The design of aesthetic perception: some experiments in a formal approach.

Industrial design has the role of anticipating the solution of any problem in the early production phases, in order to allow serial low cost products. The term design superimposed on the previous meaning intend that other qualities have to be added to products, non necessarily functional, but easily perceivable and improving the user satisfaction: aesthetics, shape, colour, and so on. Those design qualities can be the more relevant aspects of a product, as a language to communicate usage, life style, culture, ethical values, and so on. Those aspects belong more to creative and artistic sphere than to engineering and technology, and for this reason are left to sensibility and to qualitative evaluation, without any capability of scientific verification. Recent studies in neurophysiology of perception (V.Ramachandran, S.Zeki) suggest that there are verifiable properties perceivable through our senses (contrasts, shape exaggerations, symmetries, rhythms, metaphoric relationships, etc.) able to communicate aesthetic emotion. Those studies have been applied mainly to visual aspects, but experiments have been carried on to transport the same elements in touch, hearing, sense of smell and taste. Such an approach allows to evaluate quantitatively the presence of aesthetic values in any artefact, as well as it is able to suggest properties to be inserted in the early design phases. Studies and experiments have been carried on within the Design Department of the Polytechnic ofMilan, and in particular in the fields of communication and product design. For the communication, many evidences of the Ramachandran’s principles have been highlighted in many literary works, in movies, in music, in advertising. For the products, the principles have been used in designing upholstered sofas and crystal glasses, through workshops held inviting designers of different ages and experiences, with excellent results. Also experiments have been successfully carried on, in catching the properties of painting masterpieces, translating them in other kinds or artefacts. The paper presents the motivational basis of the research, the Ramachandran’s principles, examples of the research in communication design and the detailed operation carried on within the workshops, to “translate” the deep aesthetic values of the painting masterpieces into upholstered sofas, subsequently prototyped.