I no longer wish to talk about design

Extract of a conversation between Philippe Starck and Pierre Doze, Paris, December 2002. Exerpt from the book 'Starck by Starck'.

Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

As soon as our gaze has moved above the horizon, attaining the horizontal, we are in the domain of intelligence and able to fulfil certain duties toward society. The gaze goes beyond earth and matter. This is vision: the eye is no longer confined by the line of the horizon, and exploration of space and time can commence. At 45°, genius begins, able to grasp certain elements fundamental to understanding our species. As we come closer to the vertical, we enter the divine. But it's a snake in the game of snakes and ladders, a well shaft in its own axis, a trap. The seductive mystical dimension is also an escape route into the regressive, the useless, and even into danger.

Beyond the vertical, behind one, the past begins. Retrospect is an attitude structurally disadvantageous to our strategy of mutation. The last quarter between the vertical and the horizontal is that of schizophrenia. Back at the horizontal, madness strikes one down. Everyone can accomplish this minimal exercise: raising one's eyes.

One can prolong the exercise of vision on the horizontal plane: by looking in front of oneself, like everyone else, one remains within the normal boundaries of thought. One should cease to think "in general terms"; that is not where one's duty is accomplished. It's only beyond this point, in original thought - exploration, the attempt to turn a little bit aside - that life becomes interesting. And this should be quantified. 45° is a broad, panoramic vision - the necessary vision.

If one attains 90° on either side, thought again becomes unserviceable. Facing about, looking back, leads back to the past: to selfnegation, to the negation of the species. This whole, made of vertical and horizontal together, creates a cone: I call it the "cone of obligatory vision". This is the first thing that even the most indigent can afford. For Jean-Luc Godard, television is lowering one's eyes, cinema is raising one's gaze. What is implied here is the highly symbolic nature of one's angle of vision.

What we know

In our civilisation, there are permanent forms which are part of every epoch and every culture.

They are not especially diªcult to detect. A minimal knowledge of physics, astrophysics, and perhaps mathematics, brings to light certain patterns that make these subjects easier to understand.

Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]