Functional art or artistic design. Experimentation methodologies with students of the Degrees in Fine Arts and Design

Abstract

There is a large amount of specialized literature that has theorized about art and functionality from different approaches and reaching various conclusions, in certain cases divergent and irreconcilable. This article does not aspire to achieve an irrefutable conceptual theory that convinces of the possibility of the coexistence of art and functionality, and satisfactorily unifies all existing points of view. The purpose of this article is to propose to students of the Fine Arts and Design degrees at a public university in Spain to unify the functionality of a furniture object in a sculptural piece from their own experimentation. The learning process, the synergies created between the different students, the difficulties and the challenge posed by the proposal provide data that allows us to analyze to what extent art and functionality are perceived by students of the creative industries as related and complementary or, on the contrary, antagonistic and incompatible.