Seminar: Design and Order in Everyday Life

"Art exists because it helps bring order to human experience." Csiksgentmihalyi, a psychologist and author of the article, "Design and Order In Everyday Life", conducted a study on 82 families in Chicago by asking what household object had importance to them and why. These objects ended up describing values and significance deeper than Csikszentmihalyi's team had anticipated.

Each home held object's that were different yet important to a family member. Of all the pieces discussed some fell under the art category; 8% was refereed to graphics arts, (photography excluded), and 6% referred to sculptures. All the objects came in different sizes. Some were homemade possessions of friends and family or artifacts that's price had nothing to do with value; there was an active symbolic relationship that usually went beyond external aesthetic. The study also noted younger generation's significant objects had to do with the functionality and use they could get out of it, while the older generation's cherished items symbolized memories and relationships.

The order in everyday life comes from within a person, but it is the art that helps bring it out of a person. Using certain patterns and designs, colors and shape, the unique variation of an object requires an active perceptual struggle of the viewers. This allows interpretation as well as comprehension of the pattern. This is another way to describe art criticism. An object will gain symbolic powers if it produces a sense of order in the mind.