CRITICAL DESIGN COURSE 2016 / Day 3

CRITICAL DESIGN COURSE 2016 / Day 3

critical design / critical design practice vs. Critical Design (Dunne&Raby)

PRACTICING CRITICALITY THROUGH DESIGN DESIGN AS A FORM OF CRITIQUE

DESIGN: Social responsibility, [I] will respect life and the conditions for life continuing

constructive criticality NEGATIVE JUDGMENTAL NAIVELY OPTIMISTIC ANTI-

CRITICAL OF: THE STATUS QUO PREVAILING SITUATION, CONDITIONS OF CAPITALISM AS THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE ONE S DISCIPLINE OPPORTUNISM AS THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY, GLOBAL SYSTEM (CULTURALLY, POLITICALLY, ECONOMICALLY ETC.)

In order to be constructively critical of the status quo, one needs to research, analyse and (try to) understand the current situation and conditions.

What is the aim of critical design practice when it comes to the immediate effects? The gradually forming concept of critical design practice understands functionality is a way that goes beyond practical functionality (Matt Malpass).

In critical design, designers use their functional capacity as designers, still drawing on their training and practice as designers but re-orienting these skills from a focus on practical ends to a focus on design work that FUNCTIONS SYMBOLICALLY, CULTURALLY, EXISTENTIALLY AND DISCURSIVELY. PRACTICAL AND EFFICIENT USE IS NOT THE GOAL. FUNCTIONALITY IN THIS CONTEXT RELATES TO STIMULATING DEBATE AND DISCUSSION. (MM)

Object s function has the potential to extend beyond utility, efficiency and optimisation, also in the strictest modernist sense. Function has always comprised characteristics that move into post-optimal realms, where emphasis is on relational, dynamic characteristics of function. (MM)

The concept, post-optimal object, was coined by Dunne in Hertzian Tales (1999). It refers to a notion of design, which aims for the development of culturally enriching electronic products. It is also concerned with the social and ethical impact of the development of technological objects.

Ettore Sottsass (1917 2007): Design is a way of discussing society, politics, eroticism, food and even design. At the end, it is a way of building up a possible figurative utopia or metaphor about life. Memphis-Milano cabinet bookcases by Umeda and Sottsass. Ginza, Casablanca and Carlton.

In practice, design is used to inquire into societal/cultural/political/technological/ scientific/etc. concerns, to pass comment on them, to bring publics together to address them. Constructive conflicts / friendly enemity? In critical practice designers relate to both disciplinary and societal frames. (MM)

Umeda Masanori: Tawaraya, A Boxing Ring (1981)

Umeda Masanori: Tawaraya, A Boxing Ring (1981)

IMPLICATION: Critical design process does not immediately lead to solutions or solve problems, but rather to food for thought and stimulation whose function/usefulness is revealed by its ability to help others direct or prevent future outcomes. In critical design problem-finding is more important than problem-solving.

Request for the discipline: to define, legitimise and problematise (learn to criticise) forms of critical design work. It s still a baby! Patricia Piccinini: Tawaraya, A Boxing Ring (1981)

Analysis of critical design practice often comes from perspectives developed in art more design-centric focus is needed. (MM)

Matt Malpass attempt to conceptualise different critical design practices (Referencing his essay Between Wit and Reason, 2013)

Critical design practice should be understood and examined in relation to: SATIRE RATIONALITY NARRATIVE These aspects engage the user audiences and establish the critical move through design

The previous concepts also help differentiate between 3 types of CRITICAL PRACTICE ASSOCIATIVE DESIGN SPECULATIVE DESIGN CRITICAL DESIGN

ASSOCIATIVE DESIGN: Primarily focusing on disciplinary content, associative design subverts (undermines the power) expectations of the ordinary and the everyday, the norms. With an embedded narrative, the objects act as a critical medium, playfully reflecting on cultural meaning while visualising issues pertinent to design practice. A means for both designers and users to rethink dominant traditions and values in designed objects and their environment.

Guto Lacaz: Abajour Branco (White Lamp) Martino Gamper: 100 chairs in 100 days (2007)

ASSOCIATIVE DESIGN: Based on conventional understanding of objects, relying on user s familiarity with form, typology and design language. Works through the subversion of objects or their context and conventions of use. Often characterized by spontaneity and the collapse of the processes of design and making. Dominated by furniture design. The chairs, tables, and lighting that characterize associative design make its objects more rational than those in speculative and critical design. In associative design, designers employ a straightforward attitude to materials, an inventive approach to fabrication processes and methods, and typically a resistance to product styling.

SPECULATIVE DESIGN: Situated between emerging scientific discourse and material culture, operates in an ambivalent space. Typically focuses on the domestication of up-andcoming ideas in the sciences and applied technology. Concerned with the projection of socio-technical trends, developing scenarios of product roles in new use contexts. It is linked to futures, scenario building and technoscientific research characterized by its inquiry into advancing science and technology and showing their potential implications for daily life.

Auger and Loizeau: Smell+ (2009)

SPECULATIVE DESIGN: The aim is to make scientific theories and the cultural implications of science perceptible in different ways. The discourse built on and around speculative designs brings into the light the barriers that might exist to the application of new scientific methods and techniques; e.g. Are we comfortable with synthetically engineered meat? Speculative propositions require us to question our values and how our values might need to change in order for the science and technology to be realized in such a way.

SPECULATIVE DESIGN: Encourages the user to reconsider how the present is futuring and how we might have the chance to reconfigure the future. It advocates a democratic and open discussion into how science and technology is developed and directed. Often placed in galleries and museums, presented together with films or images. Works through ambiguity of information. Because it is concerned with new technologies, its propositions are often unfamiliar and dependent on the construction of an external narrative depicting the design s use.

Revital Cohen: Life Support (2008)

CRITICAL DESIGN: If speculative design focuses on science and the potential future applications of applied technology, then critical design focuses on present social, cultural, and ethical implications of design objects and practice. Designers scan the cultural horizon, offering a critique of what already exists. At its core are para-functionality and the aesthetics of use.through mechanisms of defamiliarization and estrangement, designers extend the critical distance between the object and the user; commenting on current socio-technical, economic, political, cultural, and psychological concerns.

Dunne & Raby with Michael Anastassiades: Do You Want To Replace the Existing Normal (2007 2008) The Statistical Clock (2007 2008) and Sexual Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Åbäke: Illustration for their talk at Z33 (2012)

CRITICAL DESIGN: Often much more polemic in its tone than speculative and associative design. It is vital for the user to experience a dilemma and to carry of a burden of interpretation. The intention is to engage audiences imagination and intellect in order for the designer to convey the message. Objects are proposed, even if they cannot exist in normal models of consumption because of social or cultural embargoes. They seem real but there is something not quite right; barriers are introduced or exaggerated in a way that is defamiliarizing.

CRITICAL PRACTICE ASSOCIATIVE DESIGN SPECULATIVE DESIGN CRITICAL DESIGN RATIONALITY NARRATIVE SATIRE

SATIRE The purpose of critical design concurrent with the function of satire is constructive criticism, using wit as an instrument to affect critical reflection. There is no satire without critique, and humor is a powerful tool of engagement. But this critique is dependent on reading the objects of critical practice as objects of design. These are, therefore, always contextualized and rationalized with a narrative of use. The critical move is established in the uncanny marriage of wit and reason that resonates with the user, causing a dilemma of interpretation and questions to be asked..

How to extend critical practice beyond design circles? Where to place critical design works? How to engage and build the public (if it isn t there yet)?

Where design is consumed in the gallery space and critical design objects are available for purchase by price on application, critical design becomes subject to art discourse. (MM) Design cannot be design for design s sake, whereas art can be art for art s sake. Art is free, design is not.

Also, often critical design only works if it s viewed as design not as art placed (at least imaginatively) beyond gallery walls and design blogs.

Interdisciplinarity can help (e.g. collaboration with researchers) but again, collaboration with the discipline of art is problematic, because critical design work can lose its effect in the context of art.

Environmental health clinic, Natalie Jeremijenko / New York University

BodyBuilding project, Saara Hannula et al