DESIGN IS A CRIME

The day will come when you will understand the value of Peter Pan within, the crazy fool within, and
then on that day, fear and worries will be replaced by laughter and joy, and the emptiness of your
fearful anxiety will be replaced by the joy of life.
Tranquility is the creative thinking without sorrow pain or guilt and that state in which we can understand each
other.

At the point this occurs, play, amusements, fun and pleasure and being rich will not be a crime, but will

become a grace. That is why I now call Design a Crime, when it will become at one point, a Blessing.

That is when Art and Design no longer belongs to a small group of privileged people, but It belongs to

us.

This is the democratization of art. To have the right to choose and to be able to reach likes in life.

If we remember people who combine the words design and crime, we see Hal Foster and Adolf Loose.

Hal Foster, an art critic who has won a Guggenheim Fellowship (1998), in his book ‘Design and Crime’, focuses on the political economy of design, and explains branding as slavery he abhors.

Adolf Loos, Architect, and Theorist of Modern Architecture, in his manifest essay ‘Ornament is a

Crime’, defends the beauty of clear surfaces.  He sees ornament as a pointless distraction, a Crime.  (I will explain this idea further in my coming book, R-EVOLution of Architecture).

Idealization takes time.  Well-being is a modestly productive concept if you approach it from a higher point of view.   We will learn and balance it against the unwanted.  For example, Luxury can create unwanted slavery as poverty.

How can we approach the ideal?  Book stores are full of different types of motivation methods about healing the wounds. These concepts of Well-being & Luxury can be less productive if they capture you in the comfort zone.

Lazy comfort may prevent you from your real-life purpose.  If you are confused between the purpose

and tools in life, maybe the hidden slavery pushing from everywhere blinds you. Ultimately, the new advertising strategy called ’Brand Loyalty’ handcuffs you invisibly, endangering your individuality even as it enhances sustainability.

Remember, we owe a debt to the people who leave behind their luxury and comfort in order to pursue higher purposes.  They use their power of will and determination. These frontier souls burn the fire inside of them to stimulate humanity.  They show their strength, resisting distraction, overcoming obstacles and destroying barriers.

These are the ones who put a stick in the wheel of fate.  They disorient its alignment.

Luxury & well-being can be unique tools in life, or they can be a trap.

Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, emphasized self-sufficiency and defined himself as a citizen of the world.  Alexander the Great one day asked Diogenes if there was a favor Alexander could do for him.

Diogenes replied, “Stand out of my sun.”Later in life, Alexander declared, “If I were not Alexander, I would rather be Diogenes.” Plato described him as Crazy Socrates.

He was so minimalist that he reached a point where, after seeing a boy drinking from the hollow of his hands, Diogenes threw his water cup and remarked, “Fool that I am, to have been carrying my superfluous cup all this time!”  Freedom starts where you lose the fear of losing.

My approach is slightly different from those who, before me, compare the words ‘design’ and ‘crime’.
Today thank God, we are approaching to an era where being childish becoming popular.
Nobody wants to get old, No body wants to die before living the best life they can.
Today’s artist celebrates not Death
Being dead at 27 is out
Being fit on 72 is in.

Now we are facing a generation accused of being shallow.
The inhabitants of the previous century celebrated quiet virtue, not showing their happiness.
Their belongings and achievements were not shared with the public view.
Their relationships suffered. Grief and sorrow accompanied mature wisdom.
Today, people are encouraged to show their lives to the masses.
They earn their living by the courage of showing their lives and advertising their confidence.
Today, it is certain that the mere survival of imminent death is not the focus any longer.
This was the focus of past ages.
Leadership of the masses today means living life to the fullest.
Sharing the good life with others as best you can, wins the applause and attention of the masses as we approach the future boldly.

Before the developments in medicine and science (the Industrial Revolution), life altogether dealt with the inevitability of death.
Our despair attitude towards life is always highlighted with philosophies like ‘Memento Mori’

(Remember that we die), ‘Omnia Vanitas’ (all is futile) expresses the transience and temporariness of life.

Life after Death is well mentioned and creates the focus from literature to paintings.

(Dante’s Divine Comedy and Inferno were looks toward life after Earth)

By the developments and Industrial revolution, the focus of life changes dramatically as the

understanding transfers from death to life.

In the eighteenth century, there came the scene of the philosophy of Art.

Immanuel Kant influenced our understanding of beauty and aesthetics.

When first the philosophy of art began creation, Art was freed from the coffin to which it was stuck.

‘Art is for Art’

‘Art is for society’

Enlarge the meaning of Art and Life and carry them to another realm which is more abstract and

delicate.

The Spirit of art is saved from where it is stuck, and we set it free (as it still is in progress)

Even though art seems very real (think about the renaissance), it was not letting us reach the inner core.

The physical body was a mask and emotions are well hidden behind.

This questioning of art creates a breakthrough and the spirit releases itself from its body.

We move from the serene eye of Mona Lisa to Edward Munch.  His painting Scream depicts a person’s  inner thoughts.  The portrayed scream abstracts our inner being, which is screaming on behalf of all of us.

Twentieth-century art is progressing on the conceptual level.

What Hegel defines as “the end of art”, is where black swans are welcomed, and is the beginning of another thing.

Where you cannot think further, there occurs a turning point, or let’s say a wave, so things change in an unexpected way.

Seeing a city from a distance at night gives the impression resembling the descent of the stars to the Earth.

Yes, ‘City Lights’ is a magical concept that has already been a subject of Charlie Chaplin’s film.

Even though going out to dinner, after work, with friends, integrates with the cultural and

entertainment activities of the city, as a great suggestion in terms of socializing, the truth does not

match with the situation.

I am focusing on smart technologies in alignment with humanity, because if we use the tools technology enables us, we may have the chance to eliminate the disruptions.

People are immigrating to cities, not to sit on top of concrete fields, but to have a chance in life. This can only happen if we increase our consciousness towards nature and the environment.

We have managed a big step in the democratization of Art and Design.  Mass production created

monotony and loneliness.  It brings its own psychological problems and contradictions.

Individuality is a concept that the revolution of industry brings into our lives.  Individuality sets us free from our obligatory connection with other people.

In the end, we all are born alone, we all die alone, but in between, we all live in a society.

There are times to be an individual and there are times to act with society; neither is more important.

We need to learn to be together, without being dependent.

The Royals’ families may still be privileged, but not like Pharaoh of Egypt, thought to be descended from the bloodline of Gods.

It turned out that ordinary people possess the same essence. They have the power in their lives by the invention of quantum physics. The eccentric quantum world has no distinction between me and you.

Power comes from within and can only be gained by perception and consciousness towards life.

Digitalization and the worldwide web distributed the sum total of collected knowledge to society.

The multiplying of knowledge, critical thinking, and democratization of art and design enables and

triggers people to understand their own value.

This democratization of the knowledge coming from quantum physics equalizes the power between the man on the corner and the king.  Now they each can influence the world, as the queen does, which can create a butterfly impact, by amplification over space and time.

This is the day of the man on the corner. Everybody is wondering about the thoughts of the ordinary person.

The world has dramatically changed.  Attention has moved from society to the individual, and that is the reality of today.

Culturally, look at the movies.  The number of superheroes, not just from the graphic novels, has

multiplied, turning into a crowded middle-class.

Remember Michael Jackson’s song Man In The Mirror and its lyrics:

”

I’m starting with the man in the mirror

I’m asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you want to make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

The Change originates in the mind and hearth of an INDIVIDUAL.

The spirit awakened in the 1970s can go deeper, the flower children’s level of consciousness can

spread through all nations and levels.

And if we had a world-class scientific leadership in the course of the industrial revolution, then we

would have seen the advent of global warming in the 1970s, and we would have allocated resources to

the world.

Then it wouldn’t be that hard to deal with the consequences. We’re probably at a stage where it’s

probably more expensive to save.

Architecture is much more than the X Y Z plane.

Even if you design the most beautiful place in the world, you can not go there if it smells bad.

Place is both emotionally and logically the basis of humanity where you initiate your movement in life.

There are neuroscience and artificial intelligence nowadays becoming extremely popular.  These both interact with all kinds of ambitions. (interactive products have artificial intelligence and are sensor-enriched)

We are actually giving emotional reactions to our surroundings and now it is time to understand our reaction to our surroundings.

From the very ancient times, the reasons for creating a place were physical and emotional support.

Over the years, visionaries attempted to discover mathematical proportions in the human body.

The Roman architect Vitruvius described the typical man, as a body inscribed in both a geometric circle and square.

Leonardo da Vinci drew upon the Vitruvian Man with descriptions of relative proportions based upon his actual measurements.

Le Corbusier further refined this long tradition by developing his Modulor. He reconciled the two

predominant measuring systems.  The historical imperial English yard, foot, and inch contrast the cold, inhuman definition of the meter.

The meter definition has subsequently been, a fraction of the Earth’s circumference, a multiple of a wavelength of light, or a fraction of the speed of light.

The foot was based on the foot.

We understood the codes of the physical side through the ages until now, with Vitruvius, DaVinci, and Le Corbusier, among others.

All these were attempts to discover mathematical proportions in the human body in order to use that knowledge to improve both the appearance and function of architecture.

But now it is time to understand the codes of emotional place.

Is there a common understanding of Place among us humans?

What is subjectivity?

These questions will be solved in the coming ages, as we are moving toward a Golden Age.

Architecture is much more than the X Y Z plane.

Even if you design the most beautiful place in the world, you can not go there if it smells bad.

Place is both emotionally and logically the basis of humanity where you initiate your movement in life.

There are neuroscience and artificial intelligence nowadays becoming extremely popular.  These both interact with all kinds of ambitions. (interactive products have artificial intelligence and are sensor-enriched)

We are actually giving emotional reactions to our surroundings and now it is time to understand our reaction to our surroundings.

From the very ancient times, the reasons for creating a place were physical and emotional support.

Over the years, visionaries attempted to discover mathematical proportions in the human body.

The Roman architect Vitruvius described the typical man, as a body inscribed in both a geometric circle and square.

Leonardo da Vinci drew upon the Vitruvian Man with descriptions of relative proportions based upon his actual measurements.

Le Corbusier further refined this long tradition by developing his Modulor. He reconciled the two

predominant measuring systems.  The historical imperial English yard, foot, and inch contrast the cold, inhuman definition of the meter.

The meter definition has subsequently been, a fraction of the Earth’s circumference, a multiple of a wavelength of light, or a fraction of the speed of light.

The foot was based on the foot.

We understood the codes of the physical side through the ages until now, with Vitruvius, DaVinci, and Le Corbusier, among others.

All these were attempts to discover mathematical proportions in the human body in order to use that knowledge to improve both the appearance and function of architecture.

But now it is time to understand the codes of emotional place.

Is there a common understanding of Place among us humans?

What is subjectivity?

These questions will be solved in the coming ages, as we are moving toward a Golden Age.

The first stage is the invention of Perspective by the Italian Renaissance architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, who invented the connection between the worlds that stand there and my perception.  Perspective is a system that combines and organizes two things into one.

Perspective is the technic, combines and connects the world standing there with our perception. This is how illusion and reality merge.

And the second stage is neuro-science, sensor technology, data analyzing and artificial intelligence merging them into architecture. So we can move on a higher ground.

Today our civilization is an energy vampire, consuming, and we are the consumers.   We are the passive elements in nature, like the moon, but we need to become more like the sun.  We need to radiate energy to ourselves and our environment.

Our civilization is leaving only concrete ruins with no meaning at all.

The first thing we need to get an idea of is cables. We look like we are killed by Jack the Ripper. The number of blood vessels in our body circles the world several times, while my computers’ wires mess my house with their sight.

Our anxiety towards artificial intelligence or these Technologies is now unnecessary.  We humans are already living in nature, which is much more clever than we are, and we manage to survive. The natural disaster happens when you resist the natural forces against which you can never win. And it shouldn’t be forgotten, the atomic bomb  that caused the greatest harm to humanity, is a man-made product.

We should be avoiding from the hand that pushes the bottom of that bomb.

The reason why I wrote all this, is to give a road map for the future,
We humans have been living with our tools and instruments since the first walking stick (a Wand) has been made. Notice, later this initial task was raised to magical levels in stories.

We have come a long way.  By discovering the covered.  By constructing places impossible.  By surviving under all the conditions we have been.

To the extent that all of the developments I have described above continue, the path of structuring in space will be opened. We will be keen on structuring  beyond earth in space as far as our Technologies will progress.

We first step backwards to underwater and take our speed by the knowledge we gain and jump a way head to stars.
As we are the children of the Sun.