Age of Digerati

Here is an interesting six-year-old quote from Rivka Oxman, telling us about a potential class of designers. The particular character, type, class or whatever we call could be more sophisticated people than we imagine today. It tells me that, advances in design computing does make high-end techniques available for large communities, and re-define basics of architectural geometry for everyone in digital age, but always there seem to remain a small group of avant-garde. If Ms. Oxman is right, then the question is, where will the balance be between “design” and “computation”?

Beyond any doubt digital design appears to be becoming a mainstream phenomenon and the theory of digital design appears to be one of the most active and significant subjects of theoretical discourse. This is particularly true of architectural design, but the digital revolution is increasingly influencing all of the fields of design. If we speak of new models of design and novel processes of digital design thinking, are these valid for the majority of the design community, or is there emerging a digital design elite?

As digital design media become more complex and more demanding with respect to knowledge of multiple types of software, knowledge of scripting languages, and the manipulation and maintenance of complex data models, a new generation of digital design specialists is emerging. This is particularly the case today with parametric systems all of which require specialist knowledge in order to operate and maintain them. The thought of the designer as digital toolmaker reflects both the potential for customizing digital design media as it does the necessity for specialist knowledge needed to operate such media. So presently the idea of a class of ‘digerati’, or digital literati as advanced digital systems designers appears to be an accurate description of the contemporary situation.

Oxman, R., (2006), “Theory and design in the first digital age”, Design Studies 27, 229-265