Noise

I recall my acoustics Professor defining noise as unwanted sound. Which is which depends on your viewpoint. It is not obvious. Contexts change and lives change. My introduction to jazz was painful: my preferred music these days is jazz.

The same applies to design. One person’s classical perfection is another’s post modern nightmare. It is not the case that an opinion can only be voiced if it is professionally qualified. The truth about design may be out there, but it is not the same for everybody, everywhere, at all times – it is not an immutable, universal truth.

Paloma Faith’s song Do you want the truth or something beautiful? is inescapable background noise/sound at the moment. Listening to debates about design, you could be misled into thinking that the choice is that simple: truth versus beauty. Since the next line in the song is I am happy to deceive you, we should be careful about setting up either/or absolute choices.