REFLECTING POETRY: EMPATHISING WITH POEMS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE CREATIVE PROCESS IN PRODUCT DESIGN

• Main Author: Arsyi, Aidafi
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/66554
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Poetry was mostly introduced to Design as an inspiration for aesthetics. Although there has been no failure in defining poetry as a form of Art that speaks to the human soul, this character seems to have been somewhat glossed over because many design research focus their attention mainly to the objects and the people that would use them. While it is an appropriate pursuit of design, it also moves away from what would have been transcendental to the conception of Design, especially if it is steeped in commercial and technical interests. That is, the insight that may be cultivated from the event of the words of poets that land on designers and journey through a private process of creating these meaningful objects. This research attempts to pay attention where it is due as it argues— made visible by previous research on the poetic approach—that poetry in design has become a necessity. And that a poetry-based design method could be both proof and model of the poetics of design. Through an experiment of implementation, this research delves into the proposed method to access this potential by studying the acquaintance of poetry and design within the perspective of the creative process. Eventually, it shows how this creative process looks and what it might mean. Theories of metaphoric thinking and revisitation of the common paradigm of design is discussed as both the subject of and answer to the research that is found to harbour in problems of creativity within the design process. Based on a comparative study on the results—which include reports of “artistic freedom”—it is found that designing based on poetry closely resembles the product of a metaphoric mind, and that this metaphoric mind is rather in need of assistance. Suggestion for the true value of the poetic approach is then concluded: the method may serve as an alternative to the more technical creative process of design by way of giving more space for emotion and imagination in leading the design outcome, while simultaneously tending to the surfacing problem of a possibly flawed empathy