Key words: public-oriented design art and technology; Pure art; Art design education in colleges and universities
Modern design is based on the development of modern industrial production and science and technology, and its ultimate goal is to meet the needs of social and economic development and serve the mass consumers of the whole society.
As early as 80 years ago, walter gropius (1883- 1969), the most important modern designer in the 20th century and the founder of modern design theory and education, put forward the basic idea of "design serves the public". He clearly pointed out: "Art can no longer only provide happiness for a few people, but also bring happiness to everyone's life." He emphasized that modern design must combine artistic ideals with life practice, with the economic world and industrial technology, and "change the environment through artistic design and improve the quality of life of all people". It is Grignard's revolutionary idea that laid the foundation for the development of modern design, making art design no longer "for me" but "for him"; It is no longer a matter for a few people, but for the whole society. Geiger's design concept fundamentally expounds the basic nature of modern design: first, modern design is no longer art for art's sake, and it is no longer the spiritual enjoyment of a few people. It requires reflecting the spirit of the times and meeting the aesthetic needs of the public; It must have the basic characteristics of modernity and universality. Because the product of modern design itself serves the general public, its artistry should not only have the forward-looking consciousness of the times, guide the trend of mass consumption, but also be liked by the public and meet the requirements of people's spiritual life.
Modern design products are produced by large-scale industrial processing, and the realization of their value depends on consumers. Modern design is essentially a production activity of human beings, which serves the economy and must adapt to the general law of economic development. In order to "let every family of German citizens enjoy six hours of sunshine" (Gropes language), modern design emphasizes the combination of design and practice and the practical function of design, which is very different from traditional art and pure art. Although the latter has the same economic value, it does not take economic development or the general public as the ultimate goal. Therefore, modern design replaces the artistic view of self-expression with scientific and rational thinking, and quickly adapts to the development of modern economy. Today, modern design has penetrated into social and economic production and into every corner of people's daily life.
Scientific and technological factors, this is another key point repeatedly emphasized, and it is also easy for us to ignore. Gropes clearly put forward the unity of art and technology, and art needs technology very much. He further clarified: "Only by constantly pursuing the development of new technologies and keeping up with the development of new materials and new creative methods can designers gain the ability to inject new vitality into traditional design and form a brand-new design attitude." In the past, art hid in the ivory tower of the spirit, and technology seemed to be only its servant or helper. Gropes subverted this concept, and incorporated the laws of material science, mechanics, industrial technology, and even optics and acoustics into the system of modern design, which laid a scientific foundation for the development of modern design, made modern design develop from a single art category to a broader field, stimulated strong vitality and gained broad development space.
It is particularly worth mentioning that with the advent of the new economic era and the rapid development and wide application of new technological revolutions such as network, digital and multimedia, some traditional arts and disciplines are shrinking, and related theories and concepts are becoming more and more obsolete. Contrary to this phenomenon, modern design has gained excellent development opportunities in these emerging fields of technological revolution.
-Computer software design, digital graphics technology, multimedia and digital technology are all involved and widely used in the field of modern design; On the other hand, modern design has gained new development space in the fields of Internet, animation games, film and television media and electronic publications. For example, the development of computer graphics design software has greatly improved the labor efficiency of design and drawing, and not only that, but also greatly enriched the vision of design expression. With the development of computer intelligence, it will inevitably be involved in the creative thinking process of design. It is the intervention of computer graphics design software that makes modern design master new visual languages such as digital images, and therefore quickly enter the emerging fields such as Internet, animation, film and television, multimedia and digital. It can be seen that modern design has not declined, as Grignard said, because it has been pursuing the development of new technology and constantly absorbing its achievements, it has shown broad development prospects with the arrival of the information age.
Generally speaking, in the modern design system constructed by Gropes, these basic elements have obvious open characteristics. It requires "design for the public", embodies the spirit of the times, and requires design to be close to life and meet social needs; Emphasize the combination of design with new technology and new technology. In recent decades, modern design has always been in the dynamic of openness, absorption and continuous enrichment, constantly exploring new fields and spaces, and always at the forefront of social and economic development.
Regrettably, as a talent resource base of modern design, China's higher art design education lags behind social and economic development. As we all know, the main body of higher art education in China has inherited a set of education system of the former Soviet Union in 1950s. Its situation is: "From the 1930s to the 1960s, it continued to the 1990s, and even entered the 2 1 century. Although this kind of education has its understandable side-lifelike, it also has a terrible side effect, which is to freeze the way art pays attention to society. " First of all, pure art, the artistic concept of "self-expression" has never left, especially in modern society, pure painting is becoming more and more conscious and subjective. Design art education is different. It can't be the creator's personal freedom and maverick. Its service object is the public, and its essence is "for him". Therefore, in the whole process of art design education, the creator is free but restricted by the object, which is subjective and objective, which is very different from pure painting art education. However, China's higher art design education is still in the subjective state of "art for art's sake" and lacks the modern design concept of "design for the public". Its direct consequence is an armchair strategist, which is bound to become an art of self-appreciation. It is difficult for students to adapt to the needs of the market and the requirements of the general public after entering the society. Our art and design education constantly trains a batch of "painters" for advertising companies, decoration companies and production enterprises; However, due to the lack of independent innovative design and independent intellectual property rights, enterprises continue to receive a large number of foreign processing orders. Elegant and closed art design education is isolated from market economy and mass consumption demand. Modern art design education is to train design talents for production and consumption. It "should connect the starting point and end point of design education, the starting point of social production activities and the end point of social consumption, and the reality of life and the expected future".
Talk about scientific and technological factors again. Today, modern design is not a single art category, it spans ecology, materials science, ergonomics, psychology and other disciplines. Its design is finally realized by engineering and technical means; Even computer technology and digital technology have been involved in its visual language expression and creative thinking process. It is obviously interdisciplinary and comprehensive, and is gradually forming a comprehensive subject system. In Grignard's words: Art needs technology very much. But our higher art design education is still hardware equipment: studio, classroom, drawing board, easel, T-square, plotter; Software system: draw plaster head, still life, human body and design renderings. Here, we don't want to deny that art design needs to have basic modeling ability and artistic accomplishment. The problem is blindly pursuing modeling ability, spending a lot of class hours on basic modeling training, and lacking knowledge in related disciplines. As a result, people who study fashion design can't recognize several kinds of clothing fabrics, and people who study environmental art can't recognize several kinds of building materials, let alone be familiar with technology and processing means. As we all know, most fields of modern art design have been integrated with modern science and technology, new materials and computer digitalization. Many art and design graduates have to spend 3,000 to 5,000 yuan to find a job, and then they will be trained as advertisers, interior designers or computer software design, which is the sorrow of our higher art and design education. In the mid-1990s, when I visited Tokyo Institute of Plastic Arts and Design, I saw the computer room, printing and typesetting equipment workshop and lighting studio, which left a deep impression on me. If there is still a gap in the service concept of modern design, there is still a long way to go in the combination and application of science and technology.
The reality is that although the Bauhaus modern design concept advocated by Gropes has profoundly influenced the western modern design education and promoted the all-round development of modern design in the past decades, the reform of higher art design education in China is still difficult and slow. The reasons are as follows: First, the mainstream art design education system still stays in the "pure art" mode of the former Soviet Union. Second, many educators are ivory towers themselves, unwilling to marry into the market economy, not to study the development of new technologies, and sticking to the study of "pure theory", which leads to the separation of teaching from social practice and market economy. If we don't change our ideas as soon as possible, reform the old higher art design education system and reconstruct it under the new economic and social framework, the gap will become bigger and bigger and the development prospect will be worrying. Imagine how our higher art design education will cope with the coming information society and new economic era if we don't make some positive changes!
References:
Frank whitford, Julia engelhardt, Bauhaus-Masters and Students, translated by Jiangfeng Chen and Li Xiaojuan, Journal of Art and Design, 2003.
[2] Remember the Years Essays (White Horse Design Series), edited by Shao Hong and Yan Shanchun, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2004.