2023年12月9日 星期六
week 15. difficult forms
DIFFICULT FORMS:
CRITICAL PRACTICES OF DESIGN AND RESEARCH by Ramia Mazé and Johan Redström, IASDR 2007
p1.
1. Rather than prescribing a practice on the basis of theoretical considerations, these critical practices seem to build an intellectual basis for design on the basis of its own modes of operation, a kind of theoretical development that happens through, and from within, design practice and not by means of external descriptions or analyses of its practices and products.
p 2.
2. This prompts John Thackara to argue, “Because product design is thoroughly integrated in capitalist production, it is bereft of an independent critical tradition on which to base an alternative” (Thackara, 1988: 21).
3. As Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby argue, “At its worst, product design simply reinforces global capitalist values. It helps to create and maintain desire for new
products, ensures obsolescence, encourages dissatisfaction with what we have and merely translates brand values into objects. Design… needs to establish an intellectual stance of its own, or the design profession is destined to loose all intellectual credibility and be viewed simply as an agent of capitalism” (Dunne and Raby,
2001: 59)
p. 3
4. This involved rethinking how to relate both to ‘operative criticism’, posed from inevitably biased positions within practice, and to ‘critical theories’, introduced from without (Hays, 1999).
5. By the 1990s, positions with respect to ‘critical architecture’ had polarized into two camps – one concerned with culture and the other preoccupied by form (Hays, 1984).
p. 4
6...post-critical proponents explore notions such as performativity, procedures, and
pragmatics (Allen, 2000; Baird, 2004/5). In such perspectives, theory and criticality are repositioned in relation to a constructive and projective attitude, capable both of ideological and operational engagement.
7. Practice is explicitly put forward as an approach to – through materials, form,
and construction – framing questions and alternatives to the status quo with clients and the public.
8. The critique posed by anti-design is not of design or planning as such, but of design in instilling and enforcing ideology. That is to say, design ‘in service’ to any imposed ideology, whether political, technological, or cultural, determined in advance and from outside. ...
While engaging theoretically and politically, the activity of designing and
design objects in themselves were seen to offer possibilities for ‘active critical participation’ in larger ideological systems (Lang and Menking, 2003). The ‘products’ of anti-design were not, however, intended as finished or closed forms. While object-oriented, form was often applied provisionally, to open up for ideas, debate, and appropriation – as alternative forms not only of product but ideological consumption.
p. 5
9. Conceptual design draws on art to orient a subversion of design norms. With respect to conceptual art, focus is shifted from the producer and the thing to the concept, and making as setting up such a concept through material objects, scripted or improvised interventions, installations or other means.
Epitomizing such an approach since the 1990s, Droog design countered both Pop and analytic design, tendencies pervading the European design scene at the time.
10.
A more specific version of conceptual design is critical design, most associated in product and interaction design with Dunne & Raby.
They posit the designer as a critically and materially engaged practitioner – a sort of ‘applied conceptual artist’.
In addition to art, they state: “Critical design is related to haute couture, concept cars, design propaganda, and visions of the future, but its purpose is not to present the dreams of industry, attract new business, anticipate new trends or test the market.
Its purpose is to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the aesthetic quality of our electronically mediated existence”
(Dunne and Raby, 2001: 58).
Early works challenged mainstream design tenents (Dunne, 1998). Dunne’s post-optimal’ object, for example, critiques product semantics and the human factors preoccupation with the ergonomic and psychological ‘fit’.
Instead, strategies of defamiliarization and estrangement from modernist aesthetics, are applied as ‘user-unfriendliness’ and ‘para-functionality’ to discourage unthinking ideological assimilation and promote skepticism by increasing the poetic distance between people products.
p. 7
11. Not only for improving design as ‘problem-solving’, but in creating a
space for designers to reflect upon the ideas, theories, logics, and implications of design in and through practice. That is to say, the intervention of an intellectual basis for ‘problem-finding’.
12. Conceptual and critical design might be said to represent a shift in attention away from the spatial object in and of itself to the ideas behind form and emergent in formation.
Explicitly dealing with the materialization of concepts, such concepts become not only
external or retrospective descriptions of design objects, but an integral part of the design objects as such.
In this way, the concepts and theories embodied in an artifact might be differentiated from tacit or propositional knowledge (see, for example, Frayling, 1993/4).
This opens up for a design practice that is not only an operational, but also an intellectual basis, for design research.
p. 8
13. Indeed, certain conceptual frameworks within critical practice such as ‘object as discourse’ and ‘design as research’ provide an essential basis for thinking about how to combine intellectual and operational modalities for contesting and further developing design from within.
p. 9
14. n critical practice, the designed object might be understood as a sort of materialized form of discourse. In Dunne's case, “the electronic objects produced in the studio section of his doctorate are still 'design,' but in the sense of a 'material thesis' in which the object itself becomes a physical critique... research is interpreted as 'conceptual modeling' involving a critique of existing approaches to production/consumption communicated through highly considered artifacts” (Seago and Dunne, 1999: 16-17).
15. In questioning design as merely ‘in service’ to ideas and problems posed in advance and outside of design, design itself is understood to be inherently ideological.
16. Difficult forms might force a hermeneutic reading of the formal operations of its (de)construction – the architect quite literally situated as author, the inhabitant as reader. ...
As any range of postmodern and post-critical revisions suggest, architecture is not writing, nor are spatial practices discursive (Allen, 2000; Hatton, 2004).
p. 10
17. Schön describes a complex interplay of generative and propositional modalities in ongoing and situated practice, proposing that “When someone reflects-in-action, he becomes a researcher in the practice context”(Schön, 1983: 68).
Rather than objective knowledge or abstract theory, conceived of as above or in advance of practice, such perspectives give primacy to subjective interpretation and practical experience.
18. . Jane Rendell considers ‘reflection in action’ in architectural research,...
She argues for design and research that do not just solve or analyze problems but may critically rethink the parameters of a problem, theory or institution.
Indeed, making in itself – particularly making experimental forms and conceptual artifacts – acts as a critique of the paradigms of knowledge held in the architectural profession and building industry.
p. 11
19. In such terms, neither design nor research may be about solving problems or reducing uncertainty, but opening up complexity and criticality.
20. As architect Stan Allen argues, “There is no theory, there is no practice. There are only practices, which consist in action and agencies. Practices unfold in time, and their repetitions are never identical” .
p. 12
21. A focus on temporal form and use as participation – central to interaction design (Redström 2001, Mazé and Redström, 2005; Mazé forthcoming 2007) – opens up new questions, such as how a critical design relates to reflective use, and, vice versa, how might ‘active critical participation’ somehow determine design.
We must ask how thinking and making in interaction design – as ‘problem-finding’ rather than ‘problem-solving’ – might enquire into ongoing relations between critical design and critical use.
p. 13.
22. Elsewhere, we discussed the use of design research programs as “provisional knowledge regimes” (Binder and Redström, 2006), as a structuring of experimentation, and its theoretical orientations, in ways that are not absolute.
23. As the program unfolds through collaborative and multi-disciplinary work over time, the meaning – or consequences – of this proposed view on the world evolve and materialize through design experiments.
24. n this way, the notion of the program might address the need for foundations that can be built upon or criticized, affirmed, or opposed in a critical design practice in a way that is still open for, and sensitive to, heterogeneity(異質性） and multiplicity.
Practice:
1. Survey STATIC! & Slow Technology
2. Select a project from these two programs, write a short critique (200 words) based on "difficult forms" framework.
2023年12月2日 星期六
week 14. slow technology
Slow Technology - Designing for Reflection, Hallnas & Redstrom
p. 201
1. As computers are increasingly woven into the fabric of everyday life, interaction design may have to change – from creating only
fast and efficient tools to be used during a limited time in specific situations, to creating technology that surrounds us and therefore is a part
of our activities for long periods of time. We present slow technology: a design agenda for technology aimed at reflection and moments of
mental rest rather than efficiency in performance. The aim of this paper is to develop a design philosophy for slow technology, to discuss
general design principles and to revisit some basic issues in interaction design from a more philosophical point of view. We discuss
examples of soniture and informative art as instances of slow technology and as examples of how the design principles can be applied in
practice.
2. When computers become increasingly ubiquitous, some of them will turn from being tools explicitly used in specific situations to being more or less continuously present as a part of a designed environment. One of the aspects of this transition is that the time perspective changes from simply encompassing the moment of explicit use to the longer periods of time associated with dwelling.
p. 202
3. Calm technology and ambient displays are designed to reside in the periphery of our
attention, continuously providing us with contextual information without demanding a conscious effort on our behalf. However, we believe that we do not only need to create calm technology, we also need actively to promote moments of reflection and mental rest in a more and more rapidly changing .
p. 203
4. The difference in aesthetics between the two doorbells is a difference in philosophy of design; the ‘‘slow’’ doorbell is not designed to be ‘‘just’’ an efficient signalling mechanism for nonreflective use, but rather an artefact that through its expression and slow appearance puts reflective ‘‘use’’ in focus.
5. ...– gourmet cuisine (美食烹飪) is slow food, in terms of both preparation and eating, which invites us to reflect on the art of cooking as well as the art of eating.
6. Accepting an invitation for reflection inherent in the design means on the other
hand that time will appear, i.e. we open up for time presence.
7. Slow technology can be technology where the aesthetics of functionality, i.e. the expression of functionality as such rather than its objectives, are in focus. It is design concerned with how we relate to the expression of technology itself as we use it to do certain things.
p. 204
8. However, slow technology differs in that it is not supposed to reduce cognitive load or make digital information and computational resources more readily available. Slow technology is not about making technology invisible, but about exposing technology in a way that encourages people to reflect and think about it.
...
...technology is not just solutions
to specific technical problems, but also provides
things with specific expressions situated in our
living environments.
9. ... we have distinguished three such aspects – reflective technology, time technology and amplified environments – each making up a specific design theme
in the programme.
10. This theme concerns the design of technology
that both invites reflection and at the same time
is reflective in its expression. The basic challenge
is to design technology that in its elementary
expression opens up for reflection and asks
questions about its being as a piece of technology.
11. Here, the call for slow technology is to use
slow design expression as an instrument to make
room for and invite reflection; to use a slow
presence of elementary technology as a tool for
making reflection inherent in design expression.
12. This theme concerns the design of technology
that through its expression amplifies the presence
– not the absence – of time.
p. 205
13. If you
master the art of playing the violin, a good violin
is a piece of technology that through its
expression in use, for example in playing a
partita by Bach, certainly amplifies the presence
of time. In these themes, the call for slow
technology is to design technology that in true
use reveals a slow expression of present time.
14. The call for slow technology is
to use slow design expression to amplify given
environments in time.
p. 208
15. At first, the
appearance of the ChatterBox will seem as a
rather ordinary random text-generator but, over
time, one will be able to recognise parts of
sentences, words and sentence structures. Over
time, one will slowly form an understanding of
the underlying material and finally even an
understanding of the rules according to which
the sentences are generated.
p. 209
16. A basic principle of slow technology is to amplify the presence of things to make them into something more than just a silent tool for fast access to something else.
17. It is the expression of the Matisse painting itself – or probably a reproduction – hanging on the wall that is important. The function of a thing designed to invite and make room for reflection is inherent in the precise meaning of reflecting that is given by the total expression of the given thing; function is inherent in design expression.
18. One of the implications of designing for ‘‘presence’’ instead of ‘‘use’’ is that evaluations will have to change as well.
19. In the case of ‘‘tools’’ it can be
argued that the basic of a tool is understanding
how it is used – a tool is always something that is
used for something.
...
One cannot explain what a
symphony by Beethoven is, as a piece of art, by
empirical studies of a collection of concert
visitors.
p. 210
20. One of the basic ideas behind the examples of slow technology is to use simplicity in material in combination with complexity of form.
21. Simplicity in material invites people to reflect when there is an obvious complexity in form.
22.
we propose two basic guidelines for slow technology:
. focus on slowness of appearance (materialisation, manifestation) and presence – the slow materialisation and design presence of form (F)
. focus on aesthetics of material and use simple basic tools of modern technology – the clear and simple design presence of matetial (M).
23. The design should give time for reflection
through its slow form-presence and invite us to
reflect through its clear, distinct and simple
material-expression. It is a combination of
simplicity in material with a subtle complexity
in form focusing on time as a basic element of
composition. Technology should bring forth the
material, not hide it.
24. This is interaction design in the
sense that we design structures within which we
express presence and build our ‘‘work-worlds’’
and ‘‘life-worlds’’ through interaction with the
environment.
p. 211
25. We believe that the transition from, or rather
complement to, the perspective on technology as
‘‘tool’’ to a perspective on information technology as being a part of a complex designed and
inhabited environment will be important to
future design methodologies [38].
26. One such possibility is a
technology, such as slow technology, that is
not ‘‘used’’ at all but nevertheless is a part of the
environment, adding to its ambience and
supporting various activities taking place in it.
References:
p. 201
1. As computers are increasingly woven into the fabric of everyday life, interaction design may have to change – from creating only
fast and efficient tools to be used during a limited time in specific situations, to creating technology that surrounds us and therefore is a part
of our activities for long periods of time. We present slow technology: a design agenda for technology aimed at reflection and moments of
mental rest rather than efficiency in performance. The aim of this paper is to develop a design philosophy for slow technology, to discuss
general design principles and to revisit some basic issues in interaction design from a more philosophical point of view. We discuss
examples of soniture and informative art as instances of slow technology and as examples of how the design principles can be applied in
practice.
2. When computers become increasingly ubiquitous, some of them will turn from being tools explicitly used in specific situations to being more or less continuously present as a part of a designed environment. One of the aspects of this transition is that the time perspective changes from simply encompassing the moment of explicit use to the longer periods of time associated with dwelling.
p. 202
3. Calm technology and ambient displays are designed to reside in the periphery of our
attention, continuously providing us with contextual information without demanding a conscious effort on our behalf. However, we believe that we do not only need to create calm technology, we also need actively to promote moments of reflection and mental rest in a more and more rapidly changing .
p. 203
4. The difference in aesthetics between the two doorbells is a difference in philosophy of design; the ‘‘slow’’ doorbell is not designed to be ‘‘just’’ an efficient signalling mechanism for nonreflective use, but rather an artefact that through its expression and slow appearance puts reflective ‘‘use’’ in focus.
5. ...– gourmet cuisine (美食烹飪) is slow food, in terms of both preparation and eating, which invites us to reflect on the art of cooking as well as the art of eating.
6. Accepting an invitation for reflection inherent in the design means on the other
hand that time will appear, i.e. we open up for time presence.
7. Slow technology can be technology where the aesthetics of functionality, i.e. the expression of functionality as such rather than its objectives, are in focus. It is design concerned with how we relate to the expression of technology itself as we use it to do certain things.
p. 204
8. However, slow technology differs in that it is not supposed to reduce cognitive load or make digital information and computational resources more readily available. Slow technology is not about making technology invisible, but about exposing technology in a way that encourages people to reflect and think about it.
...
...technology is not just solutions
to specific technical problems, but also provides
things with specific expressions situated in our
living environments.
9. ... we have distinguished three such aspects – reflective technology, time technology and amplified environments – each making up a specific design theme
in the programme.
10. This theme concerns the design of technology
that both invites reflection and at the same time
is reflective in its expression. The basic challenge
is to design technology that in its elementary
expression opens up for reflection and asks
questions about its being as a piece of technology.
11. Here, the call for slow technology is to use
slow design expression as an instrument to make
room for and invite reflection; to use a slow
presence of elementary technology as a tool for
making reflection inherent in design expression.
12. This theme concerns the design of technology
that through its expression amplifies the presence
– not the absence – of time.
p. 205
13. If you
master the art of playing the violin, a good violin
is a piece of technology that through its
expression in use, for example in playing a
partita by Bach, certainly amplifies the presence
of time. In these themes, the call for slow
technology is to design technology that in true
use reveals a slow expression of present time.
14. The call for slow technology is
to use slow design expression to amplify given
environments in time.
p. 208
15. At first, the
appearance of the ChatterBox will seem as a
rather ordinary random text-generator but, over
time, one will be able to recognise parts of
sentences, words and sentence structures. Over
time, one will slowly form an understanding of
the underlying material and finally even an
understanding of the rules according to which
the sentences are generated.
p. 209
16. A basic principle of slow technology is to amplify the presence of things to make them into something more than just a silent tool for fast access to something else.
17. It is the expression of the Matisse painting itself – or probably a reproduction – hanging on the wall that is important. The function of a thing designed to invite and make room for reflection is inherent in the precise meaning of reflecting that is given by the total expression of the given thing; function is inherent in design expression.
18. One of the implications of designing for ‘‘presence’’ instead of ‘‘use’’ is that evaluations will have to change as well.
19. In the case of ‘‘tools’’ it can be
argued that the basic of a tool is understanding
how it is used – a tool is always something that is
used for something.
...
One cannot explain what a
symphony by Beethoven is, as a piece of art, by
empirical studies of a collection of concert
visitors.
p. 210
20. One of the basic ideas behind the examples of slow technology is to use simplicity in material in combination with complexity of form.
21. Simplicity in material invites people to reflect when there is an obvious complexity in form.
22.
we propose two basic guidelines for slow technology:
. focus on slowness of appearance (materialisation, manifestation) and presence – the slow materialisation and design presence of form (F)
. focus on aesthetics of material and use simple basic tools of modern technology – the clear and simple design presence of matetial (M).
23. The design should give time for reflection
through its slow form-presence and invite us to
reflect through its clear, distinct and simple
material-expression. It is a combination of
simplicity in material with a subtle complexity
in form focusing on time as a basic element of
composition. Technology should bring forth the
material, not hide it.
24. This is interaction design in the
sense that we design structures within which we
express presence and build our ‘‘work-worlds’’
and ‘‘life-worlds’’ through interaction with the
environment.
p. 211
25. We believe that the transition from, or rather
complement to, the perspective on technology as
‘‘tool’’ to a perspective on information technology as being a part of a complex designed and
inhabited environment will be important to
future design methodologies [38].
26. One such possibility is a
technology, such as slow technology, that is
not ‘‘used’’ at all but nevertheless is a part of the
environment, adding to its ambience and
supporting various activities taking place in it.
References:
Mettle
Practice:
1. Make a critique on "Photobox (Photobox: on the design of a slow technology) (http://markmakedo.co.uk/portfolio/photobox/) according to "slow technology" philosophy
2. If a design team decides to create an artifact like "little printer" (by Burgcloud) to print photos as follows:
make a critical reflection on this artifact in contrast to Photobox as well as other image practices using frameworks similar to "Slow Technology: Critical Reflection and Future Directions" (p. 817)
(1+2 = totally 250-300 words)
1. Make a critique on "Photobox (Photobox: on the design of a slow technology) (http://markmakedo.co.uk/portfolio/photobox/) according to "slow technology" philosophy
2. If a design team decides to create an artifact like "little printer" (by Burgcloud) to print photos as follows:
make a critical reflection on this artifact in contrast to Photobox as well as other image practices using frameworks similar to "Slow Technology: Critical Reflection and Future Directions" (p. 817)
(1+2 = totally 250-300 words)
2023年11月23日 星期四
week 13. the object as discourse
The object as discourse
The Object as Discourse 1999
p1.
1. In short, as a result of what might be termed 'methodological intimidation' (方法論上的恐嚇), research work carried out in colleges of art and design stands a very real risk of losing those qualities of originality, iconoclasm (破除偶像), energy, style and wit which have characterised the best of art school culture since the 1950s.
p. 3
2. Rejecting the electronic product designer's traditional role as semiotician, he attempts to map a new conceptual territory on which to explore the electronic as 'post-optimal object', turning his attention away the familiar attempt to achieve 'optimum performance levels' and towards more fundamental philosophical issues.
3...., Dunne's research focuses on the relationship between electronic objects and the realms of poetry and aesthetics.
4. Design is seen as a form of socio-aesthetic research towards the integration of aesthetic experience and everyday life through the development of conceptual products rather than working prototypes of models which attempt to simulate a final product designed for mass production.
5. As a PhD by project, Dunne's work uses research through the design process to explore the development of an approach that allows the development of critical responses and a sceptical sensibility towards the ideological nature of design with the purpose of stimulating original aesthetic possibilities for new kinds of electronic object.
7. The ultimate aim of the research project is the development of electronic products which by'making strange' (陌異化) or 'poeticising the distance' (詩意化距離) between ourselves and our artefactual environment, facilitate sociological awareness, reflective and critical involvement with the electronic object rather than its passive consumption and unthinking acceptance.
8. Rather than aiming for transparency, as would a conventional applied researcher/product designer, his (Dunne's) attempt to enhance the critical distance between the electronic object and the human subject through the introduction of 'poetic' techniques of aesthetic 'estrangement' is reminiscent of the writing of Frankfurt School theorists such as Walter Benjamin or the methods of avant-garde theorist/performers such as John Cage,...
p. 4
9.... his idea of using the process of invention as a mode of discourse (以發明過程為論述), a poetic invention (詩意的發明) that, by stretching established conventions, whether physical, social or political, rather than simply affirming them, takes on a radical critical function, a material critical theory of what Dunne terms a 'parafunctionality.'
10. To this extent Dunne's work offers a positive and radical model of the action researcher in design as a critical interpreter of design processes and their relationship to culture and society rather than a skilled applied technician preoccupied by the minutiae (細節) of industrial production or a slick but intellectually shallow semiotician.
11. In Dunne's case the electronic object produced as the studio section of the doctorate is still 'design' but in the sense of a 'material thesis' (實體論文) in which the object itself becomes a physical critique (實體批判).
p1.
1. In short, as a result of what might be termed 'methodological intimidation' (方法論上的恐嚇), research work carried out in colleges of art and design stands a very real risk of losing those qualities of originality, iconoclasm (破除偶像), energy, style and wit which have characterised the best of art school culture since the 1950s.
p. 3
2. Rejecting the electronic product designer's traditional role as semiotician, he attempts to map a new conceptual territory on which to explore the electronic as 'post-optimal object', turning his attention away the familiar attempt to achieve 'optimum performance levels' and towards more fundamental philosophical issues.
3...., Dunne's research focuses on the relationship between electronic objects and the realms of poetry and aesthetics.
4. Design is seen as a form of socio-aesthetic research towards the integration of aesthetic experience and everyday life through the development of conceptual products rather than working prototypes of models which attempt to simulate a final product designed for mass production.
5. As a PhD by project, Dunne's work uses research through the design process to explore the development of an approach that allows the development of critical responses and a sceptical sensibility towards the ideological nature of design with the purpose of stimulating original aesthetic possibilities for new kinds of electronic object.
7. The ultimate aim of the research project is the development of electronic products which by'making strange' (陌異化) or 'poeticising the distance' (詩意化距離) between ourselves and our artefactual environment, facilitate sociological awareness, reflective and critical involvement with the electronic object rather than its passive consumption and unthinking acceptance.
8. Rather than aiming for transparency, as would a conventional applied researcher/product designer, his (Dunne's) attempt to enhance the critical distance between the electronic object and the human subject through the introduction of 'poetic' techniques of aesthetic 'estrangement' is reminiscent of the writing of Frankfurt School theorists such as Walter Benjamin or the methods of avant-garde theorist/performers such as John Cage,...
p. 4
9.... his idea of using the process of invention as a mode of discourse (以發明過程為論述), a poetic invention (詩意的發明) that, by stretching established conventions, whether physical, social or political, rather than simply affirming them, takes on a radical critical function, a material critical theory of what Dunne terms a 'parafunctionality.'
10. To this extent Dunne's work offers a positive and radical model of the action researcher in design as a critical interpreter of design processes and their relationship to culture and society rather than a skilled applied technician preoccupied by the minutiae (細節) of industrial production or a slick but intellectually shallow semiotician.
11. In Dunne's case the electronic object produced as the studio section of the doctorate is still 'design' but in the sense of a 'material thesis' (實體論文) in which the object itself becomes a physical critique (實體批判).
Final Project:
deadline 12/18
Themes: Re-designing Everyday Objects with Criticality
Forms: Diegetic prototypes, Markups, Fictional Design, Old things modification, ... as well as sketching & proposal
Documents: 1. introduction 2. critical review 3. project details 4. critical reflection 5. discussion, 6. conclusion. (total 800 words in English or 1200 字中文) upload to Google cloud
Presentation: pptx or slides in 10 mins
2023年11月12日 星期日
week 11. what is critical about critical design
What is "critical" about critical design?
So if we want to understand what makes critical design
“critical,” the preceding list gives us our answer: a design
research project may be judged “critical” to the extents
that it proposes a perspective-changing holistic account of
a given phenomenon, and that this account is grounded in
speculative theory, reflects a dialogical methodology, improves
the public’s cultural competence, and is reflexively
aware of itself as an actor—with both power and constraints—
within the social world it is seeking to change. (p. 3304)
2023年11月5日 星期日
week 10. critical design & critical theory
Critical design and critical theory: the challenge of designing for provocation
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2318001
1. p288
Designers' judgement vs. analysis & reasoning activity
Over the past two decades, there has been increasing interest in design in human-computer interaction. Of particular
concern is constructive design research [27], also known as
research through design [16, 18, 33, 35], where design activity in the form of constructing artifacts becomes a central
research activity. In this work, design experience in the
form of designers’ judgments is equally important to the
analysis and reasoning activities that are common to all
kinds of research.
2.
constructive design 可以從 “想像未來" 展開, 不一定要 fieldwork, theory...
Like other kinds of research, constructive
design research may start from the result of fieldwork, theories of human behavior, or application of a particular design
approach, but often, it can start with just imagining future
states, and in HCI, how technology can improve the current
state of human existence.
3. critical design 的定義, by Dunne:
吸引 viewers 進入 the world of ideas 而非 objects.
producing conceptual electronic products that encourage
complex and meaningful reflection on inhabitation of a
ubiquitous, dematerializing, and intelligent environment: a
form of social research to integrate critical aesthetic experience with everyday life…. I hope in my approach I have
retained the popular appeal of industrial design while using
it to seduce the viewer into the world of ideas rather than
objects. Industrial design locates its object in a mental
space concerned with identity, desire, and fantasy and
shaped by media.... Again, I hope this remains intact but is
subverted to challenge the aesthetic values of both consumers and designers. (p. 147)
4. p. 289
In short, critical design
proposes an approach to provocation（挑釁), rather than design as
rearranging surface features according to the latest fashion
while obfuscating (使困惑) the norms and conventions inscribed in
the designs and their use.
5.
A new
book on constructive design research details three different
approaches: Lab, Field, and Showroom [27].
...
In the Field examples, design researchers
employ lightweight versions of social science methods to
understand the current state, and then use methods from
design practice to create new things that express a preferred
state.
Showroom, Koskinen et al.’s term for critical
design, is different. The description in the book talks about
the theoretical influences, but does provide a sketch of how
methods might be put together to complete a project.
6. In other words,
one might desire a description of critical design as an approach to account for both (a) productsthat generate dilemmas or confusions among users in such a way that users
are encouraged to expand their interpretative horizons or
rethink cultural norms; and (b) the sorts of design processes
that could lead to those kinds of products.
7. p. 290
4 種 整合 critical theory 和 design 的 困難:
(1) Critical theory offers little insight about how to make
things.
CT: a verbal tradition, new theories, critiques, and insights
D: an embodied making tradition, design materials
(2) Critical theory tends to be anti-method.
(3) Critical theory emphasizes the meanings and effects of cultural artifacts over their creation.
(4) Critical theory generally tends not to focus on the author of a work as an individual creative agent
critical theory 不關心 intention (of author)
But if design can be defined as intentional change [30],
critical theory’s disinterest in intention becomes a limitation
of its applicability to design.
8.
我們已經習慣 不受限於 creators' intention
We, too, were trained to seek
to understand the effects of cultural artifacts without limiting our inquiry to what their creators intended. Likewise,
we can understand why Gaver, like Derrida before him,
rejects “method” as a description of his approach.
9.
What we seek, then, is a middle ground between critical
design as an elitist mystery, like art itself, and critical design as a step-wise cookbook description of design practice.
We recognize that the subjective expertise of the designer is
a crucial factor that no method, approach, set of practices,
etc., can capture or simulate.
THE CRITICAL DESIGN PROCESS
10.
先找出 挑釁的點
Among
the most basic decisions in a critical design project is identifying which aspects of the present world we wish to provoke, a process that can be enriched through an engagement
with relevant critical theory literatures.
11. 2 cases of critical design
Significant Screwdriver (SS)
As a starting point, it seemed to us that design could be used to transgress rather then reinforce social norms.
Whispering Wall (WW)
Another place where we might transgress rather then reinforce social norms was in the space of a health club or gym.
12.
Breakdowns in operationalizing critical theory in design
often occur because whereas theory is often descriptive,
providing frameworks or models that serve as organizing
constructs [17], design itself is actionable, creating prototypes that suggest preferred future states. As in any design
activity, in making the leap from descriptive to generative,
the designer must make judgments about how to proceed.
13.
This breakdown exposes that
in critical design, the linkage between (verbally-based) theory and the embodied design practices of decision-making
and observations of use in deployment is problematic.
Overcoming this is not something that can be derived from
critical theory resources alone (i.e., in this case, feminist
theory only got us so far), due to the fact that design as critical resource and textual discourses about design are different kinds of epistemological resources.
14. p.294
輕微的 陌異化 是關鍵
As
Dunne and Raby write, “A slight strangeness is the key—
too weird and they are instantly dismissed, not strange
enough and they’re absorbed into everyday reality…” [15,
p.63].
輕微的 陌異化 可以考量跨越 conceptual, functional, material, aesthetic 等等層面.
Our experience suggests that achieving this “slight
strangeness” is anything but straightforward, as it plays out
across conceptual, functional, material, and aesthetic dimensions of design in complex ways. Often, designers rapidly generate and iterate on solutions as a way to reason
about a problem space; when the problem space itself is
transgression and provocation, some of our more familiar
strategies will undoubtedly come up short.
15.
how design students do vs. engineering ones:
As designers, we have considerable experience evaluating
sketches, directions, and prototypes in the context of design
briefs and situations—even ill-defined ones—both in the
studio and in the field.
16.
Provocation can be socially uncomfortable, and subjects
may not expect to be provoked when consenting to participate in a study. Researchers need to be prepared for and be
ready to handle such discomfort.
17.
Indeed, it was through conversations in which he was initiated as a peer researcher, rather than research subject, that
this participant gradually began to buy into it.
18. p. 295
Both of these patterns suggest that in a critical design study,
not only does the research destabilize the topics of inquiry,
but it also destabilizes the relationship between researchers
and research participants.
19.
In short, design researchers deploying
critical designs need to be prepared for everything to be
challenged, negotiated, and subject to fundamental change.
20.
Critical design as a discursive methodology
Critical Design 中, 連 framing 也是 unknown:
In traditional user research, the research objective is to establish user needs and requirements. What is unknown are
relevant behaviors, attitudes, and functional needs of a target population. In critical design research, the framing itself
is part of the unknown.
...
We were not out to discover folk theories of gender in
gyms and homes; the critical designs were meant to transgress them and provoke discussionabout that.
21.
重點不是收集使用者所說的話, 而是 協同思索與推思索與推論
we
didn’t just collect what they said but engaged with them
intellectually—the result was a practice of collaborative
speculative reasoning grounded on a critical design that was
itself informed by a combination of cultural theories and
folk theories.
22.
3 lessons from critical designs:
(1) Provocativeness
(2) Deep relationship
When using critical design in the future, we will design the
prototypes and interactions with participants with the goal
of developing a deeper relationship. We allow for repeated
and rich encounters in order to explore how participants’
insights and behaviors change as they use the design to
probe the research team’s intentions.
(3) Fluidity of research plan
..., it seems that critical designCase Studies:
might best use theory to sensitize designers and to inspire
the intention of the provocations, but that we cannot and
should not force that theory to delimit the trajectory of the
work once it has been placed into the world. We raise this
as a concern for others who may wish to use critical design
as a way of operationalizing a theoretical framework.
"Make It Critical" card deck
2023/11/20
Create your own "Make It Critical" cards
Present and Practice in the class in group
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