Audiovisual Design and Project-based Thought

Abstract

As Professor and Director of the Image and Sound Design Program at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), I promote these reflections not as mere theoretical speculation, but as a way of understanding the discipline that stems from a deep academic, professional and institutional experience. Audiovisual Design today is the discipline that best encapsulates the evolution of contemporary design. It redirects us, not toward a new specialty, but to rethink the way we understand the design process — a form that finds its maximum expression in Audiovisual Design (AD). The word design is one of those terms whose meaning seems simple and straightforward; however, it conceals a far greater complexity than it appears to have. It can be used to refer to innovative objects, brands, constructions, interfaces, images, sounds, clothing, virtual reality experiences, and yet still seem incapable of encompassing its entire universe of meanings. Cinema and audiovisual design present a difference in scale that makes them unique and complementary. We could consider cinema as a part of audiovisual design, although not completely integrated into its broader project-related conception. Hence, both form part of the same disciplinary trend, but with their own specific characteristics. If cinematic creation is understood exclusively as an art form, audiovisual design appears reduced to a technical specialization. Similarly, we cannot consider design simply as the production of objects, because the audiovisual realm escapes that confinement. Therefore, we need a systemic approach to the problem. Only then can we understand the new expanded audiovisual space that organizes much of our cultural and communication experience today — a space that, it could even be said, dominates us.