

James H. Cone is without question the most important Black Theologian of the last century in U.S. theology. This essay is an engagement with his work, focusing in particular on the shifts from European theology, in his Black Theology & Black Power, to Black Aesthetic Religious production, in The Spirituals & The Blues, to The Cross and the Lynching Tree. The core theme of this essay is the entanglement of spiritual/religious colonization with production/invention of racial hierarchies that then became the crucibles for the forging of racist imaginaries that entailed, authorized, enshrined, and sacralized white supremacy. The Janus face of this alchemy, however, was the production of a black religion of liberation that entailed decolonizing the “blackness” invented by the modern project of religious racist colonization. The essay considers how Cone’s works empowers us to think through the analogies between the process of the colonization of the indigenous peoples of the so-called “New World” and the “enslavement” of African peoples. The similarities have to do with the coupling of the colonization of imaginaries with the imposition of racial imaginaries, i.e. religious conquest is also a racial conquest, and conversely, racial conquest is also a religious conquest.

Dynamiken literarischer Form im Mittelalter, ed. Julia Frick and Coralie Rippl. Mediävistische Perspektiven, 10. Zürich: Chronos Verlag, 2020, 124 p.

Abstract: Edited by Julia Frick and Coralie Rippl, this slim volume, titled Dynamics of Literary Form in the Middle Ages, emanated from a research colloquium in October 2019, organized by Susanne Köbele in Frauenwörth/Chiemsee, Germany. Through the essays in this volume, the scholars attempt to demonstrate how concepts of form and content create dynamic textual formations that can be examined according to discursive, generic, and poetic/rhetorical principles in historical contexts. Is form a phenomenon of the aesthetics of production or aesthetics of reception? While the title sounds general and encompassing, the book specializes primarily in the rich thirteenth-century Middle High German literature. The six essays are grouped under five thematic aspects. The brief preface of the volume does not provide a summary of the essays.

A Modest Exercise in Freedom

A Modest Exercise in Freedom Brian Morton (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Illustration by Molly Crabapple [End Page 38] A tenacious commitment to freedom of expression is one of the best traditions of the democratic left. But the contemporary left–a big part of it, at any rate–has embraced the belief that unwelcome ideas and works of art cause harm, and that the proper responses to such harms are calls for retraction and apology, rather than refutation (in the case of political ideas) and more powerful art (in the case of aesthetic productions). When I was thinking about what I wanted to write here, I spent a few hours looking at the first five years of Dissent, from 1954 to 1959, and the last five years, from 2015 to 2020. What I found was a telling contrast. the first five of years of Dissent were filled with reminders of the importance of free expression. the last five years were not. The founders of Dissent were fiercely anticommunist, yet you'll find them repeatedly, heatedly, defending the free speech rights of Stalinists. I'll cite just one example. In an article about the state of liberalism in 1955, Irving Howe criticized Americans for Democratic Action for passing a resolution that supported "the right to advocate unpopular political proposals." Why would Howe have objected to this? He objected because the ADA had changed the wording of a previous draft, which supported "the right to advocate unpopular political proposals, including communist ideas." they'd taken out "including communist ideas." In other words, he was attacking them for the failure to explicitly affirm the free speech rights of communists. The early editors of Dissent, defending the free expression rights of a political group they loathed and feared, were in the tradition of Rosa Luxemburg, who said, "Freedom is always and exclusively the freedom of the one who thinks differently … all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political life depends on it." In the magazine's most recent five years, I found articles that touched on these questions, but I couldn't find any defenses of the freedom to think differently. Instead, I found articles like "the Free Speech Straw Man," which told us that speech can be "part of the problem or part of the solution," and that "each campus has to decide if regulating free speech is the best choice [End Page 39] for its own community." And "the Case for Safe Spaces," in which we learned that "all politics are about emotional well-being." And a book review that told us that a content-neutral defense of free expression is "more likely to aid the powerful than the … downtrodden." Contemporary skepticism about the idea of free expression seems to rest on two pillars. The first is a heightened sense of distress about an old reality: the reality that the powerful can take advantage of free expression more readily than the powerless can. The second is the startling ballooning of the idea of harm. Every affirmation of the importance of free expression that I know of, from Milton and Mill on down, comes with the important proviso that expression should be curtailed when it causes harm. What's new in our moment is that the notion of harm has been expanded to an extraordinary degree, along with the notion of speech as violence. It's true, of course, that the powerful can take advantage of freedom of expression more easily than the rest of us. But it's curious to draw the lesson from this that freedom of expression is a fig leaf for right-wing politics. the powerful can also more easily take advantage of the right to vote and the right to a fair trial. Are they fig leaves for right-wing politics too? It's precisely because the powerful can take advantage of these rights more easily that we need to do everything we can to bring about a culture with the rock-bottom belief that these rights and the ability to exercise them must be universal. If we're pressing for limitations on speech, we're ultimately pressing for limitations on our own. As...

Disjecta Membra: Althusser’s Aestethics Reconsidered

This essay takes a synthetic and critical approach to the scattered pieces of art criticism and aesthetic theory authored by Louis Althusser. Connecting these texts to his larger philosophical and political project, we argue that these reflections make an independent contribution to its worth and that they offer different perspectives on lingering theoretical problems. We piece together the insights that form the core of the Althusserian approach to aesthetics and show how these are formulated (in connection with the work of Pierre Macherey as well as the dominant controversies of the time) and trace how their formulations take shape in relation to the work of different authors and artists. In addition to helping us better understand his overall project, Althusser’s aesthetic theory is, we argue, a powerful and original contribution to Marxist aesthetics. Specifically, it points us to the idea that we need to take aesthetic production seriously as a practice with its own specificity – one that has its own logics of determination, rituals of production, circulation, and consumption, one that commands effects that need to be theorized on their own terms.

Designing innovative solutions for solar‐powered electric mobility applications

AbstractDesigning with photovoltaics (PV) is the core focus of this paper which presents the results of a design study on conceptual PV applications for electric mobility systems. This is a relevant direction for new product development because PV technology can contribute to improved features of electric mobility systems not just in terms of CO2 emissions reduction but also regarding product aesthetics and user experiences. Design studies are multidisciplinary by nature; therefore, in this case technical, user, regulatory and aesthetic aspects are covered. Eleven conceptual designs were developed in 2019 by means of a design project executed at the University of Twente, encompassing solutions for PV‐powered charging of electric vehicles, vehicle‐integrated PV products and other applications. The concepts focus on various modes of transport beyond passenger cars such as public transportation, electric bicycles and utility vehicles, in some cases applying alternative charging technologies such as battery swapping and induction charging in their design. In this paper four of these conceptual designs are presented as case studies, showing their multidisciplinary focus as well as parts of the design process behind their development. An evaluation of these conceptual designs revealed several design challenges that need to be addressed in their development, including the limited space available for integrating PV cells, the technical limitations posed by some of the proposed charging methods and the effective visual communication of the concept's intended function.

Los viajeros decimonónicos, forjando la idea del paisaje mexicano

El paisaje es entendido como una producción cultural, una manera de ver y representar al mundo circundante. Desde esta perspectiva, el presente artículo pretende explorar las representaciones del paisaje que ayudaron a forjar la imagen del México decimonónico. Tomando en cuenta lo anterior, se seleccionaron obras de viajeros que van desde especialistas como Humboldt, hasta aficionados. En dichos textos, se abordaron aspectos como el papel de la religión en el paisaje, la representación de México como el cuerno de la abundancia, la incipiente perspectiva científica, la representación de la tropicalidad, y la producción estética del paisaje mexicano. Las representaciones del paisaje presentadas en este artículo, corresponden a la perspectiva de Occidente, la cual no tomaba en cuenta a otros modelos culturales. Estas representaciones dieron lugar al paisaje mexicano, que no era americano ni europeo, el cual sirvió en la construcción del nacionalismo mexicano.

Bears in space: Geographies of a global community of big and hairy gay/bi/queer men

AbstractBears are a large global community of big and hairy gay, bisexual and queer (GBQ) men. Little sustained empirical scholarship has investigated Bears' lives and communities, and none from within geography. Three geographic lenses are used to demonstrate the significance of a geographic approach to Bears. First, rural and urban imaginaries are entwined with Bear masculinities and ideals of ‘real men’. However a geographically specific North American working class rural imaginary is particularly important. Second, the global trajectory of Bear begins in 1980s San Francisco and has since spread worldwide. The idea that Bear is fundamentally an American phenomenon is challenged by evidence of global variation in Bear identities, communities, and spaces. Third, the material and aesthetic production of Bear spaces relates to Bear masculinities and bodies, particularly fat bodies. Regarding more ephemeral Bear events, the ‘Bearing’ of space (including queer space) may provide a means of understanding these. The paper argues first that geography is crucial for understanding Bears and second that geographers of masculinities, sexualities, and fatness/bodies could productively engage with Bear identities, communities, and spaces.

Literatura y crisis: escribir la dignidad

Este ensayo se pregunta por la escritura y los modos de narrar la crisis producida por el estallido social. Se trata de pensar los lenguajes posibles de algunas producciones estéticas: textos, cuerpos, signos individuales y colectivos que han permitido proponer sentidos. Escritos durante o después del estallido social, en un género tradicional o en una propuesta aún inédita de escrituras en papel o en otros soportes; con autorías reconocidas o en el anonimato de la calle y la voz popular. Estos lenguajes hacen ver que lo desconocido, lo todavía no dicho, lo aún sin historia se nombra en la potencia imaginaria de escrituras diversas. Esta diversidad produce un enriquecimiento de lo literario, en sus modos de relación con la historia

Determinants of Consumer’s Intention to Purchase Traditional Indian Apparels

Traditional Indian apparels consumer market is still a niche market. The main aim of this article is to observe the influence of perceived quality, price sensitivity, perceived value, status consumption, consumer traits relating to product design (centrality of visual product aesthetics (CVPA), product knowledge (independent variables) on purchase intention of traditional Indian apparels. A structured questionnaire was circulated among respondents in Delhi NCR to collect data. Convenience sampling was employed for data collection. The psychometric properties of purchase intention for Traditional Indian apparels were examined by testing the reliability and validity of the measures. Multiple Regression tool was used to find out the relationship between independent variables on dependent variable (purchase intention). The regression results revealed that perceived quality, CVPA were found to have significant and positive effect on consumer’s intention to purchase Indian traditional apparels.