Lecturer:          Professor Gottfried Hoellwarth (Vienna, Austria)

                           University of Art and Design, Linz

Institute of Fine Arts and Cultural Theory

Seminar Report: Art Design for Man and Environment

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you here in Quingdao. For me, the sculptor, and my wife, the paintress Isolde Joham, it is a special honour to be guests of the 14^th Quingdao Art Festival. Thank you very much.

I am very happy to see so many friends here and to have the opportunity to meet many interesting fellow artists from all over the world and make friends with them – which leads us right to the Quingdao exhibition and the subject of FRIENDS.

The subject of the seminar today is quite different, however: ART DESIGN FOR MAN AND ENVIRONMENT.

In trying to answer the questions addressed in the seminar we must first decide whether we want to approach these questions on a general or on a personal basis. We prefer a totally personal, subjective approach.

We feel very much attracted to the way people in China and generally in Asia see the world, with man as part of nature and of the universe.

Everything comes from nature and will return to its natural origin. I would like to see the subject of the seminar in this context. Art designs are part of the cyclic processes of life and thus part of nature and of the universe.

Humans are born NAKED, as we all know. It is man’s consciousness and growing AWARENESS that sets an active process in train, a development that goes beyond the requirements for escaping with one’s BARE life, a process involving signs and symbols that clearly can only be classified as ARTISTIC – CREATIVE.

At the beginning of this development is the treatment of HUMAN SKIN - BODY PAINTING and TATTOOING using rhythmic patterns, signs and symbols.

The next step is the artistic treatment of man’s SECOND SKIN, clothing. The purpose of this SECOND SKIN is to protect the human body against cold, hot and wet, but through its design this function is transcended. The use of symbols and codified contents, as in body painting and tattooing, makes it a vehicle for contents relating to tribal identity and status.

Wearing jewellery on the skin is entirely without any practical value. It demonstrates the wearer’s RANK. STATUS SYMBOLS become visible, and the INSIGNIA OF AUTHORITY demonstrate their SYMBOLIC POWER. Examples: the TRIBAL CHIEF – the SHAMANESS – KING and QUEEN.

Now the process moves on to man’s THIRD SKIN, his home that provides protective security. Here the creative possibilities become particularly apparent and are aligned to the user’s personal rank.

We know from experience that ONE makes TWO, and TWO makes THREE, and THREE makes the one hundred thousand things.

The same is true for the THREE SKINS – man’s creative potential extends to more and more areas, developing more and more LAYERS and thus becoming nature and part of creation.

The individual areas of the possibilities for creative design for man and the environment are linked and on top of each other as the LAYERS of an ONION.

Starting from the NAKED BODY of the individual at the core, man’s creative potential reaches OUTWARDLY layer by layer, creating a codified language without words through which individuals, groups, peoples and nations communicate.

In that light, Art Design for Man and Environment is a tool of COMMUNICATION.

Illustrations:

1./ Human skin – Body painting – Tattooing

2./ Man’s second skin – Clothing – (1) Protective function – (2) Rank – (3) Jewellery and symbols of authority on the body.

3./ The third skin, the house – Protective function – the Palace – Rank

4./ Outdoor areas – Gardens – Streets – Squares …

5./ Outdoor areas – the City as a whole …

6./ Outdoor areas – Road traffic – Means of transportation – Transportation buildings – Bridges

7./ Shaping the future – Utopias …

                           Thank you very much

                                        (Gottfried Hoellwarth)