Johannes Lang observes and analyzes the development of ecological design from the point of view of the aesthetics of experience and the history of consciousness. He strives to discover and identify new product experiences that emerge against the background of ecological approaches to thinking and design – not to address the operationalization of ecological principles for praxis. He investigates the aesthetics of product design in the context of the growing awareness of ecological realities – in contradistinction to sustainability, which encompasses not just ecological, but social aspects as well.
This book shows how the introduction of ecological concerns into design not only leads to new technologies, but also to a new aesthetic, characterized here as “process aesthetics.” The practical and aesthetic aspects of a product are considered not in isolation but instead in their interrelationship – neither deterministically in the sense of “form follows function,” nor arbitrarily in the sense of a “product language,” but instead reflexively.
Through numerous examples, the author discusses processes that are observable in the history of materials, of production, and of practical utilization as they are relevant to ecological relationships. In the process, the term “process aesthetics” becomes tangible: it encompasses those sensuous reflections through which the natural processes of product history become a part product experience.