Posted by Irwin Kirsch on January 26, 1999 at 18:24:18:
Dear Rug Lovers:
The real beneficiary(ies) of this exercise as it applies to rugs is the manufacturer (weaver, designer, marketer) of new rugs. Should this thesis produce a "computer model" it would provide tremendous benefits in selling new rugs to an accepting consumer. For us, the consumer, in my opinion, this is a tedious exercise. When I look at a rug (as well as touch it) and it "speaks" to me, that is all that I need. I don't want to go through this check list exercise to "validate" (?) my judgment.
While I see the merits of this thesis for the producers, I think that what this Salon can do is try to validate its hypothesis. I however, would prefer to have Dr. Salingaros test this thesis by placing random rugs which he has scored (without revealing the scores to us) using his checklist and have the Salonistas rank them (entirely or as in various groupings) as to their overall aesthetics--even perhaps a thumbs up or thumbs down easy task. Then the good doctor could see how our responses compare (assuming we have a significant sampling) in testing the hypothesis. This would elicit more outside responses and could test the theory.
Regards,
Irwin