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/ Naoto Fukasawa

Design is generally understood and perceived as something that stimulates a person’s consciousness. Of the senses that govern consciousness, however, those stimuli that appeal to our sense of sight are the most pronounced and act as an incentive for choosing or buying things. It is true that design gives rise to the stimuli associated with the incentive to choose or buy objects, and that it drives industry and the economy of consumption. At the same time, when we think about the usage of an object, individuals are not conscious of the object when they are using it, nor do they really know just how they are using it. That is to say, it is also true that people are involved with objects and environments unconsciously.

When people are unconsciously involved with objects and environments, things are at their most natural and there is no awkwardness. It is when we become too conscious of something that the situation starts to go haywire and we make mistakes in handling an object. In an unconscious state, people as physical entities try to align themselves with objects, or with the situation or environment presenting itself at that time. So if we carefully observe unconscious, natural, flowing actions – including our own – then I think we can perceive the pronounced relationships from these actions.

There was a particular moment when I realized that design reconciles people, objects and environments, that design is not just about creating shapes but also about relationships.

This is precisely what comprehensive interaction design is, where no distinctions are made between hardware (equipment and facilities) and software (know-how and experience). There are times when the smooth, unconscious flow of actions/behaviours involved with using something is interrupted by one thing or another; it could also be said that this is a stimulus that acts on the consciousness. Creating a catch in this flow of actions/behaviour is also design, but it must be a sublime joke or art. I believe that it cannot be something that causes a catch in the smooth flow of actions, nor something that is in discord with the environment. This catch may also be a break in the form of something, an expression of the artist’s ego or personality, or excessive embellishment.

From the expectation that design yields a stimulus to the conscious mind, designs that have no catch might at first glance seem boring, insipid. But this means the design in question has blended in with the environment and with actions/behaviours; it also realizes the shared joy of people and objects having become “natural”.