Cyclic development of design and technology culture: problems of methodology

The article analyzes approaches to understanding the essence of technological culture and the patterns of its development from the methodological positions of the design culture and the theory of self-organization. The phenomenon of technological culture is studied in the unity of the conceptual, praxeological and organizational aspects. The process of formation and development of technological culture is cyclical. Cyclicity is appearing in the periodic reiteration of the stages of cultural reproduction and cultural variability. The study gives a description of the three-phase structure of the cultural cycle, taking into account the role of self-organization processes at each formative stage. At the first formative stage the specificity of the self-organization mechanism is reduced to the formation of rigid links (structures) that measure and fasten images, signs and objects that are useful for the cultural formation. At the second stage a fundamental livelihood of the developing object as a whole is created. Usually this is a fundamental principle that sets coherence, synchronization of processes in a sociocultural system. At the third stage the processes of self-organization provide a livelihood for the components of the object which leads to the achievement of morphological and axiological integrity and uniqueness of the object, the system enters into symbiotic relationships with objects of another type, completes development and prepares the transition to a new three-part cycle of shaping. The article deals with the first historical cycle of formation and development of technological culture: “Hellenism - Ancient Rome - Byzantium”. Each phase of the cultural cycle is characterized by the originality of subject, target and organizational factors. In future the undertaken research will reveal the features of technological culture on its modern “digital” stage basing on the logic of cyclic patterns developed within the framework of the proposed methodology.