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In this essay, I reflect on the potential of product design as a vehicle for Nigerian historic cultural continuity and present a rationale for practice within the context of ongoing doctoral research, in which I approach this potential using ethnography, co-design, observational engagement with historical Igbo objects and creative systems (as a case study), and personal practice. Uche Okeke’s perspective on natural synthesis in Nigerian fine art is unpacked as a methodology for this inquiry and juxtaposed with critical considerations of cultural “transference” and “preservation” in design. The discussion revolves around early design experiments that engage these concepts as a point of departure and return through the arguments presented. Also, by critically engaging with themes of aesthetic hegemony and 19th-century modernist Adolf Loos’ association of ornament with cultural degeneracy, the relationships between ornament, culture, and modernity are explored.
More coming soon…
