Good Taste? A Lecture by Nanna Ditzel
A transcript of a lecture delivered at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Design, on 12 March 1997.
“ There is certainly no need to work in the service of current good taste; it is big, broad and doing just fine. On the contrary, we must use our imagination, creativity and our visions of the society to create the things and the environment we believe in. ”
Nanna Ditzel
We have learned from Poul Henningsen and other wise men that good taste is one of the worst things you can have, so I’m curious to see if anyone has anything good to say about the phenomenon.
Good taste can take on many different forms depending on the time and place, but fundamentally it is the accepted norms for a particular environment at a particular time and the better you follow and express these norms, the better your taste. This applies not only to clothing, homes and food but also to behaviour and the literature and art you choose. Of course, it is nice to have such norms; they make life easy and safe and give you a sense of belonging. It is a safety net, a learned pattern to use in place of independent judgement. In fact, being told you have good taste can be a dubious compliment because it means you make some pretty predictable choices.
Good taste, as different as it may be in different environments, is as risk-free as a uniform. You take on an identity that is not of your own making.
Nowadays, being a trendsetter is a profession, in other words, predicting how taste will evolve. There is a good chance of guessing correctly by anallysing what has happened recently, but fortunately, this is not what determines evolution.
Despite the enormus political and commercial forces of the world, it is astonishing how much influence and impact that individuals or small groups of people can have on global development; for example, the incalculable impact of a philiosopher like Karl Marx or, in our own profession, a small group of artists and thinkers who formed Bauhaus 60-70 years ago. All these thoughts and ideas are processed in society and from our pattern.
When the Danish Design School convenes a discussion on taste, I assume it is to find out how to relate to the concept. What can it be used for? Is it a guideline, is it a goal? Of course, you need to be well informed and know what the world looks like at the moment and preferably, why. I visit museums and exhibitions and subscribe to many publications, but it is not to find out what to do next but rather what not to do.
The prevailing taste has much in common with styles and fashion: They are introduced as and emerge from strong and groundbreaking work, often in reaction to the status quo. After a while, the shock effect wears off, the new is adopted and popularised, finding a generally acceptable expression. And so it continues, whether we like it or not.
So, what we can ascertain as designers is that there is certainly no need to work in the service of current good taste; it is big, broad and doing just fine. On the contrary, we must use our imagination, creativity and our visions of the society to create the things and the environment we believe in. You can do it based on your personal temperament. Some will choose strict and ascetic, but I do not mind if it is fun and festive, and I’m not opposed to pomp and circumstance.
We also have this amazing possibility of picking up paper and pencil or whatever tool we choose to plan and invent things that do not already exist in this diverse world.
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