Design and Order in Everyday Life Author(s): Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Source: Design Issues, Vol. 8, No.

1 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 26-34 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511451 Accessed: 29/10/2009 07:25
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Design and Order in Everyday Life

1) Laszl6 Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion (Chicago: Paul Theobald, 1947), 28.

2) Gyorgy Kepes, Education and Vision (New York: Braziller, 1965). 3) Abraham Maslow, "Isomorphic Interrelations Between Knower & Known," Sign, Image, Symbol, Gyorgy Kepes, ed. (New York: Braziller, 1966), 134-43. 4) E. H. Gombrich, The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Press, 1979).

Art and order Since the time of Aristotle, a recurrent theme among thinkers has been the idea that art exists because it helps bring order to human experience. This notion still stubbornly survives, despite the fact that in recent times the arts have not been distinguished by a concern for maintaining harmony. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy claimed (not so many years ago) that the goal of art is to form a "unified manifestation ... a balance of the social, intellectual, and emotional experience; a synthesis of attitudes and opinions, fears and hopes."' Gyorgy Kepes thought that people of the twentieth century live in chaotic environments, are involved in chaotic relationships, and carry chaos at the core of their consciousness. The job of the artist, according to Kepes, is to reduce all this free-floating chaos by imposing order on the environment, and on our thoughts and feelings.2 Psychologist Abraham Maslow expressed a similar idea when he claimed that art helps reconcile the conflict between ancient biological instincts and the artificialrules we have developed for organizing social life.' E. H. Gombrich restates this theme in its most complete form in his latest book on the psychology of design and decoration.4 But what does it actually mean to say that art helps bring order to experience? How does this mysterious process take place? As a psychologist I was dissatisfied with the vague and metaphorical accounts of how art affects the consciousness of the viewer. As a result, ten years ago my students and I conducted a study in which we interviewed a representative cross-section of families in the Chicago area, to find out how "normal" people responded to art objects and design qualities in their environment. We conducted the interviews in the respondents' homes, asking them such questions as: What kind of "art" objects did they have in their homes? How often did they notice such objects? What went on in their minds when they did respond? Soon after we started interviewing, however, we realized that we were having difficulties. The people we talked to, even professional, educated persons, had very little to say about the subject. They were able to repeat a few impersonal cliches, but it was

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clearthat art played a decidedlyinsignificantrole in their lives. Although most homes contained a few paintingsor sculpture, to theseworks were marginal the owner's usuallyreproductions, senseof psychologicalor spiritual well-being.
There were, however, in every home, several artifactsto which the owners were strongly attached. These objects often lacked any discernible esthetic value, but they were charged with meanings that conveyed a sense of integrity and purpose to the lives of the owners. So instead of asking questions about artworks, we changed our tactic and asked what objects were special to each person, and why.5Eventually we interviewed 315 individuals in 82 families, observing the respondents for a few hours at a time with these objects in their homes. The meanings of household objects In one interview a woman showed us with pride a plastic statuette of the Venus de Milo. It was a tacky specimen, with thick seams and blurred features. With some hesitancy the interviewer asked the woman why the statue was so special to her? She answered with great enthusiasm that the statue had been given to her by a Tupperware regional sales manager as a prize for the quantity of merchandise she had sold. Whenever she looked at the Venus replica, she didn't see the cheap goddess, but an image of herself as a capable, successful businessperson. In other cases, a woman pulled out an old Bible that she cherished as a symbol of family continuity; a man showed us a desk he had built, a piece of furniture which embodied his ideals of simplicity and economy; one boy showed us his stereo with which he could make "weird sounds" when he was depressed;while an old woman showed us the razor which her husband, who had been dead for eighteen years, had shaved with and which she still kept in the medicine cabinet. Finally, a successful lawyer took us to the basement where he unpacked a trombone he used to play in college. He explained that whenever he felt overwhelmed by his many responsibilities, he took refuge in the basement to blow on the old trombone. In other words, we found that each home contained a symbolic ecology, a network of objects that referred to meanings that gave sense to the lives of those who dwelt there. Sometimes these meanings were conveyed by works of art. To be precise, of the 1,694 objects mentioned in the study, 136 or eight percent referred to the graphic arts (photography excluded), and 108 or six percent referred to sculpture, including the Venus de Milo replica. But to be effective in conveying meanings, the owner had to be personally involved with the artifact.It was not enough that the object had been created by someone else; to be significant, the owner had to enter into an active symbolic relationship with it.

and 5) MihalyCsikszentmihalyi Eugene The Meaningof Rochberg-Halton, Domestic and Things: Symbols theSelf (New York:Cambridge University Press,1981).

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A large majorityof the 136 graphicworks were homemade; they were often the work of children,relatives,or friends.Their value consisted in remindingthe owner of importantpersonal ties, of the qualities of the people who made them. In some instances,a picturewas cherishedbecauseit remindedthe owner of a particular place or an occasion,such as a Mexicanlandscape bought on a honeymoon.Rarelywere the esthetic,formal,syntactic qualitiesof the object mentionedas a reasonfor liking it. Of the 537 reasonsgiven for cherishingthe 136 graphicworks, only sixteen percenthad anythingto do with how the pictures looked. The objectswere specialbecausethey:conveyedmemories (sixteenpercent),or referredto family members(seventeen percent),or to friends(thirteenpercent).Formalqualitiesalone to almostnevermadea picturevaluable its owner.In the relativerareoccasionsin which a person was sensitiveto the formal ly the qualitiesof a paintingor sculpture, objectwas specialbecause the owner recognizedits estheticvalue.By activelyappreciating the object,the ownerjoins in the act of creation,andit is thisparticipation,ratherthan the artist'screativeeffort, that makesthe in artifact important his or her life. Table 1 shows the ten types of household objects that were mentioned as special or important by the largest number of respondents.
6) Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg58. Halton,TheMeaning Things, of

Table 16

of who mentionedat leastone spePercentage respondents cial objectin a givencategory. Percentage Objects 36 Furniture 26 art Graphic 23 Photographs 22 Books 22 Stereo 22 Musicalinstrument 21 Televisionsets 19 Sculpture 15 Plants 15 Plates As the table shows, the most frequently mentioned special Again,it was not objectin the home was some kind of furniture. the designqualityof the piece that madeit special,but what the meantto the person. persondid with it, andwhat the interaction Because differentpeople have different goals and do different things, the kinds of objectscherishedand the reasonswhy they were specialvarieddramatically age andsex. by The youngest generationof the families interviewed chose and stereos,televisionsets, furniture,musicalinstruments, their chose furniown beds, in that order. Their parentsmost often

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7) Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg62. Halton,TheMeaning Things, of

ture, graphic arts, sculpture, books, and musical instruments; chose photographs,furniture,books, while their grandparents' television sets, and graphicarts. It was clear that the younger generations respondedto the activitypotentialof the objects-to what they could do with them, while the older generations turned to things that evoked contemplation,or preservedthe and memoriesof events,experiences, relationships. For example, a teenage boy said that the kitchen table and chairswere amongthe most specialobjectsin his home because He they were very comfortable. could also tilt the chairsandbalance on them, hide underthe table, or build a fortresswith the entireset. "(W)ithanothertable,I couldn'tplay as good 'causeI love the feel of thattable."A typicalresponsefromsomeonefrom was the second generation that of one womanwho singledout a of furniturebecauseof the memoriesit evoked about her piece "I friends,husband,or children: just associatethatchairwith sitting in it with my babies."For the older generationof responbetweenseveralgeneradents,objectsoften bridgedrelationships tions: "This chest was bought by my mother and fatherwhen aboutseventyyearsago.... My motherpaintthey weremarried, ed it differentcolors, used it in the bedroom.When I got it my husbandsandedit down to the natural wood.... I wouldn'tpart it for anything.And I imaginethe kids are going to want it, with loves antiques."7 my daughter-in-law alsodiffered betweengenders, that Responses indicating stereosexualroles influencethe way we perceiveand respondto typed objects in the environment.Men, like many of the childrenwe with:televiinterviewed, thingsthatcould be interacted preferred 2 sion sets (ranked in preference), stereos(3), musicalinstruments (5), sportsequipment Womenrespondedmore like the older (7). of people interviewedand preferred objectsof congenerations art (3), sculpture(4), books (2), templation: photographs graphic (5),plants(6).Women,moreoftenthanmen,tendedto see objects as specialbecausethey were mementoesof childrenor grandparents, or because they had been a gift or an heirloom. Approximatelytwenty-two percentof the women interviewed mentioned thatspecialobjectspersonified qualities another the of as opposedto only sevenpercentof the men. person, Thesepatterns,and manyof the othersthat emergedfrom the data,suggestthat(at leastin our cultureandin the presenthistorical period) objectsdo not createorderin the viewer'smind by embodyingprinciplesof visualorder;they do so by helpingthe viewer strugglefor the orderingof his or her own experience. A personfinds meaningin objectsthat areplausible,concretesymbols of the foremostgoals,the most salientactionsand eventsin thatperson'slife. In the past, generallyacceptedsymbols performedthis function. Religiousicons, patrioticlithographs, folk-art,for example,
Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 1 Fall 1991 29

couldrepresent identityof the ownerandhis or herpurposein the life. But today, widely sharedculturalsymbols have lost their powerto createorder.Eachperson,eachfamilyunitmustdiscover a visuallanguage will express that whatthey mostdeeplycarefor. Of the eighty-twofamiliesinterviewed, some were enthusiastic about their home; parentsand childrenloved the space and the atmosphere the house in which they lived,andfelt close to of each other. In these homes each person mentioned things that remindedhim or her of the other membersof the family, or of events in which they had jointly participated.In the families where people were ambivalentabout the home in which they lived,whereconflictset familymembersagainsteachother,such commonsymbolswere mentionedless often. If it is not the objectthatcreates orderin theviewer's conscioushow the objectlooks?In otherwords, matter ness,does it actually arethereobjective visualqualities addup to "gooddesign?" that In searchof universalvalues:color and form Artistsandwriterson artusuallyassumethat some aspectof the visualstimuluswill have a direct,immediateeffect on the senses of the viewer,and that psychic harmonyis createdby meansof such effects. Certain colors or shapes are universallypleasing, andit is by combiningtheseformalelementsthatdesignersreach theiraudience. Early psychological investigationssupportedthe belief that and somecolors"belong" together, thatsomeformsarebettersuited than othersto pleasethe brain.These extrapolations from the sciencesandmathematics wereoccasionally findingsof the natural confirmedby laboratoryexperimentson visual perception,but contexts. turnedout to havelittleexplanatory valuein real-life It The reasonsfor this failurearenot difficultto understand. is true that the light spectrumdemonstratesregularrelationships and betweenabstract dimensions color,suchas hue, saturation, of
brightness. It is also true that when we begin to think of color in this way we can generate categories of complementary or clashing colors. However, it does not follow that people perceive color according to the analytical rules developed by physical scientists. In his delightful investigations among illiterate Uzbeks in the Soviet Union, Luria found that village women refused to combine colored skeins of wool into meaningful categories because they thought each was uniquely different from the other.8Instead of using abstract categories, such as "brown," they said that a particular piece of wool was the color of calf or pig dung; the color of decayed teeth, or the color of cotton in bloom. On the other hand, men from the same village called or named everything "blue," regardless of whether it was yellow or red. In Western culture, colors are seen in terms of a rational anal-

8) A. R. Luria, Cognitive Development (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1976).

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9) M. Segall, D. Campbell, and M.

Herskovits, The Influence of Culture on Visual Perception (Indianapolis:

Bobbs,Merrils, 1966).
10) Luria, Cognitive Development.

ysis of the physical properties of light. Having learned these one properties, can'thelp but perceivecolors in these terms.The names and relationshipsthat physicists have bestowed on the influenceone's views. Harmonyandconflictexist light spectrum largely(perhapsentirely?)for those who have learneda specific way of coding colors. For example,for the shepherdsof Central Asia, color is rarely an abstractdimension. The quality of an from its concretemanifestation: redness the objectis inseparable of the appleis not the sameas the rednessof fire or the feverish cheekof a child.Whenone uses categories, they arederivedfrom the practice of everyday life: the Uzbek women, for instance, found in dung andflowershandyorganizing principlesof color. The notion of a universalpropensityfor certainharmonious color combinations basedon "natural" or categories on underlydoes not seem tenable.True, it is ing neurologicalpreferences possible to threatena viewer's sense of order by distortingthe Most people still do not acceptedconventionsof representation. the paintingof a yellow sea, a greenhorse, or an entirely accept black canvas, but not because these colors are wrong in some absolutesense.The clashis not due to physiologicalor perceptual incompatibility. sourcesof the conflictareentirelydifferThe ent andmustbe soughtin the habitsof symbolization people that in a givenculturehaveacquired. The same argumentholds true for perceptionof spatialrelationships. Since the time of Pythagorasand Aristotle, thinkers have been seeking harmony among lines and spaces-golden ratios,mysticalquantities.More recently,Gestaltpsychologists haveasserted certainfiguresweremore"pregnant" oththat than ers, that they possessed stimulus qualities which were more was pleasingto the nervoussystem.Estheticpreference supposed to be based on the underlying stimulus qualities of a picture, whichwere reducible simplegeometric to patterns. Like the early color preference this approachassumed work, betweenabstractcharacteristics simple one-to-one relationships of the visualfield andthe way peopleperceiveandinterpret stimuli. In fact,it turnsout thatpeopledo not necessarily perceivethe visual configurations that Euclidiangeometrymadeso popular. Basicpatterns suchas straight linesandrightanglesareeasilyisolated and recognizedby people living in a "carpentered world," but those used to a more organic environmentfail to perceive such "units"as separate from the restof the perceptual context.9 In Here, the researchof Luriaprovidesinterestinginsights."' his Uzbek study he askedrespondents sort a numberof geoto metrical designs,which in the Westernworld would immediately be classified squares, as The circles,andtriangles. Uzbek peasants, similarities. them For however,were unableto see such "natural" a completedcirclewas a ring,whereasan incompletecirclewas a moon, andhencetwo circlescould not be sortedin the samepile.
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11) D. E. Berlyne, Aesthetics and (New York: AppletonPsychobiology 1971). Century-Crofts,

54. The 12)Gombrich, Sense Order, of

A triangle,however, resembleda tumar (a piece of traditional it jewelry)therefore, could be groupedwith the circleas a ring. It is not difficult to see that the categorieswhich critics and psychologists have used to analyze esthetics reflect theories of perception,not the actualprocess by which untutoredviewers visualstimuli.The laws of perceptionarebasedon the apprehend propertiesof light, on the axioms of geometry,but might have little to do with the organization the nervoussystem,andeven of less with the phenomenologyof perception. This applies also to some of the more recent psychological theoriesof esthetics,suchas the one proposedby D. E. Berlyne." Like most moderntheorists,Berlyne'sideasarebasedon ancient ideas reinterpreted through currentneurologicalmodels of the mind. In this case, Aristotle's axiom has been repeated by so manyothersthat the pleasureof perceptionderivesfrom balancing monotony andconfusion.'1 Accordingto Berlyne,a personis attracted visualstimulithatproducean optimalarousalof the to nervous system-stimuli that are neither extremelyredundant nor entirelychaotic.Optimal arousalresultsfrom a design that has a basicpatternor order,but enough variationto requirean activeperceptual struggleon the part of the viewer to recognize andmaintain pattern. the useful modelis an attractive andit is moderately one, Berlyne's in explainingsimple estheticchoices. But as long as it remainsa purelyneurological theoryit quicklyrunsinto the sameproblems as the others reviewedso far, in that people do not necessarily perceiveorderand disorderobjectively.For example,let us suppose that slide A containsa squarepatterncomposedof twentyof five exactreplications a simpledesign.SlidesB throughF are the same, except that ten percentof the elementsare randomly changeduntil slide G has no pattern.Accordingto the optimal arousaltheory,people would prefersome of the middleslides in nor the series;not A or B, which are too regular, F or G, which aretoo chaotic.In effect,this does not happen.One reasonis that people do not perceiveorderand disorderin the designsthe way their mathematical structurewould seem to require.Some persons rate slide D as the most regular,for example,while others it eventhoughobjectively is perceiveF and G as the most regular, of clearthatA is the most regular all the slides. Thereis no questionthatpeoplecanbe easilytrainedto recognize which design is more orderly accordingto some objective criterion. In the laboratory, one learns readily to agree with wantsyou to see. But the fact remains whateverthe experimenter that in reallife people do not carryin their mindsyardsticksfor Whatthey or abstract conceptsof "order" "disorder." measuring see andwhat they preferarenot determined objectivecharacby
teristics of visual stimuli.

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The social construction of visual values This does not mean, however, that how a thing looks has no bearingon how it affectsthe viewer. Visual qualitiesobviously have a lot to do with how we reactto an object or an environment. But our reactions are not direct "natural"responses to attached conto color andform.They areresponsesto meanings of color andform. figurations The extent to which a visual stimulus helps create order in does not dependon inherentobjectivecharacterisconsciousness tics of the object to trigger a programmedresponse from the brain.Whathappensinsteadis thatsomepeoplein a givenculture lines(or curvedlines)arethe bestway to repreagreethatstraight
sent universal order. If they are convincing enough, everybody will feel a greatersense of harmony when they see straight lines. Visual values are created by social consensus, not by perceptual stimulation. Thus art criticism is essential for creating meaning, especially in periods of transition when the majority of people are confused about how they should be affected by visual stimuli. Art critics believe that they are discovering criteria by which they can reveal natural esthetic values. In reality they are constructing criteria of value which then become attached to visual elements. When Vitruvius attacked the fanciful pictorial compositions ornamenting the walls of Roman palaces, he based his critique on the realistic premise that "such things neither are, nor can be, nor have been." Vitruvius and his modern followers believed that natural representation is intrinsically valid and any departure from it inevitably brings disorder or chaos. Order or disorder were seen as being inherent in the representation itself. In actuality, it was the theories and arguments of Vitruvius that linked order with realistic design, and disorder with surrealistic decoration. Romans who were unaware of Vitruvius's critique could have looked at the fanciest Pompeian fresco without a stirring of unease; while those who had heard of the new symbolic code might think: "This is degenerate art, full of falsehood that will destroy our civilization." Without the consensus-building efforts of the art theorist or critic, each person would evaluate objects in terms of his or her private experiences. In each culture, however, public taste develops as visual qualities are eventually linked with values. The visual taste of an epoch is a subset of its world-view, related to the norms and values that regulate the rest of life. Like other values, visual values can be unanimous or contested, elite or popular, strong or vulnerable, depending on the integration of the culture. The relativity of esthetic values does not mean that there cannot be "good" design. Good design is a visual statement that maximizes the life goals of the people in a given culture (or, more realistically, the goals of a certain sub-set of people in the culture) that draws on a shared symbolic expression for the ordering of
Design Issues: Vol. VIII, Number 1 Fall 1991 33

such goals. If the system of symbols is relativelyuniversal,then the designwill also be judgedgood acrosstime andcultures. Public works of art gain symbolic power because they are admired an elite.The average by personmeetsthe recognizedart with the respectduesomething awesomeandexpensive, but object leavesno permanent tracein consciousness. usuallythe experience a On the otherhand,an old chinacup, a houseplant, ring,or a has symbolicpower if it producesa sense of familyphotograph order in the mind. This happenswhen the owner, in seeing the object, feels that: his or her desires are in harmony;his or her goals might be reached;the past and the future are relatedin a sensibleway;thatthe peoplewho areclose to themareworthy of love and love them in return.Without such feelings, life is not worth living. The objects we surroundourselves with are the concrete symbols that convey these messages.The meaningof our privatelives is builtwith thesehouseholdobjects. The varyingstyles of visualexpression,thatwhich artistsand criticsdebateendlessly,is part of the public imageeach culture about fashionsfor itself. It providesabstract, generalstatements the historical the problemsof a particular Therefore, high period. artshelp createorderin the thoughtsand feelingsa givensociety has aboutitself.But theseareoften the thoughtsandfeelingsof a in smallminoritystrugglingto formulateits experience termsof a public symbolicvocabulary. Most people createtheirown private set of references, singlingout objectsthat will give orderto what they haveexperienced. thanthe The creationof privatemeaningis no less miraculous of or It accomplishments Rembrandt Michelangelo. is true that a masteris able to condense,in a given momentof historical great time, the expressivestriving of a great number of people. The artist'swork bringstogetherwhat many people want to say yet can'texpress.The creationof meaningin everydaylife often uses trite symbols-kitsch ratherthan originality.Yet our lives are of thesewornformsconvey. heldtogether the strands meaning by

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