Reflections — week 10
The class today revolved itself around the subject of different perspectives and the influences those perspectives have over the world around you. How the topic was first introduced to the class was when it also intrigued most people’s interests, when the teacher related those preferences to music. The question of what makes us like a certain genre of music over the others. Is it only about the fact that we ourselves have influence over own taste. That was dismissed almost immediately by Sir Ahmed talking about how similar all of our preferences are as compared to each other’s. So the question arises that, then what is it that directs our perspectives in a certain direction?
The class went through various different reasons for this, all the way from culture to global conflict. How we don’t listen to classical Indian music, which at the least is from this part of the world, is a question worth asking. There were no such answers given in the course of this class but just a critical way to look at the world around you. There was one perspective given by one of my classmates, which was that modern music is specifically engineered for the masses to listen to that sort of music. The songs are made in such a fashion that it caters to the modern generation wanting quick releases of joy rather than the music itself. Now although I largely agree with this perspective, I don’t think it diminishes the value of the initial question that being what is it that influences our preferences to this extent, because this topic goes beyond just music.
A ted talk which really cements the importance of perspective and how you can influence it, is a talk by Rory Sutherland. He talks about not just the influences and effects but how it can be used. The example he brought up was that of the UK spending 6 million dollars on creating a new rail way from Paris to London. He said that humans spend too much effort on the rational and physical and not enough time on the physiological. If just 10% of that money was invested in the Wi-Fi of the previous train, it might’ve not made the travel faster, but it would’ve made it a lot more enjoyable, and would’ve just cost a fraction of the money they spent on the new train. The difference I saw in his perspective and the one discussed in class was that he just accepted it as a reality rather than questioning it like we did. Now I don’t know what point of view is better but both of them are important to know.
Overall, this class touched on a few of the most sensitive topics for students in design school. It is best not to forget that perspectives isn’t just prevalent in art and design but it is everywhere. From the movies we like more to the people we like more. Like Rory Sutherland talked about in his talk was to just accept that it exists, and thus work with it to make design even better
absent on the class 6/11/2020.
