ABSTRACT
The next step in this strategy to negotiate the territory between the
subjective and objective, is to expose the fallibility of the notion that
we can think in a way that is objectively neutral and see things as they
really are, out there in the world. An approach that leads irrevocably to
the view that there is an objective modus operandi, often defended in
the studio as the only true, legitimate way to design, both the antidote
and a counterbalance to subjective whimsy and artistic illusion. But in
reality, the idea of engaging an objective mode of thinking is no more
an aid to good practice than subjectivist conceptions and as profoundly
unproductive as listening to singing rocks, communing with the genius
loci or gleaning primordial resonances. Tracing its reductive influence on
cognition, the design process and practice, this chapter redefines what it
means to be objective and absolutely true and sets out the contribution
this new approach makes in the development of artistic practice.
