Big fancy name. Sounds all intimidating to the juniors, when they ask you, 'What course are you doing?', and you open your gob to say 'Techno-Aesthetic Detailing' with a smirk on the face that says, 'Oh I'm so cool, and I am in the third year, and I'm in the senior, and I'm learning all this cool stuff.'
When we asked this to our seniors, we've always gotten different replies. They say, 'It's the study of form at the functional level', or 'Using the functional elements in such a way that their form is appealing too'. These definitions were not entirely wrong too. For example, consider a hinge in a product. Generally, a hinge joint will always be hidden in a product, as it is a functional element and will reduce the external appearance of the product. Techno-Aesthetics is a school of thought, according to which this hinge joint has to be shown and made visible in such a way that it looks stellar to the eye, and becomes the most aesthetic element.
The HOD of Product Design, Prof. Sanjay Jain, gave a different twist to the project this year. What we are going to do, is consider a certain product and enhance to give a certain sensorial experience to the user. May it be any of the 5 physical or the 5 vestibular senses (which is extremely hard to nail). We are actually delving deeper into the 'experience' designed around a product, instead of just the visual enhancement. But who has ever said that aesthetics are only visual? The following's the definition of aesthetic according to the Oxford Dictionary.
Definition of aesthetic
adjective
concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty:the pictures give great aesthetic pleasure
giving or designed to give pleasure through beauty:the law applies to both functional and aesthetic objects
noun
[in singular]
a set of principles underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement:the Cubist aesthetic
Now, this can be for any of the senses. Well, this is what I interpret through 2 days of lecture. I'm sure there's a lot to learn, and I have to dive deeper to get into the roots of good design and good techno aesthetic design. :)
