Description
This course seeks to help students to focus on the ideas
and issues in the field of contemporary Product Design. It addresses concerns
of 21st century product designers that are meant to enable students to
understand concepts, visual and material culture, and make aesthetic
judgments. It also presents a critical
examination of the designer’s relationship to areas such as consumerism, mass
culture, copyright issues, and effects of technology on product design practices.
Objectives
At the end of the course, students will be able to analyse,
imagine, question, and examine products or product design; explore originality
and develop fluency, flexibility, and capacity to redefine, recognise,
abstract, and evaluate; and build up research, writing and presentation skills
while analysing visual cultural products within the field of product design and
from educational trips.
Content
Topics include:
- Design issues, values, and ethics
- Relevance of critique in design production
- Issues in contemporary advertising
- Issues relating to the product design industry
in Ghana
- Social media and the internet
- Impact assessment and educational trips
Mode of Delivery
The mode of delivery involves lectures and demonstrations,
reading assignments, presentations, educational trips to product industries and
examination.
Reading List
- Barnett, T. (2011). Criticizing Art:
Understanding the Contemporary. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies.
- Barett, T. (2011). Why is that Art: Aesthetics
and Criticism of Contemporary Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Effland, A. (2002). Art and Cognition:
Integrating the Visual Art in the Curriculum. Columbia: Teachers College Press.
- Goldie, P. & Schellellens, E. (2009)
Philosophy and Conceptual Art. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
- Neil, A. & Aaron, R. (2002). Arguing about
Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates. London, Routledge
