The Line, the Void and the Current: Iron Age Art from a Design Theory Perspective

Abstract

Summary. Objects from the European Iron Age decorated with swirls and scrolls, faces and figures, and generally referred to as Early Celtic Art, can offer deep insight into later prehistoric notions of creativity. By drawing on archaeology and social anthropology, art and architectural design, this theoretical discourse investigates the design processes involved in the creation of Early Celtic Art. Rather than attempting to decipher a meaning behind decoration, this enquiry uses architectural 'Design Theory' to explore the implications of certain design choices. It starts with the premise that these designs are integral to the objects in order to identify different layers of complexity, innovation and emulation, and ends with wider reflections on who was creative and how. This approach, borrowed from architectural analysis, aims to open a new line of enquiry into the fascinating world of Iron Age creativity. DESIGN THEORY AND EARLY CELTIC ARTDefinitions of art and its function, and the theories behind designs, have long been the subject of different disciplines such as anthropology

Vision and visual experience in European Celtic Art: towards new interpretations from neuro-atypical perspectives

“…There is, however, an underlying assumption the objects were made for an initiated few, either as narrators of myths or apotropaic talismans for a Celtic elite (Frey 2002;Rieckhoff 2010;Bagley 2014;Müller 2014: 37). I have concentrated on the creative processes involved in making and seeing this art, and argued that these complex designs are not just creations of the past, which now remain silent, but that they are still active today to detect new meanings and to provide transcendental experiences when immersing oneself in these designs (Romankiewicz 2018). Similar to other complex art forms, arguably it does not only matter what the artist intended to create at the time, but each new experience of an artwork is equally valuablewhether designed as such originally or not (Freeland 2001: 117-8;D'Alleva 2012;Gosden 2020: 10-3).…”