Response to A Hippocratic Oath for Designers

Responding to A Hippocratic Oath for Designers

This article was very fascinating when I had just finished reading The Cyborg in All of Us. As a reminder, the Cyborg article regarded to the problems we may face with the imminent problem of technology becoming a part of us, literally and physically. While, on the other hand, this article discusses a new way of thinking that implements more efficient and beneficial designs in technology. This new way is to look at technology as essential to human health. This, if you had read my response to the first piece of literature that I read, argues the complete opposite of what I questioned and semi-rejected.

Furthermore, to delve into the article a bit more, the author pretty much discusses architecture and landscape design, both of which can be classified as technology, as a category of projects in which we can consider to be essential to human health. The author summarizes landscape design and architecture to be an evolving entity that is responding to the rising problems of climate change. And with that, Orr describes what could be revolutionary impacts in our society if we started to design with the focus of human health, which is directly impacted by the world that is around us and the ecology around us.

With that, I had to correct my original impression of this article. I think it is extremely exciting that this article essentially talks about ways in which we can work with the environment (i.e. sustainable renewable energy sources) to build our homes in. Although technology has many levels of possible (and current) negative impacts, we as a new generation of New Media learners/artists/creators/inventors can find ways to co-exist with the environment around us and build sustainable design that works with our environment.

Overall, it feels very empowering and inspirational to hear about the work that artists/architects/makers all over the world who are using technology to better our lives in the ways that wouldn’t harm our environment. These architects are building tools and resources to create a more advanced world in a way that wouldn’t allow us to become entirely dependent on technology.