The Aesthetic of precision in virtual design

Abstract

It is suspected in design education, that the use of computer representations of design, especially 3D modelling, tends to limit design outcomes in some ways while at the same time appearing to offer greater opportunities to explore new ideas in others. Virtual space in design becomes a province of isolation, often noted for its limited view of design. Precision itself is a style of argument (rhetoric) for design, conventionally accepted in such pictures as working drawings. The precision of the drawing itself is denied in order to make way for precision in the concept. The return of the eesthetic of representation as an eesthetic of precision is the result of the denial of pleasure of drawing. It is a drive to fmd pleasure in the concept itself through precision of representation as measurement of the design as material; an :esthetic of precision. The computer model, which simulates the design within its simulated Cartesian space, becomes the most precise place for the design to exist. Within an asthetic of precision, this becomes the best, most complete version of the design. It is therefore a conceptual precision modelled rather than a perceptual precision, that is seen. The phrase "more real than real" expresses the character of computer modelling and image making, as it is regarded within the :esthetic of precision. The computer produces a representation of intelligence that is offered as a reality. For design this means that the material purposes of, for examples the physical body, lose their intensity. Thus a new formal virtuosity is possible.