The relationship between technology and design practice: Ian A Hynd . S1163663 MScR Digital Media and Culture

Abstract In all aspects of design, Architectural, Interior, Industrial, Graphic etc. practitioners are expected to utilise digital tools to communicate, project manage, visualise and manipulate their creative output. (Carter 1993) However in some sectors of the design industry the use of digital techniques has increased to the exclusion of almost all other forms of visualisation and output. In these sectors the use of digital technology has developed from being a tool used to collate and refine ideas generated from across a range of media, to a situation where all design activity and communication can now take place “online”. It is now usual for a design professional to practise with a high degree of skill in several digital software packages and to have more than one social networking portal at their disposal. This in turn requires the possession of the necessary hardware to run the software, (Nardelli et al 2009) and to communicate.

1. Digital Technology is a very valuable tool but to what extent does the technology constitute a form of hegemony?

2. Does the design and content of the software impose limits on the design process? Or do users impose their own strictures on their use of such systems, consciously or unconsciously based on their proficiency of using these tools? Modern theories in creativity coupled with new techniques in analysing brain function indicate that there may be areas of concern.

3. Are social network portals being used effectively? 4. Is there potential in Augmented reality for Creative practices?

Ian A Hynd

S1163663

August 2013

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Ian A Hynd . S1163663 MScR Digital Media and Culture: Edinburgh College of Art / Edinburgh University .

August 2013

The relationship between technology and design practice

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Preface

Acknowledgements . I wish to thank the following people whose help was invaluable in writing this paper. Prof R Coyne: Edinburgh University Mr C Rohan, Director Consumer Experience NCR. Mr D McNeil, Director Intech (Scotland) Ltd Mr M Clayton, Design Engineer NCR, (Ex Ferranti ) Mr A Chalmers, Managing Director, Crombie Anderson Ltd Mr A Wolffe, Principle Wolffe Design. Mr M Deans, Lecturer Napier University, Principle

Various Design Ltd Mr R Corbett, Designer, OrangeBox PLC Mr C Wrightman, Managing Director Kinneir Dufort Mr D Williamson, Product Designer, Linn Products Ltd Mr R McNeil, Managing Director, Cubit 3D Mr A Skakel, Managing Director Skakel & Skakel Mr G Rennie Managing Director, Berg Design. Mr N Harris, Principle Evolve Innovation. Mr P Sykes: Newcastle University And Mrs A Hynd

The working title of this paper was originally “The relationship between technology and design practice” but as the piece developed the narrative failed to develop and I was struggling to draw the various threads I wished to explore together as a unified work This changed during the series of presentations held towards the end of June, when during discussions revolving around the titles given to the various works and how the title of the work not only identifies the piece but gives it direction and form. It was suggested by Dr Martin Parker that, perhaps I would care to omit the word “Creativity” from the title, suggesting that this is a big word with many complex meanings, subject to many interpretations depending on the readers’ background.

So the title changed and I now have a narrative that works, it’s surprising how one word is so powerful, and can make such a difference.

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Contents

Index

Preface __________________________________________________________ 3

Acknowledgements. _______________________________________________ 3

Contents _________________________________________________________ 4 Index __________________________________________________________ 4 List of tables and illustrations ____________________________________ 5

One. Introduction _________________________________________________ 6 Aims _________________________________________________________ 10 Conventions ___________________________________________________ 10 Terminology. __________________________________________________ 10

Two: Background ________________________________________________ 13

Three: Computer Aided Design ____________________________________ 17 The Design office. ______________________________________________ 18 Integrated Design Systems ______________________________________ 19

Descriptive systems __________________________________________ 20 The return to Integrated Design Systems ________________________ 21

CAD in the design office. ________________________________________ 21 The Survey __________________________________________________ 23

Effect of CAD Technology on Design Professionals _________________ 26 The Creative Brain. _____________________________________________ 27 Creative Insight ________________________________________________ 28 Rational / Creative Conflict. _____________________________________ 29 Complexity of CAD Systems _____________________________________ 30

Four: Internet, Social Media & Augmented Reality ___________________ 34 The Professional Creative Office _______________________________ 38 Copyright & Intellectual Property ______________________________ 40 Social networking within professional practice ___________________ 41

Summary _____________________________________________________ 43 The use of Virtual Worlds and Alternate Realities ________________ 44

Layar B.V. Amsterdam ________________________________________ 46 Summary _____________________________________________________ 47

Five. Discussion & Conclusions _____________________________________ 49 Social Media in Design Practice __________________________________ 50

References ______________________________________________________ 52 Bibliography __________________________________________________ 52

Appendix 1 Social Media _________________________________________ 55

Appendix 2 Digital Transitions ____________________________________ 56

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List of tables and i l lustrations Tables Table 1: Timeline of technology mainstream adoption 13 Table 2: AutoCad Releases & Revisions 31 Table 3: Will not / will use social media 35 Table 5: Creative practices and social networking 38 Figures: Fig 1. 30 St Marys Axe: Foster Associates (2004) 9 Fig 2. Casa Danzanti: F Gehry (1996) 9 Fig 3. Guggenheim Museum, New York: Frank Lloyd Wright. (1957) 9 Fig 4. Switchboard 16 Fig 5. DEC System 10 18 Fig 6. IBM PC 18 Fig 7. Nicola Bernadetti 30 Fig 8. Violin development 31 Fig 9. Architects site board 36 Fig 10. Wolffe Design Facebook post 41 Fig 11. Rendering of Simpson Loan Foster Associates 44 Fig 11a. Simpson Loan 44 Fig 12. Rendering Chalmers Street Murphy Associates 44 Fig 12a. Chalmers Street 45 Fig 13. Ghost Busters 47 Fig 14. 110 Queen Street: Existing 47 Fig 14a: 110 Queen Street: Proposed 47

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One . Introduction Initially I set out to examine the relationship between design practitioners and digital tools that fell within the category of Computer Aided Design (CAD), the reasons for this were twofold, firstly as a CAD user and practice director, I, and my colleagues had become concerned that the practice designers were spending ever increasing time in debating how to convey an idea / concept accurately in CAD. They were concerned that if they were unable to reproduce an idea digitally they were perhaps consciously, or unconsciously allow their limitations in the use of the CAD system to limit their thinking. Secondly as an advocate of the technology I became aware that when viewing work by others it became possible to identify the originating software simply by recognising the signature tools of the package, and we began to perceive a possible similarity in some designs produced due to the use of these tools, and the question was raised as to what extent was the software leading to a homogenisation of design. This was not fool proof, when reviewing drawings created by Benson & Forsyth Architects for the purpose of creating interior graphics, I identified that they carried all the indications of having been created in AutoCad, the line junction, text, general style, only to be informed when requesting electronic copies that they were hand drawn in the style because “ the client expected CAD”.

I touch upon a hypothesis suggested by studies by Professor Rex Jung and others, that the practitioner fails to develop an intimacy with their digital tools and that this lack of intimacy may inhibit the creative process at a structural level within the brain. This may be to fluidity in the evolution of the digital tools. In comparison with other researchers, the proposals put forward by Jung & Limb can be viewed almost as an engineering interpretation to brain function, arriving at their proposition by observation of real time brain functioning and a degree of logical function was anticipated. Contrast this with the theories expounded by Ramachandran and Clark, which dispute this level of rational organization within the brain.

Clark discusses this in his paper "Where Brain, Body and World Collide (1998) a situation where a person may consider a piece of work as entirely their own. Clark theorises that in reality the work is the product of the person’s brain reviewing old data, material and notes, adding and storing a few fragmentary ideas and criticisms, reorganizing the data and reviewing again and again in a series of loops until there is a product

“There is thus a real sense (or so I would argue) in which the notion of the ‘problem-solving engine’ is really the notion of the whole caboodle: the brain and body operating within an environmental setting.”

“We must abandon the image of ourselves as essentially disembodied reasoning engines.”

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Vilayanur Ramachandran in his essay “The Artful Brain” (2003) discusses the neuroscience behind ‘Art’ and proposes ten universal laws of art (“neuroaethetics”):

1. Peak Shift 2. Grouping 3. Contrast 4. Isolation 5. Perpetual Problem solving 6. Symmetry 7. Abhorrence of coincidence 8. Repetition, rhythm & orderliness 9. Balance 10. Metaphor

Further he proposes that our aesthetic responses to what we perceive as art (design) are to a degree evolutionary instincts and are to some extent hard wired into our brains, an issue which I will return to later. I had become focused on the place of CAD in the overall picture of digitalisation of the profession. There are strong interactions between the various forms of digital media that should not be considered in isolation. The adoption of CAD within a practice was not a stand alone process, with it come the adoption of other technologies and methods of working, Data Management, Word Processing, Communications and Planning, much of which had been discussed in the Australian “ Computers in Practice” (1997), since this study we have seen the advent of social media and augmented reality technology, subjects which merit further discussion. Though primarily focused on architecture, I draw upon interview and discussions I have conducted with various members of the creative industries, Architects, Product Designers, Graphic Designers and musicians, as well as reflecting on my own experiences. It is true to state the extent that professional practice has been transformed by digital tools goes far beyond what was brought about by the introduction of CAD, changing not only the means of delivery of the design but the complete fabric of professional practice. When considering the relationship between technology and professional design practice it appears that there are a number of conflicting viewpoints within the profession. These viewpoints range from those groups with a fundamentalist attitude to design, where the use of technology is regarded in what is almost a Mennonite like philosophy where the use of technology in any form is regarded as a betrayal of the “craft”, to radical progressives who are early adopters of technologies of all kinds and strive for increasingly more sophisticated digital and social techniques. As ever most of the profession sits part way between these two extreme positions making pragmatic decisions on emerging technologies.

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Nicholas Carr, in his book “the Shallows” reasons that digital tools and media have a profound effect of how we think, act and communicate, introducing a degree of superficiality to how we regard knowledge and wisdom. He quotes Wizenbaum “ as we grow more accustomed to and depend on our computers, we will be tempted to entrust to the tasks that require wisdom. And once we do that, there will be no turning back. The software will become indispensible to those tasks”. When I read this I was at once reminded of a couple of comments from “Computers and Practice” 1997: “Comments by practitioners provide evidence for the prevalence of the deterministic model. Some practitioners speak of a "natural progression" in improvements to machine speed, photo realism, user friendly interfaces, integrated building models and data exchange standards. Some think that obstacles currently impeding the technology will be overcome with technological solutions that will occur almost "automatically." [CAD management] is a reducing requirement. In the next ten to fifteen years the increase in the use of AI [artificial intelligence] will mean that the management of systems in terms of making sure that you've got the right layer, with the right things on it, in the right place, in the right file, on the right job, at the right time-you are going to need that [AI]. A lot of the tedious stuff will be dealt with automatically by increasingly sophisticated software.” These lines written some fifteen years ago seem to support Carr’s view, the desire in some quarters to remove the routine tasks from the design process and leave the designer to focus on the “design”, may indeed lead to the designer to modify their working practice, as Martin Heidegger commented in his ‘Discourse on thinking’ (1959) “For nowadays we take in everything in the quickest and cheapest way, only to forget it just as quickly, instantly.” (P45) “the approaching tide of technological revolution in the atomic age could so captivate, bewitch, dazzle, and beguile man that calculative thinking may someday come to be accepted and practiced as the only way of thinking.” (P56)

In the meantime the technology has changed substantially, initially digital techniques mirrored the traditional drafting method, creating 2D drawings and details which were used in the creation of a real 3D structure. Now the CAD systems allow the creation of virtual 3D structures mirroring real structure, with the CAD system being capable of extracting the 2D construction details and plans from the model more or less at will. For instance, a study in San Paulo, Brazil, ‘The State of Art of Communication and Information Technology and the current reality in architecture studios of São Paulo city” stated in reference to the use of digital technology in practice: We find, for example, that the architecture firms utilize (the) resources of digital technology in virtually every step of the production process of the projects, being mainly in the production of the Basic Project (97.1%), Preliminary and Executive Project (95.6%), followed by preparation of Memorials (sic), Spreadsheets (89.7%) and Legal Projects(86.8%). With less intensity in the product design (73.5%) and Feasibility Studies (67.6%)”. (Nardelli, Sampaio, Vincent. 2009)

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This study also makes an interesting observation with regard to creativity, citing Kolarevic (2003), “no doubt: a new architecture is emerging from the digital revolution, finding its expression in curvilinear forms of high complexity”. This ‘new’ architecture may be illustrated by the works of Foster Associates and Frank Gehry with their works 30 St Marys Axe, London and Case Danzanti, Prague. But are they really that different from works, by say, Lloyd Wright and his Guggenheim to be solely attributable to the use of digital techniques?

Fig 1. 30 St Marys Axe: Foster Associates (2004). Fig 2 Casa Danzanti: F Gehry (1996) Photo: Paste Photo: Dino Quinzani

Fig 3: Guggenheim museum, New York: Frank Lloyd Wright (1959). Photo, Martyn Jones. Additionally we find a similar theme in the 1997 paper, ‘Computers & Change’ R Coyne,

S Newton, S McLaughlin, A Jumani. This paper examined the situation in Australia in the period prior to 1997 and stated in their introduction three hypothesis. Firstly, they considered that the influence of computers on design practice affected all aspects of

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the organization, whether it is design, management or administration activities. Secondly, it was expected that computers were responsible for major changes in the structure and relationships within the organization. Thirdly, it was hypothesised that computing would have only a minor influence on the activity of design, other than indirect impacts on design by changing the environment within which design activities take place. It is this third hypothesis which will be revisited.

Aims

I will discuss the impact and effect of digital media on professional practice focussing on the following topics.

1. How digital tools have affected the way designers approach their creative work. Focusing on computer aided design (CAD) and whether the use of CAD as a creative tool should be treated with caution?

2. The impact the Internet has on office practice, particularly on how practices use social media. What is the place for social media within the professional practice?

3. The possibilities for augmented reality in practice.

The aim of this document is firstly to explore the effect digital media has made on the creative professions. Focusing on architecture, I will examine the general effect digital technologies have on the creative industries: including Architecture, Industrial Design and Graphic Design, and will illustrate the discussion with academic writings, personal recollections and contributions from individuals who were present throughout the industries conversion from analogue processes to the digital age. In this respect I have conducted a series of face-to-face interviews and conversations with designers and architects supplemented with responses submitted via a wordpress blog site.

Conventions

In this document I use two means of highlighting quotations, for personal recollections the text is set on an orange background, for all other quotations the text is set on a blue background.

Terminology .

Augmented reality Computer generated visual experience, where designers can

create alternate views of the world when viewed via digital imaging devices

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BAUD Rate The number of distinct signalling events made through a transmission medium. Bits/second

CTR Click through rate. (%) The percentage of page viewers who

click on the on screen advertising CPC Cost per click, ($) The amount of money advertisers pay web

site owners as users click on the online adverts, usually grouped in bundles of 1000.

CAD Computer Aided Design GPS Global positioning system. A system for accurately

determining position in 3 dimensions, currently operated by US Department of defence. A GPS receiver calculates its position by precisely timing the signals sent by GPS satellites which are in precisely known orbits.

Internet A global system of interconnected computer networks which

use standard internet communication protocol MRI (fMRI) Magnetic Resonance Imaging a medical imaging technique

used in radiology to visualize internal structures of the body in detail.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) is an MRI procedure that measures brain activity by detecting associated changes in blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.

Neuroanatomy. The study of the anatomy of the brain and nervous system. Neuroplasticity. The ability of the brain to remodel itself in relation to external

stimuli or injury Portal Entry point to a practice’s social media page. Social Media Web based applications that create platforms for individuals

or groups to exchange user generated content. Social Network site A hosted web page which allows registered users create, share

and exchange information, thoughts and media to create virtual communities.

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Web 2.0 Website that allow users to interact and collaborate with each other.

WiFi, IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless

local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands with data rates of up to 600 Mbit/s.

WYSIWYG “What you see is what you get” 3G & 4G Third & Fourth generation mobile telecommunications,

wireless telephony systems capable of data rates of 200 kbit/s (3G) 1 Gbit/s (4G) both systems operate on a cellular system. the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined using a technique known multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone

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Two: Background In discussing the adoption of digital technologies by the creative industry, it would be useful to look at the timeline of acceptance of the various technologies as mainstream within the industry to give an overview of the technological advances industry has had to absorb in a relatively short timescale. The following illustration (table 1) gives an indication of the relationship between hardware development and applications. What I have attempted to portray is the rate of technical advance between the 1970s and today, in particular the explosion of technology in the mid 1980s when most of today’s technology appeared. I also wanted to indicate that it was a number of differing technologies reaching fruition at about the same time that accelerated the process. Including the arrival of personal computers and the introduction of digital telephone exchanges. Without this combination, would we have seen the growth of the Internet and email as we did?

8 bit 16 bit 32 bit 64 bit

DEC System 10

IBM pentium althos

ClassicSE

LCPower pc

G4 G5

Intel

Xerox HP Sun SGI

PBX Electro-mechanical Marconi System X Digital Telephone Exchange

ProE Pagemaker

SSHA AutoCad Rhino3D

MS Mail

AOL Compuserve Google

1.0. Yahoo 2.0. Bing

Aol Linkedin Twitter

usenet Facebook

1970

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

Processor

Application

Mainframe

IBM clone486

Freehand QuarkXPress

Compaq Dell 386

illustratorCS Minicad

128 bit

Solidworks

Crowdsourcing

Preforma

frendster

Augmented Reality

Social networks

Apple Mac

Unix

CAD

Email

Internet

Telecoms

Table 1: Timeline of technology mainstream adoption. In considering when a technology becomes mainstream, as distinct from its initial usage by early adopters, signals when all the key drivers for adoption of the technology are readily available to potential users and establishes the technology for the long term enabling investment decisions to be made. These drivers can be categorised as:

1. Availability

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2. Cost 3. Usability

Availabil ity: These drivers are clearly illustrated when CAD systems were introduced in the mid 1970’s. Prior to this, CAD systems comprised of workstation terminals that were driven by large mainframe computers, these mainframe computers had several disadvantages to staff that operated them. Firstly they were large, a DEC system 10, a system described by Aart Bijl and used by Scottish Special Housing Association (SSHA) was a large machine, ranging in size from units the size of desks to assemblies that filled entire climate controlled rooms. Another issue was that there were not that many manufactured, though production ran from the mid 1960’s until the early 1980’s there were only about 700 machines of all specifications manufactured by Digital Corp (Bell & Kotok, 1978)

By comparison IBM shipped 200,000 units of their Personal Computer in the first year of production (1981 -1982) rising to the point where IBM alone were estimated to sell a PC at the rate of one a minute in 1986 (approximately 525,000 per annum) when this model was discontinued. At this point IBM had been joined in the market by Hewlett Packard, Dell, Compact and Apple with global production in millions per year. Cost:

Aart Bijl in his paper for EAR4, “An introduction to CAD”, highlights the financial barriers that were in place in 1975 for the implementation of a system for SSHA. A mainframe computer at £150,000 - £250,000, and with running costs of £100,000 per annum (just under £1m at todays prices). Read in the context of the fee scales (RIBA: A Client’s Guide to Engaging an Architect including Guidance on Fees RIBA Publications, April 2000) a practice would require a project value exceeding £1,000,000 per annum to recoup the investment in the technology.

The introduction of the IBM Personal computer in 1981 and the first release of AutoCad by Autodesk in 1982 were the game changers in the adoption of CAD within

The First Computer purchased by Babcock Engineering PLC at RNB Rosyth was an ICL mainframe computer with 32K of memory, it was housed in its own building with its own management suites, environmental controls and power supply. It was very unreliable, crashing for the slightest reason, overheating, power fluctuations etc. In the 1980’s the design drawing office, which at that time comprised about 200 draftsmen and engineers working in a environment dominated by drawing boards, was supplemented by a number of Computervision CAD workstations. At that time these workstations were the industry standard for design work in the defence industry, enabling information to be shared easily between defence partners. However they required operators to have a minimum of six weeks training on the system and the creation of the 2D drawings required by the dockyard were very slow to produce. In the 1990s it was found that AutoCad workstations and large flatbed scanners were a much more efficient way to produce the drawings required. Martin Petty, IT Manager

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the design industry. At a system cost of $3,000 and software <$1,000, the technology became affordable by small practices. The Tayburn Design 3D division in 1990 had a turnover of approx. £480,000, at which point consideration was given to investing in CAD technology.

Axis Design Associates in 1988 had a turnover of approx. £220,000, at the outset of their entry into CAD.

Hugh Martin Associates had a turn over of approximately £1.000.000

Usability: In common with most of the early CAD systems, the SSHA system described by Bijl required operators to have a deep knowledge of the computer system, indeed both Bijl and Mitchell anticipate that practitioners will have to become familiar with abstract modelling techniques and the use of logical relationships in models. But this only emphasises the dichotomy at the heart of these systems, they both recognise the separation between the developers and the users of these systems. The SSHA and similar systems all have this divide between the creative practitioner and the system, they all required computer technicians to input the designer’s requirements. Did the designer have intimate control of the process?

This is illustrated by this recollection by Mr D McNeil FCSD who was present during the period when such a system was installed and operated within Hugh Martin & Partners Architects in 1978 – 1984.

A single workstation was installed within the studio and a specialist operator was brought in on contract to operate the system. The operator was not an architect but worked closely with a senior Architect. The system was slow and it was faster drawing by hand, we tried, successfully to race the machine. There was a unsettling effect on the staff caused by the presence of the machine, not least by the fact that the operator was paid a lot more than other staff. Staff encouraged by financial incentives to accept the technology.

Shortly after this, around 1988, I joined an architectural practice in Glasgow (Axis Design Associates) to gain experience in architectural cad systems. In contrast to Hugh Martin & Associates’ approach, Axis utilised a number of Macintosh SE computers running a software package called Architreon. There were no specialist operators, the architects and designers had direct interaction, training in the system took two days and the whole installation cost less than £10,000. Though the 6 inch greyscale screen was a bit limiting.

This change, in part, was the result of the introduction of WYSIWYG graphic displays and the use of a mouse or stylus to interface with the software. These two advances made the manipulation of drawing data significantly more intuitive than the puck & tablet systems employed up to that point. The evolution of the systems involved in the “Man /Machine interface”, the ergonomics have shown continual development Similar mechanisms can be shown to exist with other digital technologies, for instance email actually predates the birth of the internet, originating as a form of teleprinter communication via conventional telephone systems, rather than

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dedicated peer to peer teleprinter arrangement adopted originally by government and military users in the 1940s. But prior to the Internet email was the preserve of the multi-national corporation and government for whom the costs and complexity were outweighed by the advantages conferred by fast inter-continental data. “In the early 1990’s NCR had established a European design centre at Dalgetty Bay in Fife. The St David’s Centre was responsible for Automated Cash Machine development and implementation for Europe and the Middle East, though overall strategic control rested with Dayton, Ohio. I didn’t get a PC on my desk until 1989 even then it was to use Lotus 123 to generate presentations. The US management wanted to stop using overhead projections. CAD (Wavefront) came much later but I don’t recall when. The first email system was introduced in 1992 but was only ubiquitous by 1997 (NCR was manufacturing PC’s at this stage so we all got one). We would email CAD drawings to the US as digital files (DXF),even when taking into consideration the slow BAUD rate, high line costs and frequent breakdowns and even though it would take hours, it was still quicker and cheaper than someone getting on a plane with the information. Bandwidth has always been an issue. As more became available, use of internet / email expanded to consume it. Today video conferencing is the growth application. ” C Rohan Director NCR.

The universal adoption of email was particularly restrained in the USA, where a monopoly by Bell Telephone existed that prevented direct connection to the telephone network necessitating the use of “Acoustic Couplers”, devices which provided an acoustic bridge between the computer and the telephone network to circumvent the phone companies restrictions. In the UK things were a bit freer, the UK had since 1980, been replacing electromechanical telephone exchanges with fully digital exchanges (Marconi System X) and had introduced a standard form of connector for all telephonic devices, the BS 6312 compliant socket, which is still in use today. This connector and its American equivalent, the RJ11, allowed the computer to directly access the telephone network, allowing the computer to initiate and receive data only transmissions directly. There was also a marked increase in the speed of data transmissions increasing in the early 1980’s from about 150 Baud to 8000 baud (56Kb/s) today. Universal access to telephone networks is a relatively new tool for architects and designers with a practice. During my employment at Reich Hall Blyth Architects and Engineers in the late 1970’s there was not a phone on every desk, only one for every section / department. This phone had no direct access to the BT network, but only to a manned switchboard, part of the office reception desk. You had to use this phone to call the office operator to request an external number, which she, (invariably she) dialled and once a link was established would connect your handset to the network for the duration of the call.

Fig 4: Switchboard. Photo: Paul Robinson.

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Three: Computer Aided Design Computer aided design is the longest established digital tool in the designers palette. To understand the interaction between the technology and designers it is useful to look at how CAD has evolved within practices over the last 35 years. It was circa 1978 when a new generation of CAD tools, such as SigmaGraphics (now Arris Cad), were made available to run on the smaller machines that were to precede the IBM personal computer and made the technology viable to architectural and design firms. It was large manufacturing industries that grasped the opportunities available by the use of digital tools. Automotive, shipbuilding and aircraft industries would use digital techniques to radically streamline their design and manufacturing processes. Though we tend to regard CAD as a modern development in manufacturing it can be considered as evolving from Numerical Control systems, NC, where data drawn from design drawings was converted to a string of commands that guided a machine in the manufacture of a product. This numerical control can be traced back to the punched card systems invented by J M Jacquard in 1801 within the weaving industry. Development into computer drafting systems commenced in the mid 1950’s paving the way towards the first operational systems in the early 1960’s, with the first commercial systems available by the end of the decade. These early systems were developed for and sold to corporations such as Ford, Boeing, Dassault, Chrysler and were orientated to industrial and engineering design for large scale industrial processes and the manufacture of automobiles and aircraft. Architectural systems started appearing around 1975 almost exclusively with public sector bodies for use in highly structured, engineered forms of construction. Techniques that utilised the concepts of modular design and engineering for the benefit of mass production of uniform buildings, rather than individual designs.

“Despite our expectations and our exploitation of these technological advances, CAD has still not fulfilled it’s promise. CAD is still not widely used to aid design” (Bijl A, 1989).

Taken from the opening statement of “Computer Discipline and Design Practice”, Aart Bijl recognises these systems as essentially a ‘Lego’ approach to architecture with limitations imposed on architectural design by the constraints of using standard modules and components. Though architectural design should be ideal for CAD applications, since at the macro level all the basic components are modular, the number of combinations possible seemed to defeat the technology available at that time. Also It is not clear how the modules themselves were designed, it seems the components were designed in the traditional method.

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The Design office .

“ A drawing system cannot be produced on micro computers like PET or APPLE no matter what anyone tells you” (Nash 1981).

The introduction of the IBM Personal computer in 1981 and the first release of AutoCad by Autodesk in 1982 were the game changers in the adoption of CAD and set the stage for what we now consider the bedrock of the profession. At a system cost of £3,000 and software cost of<£1,000, the technology came to be affordable by small practices. These new systems were truly desktop systems. They were capable of being introduced to the existing design office environment without wholesale changes and most importantly, being used by the designer themselves without the need to interface with a specialist computer technician. These systems were initially used in conjunction with traditional drawing systems. CAD technology being used on projects where the greatest advantages could be gained and traditional methods retained for smaller more individual projects.

Fig 5:DEC System 10. Photo: Digital Corp. Fig 6: IBM PC. Photo: I Hynd MNS collection

Prior to the adoption of CAD drawing systems, the design office had changed little in the previous century. Some new technology had been adopted and had changed some aspects of the design procedure, but a design office in 1970 was very similar to one in 1870, the same elements can still be found in some design offices today, post CAD - the adjustable upright drawing board, the parallel motion, set squares and rulers. I was interested in the underlying processes and decisions which were made by practices in the process of conversion to digital tools. Why did they change?. Previous studies such as “Computers in Practice” had covered this ground in its survey of Australian Architects in 1997, and had already arrived at a collection of reasons, the principle replies included:

1. Greater efficiency 2. Higher quality graphic output 3. Integration of construction / manufacturing data 4. The ability to compile bills of materials 5. The ability to link standards and documentation

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6. The ease with which drawings can be revised. For this paper I interviewed a number of architects, industrial designers and graphic designers and I asked similar questions about their decisions to invest in a CAD system. The replies from architects & interior designers were similar to the Australian study but the drivers were significantly different for the Industrial and graphic designers. In these cases, the principle reason to digitise was that the industries they served, manufacturing and printing, had themselves embraced digital processes and for the design practices in these areas they were forced to digitise to remain relevant. There was also a comment which revisited the findings of the “Computers in Practice” survey with was relevant to all the designers I interviewed and echoed my experience with Benson & Forsyth : “The motivation for a practice taking up CAD may have more to do with the expectations of clients and staff (implicit in the client and office cultures) than with "objective" estimates of productivity gain.”

Integrated Design Systems

As practices became more proficient with the systems they acquired, their expectations changed, simply producing better-looking drawings was an aim, but as skills and technologies improved practitioners demanded smarter systems. In the 1980’s and to the mid 1990’s these low cost CAD systems were essentially “Dumb” systems, the drawing techniques were extensions of traditional practice with similar graphic conventions and formats. The architect or the designer would take responsibility for the design concepts and client liaison whilst a junior Designer / technician who would produce the necessary documentation by way of drawings, details and specifications to allow the design to be built. From the outset of CAD development in the 1950’s & 60’s, the idea of an integrated CAD system was an attractive objective for CAD developers. Driven in part by the rationalist approach to architecture and design, these systems would link the creative function of the architect / designer with databases of components, material and details to provide a “single coherent description of a building “ (Bijl 1989) A system of this type is typified by system developed for the SSHA by EdCAAD & Cambridge Research. Designed to enable the prompt delivery of volume housing by reducing the design and build phase’s with significant cost savings to the design process. Developed in the early 1970’s this system was designed specifically to design a single housing type namely that of “single and two story orthogonal houses with level floor plans”

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As previously discussed, this system was a high cost implementation, requiring the use of expensive mainframe computers, custom written software etc. with the major drawback it could only be used to design one thing. The efficiency of the system relied on the SSHA designing large numbers of houses of a similar type - 3000 over a ten year period (Bijl 1986). Whether it did achieve the efficiency claimed is outwith this study, but what is clear is that the system could not cope with the changing demands of the user and as Bijk states ”the system became a brittle core within an organisation which needed to be flexible”. However the SSHA system was ambitious with high expectation of what it could deliver. The CAD developers had a system where the graphics were linked to a database of details and components such that information with regard to detailing, bills of quantities, lighting and heat loss were automatically generated as part of the model. In common with most of the early CAD systems, the SSHA system required a deep knowledge of the computer system, indeed both Bijl and Mitchell anticipate that practitioners will have to become familiar with abstract modelling techniques and the use of logical relationships in models. But this only emphasises the dichotomy at the heart of these systems. They both recognise the separation between the developers and the users of these systems. The SSHA and similar systems all have this divide between the creative practitioner and the system, they all required computer technicians to input the designer’s requirements; the designer did not have intimate control of the process.

Technological determinism Comments by practitioners provide evidence for the prevalence of the deterministic model. Some practitioners speak of a "natural progression" in improvements to machine speed, photo realism, user friendly interfaces, integrated building models and data exchange standards. Some think that obstacles currently impeding the technology will be overcome with technological solutions that will occur almost "automatically." Computers in Practice 1997

Descriptive systems “Descriptive systems” is a term floated by Bijl where a CAD system supports the production and modification of graphic expression without respect to anything outside the system. This form is seen as inferior to the integrated system, but this, in the form of Autocad came to render the 1970’s integrated systems obsolete. Early versions of Autocad were in many ways similar to the SSHA integrated systems, the operation of the system was still very much the domain of the technician, with little in the way of intuitive operation with commands entered as vectors or via bit pads & pucks. Autodesk’s competitors in this field identified this as an issue with the creative industry, hence in 1987 with the launch of the MacIntosh SE and Mac II, we saw the introduction of descriptive CAD systems such as “ArchiCad” & Minicad”. These packages put usability to the fore. These products were targeted at the creative professional as the interface and operation was designed to be intuitive.

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They made use of elements developed from word processing applications, the bit pad and puck were rendered obsolete, control could be by keyboard and mouse making use of onscreen GUI’s with drop down menus and clickable options. As with Graphic design programs of the period, Macromedia Freehand & Adobe Illustrator, control of the computer was handed to the designer who had no wish to understand the underlying logic and systems, but simply to draw. This has become the operational model for most CAD packages on the market today. WYSIWYG

The return to Integrated Design Systems As the descriptive systems evolved one of the key developments has been the rebirth of the integrated CAD system. With the increasing power and memory available in modern computing we have seen the resources become available for flexible integrated systems to flourish. Much of this is also due to the total embrace of CAD technology by the entire supply chain. With regard to the SSHA system, this data had to be generated by the developer, an entire catalogue of materials & components had to be created; memory storage was either restricted or slow and in both cases expensive. Today vast catalogues of components are available, and suppliers and manufacturers freely give the data. With terabytes of memory readily and cheaply available, there are no restriction on storage or access, even the cheapest PC on the market today will be thousands of times more capable than a DEC system 10.

CAD in the design office .

The release of AutoCad 2.1 in 1986 followed by the release of Macintosh Graphic and DTP applications stimulated the transformation of the design office. The most significant development was the usability, the systems becoming more intuitive to designers. The predominant situation in these early days was commented upon in “Computers in Practice” (1996) “What we found is that our designers were frightened of CAD. So we put them [designers and CAD operators] side by side and as concepts were generated, even though they might be crude, the CAD operators would model them. So pretty quickly these 3D models started to follow up the designer and the thing that he was thinking about yesterday was on his desk at lunchtime the next day in three dimensions. So the designer became interested enough in CAD to take the model over and to manipulate it slowly himself. That was a better investment than demanding that the designer get the CAD skills of a racing car driver [an experienced CAD operator]… CAD operators and designers operate perfectly well together if you leave them to do their job and if management understands the different things that they're doing on that job”

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In this respect we can see this in the words of Mr M Dean, a graphic artist:

Yes I was apprehensive about the steam train that was digital technology. I was young enough to handle it (I didn’t quite embrace it). However my love of craft-based skills left me at first with nagging doubts about the potential lack of soul presented by digital media. In general it has pushed craft into being a more niche product, where it is valued more highly and, combined with digital printing, offers the ability to provide clients with small run, high quality print work (as digital / screen-based activity increases, print becomes more valued and sought after in many areas. (M Dean)

The practice of having dedicated computer operators disengaged the designer from the process, with the evolving software becoming more intuitive to designers the role of the “CAD Jockey” (as computer operators became known) diminished as designers became more comfortable with manipulating the machines. This in turn made the technology more affordable by reducing manpower requirements. In conversation with Mr Andrew Wolffe, Wolffe Design Ltd, he discussed this matter, relating his fathers experience with CAD in a small rural architectural practice (A C Wolffe & Partners),

“CAD was perceived as difficult to use, they were comfortable with traditional methods, and shunned the technology”.

Finding, however that in the final years of the practice, the CAD systems then available started to be distinguished by intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUI) which overcame the perception that the technology was difficult. With the financial barriers to CAD significantly reduced and improving GUI’s many practices started the process of acquiring the technology. These were not the only drivers, as discussed in “Computers in Practice” and “The Computerised Design office” other forces were at work. In interviews with Mr A Wolffe, discussing his experience at Tayburn Design Consultancy and Mr A Chalmers of Crombie Anderson (Product Design), both experienced demands from their staff and clients to change techniques.

“Tayburn was a late entry into the CAD market, with the first CAD stations (Macintoshes) being introduced in 1990ish, there was a lot of resistance at first with the Creative Director resolutely opposed to the introduction of the CAD system and the costs of acquiring the technology , the creative staff and customers created the demand for the firm to computerise. Though late to the technology it was also felt that this was an advantage, others had sorted out the teething problems with the systems and despite slow initial introduction the process swiftly accelerated. It was felt that in the early days there were limitations initially imposed on the creative process by the tools. But with experience and training these issues were overcome. Today the use of CAD tools enhances creativity, their use has accelerated the design process, delays which previously resulted by the creation of finished art, typesetting and photographic touch-up have all but been eliminated while putting more control into the hands of the designer by bringing these (previously) specialist skills in-house. (A Wolffe)

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There is still a strong craft element to the design work which is perhaps more important now, where the imperative is to bring unique solutions to meet the clients needs. Differentiation is important. Perhaps a negative issues is that the use of CAD tools is a great leveller , where non design / creative can produce work which is compatible to low end professional work . The accessibility and cost of the equipment and tools enables the ordinary user to generate works, which are to a standard acceptable to many. (A Wolffe)

Similarly Mr Chalmers writes in respect of industrial design:

I look at CAD as a tool. Having said that CAD allows us to: explore many more options for product configuration and appearance in the early stages; present renderings with much more realism than we used to do with markers; be more in control of the product form as it is progressed through the detail design stage by engineers; make updates much more easily than it was possible pre-CAD~ Now this may be an age thing, but I f ind that CAD is a great leveller , and makes it harder for me to discern the creative spark when presented by graduate work . I still look for ability for a designer to freehand sketch as this remains important when sitting across the table from your client, and you need to communicate your ideas quickly and clearly. Indeed I strongly advocate thinking ideas through in sketch form before moving to CAD. Think the product design through before you get absorbed in how to model a feature in CAD ( A Chalmers)

I highlighted in both statements an issue that seems to be of concern to many of the experienced design professionals I have interacted with in the course of preparing this paper. There does seem to be a concern that the use of digital tools can devalue genuine creative works, as they allow the routine generation of mundane but acceptable design work by non creative. Mr Wolffe comments further on this aspect by stating: “With cheap accessible DPI software such as Microsoft Publisher, any office administrator can produce documents for print which are as good as those produced by a mediocre typesetter. The challenge is for the designer to offer uniqueness to differentiate” (A Wolffe)

The Survey I set out to discuss the subject of this paper with design professionals in the various design specialities, architecture, industrial design, and graphic design. I engaged in a series of conversations and interviews, face to face and by telephone / email, I also put my questions on the internet and invited responses

Digital Transitions (www.digitaltransitions/wordpress.com/) is a wordpress site set up to record the responses from design practitioners regarding their recollections and opinions of the process of change from traditional techniques to digital techniques. (web archive of survey: appendix 2 .)

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The response rate to the online questionnaire was as follows: o Total Number of Visitors 91 o Visitors to Questionnaire 21 o Visitors to Research Questions 14 Results: online questionnaire . The questionnaire (appendix 2) sought to gather practitioners own subjective views as to their attitudes towards the use of digital tools, and though a larger sample would have given more authoritive results, the results were still interesting. Question 1: Do you feel that the use of Computer Aided Design Techniques has affected your creative abilities? Considerable beneficial effects 25% Some beneficial effects 62.5% No influence 0% Some adverse effects 12.5% Considerable adverse effects 0% With the majority reporting mainly positive effects from the interaction with digital techniques and a small number feeling there was some negative impact, but tellingly no correspondent considered that there had been no impact on the creative process. Question 2: How highly do you rate your abilities with digital tools? Excellent 0% Very Good 56% Good 33% Moderate 0% Poor 11% The majority consider themselves to have “good” to “very good” skills with digital tools though there is a small number who are still not confident with their skills. Question 3: Which CAD software systems have you experience of? Architectural: AutoCad/ VectorWorks/ MiniCad 14% Product Design & Engineering: Pro E / VX 23% Graphics: Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Freehand 36% DTP: Indesign. Quark Express, Publisher 14% Electronics: Autotrax, OrCad 0% Other: 14%

The target group comprised of practitioners in the age band 48 – 56 years old. Perhaps amongst the last generation of those who had been trained in the traditional manner and had converted to digital techniques during as their careers progressed. I invited respondents to address a number of additional questions relating to their experiences during the adoption of digital practices. These were:

It is notable to see that there is no claim to be conversant in electronic design systems such as Autotrax & OrCad that seem to remain the realm of the specialist engineer.

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1: What were the drivers in the decision to acquire a CAD system? 2: How was the office organised prior to the introduction of CAD system. 3: Were there any fundamental changes required to the office facilities to accommodate IT? 4: How was the design process managed pre cad? how did this differ after the introduction? 5: How long did the process of integrating CAD take, from decision to full acceptance? 6: What obstacles were encountered in acceptance of the system? did staff embrace the technology or oppose it. 7: First interaction with CAD systems What CAD system was it? How was it chosen? How was the system managed? What were the benefits? What were the drawbacks? Did the chosen system meet expectations Do you feel that the most appropriate CAD system was chosen? 8: Are there any additional comments regarding the acquisition and implementation of a cad system you would like to make?

9: Any recollections of this period of transition, the issues and concerns of the adoption of CAD would be gratefully received.

I list the responses to these questions in appendix 2, but the feedback was generally incomplete so a number of follow up meetings were held to discuss these particular questions. The responses I have received, do, to a degree mirror the “Computers in Practice” report. There are differences, particularly in respect of the third hypothesis, for instance in question 1, there were no replies which indicated the position that practitioners considered digital tools to have a neutral effect, the responses generally indicated that the majority of practitioners considered CAD tools to be beneficial, with a lesser number considering that the adoption of CAD has had a negative effect.

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It is note worthy also that no practitioner considers themselves to be “expert” in their used of CAD tools, we will return to this point later. Aart Bijl made the following statement in EAR4 (1997) “Concept of system in CAD”, “We expect CAD applications to be recognised as valid and useful by designers / architects only if the conceptual system which underlies an application is compatible to the users own view of his world” While the ideas and concepts initially behind CAD development tended to support a “cold, hard headed rationalistic approach” possibly typified in the early integrated CAD systems such as the SSHA, this is not what designers could relate to. The impression I get during interviews, are that practitioners welcome systems with intuitive user interfaces which allows the user to ignore the mechanics of a system and to simply use the system as a tool to facilitate the creative process. Several interviewee’s comment on the “levelisation” CAD processes brought to the industry where ability, or lack of, could be masked by the prudent use of CAD tools in presentation and output of finished work utilising latent AI within the systems. But rather that seeing this as a problem the approach is to use this as a spur to the creative process to produce something unique and surprising. I am drawn to the conclusion that the early-integrated CAD systems such as that of the SHAA were technically impressive but ultimately out of phase with what designers really wanted. The limitations in the form of design and the computer scientist approach were and probably always will be alien to the design practitioners. It would seem that as illustrated in the CAD introduction timeline, once user interface issues were sufficiently resolved for practitioners to intuitively use the tools the use of the digital tools exploded.

Effect of CAD Technology on Design Professionals

As I researched this question I found a great many interpretations of the concept of creativity that had given through history. Vitruvius Pollio in “De Architecture, book 3, circa 15BC ” starts to define creativity as a learned process where the understanding and implementation of a standard set of rules and procedures, in Vitruvius’ example the proportions determined by the human body and the gods.

“The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be most carefully observed by the architect. They are due to proportion, in Greek ἁναλογἱα. Proportion is a correspondence among the measures of the members of an entire work, and of the whole to a certain part selected as standard. From this result the principles of symmetry. Without symmetry and proportion there can be no principles in the design of any temple; that is, if there is no precise relation between its members, as in the case of those of a well shaped man.”

We see this thinking continued more or less unchanged into the 20st century, with

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these principles broadly still employed by architects & designers until relatively recently. I also see similar thinking in regard to creativity where as espoused by notable thinkers such as David Hume & Edmund Burke (H F Mallgrave 2011) creativity and aesthetic were to be appreciated by the cognessi who were educated such as to be able to understand the rules of design and apply these rules such that they could appreciate the quality of the creative act. Perhaps anticipating Ramachandrans 10 laws. The 20th century saw a more rational view of creativity, this approach typified by John Chris Jones, set out in a philosophy of design, “Systematic Design Method, Design, April 1959” and “Design Methods, 1970” which suggested that design was a process which could be disassembled and any problem could be analysed as the product of its parts, where there was no mystery as to how the creative process was undertaken. Of interest was an observation made by Jones that within the rational process there were a number of features that defied rationality (Lecture: Napier University 1983, Design Methods 1992)

These observations suggest that the creative process has more to it than the application of a set of rules and the rational analysis of the design problem. The implication is that there is a physiological and psychological aspect of how humans manage the design process, and the question is whether digital technology can impact on these processes. In particular Jones second observation hints at the processes explored by Dr Jung and set out later in this paper.

The Creative Brain .

With respect to how the designer responds to digital tools such as CAD and whether they can affect how the designer functions we have to examine what, if any, mechanisms are in play. In their discussions on contemporary theories of the

“Often the designers don't seem to make any progress, or only trivially, just taking in information. This is known as incubation. Solutions to difficult problems will come suddenly, and take the form of dramatic change. Often this transforms a complicated problem into a simple one. The enemies of originality are mental rigidity (keeping with familiar grounds) and wishful thinking (ignoring external realities).

knowledge of the sensitivity of the problem situation to major changes in design, and freedom from constraints upon unconventional thought and action”. Chris Jones

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creative brain. Psychologists Robert Sternberg & Todd Lubart state:

This implies that there is nothing inherently special about designers, as Jones proposed earlier. This and similar theories purport that creativity is the product of a rational and critical examination of a problem at hand, Similarly Gestalt psychology theory proposes that the nature of the mind is formed by the complex interaction of various stimuli and experiences coupled with the self-organising nature of the brain and that reality, as perceived by the brain, is the sum of the number of individual parts. These theories and observations, can be explained when linked to the theories of neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to remodel itself in relation to external stimuli or injury. This remodelling of brain function seems to imply that activities which require a high level of concentration lead to the brain dedicating more of it’s structure to ease the function of that activity. i.e. if an activity is demanding of brain resource the brain remodels it’s self to provide additional resource thus supporting to an extent the observations of Sternberg & Lubart, which suggest that training and practice is important, with proficiency the result of the brain restructuring. Various studies have supported these theories, E A Maguire’s study of London Taxi drivers clearly indicated substantial remodelling of brain structure in the areas associated with memory and navigation (Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers, 2000) This study determined :

“that the posterior hippocampus increases in volume when there is occupational dependence on spatial navigation -------------------------------- Our results suggest that the ‘‘mental map’’ of the city is stored in the posterior hippocampus and is accommodated by an increase in tissue volume.” This study is supported by Vanessa Sluming et al’s study ���”Broca’s Area Supports Enhanced Visuospatial Cognition in Orchestral Musicians (2007)” by observing greater tissue in areas of the brain related to musical performance. It is reasonable to assume that it is a significant challenge to be trained and learn the operation of a modern design tool and that the findings of the Maguire study can be interpreted as to be equally applicable to design practitioners.

Creative Insight

Chris Jones’ observation of sudden dramatic change when a designer is working on a design problem can’t be explained by neuroplasticity. While it can be seen that expansion of logic and memory functions within the brain enables confident processing of the rational aspects of a design, it fails to explain where these “flashes of inspiration” come from or how they occur. For some understanding of this

People are not born creative, rather creativity can be developed” Defying the Crowd: Cultivating creativity in a culture of conformity 1995.

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mechanism, referred to as creative insight, a concept of creativity supported by Dr Rex Jung, “Neuroanatomy of Creativity, 2010”, suggests a mechanism in play which is unrelated to neuroplasticity. Dr Jung proposes a mechanism where the logic centers of the brain are intermittently switched off, allowing the memory centers to make spontaneous associations allowing unrelated sources to be accessed and amalgamated into a design solution. He supports this theory by observing the brain in real time. This is made possible by modern magnetic resonance scanners where researchers can now watch brain activity in a non-invasive way and design repeatable experiments to explore the process of problem solving. This technique coupled to extensive 3D mapping of brain structures are starting to uncover the subtle processes involved in thought. What is interesting with Dr Jung’s findings regarding activity within the brain during problem solving is what happens at the point of “creative insight”, that is, what happens when a solution to a problem suddenly pops up! MRI scans reveal that a key aspect of the problem solving activity is that the cerebral cortex area of the brain instructs the shut down of the frontal lobes of the brain, momentarily allowing a burst of high level activity within the right parieto-temporal areas which could be the source of “inspiration”. This area appears to have a more complex network of neurons, which infiltrate large areas of the brain. In addition the theory postulates that because the frontal lobes are responsible for rational thought, switching them off momentarily allows the right parieto-temporal areas, which is associated with data and memory storage, to function at a higher level enabling spontaneous associations to be made. There seems to be an association with this process that suggests that a high level of rational activity in the frontal lobes may subdue this focusing activity.

In addition Dr Jung’s research gives insight into the factors affecting intelligence and creativity within brain structure. He cites that intelligence is a resultant of the speed at which signals move about the brain, shorter faster neuron connections lead to greater intelligence. Whilst the neurons in the structures of the brain associated with creative insight are slower and longer and are more dispersed within the brain. He supports this argument by 3D scans of various individual brains and mapping the variation against skills.

Rational / Creative Conflict .

When we consider neuroplasticity and creative insight together there may be inherent conflicts. Consider a creative practitioner regularly utilizing a complex computer aided design software package. It may be reasonable to assume that the use of this software would be an intensive process and that the users brain may have remodeled itself to devote more resource to operating and using the CAD. Does this involve the frontal lobes of the brain maintaining a high level of activity, preventing the “creative insight” from happening? In this instance the practitioner may refine solutions to a problem using rational problem solving but will there be ‘Flashes’ of inspiration that may pull the creative beyond the predictable?

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Complexity of CAD Systems

How much thought goes into the use of a CAD system, does the use of a complex CAD system keep the rational part of the brain alert to such an extent that the user has to constantly focus on the process of drawing rather than the act of creativity? I think this may be analogous to a musician practising their skills with an instrument over a period of years such that the actual playing of the instrument no longer becomes a conscious task and the brain becomes free to focus on the music. Consider the research into musicians brains by Dr Charles Limb at John Hopkins University, in a similar manner to Dr Jung, Dr Limb studies brain function of jazz musicians using a MRI scanner and is seeing similar brain activity variations as musicians play improvised music.

It is perhaps when we compare the differences between designers and musicians that we can start to draw some tentative conclusions. Consider this image of the musician Nicola Bernadetti:

Fig 7 Nicola Bernadetti. Photo: BBC

What is of real interest here is the instrument Nicola is playing, it is the Garial Stradivarius of 1717. An instrument, nearly 300 years old and yet is functionally identical to a violin manufactured today. Indeed when compared to modern interpretations of the violin it is visually identical.

“During improv, the brain deactivates the area involved in self-monitoring and observation, while cranking up the region linked with self-expression,” Limb explains. “So essentially, a musician shuts down his inhibitions and lets his inner voice shine through.”

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Fig 8: Violin development. Photos: BBC & Yamaha

The above images are of another Stradivarius, The Molitor, 1697 compared with a Yamaha Silent Strings Violin of today. There is little practical difference between these instruments even though they are over 300 years apart in construction and a world apart in materials, a musician from either era would have little difficulty in playing either instrument. The musician would not have faced the prospect of having to address revisions to his instrument every few months. In respect of digital tools systems, perhaps this element of continuity is an issue. Is the rate of change too frequent? Are practitioners being able to bond with and develop proficiency with the tools? Consider table 2, AutoCad in its various revisions is the most commonly adopted CAD systems, used in both Architecture and engineering, since its launch in 1982 There have been no fewer than 28 revisions.

Version(Name Version Release Date(of(releaseAutoCAD(Version(1.0 1 1 1982,(DecemberAutoCAD(Version(1.2 1.2 2 1983,(AprilAutoCAD(Version(1.3 1.3 3 1983,(AugustAutoCAD(Version(1.4 1.4 4 1983,(OctoberAutoCAD(Version(2.0 2 5 1984,(OctoberAutoCAD(Version(2.1 2.1 6 1985,(MayAutoCAD(Version(2.5 2.5 7 1986,(JuneAutoCAD(Version(2.6 2.6 8 1987,(AprilAutoCAD(Release(9 9 9 1987,(SeptemberAutoCAD(Release(10 10 10 1988,(OctoberAutoCAD(Release(11 11 11 1990,(OctoberAutoCAD(Release(12 12 12 1992,(JuneAutoCAD(Release(13 13 13 1994,(NovemberAutoCAD(Release(14 14 14 1997,(FebruaryAutoCAD(2000 15 15 1999,(MarchAutoCAD(2000i 15.1 16 2000,(JulyAutoCAD(2002 15.6 17 2001,(JuneAutoCAD(2004 16 18 2003,(MarchAutoCAD(2005 16.1 19 2004,(MarchAutoCAD(2006 16.2 20 2005,(MarchAutoCAD(2007 17 21 2006,(MarchAutoCAD(2008 17.1 22 2007,(MarchAutoCAD(2009 17.2 23 2008,(MarchAutoCAD(2010 18 24 2009,(March(24AutoCAD(2011 18.1 25 2010,(March(25AutoCAD(2012 18.2 26 2011,(March(22AutoCAD(2013 19 27 2012,(March(27AutoCAD(2014 19.1 28 2013,(March(26

Table 2: AutoCad Releases & Revisions. AutoDesk

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Summary Throughout the relatively short history of CAD tools in professional practice a recurring feature of the available systems is the process of constant upgrade and rolling obsolescence. Most of the popular systems, AutoCad, Vectorworks, Solidworks etc. have a history of continual change, often justified by addressing faults and omissions in the system but also to “modernise”, to simply change the look of the software application to comply with a transient fashion. I assert that there may be evidence that the use of digital tools may indeed affect creative performance. I make this assertion, not by saying that digitals tools per say are the issue but rather it is the rate of change of the systems. In common with some with musicians and artists, creative professionals are essentially tied to their digital tools, but due to the constant rate of change do they ever get the chance to develop the same degree of intimacy with their digital tools that a musician has with their instrument or an artist with their paints. This lack of intimacy may inhibit the creative process at a level within the structure of the brain, the practitioner may never develop the degree of familiarity that would enable the rational mind to let go and release the creative insight. Research by Christol Van Nimwegan in 2003 arrives at a contrary position, suggesting that if a software program is easily understood the user does not commit to a deep understanding of the tool. Greater levels of problem solving can result from the use of software that is deliberately designed to be less helpful. Nimwegan’s research indicated that those using intuitive and helpful software were less critical and focused, where as those using less intuitive software demonstrated “More Focus, more direct and economical solutions, better strategies and better imprinting of Knowledge”. He concluded that “As we externalise problem solving and the other cognitive chores to our computers we reduce the brains ability to build stable knowledge structures that can be applied in new situations” he suggests that we naturally seek out the software tools and websites which offer the most help and the most guidance and shun those which are difficult to master. We have apparently complimentary positions proposed by Jung & Nimwegan, on one hand it is suggested that systems which require high levels of rational thought, limit the interaction with “creative insight” (Jung) while on the other hand it is suggested that systems which are too intuitive are detrimental to planning and learning (Nimwegan). Vilayanur Ramachandran in his essay “The Artful Brain” addresses this in a different way refers to studies which suggest that much of what we regard as design aesthetic has evolved within ourselves as a form of virtual reality simulation to enable humans to imagine scenarios and rehearse them without risk. Ramachandran also lays out the case for creative talent being hard wired into our brains citing cases such as that of “Nadia: A case of extraordinary drawing ability in an autistic child, L Selfe, (1977) who despite severe disability can realise realistic

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images due to her brain focusing resources on an undamaged sector of her right parietal lobe. Further studies by Steve Miller of the University of California and Allan Snyder, University of Sydney, cited by Ramachandran as indicating that stimulation this section of the brain may induce artistic abilities. Substantially we can see the first two positions reflected in the views advanced by design professionals that I interviewed, as indicated in the questionnaire results Practitioners generally welcome computer aided design tools, but not unreservedly so. My survey respondents Mick Deans and Andrew Wolff perhaps represent the two polar opposites of thought within the graphics industry.

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Four: Internet , Social Media & Augmented Reality

The company is reliant on digital tools and technologies, in recent years social networking, Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter have been of increasing importance in communicating with existing and potential clients. The use of smartphones for communication and translating information have become indispensible, a priority now is for good, fast, reliable and secure broadband connections.” (A Wolff)

In the process of conduction interviews with professional practitioners into the effect of technology on the creative process, it was clear that the internet has a major impact on the way practices function, having a similar effect on information gathering and communications as CAD has had on creative medium. Earlier studies such as ”Computers in Practice” highlighted the commercial advantage that practices gain by securing presence on the internet via a website and by using email as the default communication medium and while these observations are still valid today, in comparison with 1997 the choice of media now available to practices has grown exponentially with a large number of “social media” platforms available to practitioners. Though the de facto universe is restricted to a very few locations:

• Website

• Facebook

• Twitter

• YouTube

• Linkedin

• Vimeo

• Flickr

• Slideshare

• Pinterest

The competition between the service suppliers is intense and while new entrants to the markets will appear the similarity and lack of differentiation may see mergers or exits as the platform matures. My interviews with practitioners such as Wolffe Design, confirmed that some were using social networking resources such as Linkedin, Facebook, etc. to establish dialogues with groups and individuals to the benefit of the practice. The first business orientated social networking sites appeared in the early 2000’s, there is a contrast between creative practices that had embraced this media for communication, marketing and new business development, and others who have taken little or no interest in social media. All companies surveyed / interviewed used certain facilities, internet, website and email, it was the social networking sites which some practices viewed with disinterest. This observation was reinforced by research findings for “the State of Digital (Scotland) survey” presented within “Glasgow for business week: the Digital

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Revolution 2012” (energise-2.0.com: 2012) which unveiled some interesting figures for Scottish companies and their attitudes to social networking which seemed to reinforce my observations. As shown below in table 3, the current use of social media in the Scottish business environment is relatively low with three times the number of companies currently taking no interest in the media than those who have embraced social media. The survey also revealed:

• 90% of respondent companies claim to be actively involved with social media, but:

o 47% have no clear strategy in its use with only 10% claiming a clear strategy for the use of social networks

• 97% of companies have a website but 50% seem to comprise an online brochure

• 4% of companies have an e-commerce site.

Table 3: Will not / will use social media (energise.com)

Until comparatively recently there were tight restrictions on how architectural and design practices could advertise their services, until the 1970’s architects were forbidden to undertake paid advertising. This attitude can still be seen in the standard format on the architects site board which was at one time the only time the only way architects could advertise their services to the public at large, other than entries in the various architectural and telephone directories. Even now there seems to be a aversion amongst architectural and design firms to undertake any form of direct advertising, this being the province of “lesser firms” such as architectural service companies.

Use Planning to use

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Fig 9. Architects site board, often not well presented: (note no web address) Photo: I Hynd

This attitude had already started to change when access to the internet allowed practices to post their own web sites. This enabled practices to market their services online to a degree of sophistication not previously possible, not only could they display their work, highlight their staff skills, contact details, it more importantly allowed a practice to set out its creative philosophy, there was an immediacy and excitement about it all and, it was all relatively inexpensive.

Social Media is slightly different as it is more a medium for pushing your services onto the world stage, the architectural, Law, and Medical professional bodies have looked into the use of Social Networking within their membership, and how the use of these websites sit within the notion of the ethics of the profession. The Law Society for example issued a practice note covering this matter with these statements in the preamble,

And adds as a final note.

“Social media can offer many professional and personal benefits: Commercial benefits arise from the ability to communicate products and materials via social media and use them as marketing and advertising tools.

Social media activity is beneficial for engaging with clients and other professionals, for example through direct and immediate feedback from those who have used legal services, and can be used to allow greater access to legal information and resources.

It also provides greater opportunities for professional networking, and enables geographical barriers to be broken down, for example setting up a profile on LinkedIn, an internationally recognized social media site, facilitates global access to your profile.

Finally, it can be used to debate, share opinions and share experiences by 'posting' or commenting in public spaces.”

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These comments are just as applicable in the creative office, The RIBA and CSD have issued similar practice notes underlining that online activity has to be in accordance with the professions code of conduct. The results (table 2) produced by Digital Scotland seem to be not dissimilar to the effect that the internet had on how professional practices functioned, as discussed within “Computers in Practice, A Survey of Computers in Architectural Practice” (1996) and “Edinburgh Architectural Research volume 26” (1999). The premise is whether the growth in the use of online social networking has a similar effect on working practice. It was noted that in the 1990’s, access to the internet had a significant effect, companies who embraced the internet and made full use of an online presence and the enhanced communications available, gained a significant commercial advantage over those companies who did not. is the same be said of social networking? Is the use of social networking sites merely analogous with marketing and advertising or is there a greater purpose in enhancing communications between practitioner and society. It has been proposed that social networking via internet websites deconstructs the linier forms of communication imposed by print based communications, where the immediacy of response is more akin to a conversation than an essay, and where the publication of a manifesto for example will illicit immediate response. Social networks have predominantly become the province of the young, Marshal McLuhan in “Understanding Media, Hybrid Energy, p53 (1964)” discussed how it was poets and painters who reacted instantly to a new medium, like TV and Radio, but unlike radio and TV from which the young were excluded from as producers, they now have ready access to the social network medium to shape in their own way.

Social networking The process of creating what we now regard as a “social networks” such as Facebook & Twitter began in the early 2000s. At this point a number of events were taking place which, as predicted by Hiltz & Turoff, “The Network Nation” (1978, p195) made the availability of low cost personal computers and ready access to the necessary communication networks, the internet, become readily accessible via domestic telephone circuits and cable TV fibre optic. The net result was that the cost of individuals participating in “online forums” and “ conferences” became more affordable

“it is important that there is an awareness of the potential risks involved. One of the fundamental considerations that those participating in social media activity should take into account is the potential blurring of the boundaries between personal and professional use, and the importance of recognizing that the same ethical obligations apply to professional conduct in an online environment.”

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Also the underlying technology has become substantially more sophisticated in the intervening years reinforcing the statement by McLuhan (1974) that:

“ Technology of the medium, however astonishing disappears behind whatever flows through it”

Now we expect to post pictures and videos online without giving though to the actual process just as we expect to be able to share this knowledge online without any advanced skills in the technology. The use of networking as a business tool is well established in the business sector, and what is regarded as an essential business tool is a socioeconomic process defined by the personal encounter, individual to individual trading knowledge of their skills and experience for either their own benefit or for the benefit of their practices. An individuals network was jealously guarded and rarely shared. The process of change commenced in the early 2000’s, websites such as Ryze.com (2002), Spoke.com (2003), Linkedin.com (2003) Facebook.com (2004) and twitter.com (2006) where developers established:

“web portals as content aggregators, provide efficient access to information and services online: they are electronic gateways or entrances that provide numerous links to other sites and information that is needed. They provide a central concentrated focal point and an information source that can be personalized. They also allow people to gather detailed information and data as they need it and simplify access to information.” (O’Murchu, Breslin, Decker 2004)

Now we see business sites such as Linkedin.com opening up and sharing this knowledge, we can now peek into another’s network to see who they know .

The Professional Creative Office In determining how professional practices are represented on social networking portals, I examined the web presence of a number of UK practices, to do this I established an initial sample group comprising the leading UK creative companies (Designers & Architects) ranked by turnover (Building Design & Design Week) in addition I added a number of companies which took part in my interview programme in 2011 in an attempt to see if there are any variations between large global practices and smaller regional practices. To this list I referenced the social networking portals that they actively utilised with reference to the content and frequency of posting (for full table see appendix 1)

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Table 3: Creative Practices & Social Media Use

Creative Practice Active portals Posts following Followers Likes Views

Aedas Facebook 3022Twitter 402 172 1923You Tube 11 10 1881Linkedin 4981

Foster & Partners Facebook 3955

Twitter 124 72 15119Linkedin 3954Youtube 14 315 51053

BDP Twitter 468 92 2423You Tube 18 27 15752Linkedin 1842

RMJM Facebook 55Twitter 12 4 168Linkedin 2494

Atkins Facebook 2195You Tube 5 136 46063Twitter 897 399 5010

Imagination Twitter 2203 1215 1540youtube 56 50pinterest 22 13 25linkedin 3844Facebook 216 16 900

AKQA facebook 629 22576twitter 528 432 40400youtube 17 584

Checkland Kindleysides twitter 313 243 344vimeo 11 14 4480facebook 122linkedin 0?

Design Bridge twitter 1496 1151 4079linkedin 3426vimeo 2 1flickr 132 1095facebook 1231youtube 16 33 7717slideshare 6 27350

NCR linkedin 38545facebook 381 7795youtube 105 525 220428twitter 1506 4248 6280

Wolffe linkedin 23twitter 1093 163 173facebook 163

Skakel & Skakel linkedin

Cubit 3D linkedintwitter 23 144 38

Berg Design linkedin

Sk3D linkedin 10

Kinneir Dufort twitter 537 296 1346Facebooklinkedin 330

Tayburn linkedin 195twitter 92 1106 1153facebook 19

Table 5: Creative practices and social networking

Though the sample is very small, we can see some clear trends:

• 100% of firms wave a website. 100% have links from social networking sites.

• 70% 0f firms use Facebook, 35% with no link from website.

• 82% of firms use Twitter, 23% with no link from website.

• 47% of firms use YouTube, 23% with no link from website.

• 88% of firms use Linkedin, 59% with no link from website.

• 20% of firms use other Social networking sites all linked to and from website.

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• 41% have only the basic company information on one or more of their social networking sites, with few if any updates posted since the site was established.

• 30% of firms use one or more social networking sites for staff communication.

• 35% of firms use social networking for recruitment.

• 12% of firms use social networking to provide Training & CPD services.

• 100% 0f small firms use Linkedin to some extent

• 40% of small firms use twitter

There appears to be the situation where some practices have multiple entry points to their online persona, it had been expected that the web site of a practice to be the principle entry point, by virtue of:

• The likelihood of the web site being the longest established portal.

• The web designer managing the development of the alternate web portals. But there seems to be a disconnect between the various medias, approximately 30% of firms seem to have social media sites as stand alone features with no coherent plan as to how to put together an integrated strategy to their online presence. In considering the information in table 2 it is worth examining the presence of the former architectural practice RMJM, formally a global practice employing 1200 staff, now in receivership with 310 staff, the company’s presence on Facebook and Twitter has a combined following of 223! This seems a stupendously low figure for a firm that has still to be considered a major player in international architecture, at the very least I would have expected a higher level of visitors from the media investigating the various controversies the company has been involved with in the last couple of years or even interest from its creditors, yet we don’t even see figures which would suggest their own staff have looked at the site. Something seems amiss and would probably bear further investigation at some point in the future. As the figures stand it would not see an effective use of social networking.

Copyright & Intellectual Property In respect of creative companies there is an issue with social networking sites, that of Intellectual property. The majority of social networking sites seem to share a common approach to I.P. Consider item 2.1 from the Facebook terms and conditions:

“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your

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account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.”

This clause is of little consequence to the general user but for a creative practice it could cause complications. Consider this Facebook post by Wolffe Design;

Fig 10: Wolffe Design Facebook post. Image Wolffe Design.

This artwork by Wolffe Design was developed in response to a brief issued by their client, during the process the IP for the artwork rests with Wolffe Design. That is until the work is complete and all accounts are settled at which point the IP, copyright etc usually transfers to their client. But by posting this art on Facebook, possibly prior to settlement of all accounts, Wolffe has given Facebook a license to use the artwork as they see fit, which could be a problem. In theory any issues with IP could be resolved by deleting the post from Facebook, but the sting in the tail is “ unless your content has been shared with others” which has the potential to give Facebook a perpetual license. Creative practices live and die by the creation of IP, for themselves or on behalf of their clients in situations such as the above, Wolffe Design would have been safer to have directed Facebook visitors back to the Wolffe Design Web page where the IP ownership is retained by Wolffe Design.

Social networking within professional practice We can see from table 3 that companies use a range social media for a range of purposes, by looking more closely at two disparate companies we can see examples of the differing approaches

1. Design Bridge . www.designbridge,com

Design Bridge is an independent international Brand design agency with offices in London, Amsterdam & Singapore. The company employs 250+ staff across the three sites comprising about 20 different nationalities. The company is active in over 40 countries worldwide.

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The company utilises the social media platforms listed below, all are accessed from the companies website. But we can also see a clear strategy in the way information is disseminated across most of the various sites, each social media and web site is organised to fulfil a different function within the companies communications strategy. The exception is the way in which Twitter & Facebook are handled as if they are hedging their bets

a. Twitter: Mainly in-house social use and company events, used very much for staff communication.

b. Linkedin: Mainly Staff networking, job adverts and company events aimed at wider audience than twitter.

c. Flickr . Almost exclusively images of staff social events. d. Facebook . Content similar to twitter, mainly staff social activities

but also contains staff blogs, similar to company newsletter. e. You Tube: Content mainly comprising mainly in-house social

events mixed with some of the company’s advertising productions and announcements.

f. Slideshare: Content is entirely a record of company presentations, covering design methodology and ethos. This provides a dual function of being available for marketing functions and staff training.

Design Bridge possibly have the most well developed Social Media presence of the companies that I looked at, but it is clear that it’s primary function is not to market it’s services to potential clients, the company has a well designed web site which is structured to present the company and its portfolio to the world, what I think they have done is to use social media to help create a sense of community within the organisation, an organisation which is operating in different countries and time zones, very much in the way company news letters functioned in the past.

2. Wolffe Design. www.wolffedesign.com

Wolffe Design is a small but well regarded Graphic Design and Branding practice with a single office in Edinburgh. The company comprises six designers and is mainly active in the UK and Europe. The Social media platforms the company are listed below, only Facebook is accessed via the companies website. Unusually the website does not utilise the facebook logo as the webpage redirect using instead a text link instead hidden away on an obscure contact page.

a . Facebook . An eclectic mix of company social events, observations and items on the companies portfolio.

b. Twitter: Frequently used, mainly for business related posts with occasional social listings

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c. LinkedIn: Tightly organised business orientated page, with multiple endorsements for the skills and experience of the firm and examples of their work.

Wolffe Design have focused their Social Networking presence almost entirely on acquiring new business while there are some social & ‘likes’ postings the majority are focused on the commercial side. Wolffe utilise Twitter to publicise client projects, Facebook to display their work and LinkedIn for endorsements from their clients, peers and suppliers.

Summary In examining how creative firms use social media, it is clear that there is no single way in which they utilize social networking for their advantage, what is also clear is that there is little clear vision in the use of these web portals particularly when considering Twitter and Facebook. With a couple of exceptions it would seem that the traffic through these portals is in the most part disappointing, e.g. RMJM’s four followers on twitter, and unless key decision makers form a substantial percentage of the followers of a site I find it difficult to see how many of the presences can be justified. One of the main issues that I perceive is the mix of types of posting on the pages of the various portals, the mix of banal likes, and the trumpeting of success is not entirely successful. It can be seen that with practices such as Design Bridge & Wolffe Design there is a strong focus to the types of posting across the range of portals but even here the segregation is not hard & fast. We also see that social network portals only act as pointers to a company, tasters, when real information is required, the website is still the main destination. Expectations . So what expectations do practices have in regard to their use of social networking? I’m not sure that most companies have any real expectations, certainly as previously mentioned the activity levels are too low to be taken seriously in most cases and where it does work, as I think it does as in the case of Digital Bridge, is as a means to create cohesion amongst its staff across remote international offices. Similarly, Wolffe Design work hard to create a network of contacts in their business sector and, importantly, seek to get endorsements from this network such that any potential client can look at the LinkedIn page and from within the portal may see an endorsement they can respect. It appears that social networking will have a lesser effect that the internet did on Professional practice, while it can be useful to a practice, it can be invaluable for networking and internal communications or as an aid to the traditional marketing process. However it seems that can only act as a signpost to the practice. Where I see it at its best was in the manner that Design Bridge utilized it, using multiple

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social media platforms, each in a distinct and coherent manner improving internal communications as the main aim of their use of social media. The more direct sales pitch as demonstrated by Wolffe Design works to an extent but tends to get diminished due to its dilution with banal postings. The acid test of the importance of social networking to practices is whether the removal of such a service would impact on the profitability of the firm. On the evidence given in table 3 very few practices have any significant level of traffic through their social media portals and much of the traffic is unrelated to the business of the practice.

The use of Virtual Worlds and Alternate Realities I regularly pass through the Quartermile development on route to George Square library; My eye is often drawn to the numerous marketing displays around the site promoting the idea of living and working within the development. Two things occur to me, firstly the use of the human image in the “artists impression” of the site, to give scale and warmth to the drawing, to add a touch of humanism to what are quite severe buildings, perhaps. Secondly I am impressed by the degree of realism imparted to some of the cad images, the completed structures really do match these images. The digital images are used to give a utopian perspective to the development. Consider the Figure 11 by Foster Associates of Simpson Loan, Edinburgh. The image is of bright, welcoming boulevards with a pleasant mix of new and old. However the truth of the image Figure 11A is that it is a view that is impossible for a viewer to experience, due to the viewing point for the image being within buildings out with the development.

Fig 11. Rendering of Simpson Loan Foster Associates. Fig11a. Simpson Loan. Photo: I Hynd

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The images are impressive but misleading, consider also the following image from Murphy Associates, Human images are added at random, on balconies, in the street, all in summer wear. All apparently prosperous and healthy, presenting a utopian vision while not contrary to real life, does their presence add to the image by adding a human scale or does their presence try to sell a lifestyle. However good this image is, it is again fundamentally misleading, again it is presented from an impossible viewpoint, the view is once more presented from a position occupied by another building the viewpoint advanced does not exist. Figure 12a indicating the viewers actual perspective

Fig 12. Rendering Chalmers Street Murphy Associates Fig 12a. Chalmers Street . Photo: I Hynd

In both these cases the viewer is presented with images that are divorced from the environment in which they will be built. In product design the technology exists to bring the virtual image into life, 3d stereolithography has been around since the early 2000’s and allows the virtual object to become real to be handled and viewed as a real object. Similar techniques are available to practitioners, via geolocation and wireless technologies, to enable architectural models to be viewed as a real object in the environment they were intended for. (Moloney J. 2007) Practitioners can create virtual models of their creation allowing the creation of virtual worlds which can be superimposed upon the real. These worlds can observed by wearable & handheld devices such as Google glass, smart phones, GPS, digital cameras and tablet computers enabled with the imaging software, which viewed via the device or its output. Consider the impact of wireless communication networks, particularly those referred to as Wireless Wide Area Networks (wireless WAN), on interaction within a society. This technology, implemented by either 3G / 4G telephone networks or 802.11 node networks, enables an unprecedented level of information to be made available to the individual on a continuous, on demand basis. The expectation is that there will be a virtually unlimited data resource at the users fingertips, delivered via broadcast

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media and the internet with unfettered communication with other individuals or groupings of individuals. From a creative position it has been seen that we can use this wireless environment for the creation of alternative (augmented) realities where the use of wireless devices such as iphones, cameras, psp, ipad etc in conjunction with geospatial data, determined from GPS, 3/4G, & WIFI portals, can enable the manipulation of how we see and interact with our environment (Scharl 2007) (Matyas 2007), to enable digital environments to impinge on reality, in effect imposing a digital layer upon the real world. We can already interact to some extent with these augmented realities, by accessing Google Earth and Streetview we can to a certain extent experience the world through the computer screens. Mobile devices now have the power and resolution to bring a different dimension to our reality.

Layar B .V . Amsterdam

Consider one of the market leaders in augmented reality systems, Layar B .V . Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (http://www.layar.com/) This company has developed a range of products focused on implementing augmented reality in the fields of Art, Gaming and Advertising utilising a number of mobile devices such as Android & IPhones, IPad etc. “Layar works by using a combination of the mobile phone’s camera, GPS, compass, accelerometer and a mobile Internet connection. The camera captures the world as seen through its lens and shows it on the screen. The GPS determines the exact location and the compass and accelerometer determine the direction of view. Based on these sensors and the selected layer, digital information is retrieved over a mobile Internet connection and augmented on top of the camera view.”( Layer.com 2011) It is clear that this technology is now entering the mainstream with deployments such as Appeartome (www.appeartome.com) in the city of York, promoting heritage tourism and in New York the ‘Bushwick Augmented Reality Intervention 2010’ (http://bushwickarintervention.wordpress.com/) If is only a small step to visualizing how this could be applied to architecture and design. The Bushwick event utilised the “Layar Reality BrowserTM” this is an application which is downloadable to a smart phone by those wishing to participate in the event. The combination of images and digital art is quite sophisticated; the images are three dimensional and highly detailed. Consider the image below.

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Fig 13. Ghost Busters. Image: Han-Chun Yang This image, “Ghost Busters” by Han-Chun Yang, is the alteration of the real property in Brooklyn used for external shoots for the film Ghostbusters (Reitman, I. 1984). It is a humorous piece, a homage to the film, with the building slightly modified and artifacts from the movie digitally added In Architecture there are initiatives which go part of the way. Consider the “Glasgow Urban Model” (http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5994) this is a 3D digital representation of the City Centre and River Clyde corridor, into which can be placed 3D models of proposed Architectural developments (fig 14 & 14A), such that the proposals can be examined and scrutinised within their environment.

Fig 14: 110 Queen street, existing. Fig14A: 110 Queen Street, Proposed Photos: Glasgow City Council

Summary Consider the images in Fig 11 & 12 by Foster Associates & Murphy Associates we can see how the digital image is stitched into images of the real world, but instead of giving an accurate viewpoint contrive to present a false vision of how the architecture merges with its environment. Placing these digital constructs of the

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architecture into a “Layar” type application will allow practitioners and public alike to view their creations in real environments. These applications are not limited to Architecture, indeed virtual constructs can be generated within the computer which can represent Interiors, Products, Adverts and can be placed by the practitioner such that to the viewer, equipped with the appropriate means to see the images, is able to experience and judge the construct in the environment for which it is intended. Jules Moloney (2006), in “Augmented reality visualisation of the built environment to support design decision making” recognises the potential but note “While it has been acknowledged for some time that the temporal component is an important aspect of visualisation there has been minimal attempts to integrate this approach into design practice.” Moloney proposed a rather complex and unwieldy camera- display- GPS trolley to observe the CAD constructs on location, now all that is required is a smart phone.

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Five . Discussion & Conclusions

At the beginning of this paper I suggested the hypothesis: “The practitioner may fail to develop an intimacy with their digital tools and that this lack of intimacy may inhibit the creative process at a level within the structure of the brain. This failure may be as the result of the frequent revision of the CAD tools by the CAD developers“

Throughout the relatively short history of CAD tools in professional practice a recurring feature of the available CAD systems is the process of constant upgrade and rolling obsolescence as outlined in chapter 3. Most of the popular systems, AutoCad, Vectorworks, Solidworks etc. have a history of continual change, (Table 2, AutoCad revisions ), often justified by addressing faults and omissions in the system but also to “modernise”, to simply change the look of the software application to comply with a transient fashion. I conclude that there may be evidence that the use of digital tools may indeed affect creative performance, not that digitals tools per say are the issue, but rather it is the frequency of change in the life cycle of the CAD application that may adversely affect a practitioners performance of the system. Poor change management has long been considered a prime source of inefficiency, commented on by Ogburn in referring to military training in the 1939-1944 war: “We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization” Charlton Ogburn, Jr. The Marauders (1959) I cited studies by Dr R Jung & Dr C Limb, which have looked at the behaviour of the human brain. Dr Jung in particular refers to a process he refers to as “creative insight”. This process, as discussed in chapter 3 may be the mechanism of what Chris Jones described in: “Solutions to difficult problems will come suddenly, and take the form of dramatic change. Often this transforms a complicated problem into a simple one.” Dr Jung suggests that a high level of activity in the brains frontal lobes may inhibit “creative insight”. My hypothesis is that the repeated “upgrades” to CAD applications lead practitioners to focus more on the use of the application, thus maintaining a high level of neural activity in the frontal lobes. It is also noted in chapter 3 that CAD applications are getting progressively more user friendly, more intuitive. It may be supposed that this process would offset the effects of frequent change:

Change = Easier

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However Van Nimwegan (2003) suggests a contrary position, suggesting that if a software program is easily understood the user does not commit to a deep understanding of the tool. Nimwegan indicated that those using intuitive and helpful software were less critical and focused, where as those using less intuitive software demonstrated “More Focus, more direct and economical solutions, better strategies and better imprinting of Knowledge”. We have apparently complimentary positions proposed by Jung & Nimwegan, on one hand it is suggested that systems which require high levels of rational thought, limit the interaction with “creative insight” (Jung) while on the other hand it is suggested that systems which are too intuitive are detrimental to planning and learning (Nimwegan). This suggests that to optimise performance of practitioners working with digital Tools In regard to the question of whether the use of digital tools (CAD) can be considered hegemony, it appears not. While it is true that 92.7% of practices in the Nardelli study used CAD, One firm in my short study did not use CAD at all (Intech (Scotland) ltd) and at least one other respondent (James Ringham of NH Thompson) expressed their preference to avoid personal use of CAD.

Social Media in Design Practice In examining how creative firms use social media, it is clear that there is no single way in which they utilize social networking for their advantage, what is also clear is that there is little clear vision in the use of these web portals particularly when considering Twitter and Facebook. With a couple of exceptions it would seem that the traffic through these portals is in the most part disappointing, e.g. RMJM’s four followers on twitter, and unless key decision makers form a substantial percentage of the followers of a site I find it difficult to see how many organisations can justify committing resource to maintaining a social media presence. Clearly it is to the firms advantage to have a presence on a number different social media portals to maximize their audience / network. Firms focus on a small number of popular platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin, etc. But there is a general lack of focus on how firms use these portal, marketing messages are mixed with personal messages and blogs. The mix of banal likes, and the trumpeting of success is not entirely successful. It can be seen that with practices such as Design Bridge & Wolffe Design there is a strong focus to the types of posting across the range of portals but even here the segregation is not hard & fast. We also see that social network portals only act as pointers to a company, tasters, when real information is required, the website is still the main destination. So what expectations do practices have in regard to their use of social networking? I’m not sure that most companies have any real expectations, certainly as previously mentioned in most cases activity levels are too low to be taken seriously. Where it

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does work effectively is as a means to create cohesion amongst its staff, particularly in large diffuse organisations. It appears that social networking will have a lesser effect that the internet did on Professional practice, while it can be useful to a practice, it can be invaluable for networking and internal communications or as an aid to the traditional marketing process. The acid test of the importance of social networking to practices is whether the removal of such a service would impact on the wellbeing of the practice. On the evidence in table 3, very few practices have any significant level of traffic through their social media portals that can be considered as conferring any commercial advantage to the practice, unless of course, the purpose of the exercise is to sell social media consulting services to their clients. Otherwise practices in general, exhibit a fragmentary and piecemeal approach to their own use of the technology which may actually be detrimental to the wellbeing of the practice. Creative practices will engage with social media technology to experiment and explore the possibilities afforded by the various platforms, seeking to develop innovative applications for themselves and their clients. Augmented Reality Creative practices, particularly in architecture have the tools to create compelling, 1:1, 3D visualisations of their creations. The availability of mobile computing and fast wireless networks and telecoms has the ability to take these creations out of the CAD workstation and place them firmly and realistically into the environment for which they are intended. So for the first time practitioners and the public will be able appreciate and make rational decisions as to the environmental impact of the architect’s dreams. Ian Hynd s1163663 August 2013

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24. Vanessa Sluming, Jonathan Brooks, Matthew Howard,John Joseph Downes, Neil Roberts

���Broca’s Area Supports Enhanced Visuospatial Cognition in Orchestral Musicians. The Journal of Neuroscience, April 4, 2007.

53

25. Christol Van Nimwegan (2008) Paradox of the guided user. SIKS Disseration series No 2008-09

Utrecht University.

26. Lorna Selfe, (1977). Nadia: A case of extraordinary drawing ability in an autistic child Academic Press

27. Hiltz & Turoff, “The Network Nation” (1978)

28. Mcluhan 1964 Understanding Media

29. Ina O’Murchu, John G. Breslin, Stefan Decker Online Social and Business Networking

Communities. DERI Technical Report 2004-08-11 August 2004

30. Jules Moloney: 2006, Augmented reality visualisation of the built environment to support design decision making, Proceedings of the conference on Information Visualization, IEEE, London, 687–692.

31. Dirk Donath, Jakob Beetz Klaus Grether, Hartmut Seichter ���������, Frank Petzold. ���Augmented Reality

Techniques for Design and Revitalisation in Existing Built Environments. Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany

32. Charlton Ogburn, Jr. The Marauders (1959)

Media 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01rbynt/Horizon_20122013_The_Creative_Brain_How_I

nsight_Works/ 2. http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/musicandthebrain/podcast_charleslimb.html 3. Spilberg.S. Minortiy Report, Dreamworks, Amblin Entertainment. 2002 4. Reitman, I. Ghostbusters. Columbia Films.1984

Web links

1. http://www.solidworks.co.uk 2. www.Linkedin.com 3. www.kiltr.com 1. www.facebook.com 2. www.ryze.com 3. www.spoke.com 4. www.aedas.com 5. www.fosterandpartners.com 6. www.bdp.com 7. www.rmjm.com 8. www.atkinsdesign.com 9. www.imagination.com 10. www.akqa.com 11. www.checklandkindleyside.com 12. www.designbridge.com 13. www.ncr.com 14. www.wolffedesign.com 15. www.skakel.co.uk 16. www.cubit3d.com 17. www.bergdesign.co.uk 18. www.sk3d.com 19. www.kinneirdufort.com 20. www.tayburn.com 21. www.nameckc.com 22. www.hootssuite.com 23. www.glasgowforbusinessweek.com 24. www.surveymonkey.com/s/stateofdigital ENERGISE2-0.COM 25. http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/advice/practice-notes/social-media/#sm12 26. http://www.layar.com 27. http://www.appeartome.com

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28. http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5994

55

Creative Companies & Social Media Use

creative practise Web Site Market Sector Active portals Maintained Content Posts following Followers Likes Views notes

Aedas www.aedas.com/ Architects Facebook weekly news, Photos 3022Twitter weekly news, events & “likes” 402 172 1923

You Tube occasionally videos & interviews 11 10 1881 no links from websiteLinkedin No basic 4981 no links from website

Foster & Partners www.fosterandpartners.com Architects Facebook Weekly news, Photos 3955 no links from website

Twitter weekly news, events & “likes” 124 72 15119 no links from websiteLinkedin No Basic 3954 no links from websiteYoutube occasionally videos & interviews 14 315 51053 no links from website

BDP www.bdp.com Architects Twitter Daily news, events & “likes” 468 92 2423You Tube occasionally videos & interviews 18 27 15752Linkedin no basic 1842 no links from website

RMJM www.rmjm.com Architects Facebook Daily images 55Twitter occasionally news 12 4 168Linkedin Monthly News & Events 2494 no links from website

Atkins www.atkinsdesign.com Architects / Engineers Facebook monthly news & interviews 2195 no links from websiteYou Tube Monthly videos & inteviews 5 136 46063 no links from websiteTwitter Daily news, events & “likes” 897 399 5010 no links from website

Imagination www.imagination.com Design Consultants Twitter Daily news, events & “likes” 2203 1215 1540youtube monthly events & launches 56 50pinterest occsionally likes 22 13 25linkedin occasionally People basic 3844Facebook Monthly events & Launches 216 16 900 no links from website

AKQA www.akqa.com Branding facebook monthly products & launches 629 22576twitter weekly likes 528 432 40400youtube occasionaly Product videos 17 584 2E+06 no links from website

Checkland Kindleysides www.checklandkindleysides.com Communication Designers twitter weekly product, news & jobs 313 243 344vimeo occasionally interviews & launches 11 14 4480facebook monthly product, news & jobs 122linkedin occasionally product, news & jobs 0?

Design Bridge www.designbridge.com Communication Designers twitter daily product, news & jobs 1496 1151 4079linkedin daily news 3426vimeo occasionally product 2 1flickr monthly social 132 1095facebook daily social & news 1231youtube monthly product, news & jobs 16 33 7717slideshare occasionally information & training 6 27350 18405 from one presentation

NCR www.ncr.com Manufacturing / Product Design linkedin daily news, social, training & jobs 38545facebook daily news, social & training 381 7795youtube monthly Training 105 525 220428twitter daily news, social & jobs 1506 4248 6280

Wolffe www.wolffedesign.com Graphic Design linkedin daily news & events 23 no links from websitetwitter daily news and likes 1093 163 173 no links from websitefacebook occasionally 163 no links from website

Skakel & Skakel www.skakel.co.uk Interior Design linkedin No basic with contacts no links from website

Cubit 3D www.cubit3d.com Interior Design linkedin No basic with contacts no links from websitetwitter weekly social, projects & likes 23 144 38 no links from website

Berg Design www.Berg9design.co.uk Product Design linkedin no basic with contacts no links from website

Sk3D www.sk3d.co.uk Interior Design linkedin no Company info 10 no links from website

Kinneir Dufort www.kinneirdufort.com Product Design twitter daily 537 296 1346Facebook no basic no links from websitelinkedin no basic 330 no links from website

Tayburn www.tayburn.co.uk Graphic Design linkedin no basic 195twitter weekly social, projects & likes 92 1106 1153facebook no basic 19 no links from website

Appendix 1:Social Media Analysis

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Appendix 2: Digital Transitions

Digital Transitions http://digitaltransitions.wordpress.com

Digital Transitions is the blog site set up to record the responses from design practitioners regarding their recollections and opinions of the process of change from traditional techniques to digital techniques.

Appendix 3: DVD Index

1. PDF copy: Dissertation: The relationship between technology and design practice.

2. Word copy: Dissertation: The relationship between technology and design practice.

3. PDF copy Social Media Analysis.

4. Web archive Digital Transitions website

Ian A Hynd. S1163663 MScR Digital Media and Culture