Thursday 16th October 2014

So today was my second lecture followed by a seminar on HCS (Historical and Critical studies) and I feel it went really well. Damon Taylor gave the lecture in which I feel was delivered to an extremely high standard. Some people just have good stage presence don’t they?

Although I was interested with the subject matter throughout the whole lecture I think the beginning was really gripping. He spoke about ethics and our sense of right and wrong, which in itself is an exciting topic as it is rare for two people to  completely agree on what they feel to be right and wrong in any given situation. The most interesting part for me was the idea that design should make the world better and thus there is this hierarchy of values that change due to the situation we are in. Damon gave the example using an iPhone, a T-shirt and a gun. In every day life you’d say that the iPhone came first, then the T-shirt and then the gun however in times of war you’d swap the gun to be first, then the iPhone second and the T-shirt last. I’d never thought about ethics and the difference a situation can have in this way before and found this exciting.

For our seminar we had to choose an object we thought was both functional and fun. I chose a skateboard because its functional in that it gets you from A to B, it is lightweight and easily transported and it poses as a form of exercise although I felt this could also go in to the fun section – i appreciate not all find exercise fun! Furthermore it is fun because it is a gateway for social interaction and it allows the boarder to form new skills and thus expand on their capabilities.