Proceedings of DRS 2016 Volume 7

ISSN 2398-3132
PROCEEDINGS OF DRS
2730 JUNE 2016
VOLUME 7
50th Anniversary Conference

Brighton, UK
Design + Research + Society

Future-Focused Thinking
EDITED BY:
PETER LLOYD
ERIK BOHEMIA
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Proceedings of DRS 2016

Design + Research + Society
FutureFocused Thinking
50th Anniversary International Conference
Brighton, UK, 2730 June 2016
Volume 7
Editors
Peter Lloyd and Erik Bohemia
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Proceedings of DRS
2016 International Conference
2830 June 2016, Brighton, UK
www.drs2016.org
Volumes 7 of 10
Cover and conference identity design by Gavin Ambrose, Nikki Brewster and Seamus White
Proceedings compiled by Kaajal Modi
Editors: Peter Lloyd and Erik Bohemia
Section-Editors: Harriet Atkinson; Leonard Bachman; Giovanni Baule; Michal Berghman; Noemi Bitterman; Alison Black;
Rebecca Cain; Elena Caratti; Rachel Cooper; Anne Cranny-Francis; Tejas Dhadphale; Hua Dong; Bianca Elzenbaumer;
Carolina Escobar-Tello; Luke Feast; Tom Fisher; Aija Freimanee; Lorraine Gamman; Valeria Graziano; Camilla Groth; Marte
Gulliksen; Paul Hekkert; Derek Jones; Sarah Kettley; Tore Kristensen; Sylvia Liu; Geke Ludden; Jamie Mackrill; Maarit
Mkel; Betti Marenko; Andrew Morris; Kristina Niedderer; Nithikul Nimkulrat; Maya Oppenheimer; Elif Ozcan; Verena
Paepcke-Hjeltness; Ann Petermans; Philip Plowright; Tiiu Poldma; Hendrik Schifferstein; Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen; Qian
Sun; Michael Tovey; Rhoda Trimingham; Kim Trogal; Nynke Tromp; Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer; Sue Walker; Alex Wilkie;
Alex Williams; Seda Yilmaz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0

International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Proceedings of DRS 2016 International Conference: FutureFocused Thinking

ISSN 2398-3132
Published by the Design Research Society
Loughborough University, London
3 Lesney Avenue, The Broadcast Centre, Here East
London, E15 2GZ
United Kingdom
Design Research Society Secretariat

email: admin@designresearchsociety.org
website: www.designresearchsociety.org
Founded in 1966 the Design Research Society (DRS) is a learned society committed to promoting and developing design
research. It is the longest established, multi-disciplinary worldwide society for the design research community and aims to
promote the study of and research into the process of designing in all its many fields.
DRS Special Interest Groups

Design for Behaviour Change
Design for Health, Wellbeing and Happiness
Design Innovation Management
Design Pedagogy
Design for Sustainability
Design for Tangible, Embedded and Networked Technologies
Experiential Knowledge
Inclusive Design
Objects, Practices, Experiences, Networks
DRS International Conference Series

DRS 2002 London; DRS 2004 Melbourne; DRS 2006 Lisbon; DRS 2008 Sheffield; DRS 2010 Montreal; DRS 2012 Bangkok; DRS
2014 Ume
DRS 2016 Programme Committee

Conference Chair
Peter Lloyd, University of Brighton, UK
Conference Co-Chairs
Tracy Bhamra, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Stephen Boyd-Davis, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Jonathan Chapman, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Peter Childs, Imperial College, United Kingdom
International Scientific Review Committee
Erik Bohemia, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Lin Lin Chen, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Nathan Crilly, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Paul Hekkert, TU Delft, The Netherlands
Peter Lloyd, University of Brighton, UK
Debates, Conversations and Workshops Chairs
Stella Boess, TU Delft, The Netherlands
Carlos Peralta, University of Brighton, UK
Cameron Tonkinwise, Carnegie Mellon University, US
Conference Experience Chairs
Dan Lockton, Royal College of Art, UK
Veronica Ranner, Royal College of Art, UK
PhD by Design
Bianca Elzenbaumer, Leeds College of Art, UK
Maria Portugal, Goldsmiths University, UK
Alison Thomson, Goldsmiths University, UK
DRS Special Interest Group Chairs
Erik Bohemia, Loughborough University, UK
Rebecca Cain, Warwick University, UK
Hua Dong, Tongji University, China
Tom Fisher, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Sarah Kettley, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Kristina Niedderer, University of Wolverhampton, UK
Nithikul Nimkulrat, Estonian Academy of Arts, Talinn
Michael Tovey, Coventry University, UK
Rhoda Trimmingham, Loughborough University, UK
Executive Advisors
Carl DiSalvo, Georgia Institute of Technology, US
Kees Dorst, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Janet Mcdonnell, University of the Arts London, UK
Johan Redstrm, Ume Institute of Design, Sweden
Erik Stolterman, Indiana University, US
Anna Valtonen, Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland
International Board of Reviewers

Tom Ainsworth, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Katerina Alexiou, The Open University, United Kingdom
Manola Antonioli, Ecole Nationale Suprieure d'Architecture Paris La Villette, France
Rina Arya, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
Harriet Atkinson, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Stephen Awoniyi, Texas State University, United States
Jeremy Aynsley, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Leonard Bachman, University of Houston College of Architecture, United States
Betsy Barnhart, Iowa State University, United States
Giovanni Baule, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Nigan Bayazit, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Michal Berghman, TU Delft, Netherlands
Richard Bibb, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Noemi Bitterman, Technion, Israel
Alison Black, Reading University, United Kingdom
Janneke Blijlevens, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia
Anne Boddington, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Stella Boess, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Erik Bohemia, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Casper Boks, NTNU, Norway
Elizabeth Boling, Indiana University, United States
Andy Boucher, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
Simon Bowen, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Stephen Boyd Davis, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Jamie Brassett, Central Saint Martins, United Kingdom
Philip Breedon, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Charlie Breindahl, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark
Patrick Bresnihan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Cheryl Buckley, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Jacob Buur, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Rebecca Cain, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Elena Caratti, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Philip Cash, DTU, Denmark
Tom Cassidy, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Julia Cassim, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan
Jonathan Chapman, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Chien-Hsiung Chen, Taiwan Tech, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Chun-Chih Chen, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Chun-Di Chen, National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Kuohsiang Chen, I-Shou University, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Lin-Lin Chen, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Peter Childs, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Wen-Ko Chiou, Chang Gung University, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Bo Christensen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Henri Christiaans, UNIST, School of Design & Human Engineering, South Korea
Abdusselam Selami Cifter, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey
Nazli Cila, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
Mollie Claypool, University College London, United Kingdom
Stephen Clune, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Tim Cooper, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Anne Cranny-Francis, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Nathan Crilly, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Odette da Silva, TU Delft, Netherlands
Massimo De Angelis, University of East London, United Kingdom
Michel de Blois, Universit Laval, Canada
Cees de Bont, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Christine de Lille, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Jakki Dehn, Jakki Dehn Materials, United Kingdom
Federico Del Giorgio Solfa, National University of La Plata, Argentina

Claudio Dell'Era, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Samuel DeMarie, Iowa State University, United States
Halime Demirkan, Bilkent University, Turkey
Gaurang Desai, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Pieter Desmet, TU Delft, Netherlands
Emma Dewberry, The Open University, United Kingdom
Sarah Diefenbach, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen, Germany
Ingvild Digranes, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway
Orsalia Dimitriou, Central Saint Martins, United Kingdom
Hua Dong, Tongji University, China
Dennis Doordan, University of Notre Dame, United States
Kees Dorst, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Shelby Doyle, Iowa State University, United States
Alex Duffy, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Delia Dumitrescu, University of Bors, United Kingdom
Abigail Durrant, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Thomas Dykes, Northumbria University, United Kingdom
Wouter Eggink, University of Twente, Netherlands
Bianca Elzenbaumer, Leeds College of Art, United Kingdom
Magnus Eneberg, Konstfack - University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Sweden
Alpay Er, Ozyegin University / Istanbul Institute of Design, Turkey
Ozlem Er, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Pia Geisby Erichsen, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Carolina Escobar-Tello, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Juhyun Eune, Seoul National University, South Korea
Mark Evans, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Luke Feast, Aalto University, Finland
Thomas Fischer, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China
Tom Fisher, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Kate Tanya Fletcher, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Jodi Forlizzi, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Lois Frankel, Carleton University, Canada
Jill Franz, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Biljana Fredriksen, University College of Southeast Norway, Norway
Ken Friedman, Tongji University, China
Jennifer Gabrys, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
Loraine Gamman, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, United Kingdom
Nick Gant, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Philippe Gauthier, Universit de Montral, Canada
Aysar Ghassan, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Katherine Gibson, University of Western Sydney, Australia
Carolina Gill, The Ohio State University, United States
Steve Gill, Cardiff Met University, United Kingdom
Maria Goransdotter, Ume University, Sweden
Colin Gray, Purdue University, United States
Camilla Groth, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland
Marte Sreb Gulliksen, Telemark University College, Norway
Ian Gwilt, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Robert Harland, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Dew Harrison, University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
Steve Harrison, Virginia Tech, United States
Marc Hassenzahl, Folkwang University of the Arts, Germany
Anders Haug, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Tero Heikkinen, independent / University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
Tincuta Heinzel, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Paul Hekkert, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Bart Hengeveld, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands
Ricardo Hernandez, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Ann Heylighen, KU Leuven, Belgium
Clive Hilton, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Michael Hohl, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Chung-Ching Huang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Karl Hurn, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Praima Israsena Na Ayudhya, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Robert Jerrard, Manchester Metropolitan Univ/Birmingham City Univ, United Kingdom
Wolfgang Jonas, Braunschweig University of Art, Germany
Derek Jones, The Open University, United Kingdom
Peter Jones, OCAD University, Canada
Rachel Jones, Instrata, United Kingdom
Guy Julier, University of Brighton/Victoria and Albert Museum, United Kingdom
Sabine Junginger, Hertie School of Governance, Germany
Lorraine Justice, Rochester Institute of Technology, United States
Faith Kane, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Helen Kennedy, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Tobie Kerridge, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
Richard Arthur Kettley, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Sarah Kettley, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Jinsook Kim, Trinity Christian College, United States
Lucy Kimbell, UAL, United Kingdom
Holger Klapperich, Folkwang University of Arts, Germany
Maaike Kleinsmann, TU Delft, Netherlands
Ben Kraal, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Ksenija Kuzmina, Loughborough University London, United Kingdom
John Langrish, Salford University, United Kingdom
Keelin Leahy, University of Limerick, Ireland
Helmut Leder, University of Vienna, Austria
Ji-Hyun Lee, KAIST, South Korea
Yanki Lee, Hong Kong Design Institue, Hong Kong
Eva Lenz, Folkwang University of Arts, Germany
Pierre Levy, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Debra Lilley, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Rungtai Lin, National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Stephen Little, Asia Pacific Technology Network, United Kingdom
Sylvia Liu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Peter Lloyd, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Kathy Pui Ying, Lo, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Dan Lockton, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Vicky Lofthouse, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Lian Loke, University of Sydney, Australia
Nicole Lotz, The Open University, United Kingdom
Rachael Luck, The Open University, United Kingdom
Geke Ludden, University of Twente, Netherlands
Rohan Lulham, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Ole Lund, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Alastair Macdonald, Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom
Fiona Maciver, Norwich University of the Arts, United Kingdom
Jamie Mackrill, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Anja Maier, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Maarit Mkel, Aalto University, Finland
Betti Marenko, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Ben Mathews, The University of Queensland, Australia
Tuuli Mattelmki, Aalto University, Finland
Ramia Maz, Aalto University, Finland
Sanjoy Mazumdar, University of California, Irvine, United States
Janet McDonnell, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Chris McGinley, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Tomislav Medak, Multimedia Institute, Croatia
Wellington Gomes de Medeiros, Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil
Brian Mennecke, Iowa State University, United States
Paul Micklethwaite, Kingston University, United Kingdom
Karen Miller, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Val Mitchell, Loughborough University, United Kingdom

Kathryn Moore, Birmingham City University, United Kingdom
Michael Moore, Ulster University, United Kingdom
Sarah Morehead, Northumbria University, United Kingdom
Nicola Morelli, Aalborg University, Denmark
Mariale Moreno, Cranfield University, United Kingdom
Andrew Morris, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Andrew, Morrison, AHO, Norway
Jeanne-Louise Moys, Reading University, United Kingdom
Tara Mullaney, Ume Institute of Design, Sweden
Yukari Nagai, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
Ki Young Nam, KAIST, South Korea
Kristina Niedderer, Wolverhampton University, United Kingdom
Liv Merete Nielsen, Oslo and Akershus university college, Norway
Nithikul Nimkulrat, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
Conall Cathin, Past Chairman DRS, Ireland
Arlene Oak, University of Alberta, Canada
Maya Oppenheimer, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Elif Ozcan, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Kursat Ozenc, Stanford, United States
Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, Iowa State University, United States
Eujin Pei, Brunel University London, United Kingdom
Carlos Peralta, University of brighton, United Kingdom
Jos Prez de Lama, University of Sevilla, Spain
Oscar Person, Aalto University, Finland
Ann Petermans, Hasselt University, Belgium
Daniela Petrelli, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Doina Petrescu, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Ida Nilstad Pettersen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
Sarah Pink, RMIT University, Australia
Silvia Pizzocaro, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Philip Plowright, Lawrence Technological University, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, United States
Anna Pohlmeyer, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Tiiu Poldma, University of Montreal, Canada
Lubomir Popov, Bowling Green State University, United States
Vesna Popovic, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Thomas Porathe, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Ruben Post, TU Delft, Netherlands
William Prindle, Iowa State University, United States
Charlie Ranscombe, Swinburne, Australia
Yaone Rapitsenyane, University of Botswana, Botswana
Ingo Rauth, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Kirstine Riis, University College Telemark, Norway
Paul Rodgers, Northumbria University, United Kingdom
Zoe Romano, WeMake, Makerspace, Italy
Jose Antonio Rosa, Iowa State University, United States
Seymour Roworth-Stokes, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Robin Roy, The Open University, United Kingdom
Keith Russell, University of Newcastle, Australia, Australia
Daniel Saakes, KAIST, South Korea
Noemi Maria Sadowska, Regent's University London, United Kingdom
Miguel Said Vieira, Independent, Brazil
Fatina Saikaly, Co-Creando, Italy
Filippo Salustri, Ryerson University, Canada
Liz Sanders, The Ohio State University, United States
Rick Schifferstein, TU Delft, Netherlands
James Self, UNIST, South Korea
Nick Senske, Iowa State University, United States
Matt Sinclair, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Kin Wai Michael Siu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Dirk Snelders, TU Delft, Netherlands
Ricardo Sosa, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Chris Speed, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Jak Spencer, The Sound HQ, United Kingdom
Kay Stables, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
Pieter Jan Stappers, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Shanti Sumartojo, RMIT University, Australia
Krt Summatavet, Aalto University, Estonia
Qian Sun, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Helena Sustar, Aalto University, Finland
Gunnar Swanson, East Carolina University, United States
Ben Sweeting, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Keith Tam, University of Reading, United Kingdom
Hsien-Hui Tang, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Toshiharu Taura, Kobe University, Japan
Damon Taylor, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Sarah Teasley, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Adam Thorpe, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Clementine Thurgood, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Jeremy Till, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Oscar Tomico, Eindhoven University of Technology, United Kingdom
Cameron Tonkinwise, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Mike Tovey, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Rhoda Trimingham, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Nynke Tromp, TU Delft, Netherlands
Darren Umney, Open University, United Kingdom
Louise Valentine, University of Dundee, United Kingdom
Anna Valtonen, Aalto University, Finland
Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Johann van der Merwe, Independent Researcher, South Africa
Mascha van der Voort, University of Twente, Netherlands
Karel van der Waarde, Graphic Design - Research, Belgium
Susann Vihma, Aalto University, Finland
Andre Viljoen, University of Brighton, United Kingdom
John Vines, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Bettina von Stamm, Innovation Leadership Forum, United Kingdom
Sue Walker, Reading University, United Kingdom
Renee Wever, Linkping University, Sweden
Alex Wilkie, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
Alex Williams, Kingston University, United Kingdom
Garrath Wilson, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Heather Wiltse, Ume University, Sweden
Christian Woelfel, TU Dresden, Germany
Martin Woolley, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Paul Wormald, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Artemis Yagou, Macromedia University for Media and Communication, Germany
Joyce Yee, Northumbria University, United Kingdom
Susan Yelavich, The New School, United States
Seda Yilmaz, Iowa State University, United States
Robert Young, Northumbria University, United Kingdom
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Table of Content
Editorial................................................................................................................................................................................................... i
Volume 1
SECTION 1
50 YEARS OF DESIGN RESEARCH
Design Research: What is it? What is it for?............................................................................................................................................. 5
Victor Margolin
Schns Legacy: Examining Contemporary Citation Practices in DRS Publications ................................................................................... 17
Jordan Beck, Laureline Chiapello

The Idea of Architecture, The User As Inhabitant: Design through a Christopher Alexander Lens ........................................................... 31
Molly Wright Steenson

Design Research for Sustainability: Historic Origin and Development .................................................................................................... 43
Astrid Skjerven
The Design Methods Movement: From Optimism to Darwinism ............................................................................................................ 51
John Z. Langrish
User Design: Constructions of the user in the history of design research ............................................................................................ 65
Theodora Vardouli
60 years of creativity in business organizations ..................................................................................................................................... 83
Ricardo Sosa, Pete Rive and Andy M. Connor

20th Century Boys: Pioneering British Design Thinkers .......................................................................................................................... 97
Emma Murphy and Martyn Evans

Design Research and Design Participation ........................................................................................................................................... 111
Robert Aish
The Design Research Society in the 1980s and 1990s: a memoir .......................................................................................................... 125
Conall Cathin
SECTION 2
AESTHETIC PLEASURE IN DESIGN
Introduction: Aesthetic Pleasure in Design .......................................................................................................................................... 139
Michal Berghman and Paul Hekkert

Measuring design typicality a comparison of objective and subjective approaches ........................................................................... 145
Stefan Mayer and Jan R. Landwehr

Most Advanced yet Acceptable: A case of referential form-driven meaning innovation ....................................................................... 157
Seong geun Lee, James Self and Ekaterina Andrietc

Extracting Design Aesthetic Heuristics from Scientific Literature.......................................................................................................... 179
Ana Cadavid, Stefany Ruiz-Crdoba and Jorge Maya

Putting product design in context: Consumer responses to design fluency as a function of presentation context ................................. 203
Laura K. M. Graf and Jan R. Landwehr

The Value of Transparency for Designing Product Innovations............................................................................................................. 215
Peiyao Cheng and Ruth Mugge

A comparison between colour preference and colour harmony taking athletic shoe design as an example........................................ 233
Li-Chen Ou
Creating Novel Encounters with Nature: Approaches and Design Explorations..................................................................................... 245
Thomas J. L. Van Rompay and Geke D. S. Ludden

Introducing Experience Goals into Packaging Design ........................................................................................................................... 259
Markus Joutsela and Virpi Roto

The beauty of balance An empirical integration of the Unified Model of Aesthetics for product design ............................................. 277
Michal Berghman and Paul Hekkert

SECTION 3
DESIGN EPISTEMOLOGY
Introduction: Design Epistemology...................................................................................................................................................... 295
Derek Jones, Philip Plowright, Leonard Bachman and Tiiu Poldma

Mapping design knowledge: 36 years of Design Studies ...................................................................................................................... 303
Kathryn Burns, Jack Ingram and Louise Annable

I know this one, but the answer is complex ...................................................................................................................................... 321
Simon Downs
Source domains of Architectural Knowledge: Mappings, Categories, Validity and Relevance ............................................................... 339
Philip D Plowright
Using Rhetoric in Persuasive Design: What Rhetoric? .......................................................................................................................... 355
Danny Godin
Design Fiction: Does the search for plausibility lead to deception? ...................................................................................................... 369
Paul Coulton, Joseph Lindley and Haider Ali Akmal
Graphicality: why is there not such a word? ........................................................................................................................................ 385
Robert Harland and David Craib

Design as Anticipation and Innovation: Co-creating a future by learning from the future as it emerges ................................................ 401
Markus F. Peschl and Thomas Fundneider

Volume 2
SECTION 4
Design EDUCATION AND LEARNING
Introduction: Design Education and Learning ...................................................................................................................................... 419
Michael Tovey
Dis-course is Killer! Educating the critically reflective designer ......................................................................................................... 425
Veronika Kelly
Design Culture and Contemporary Education ...................................................................................................................................... 441
Therese Uri
Promoting an emancipatory research paradigm in Design Education and Practice ............................................................................... 455
Lesley-Ann Noel
Design Thinking: A Rod For Designs Own Back? .................................................................................................................................. 471
Aysar Ghassan
Designing the unknown: supervising design students who manage mental health issues ..................................................................... 483
Welby Ings
Using Design Thinking to create a new education paradigm for elementary level children for higher student engagement and success 501
Lesley-Ann Noel and Tsai Lu Liu

Design Research in Interior Design Education: A Living Framework for Teaching the Undergraduate Capstone Studio in the 21st Century
........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 513
Charles Boggs, Helena Moussatche, Catherine Pizzichemi and Meghan Woodcock

Designing Universities of the Future .................................................................................................................................................... 525
Anna Valtonen
Dexign Futures: A Pedagogy for Long-Horizon Design Scenarios .......................................................................................................... 539
Peter Scupelli, Arnold Wasserman, and Judy Brooks

Design and Interdisciplinarity: the improbable introduction of fundamental physics in a design school ............................................ 555
Annie Gentes, Anne-Lyse Renon and Julien Bobroff

Card Games Creation as a Learning Method ........................................................................................................................................ 569
Birgit S. Bauer
Spend another day in our class talking about this research please: Student insights from a research-based design thinking exercise 593
Cynthia J. Atman, Arif Ahmer, Jennifer A. Turns and Jim Borgford-Parnell

Communication is not collaboration: observations from a case study in collaborative learning ............................................................ 609
Iestyn Jowers, Mark Gaved, Gary Elliott-Cirigottis, Delphine Dallison, Alan Rochead and Mark Craig
The use of argumentation in design research ...................................................................................................................................... 625
Stella Boess
Digital Sketch Modelling: Integrating digital sketching as a transition between sketching and CAD in Industrial Design Education ....... 637
Charlie Ranscombe and Katherine Bissett-Johnson

Prototyping in the in-between. A Method for Spatial Design education ............................................................................................... 653
Jennie Andersson Schaeffer and Marianne Palmgren

Global Flows of Materials: Design Research and Practice in Architecture ............................................................................................. 669
Janet McGaw
Evaluating Living and Learning on Campus: A Community Engaged Research Model ............................................................................ 685
Rebekah Radtke
What is sought from graphic designers? A first thematic analysis of job offers for graphic design positions in the United Kingdom ...... 705
Paulo Roberto Nicoletti Dziobczenskiand Oscar Person

LIVD: An Avant-Garde Publication with Pedagogical and Epistemological Aims .................................................................................... 719
Meredith James
Design Studio Desk and Shared Place Attachments: A Study on Ownership, Personalization, and Agency. ........................................... 729
Peter Scupelli and Bruce Hanington

Online Reflective Interactions on Social Network Sites in Design Studio Course ................................................................................... 751
Simge Hough
Junior designers awareness of personal values and their employment choices ................................................................................... 767
Anna Jonkmans, Julia Wurl, Dirk Snelders and Lenny van Onselen
Knowledgeability culture: Co-creation in practice................................................................................................................................ 781
Alicen Coddington, Colin Giang, Alexander Graham, Anne Prince, Pauliina Mattila, Christine Thong and Anita Kocsis
Visual Thinking Styles and Idea Generation Strategies Employed in Visual Brainstorming Sessions ...................................................... 795
Naz A.G.Z. Breki

The Future of Product Design Utilising Printed Electronics ................................................................................................................... 813
Nicola York, Darren Southee and Mark Evans
Project Contribution of Junior Designers: Exploring the What and the How of Values in Collaborative Practice .................................... 835
Lennart Kaland, Annelijn Vernooij and Lenny van Onselen

Exploring framing within a team of industrial design students ............................................................................................................. 853
Mithra Zahedi, Lorna Heaton, Manon Guit, Giovanni De Paoli and Marie Reumont
Volume 3
SECTION 5
AESTHETICS, COSMOPOLITICS AND DESIGN
Introduction: Aesthetics, Cosmopolitics and Design ............................................................................................................................ 873
Alex Wilkie
Framing Values in Design .................................................................................................................................................................... 881
Marta Gasparin and William Green

The Prototype as a Cosmopolitical Place: Ethnographic design practice and research at the National Zoo ............................................ 895
Martn Tironi, Pablo Hermansen and Jos Neira

The Role of Participation in Designing for IoT ...................................................................................................................................... 913
Anuradha Reddy and Per Linde

Aesthetics, Cosmopolitics and Design Futures in Computational Fashion ............................................................................................. 927
Laura Forlano
Designing diagrams for social issues .................................................................................................................................................... 941
Michele Mauri and Paolo Ciuccarelli

iPhoneography and New Aesthetics: The Emergence of a Social Visual Communication Through Image-based Social Media ................ 959
Eman Alshawaf
A Creative Ontological Analysis of Collective Imagery during Co-Design for Service Innovation ............................................................ 969
Priscilla Chueng-Nainby, John Lee, BingXin Zi and Astury Gardin

Post-critical potentials in experimental co-design................................................................................................................................ 985
Sissel Olander
Collaborative Imaging. The communicative practice of hand sketching in experimental physics ........................................................... 997
Judith Marlen Dobler

The Aesthetics of Action in New Social Design ....................................................................................................................................1013
Ilpo Koskinen
Designing Debate: The Entanglement of Speculative Design and Upstream Engagement ....................................................................1025
Tobie Kerridge
SECTION 6
DESIGN AND TRANSLATION
Introduction: Design and Translation .................................................................................................................................................1039
Giovanni Baule and Elena Caratti

Towards Translation Design A New Paradigm for Design Research .....................................................................................................1047
Giovanni Baule and Elena Caratti

Design as translation activity: a semiotic overview .............................................................................................................................1061
Salvatore Zingale
Word to Image Image to Word The Contribution of Visual Communication to Understanding and Dialog ........................................1073
Michael Renner
Perception, Meaning and Transmodal Design .....................................................................................................................................1089
Mathias Nordvall and Mattias Arvola

The Ways of Synesthetic Translation: Design models for media accessibility .......................................................................................1101
Dina Ricc
The narratives and the supports. Remediating Design Culture in the translation of transmedia artefacts. ...........................................1111
Matteo Ciastellardi and Derrick de Kerckhove

Rules of Thumb: An Experiment in Contextual Transposition ..............................................................................................................1123
Damon Taylor, Monika Bscher, Lesley Murray, Chris Speed and Theodore Zamenopoulos
Juxtaposing Chinese and Western Representational Principles: New Design Methods for Information Graphics in the Field of
Intercultural Communication .............................................................................................................................................................1139
Ruedi Baur and Ulrike Felsing

Elucidating perceptions of Australian and Chinese industrial design from the next generation of industrial designers .........................1163
Blair Kuys and Wenwen Zhang

Translating picturebooks: Re-examining interlingual and intersemiotic translation.............................................................................1179
Anne Ketola
Long Kesh: Site - Sign - Body...............................................................................................................................................................1191
Ola Sthl
SECTION 7
DESIGN FOR DESIGN THE INFLUENCE AND LEGACY OF JOHN HESKETT
Introduction: Design for Design The Influence and Legacy of John Heskett .........................................................................................1205
Tore Kristensen and Sylvia Liu

Doing qualitative studies, using statistical reasoning ..........................................................................................................................1211
Gorm Gabrielse and Tore Kristensen

Design as Driver for Understanding Sustainability and Creating Value in the Fur Industry ...................................................................1223
Irene Alma Lnne, Else Skjold

Design Awareness: Developing Design Capacity in Chinese Manufacturing Industry ...........................................................................1237
Sylvia Liu
Design Expanding into Strategy: Evidence from Design Consulting Firms ............................................................................................1253
Suzan Boztepe
Volume 4
SECTION 8
Design for Behaviour Change
Introduction: Design for Behaviour Change ........................................................................................................................................1271
Kristina Niedderer, Geke Ludden, Rebecca Cain, Andrew Morris and Aija Freimane
An alternative approach to influencing behaviour: Adapting Darntons Nine Principles framework for scaling up individual upcycling 1277
Kyungeun Sung, Tim Cooper and Sarah Kettley

Assessment of the Co-creative Design Process ...................................................................................................................................1291
Pratik Vyas, Robert Young, Petia Sice and Nicholas Spencer

The potential of Design for Behaviour Change to foster the transition to a circular economy ..............................................................1305
Laura Piscicelli and Geke Dina Simone Ludden

Developing a theory-driven method to design for behaviour change: two case studies .......................................................................1323
Anita Van Essen, Sander Hermsen and Reint Jan Renes

What a designer can change: a proposal for a categorisation of artefact-related aspects ....................................................................1339
Anneli Selvefors, Helena Strmberg and Sara Renstrm

Exploring and communicating user diversity for behavioural change ..................................................................................................1357
Aykut Coskun and Cigdem Erbug

How I learned to appreciate our tame social scientist: experiences in integrating design research and the behavioural sciences .........1375
Sander Hermsen, Remko van der Lugt, Sander Mulder and Reint Jan Renes
A Design Approach for Risk Communication, the Case of Type 2 Diabetes...........................................................................................1390
Farzaneh Eftekhari and Tsai Lu Liu

Metadesigning Design Research How can designers collaboratively grow a research platform? .......................................................1412
Mathilda Tham, Anna-Karin Arvidsson, Mikael Blomqvist, Susanne Bonja, Sara Hyltn-Cavallius, Lena Hkansson, Miguel
Salinas, Marie Sterte, Ola Sthl, Tobias Svensn and Ole Victor
SECTION 9
Design for Health, Wellbeing and Happiness
Introduction: Design for Health, Wellbeing and Happiness .................................................................................................................1434
Rebecca Cain, Noemi Bitterman, Geke Ludden, Jamie Mackrill, Elif Ozcan, Ann Petermans and Carolina Escobar-Tello
In the moment: designing for late stage dementia..............................................................................................................................1442
Cathy Treadaway, David Prytherch, Gail Kenning and Jac Fennell

Design for Ageing-in-place: Evidence from Australia ...........................................................................................................................1458
Naseem Ahmadpour and Alen Keirnan

Supporting healthy behaviour: A stages of change perspective on changing snacking habits of children .............................................1473
Geke D.S. Ludden and Laura H.J. de Ruijter

Co-creating narratives: an approach to the design of interactive medical devices, informed by phenomenology .................................1487
Rowan Page and Mark Richardson

A Design Primer for the Domestication of Health Technologies ..........................................................................................................1499
Paul Chamberlain and Claire Craig

Disentangling complexity: a visualisation-led tool for healthcare associated infection training ...........................................................1515
Alastair S. Macdonald, David Loudon, Susan Wan and Colin Macduff

Exploring Design for Happiness in the Home and Implications for Future Domestic Living ...................................................................1529
Emily Corrigan-Doyle, Carolina Escobar-Tello and Kathy Pui Ying Lo

Using symbolic meaning as a means to design for happiness: The development of a card set for designers .........................................1553
Mafalda Casais, Ruth Mugge and Pieter M. A. Desmet

Designs with benefits: hearth fire nights and bittersweet chores ........................................................................................................1573
Stella U. Boess and Anna E. Pohlmeyer

Happy moments: A well-being driven design of a Car2Go ...................................................................................................................1589
Tessa Duste, Pieter Desmet and Elmer van Grondelle
SECTION 10
DESIGN FUTURES
Games as Speculative Design: Allowing Players to Consider Alternate Presents and Plausible Futures ................................................1609
Paul Coulton, Dan Burnett and Adrian Gradinar

An approach to future-oriented technology design with a reflection on the role of the artefact .......................................................1627
Tiina Kymlinen
Future Product Ecosystems: discovering the value of connections ......................................................................................................1643
Tim Williams and Marianella Chamorro-Koc

Vision Concepts within the landscape of design research ...................................................................................................................1659
Ricardo Mejia Sarmiento, Gert Pasman and Pieter Jan Stappers

Visual conversations on urban futures. Participatory methods to design scenarios of liveable cities ...................................................1677
Serena Pollastri, Rachel Cooper, Nick Dunn and Chris Boyko

Volume 5
SECTION 11
Design Innovation Management
Introduction: Design Innovation Management ...................................................................................................................................1701
Rachel Cooper, Alex Williams, Qian Sun and Erik Bohemia

Emerging Trends of Design Policy in the UK ........................................................................................................................................1709
Qian Sun
Resourcing in Co-Design .....................................................................................................................................................................1725
Salu Ylirisku, Jacob Buur and Line Revsbk

From Participation to Collaboration: Reflections on the co-creation of innovative business ideas .......................................................1739
Cara Broadley, Katherine Champion, Michael Pierre Johnson and Lynn-Sayers McHattie
Bridging service design with integrated co-design decision maker interventions .................................................................................1759
Sune Gudiksen, Anders Christensen and Pernille Henriksen

Exploring framing and meaning making over the design innovation process .......................................................................................1779
Clementine Thurgood and Rohan Lulham

The making of sustainable cultural and creative cluster in Hong Kong ................................................................................................1795
Kaman Ka Man Tsang and Kin Wai Michael Siu

An exploration of Service Design Jam and its ability to foster Social Enterprise ...................................................................................1811
Ksenija Kuzmina, Chris Parker, Gyuchan Thomas Jun, Martin Maguire, Val Mitchell, Mariale Moreno and Samantha Porter
Fiction as a resource in participatory design .......................................................................................................................................1829
Eva Knutz, Tau U. Lenskjold and Thomas Markussen

Space as organisational strategy ........................................................................................................................................................1845
Pia Storvang
The value of design: an issue of vision, creativity and interpretation ..................................................................................................1865
Mariana Fonseca Braga

A Multilevel Approach to Research Obscure Innovation Processes and Practices ..............................................................................1883
Emmanouil Chatzakis, Neil Smith and Erik Bohemia

Coordinating product design with production and consumption processes .........................................................................................1905
Anders Haug
How Companies adopt different Design approaches...........................................................................................................................1921
KwanMyung Kim
Challenges in co-designing a building .................................................................................................................................................1937
Min Hi Chun
SECTION 12
DESIGN PROCESS
Form as an abstraction of mechanism ................................................................................................................................................1953
Lewis Urquhart and Andrew Wodehouse

Integrating Nanotechnology in the Design Process: An Ethnographic Study in Architectural Practice in Egypt .....................................1971
Ramy Bakir and Sherif Abdelmohsen

Of Open bodies: Challenges and Perspectives of an Open Design Paradigm. .......................................................................................1987
meline Brul and Frdric Valentin

Provocative design for unprovocative designers: Strategies for triggering personal dilemmas ............................................................2001
Deger Ozkaramanli and Pieter M. A. Desmet

A case based discussion on the role of Design Competences in Social Innovation................................................................................2017
Tamami Komatsu, Manuela Celi, Francesca Rizzo and Alessandro Deserti

Riding Shotgun in the Fight Against Human Trafficking .......................................................................................................................2031
Lisa Mercer
Could LEGO Serious Play be a useful technique for product co-design? ...........................................................................................2045
Julia Anne Garde and Mascha Cecile van der Voort
Intuitive Interaction research new directions and possible responses. .............................................................................................2065
Alethea Blackler and Vesna Popovic

Skilling and learning through digital Do-It-Yourself: the role of (Co-)Design ........................................................................................2077
Giuseppe Salvia, Carmen Bruno and Marita Canina

Design Research, Storytelling, and Entrepreneur Women in Rural Costa Rica: a case study .................................................................2091
Maria Gabriela Hernandez

Temporal design: looking at time as social coordination .....................................................................................................................2109
Larissa Pschetz, Michelle Bastian and Chris Speed

A Physical Modeling Tool to Support Collaborative Interpretation of Conversations ...........................................................................2123
Piotr Michura, Stan Ruecker, Celso Scaletsky, Guilherme Meyer, Chiara Del Gaudio, Gerry Derksen, Julia Dias, Elizabeth
Jernegan, Juan de la Rosa, Xinyue Zhou and Priscilla Ferronato
Volume 6
SECTION 13
DESIGN INNOVATION FOR SOCIETY
Introduction: Design Innovation for Society .......................................................................................................................................2143
Nynke Tromp and Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer

The Challenges of Human-Centred Design in a Public Sector Innovation Context ................................................................................2149
Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer

Activating the core economy by design ..............................................................................................................................................2165
Rebeca Torres Castanedo and Paul Micklethwaite

On presenting a rich picture for stakeholder dialogue ........................................................................................................................2183
Abigail C. Durrant, Wendy Moncur, David S. Kirk, Diego Trujillo Pisanty and Kathryn Orzech
Design and the Creation of Representational Artefacts for Interactive Social Problem Solving ............................................................2203
Richard Cooney, Nifeli Stewart, Tania Ivanka and Neal Haslem

Appreciative Co-design: From Problem Solving to Strength-Based Re-authoring in Social Design ........................................................2221
Tasman Munro
Design Tools for Enhanced New Product Development in Low Income Economies ..............................................................................2241
Timothy Whitehead, Mark Evans and Guy Bingham

Redesigning governance a call for design across three orders of governance....................................................................................2257
Tanja Rosenqvist and Cynthia Mitchell

Involving stakeholders in cross-border regional design .......................................................................................................................2273
Annet Kempenaar
From the specificity of the project in design to social innovation by design: a contribution .................................................................2287
Marie-Julie Catoir-Brisson, Stphane Vial, Michela Deni and Thomas Watkin

SECTION 14
EFFECTIVE INFORMATION DESIGN
Introduction: Effective Information Design.........................................................................................................................................2303
Alison Black and Sue Walker

Informing the design of mobile device-based patient instructions leaflets: the case of Fentanyl patches ............................................2309
Myrto Koumoundourou, Panayiotis Koutsabasis and Jenny S. Darzentas

Design methods for meaning discovery: a patient-oriented health research case study ......................................................................2327
David Craib and Lorenzo Imbesi

Expectations and prejudices usurp judgements of schematic map effectiveness .................................................................................2343
Maxwell J. Roberts and Ida C.N. Vaeng

Data Visualisation Does Political Things .............................................................................................................................................2361
Joanna Boehnert
The information designer through the lens of design for learning .......................................................................................................2381
Eden Potter
A user centred approach to developing an actionable visualisation for balance health .....................................................................2393
Shruti Grover, Simon Johnson, Ross Atkin and Chris Mcginley

SECTION 15
Design Thinking
Introduction: Design Thinking ............................................................................................................................................................2417
Seda Yilmaz, Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness and Tejas Dhadphale

From Technology-Driven to Experience-Driven Innovation: A Case from the Aviation Industry using VIP ............................................2425
Wan-Jen Jenny Tsay and Christine de Lille

Critically Exploring the Development of a Conceptual Framework for Building Innovative Brands .......................................................2447
Xinya You and David Hands

United We Stand: A Critique of the Design Thinking Approach in Interdisciplinary Innovation ............................................................2465
Fiona Maciver, Julian Malins, Julia Kantorovitch and Aggelos Liapis
Designing Creative Destruction ..........................................................................................................................................................2483
Ashley Hall
Blending Hard and Soft Design via Thematic Analysis .........................................................................................................................2495
Vasilije Kokotovich and Kees Dorst2495

The cycle of interdisciplinary learning and theory-solution building in design research .......................................................................2507
Young-ae Hahn
Dont Look Back: The Paradoxical Role of Recording in the Fashion Design Process ............................................................................2521
Helen McGilp, Claudia Eckert and Christopher F Earl

Contrasting similarities and differences between academia and industry: evaluating processes used for product development..........2535
Nathan Kotlarewski, Christine Thong, Blair Kuys and Evan Danahay

What is the Nature and Intended Use of Design Methods? .................................................................................................................2551
Colin M. Gray
Becoming a More User-Centred Organization: A Design Tool to Support Transformation ....................................................................2565
Lennart Kaland and Christine de Lille

Volume 7
SECTION 16
DESIGN RESEARCH HISTORY, THEORY, PRACTICE: HISTORIES FOR FUTURE-FOCUSED THINKING
Introduction: Design Research History, Theory, Practice: Histories for Future-Focused Thinking .......................................................2585
Harriet Atkinson and Maya Rae Oppenheimer

The Structure of Design Processes: ideal and reality in Bruce Archers 1968 doctoral thesis ................................................................2593
Stephen Boyd Davis and Simone Gristwood

Closing the circle ................................................................................................................................................................................2613
Douglas Tomkin
Re-integrating Design Education: Lessons from History ......................................................................................................................2627
Peter A. Hall
(Re)working the Past, (Dis)playing the Future. Italy: The New Domestic Landscape at MoMA, 1972 ...................................................2639
Ingrid Halland Rashidi

Recommendations to rebuild the body of feminist work in industrial design ......................................................................................2655
Isabel Prochner and Anne Marchand

Design practice and design research: finally together? .......................................................................................................................2669
Kees Dorst
Design Research is Alive and Kicking ................................................................................................................................................2679
Paul A. Rodgers and Joyce S.R. Yee

Reverse Innovation: How Has Design in the Greater Pearl River Delta Region Changed the World ......................................................2701
Ningchang Zhou and Tao Huang

Beautiful Nerds: Growing a rigorous design research dialogue in the Irish context ..............................................................................2711
Adam de Eyto Carmel Maher, Mark Hadfield and Maggie Hutchings

Design Research in the East at Universities and the Board of Industrial Design of the GDR between the 1960s and 1990 ..................2723
Sylvia Wlfel and Christian Wlfel

International Norms and Local Design Research: ICSID and the Promotion of Industrial Design in Latin America, 1970-1979 ...............2739
Tania Messell
SECTION 17
DESIGN-ING AND CREATIVE PHILOSOPHIES
Introduction: Design-ing and Creative Philosophies ............................................................................................................................2757
Betti Marenko
Probing the future by anticipative design acts ....................................................................................................................................2761
Annelies De Smet and Nel Janssens

Making polychronic objects for a networked society ..........................................................................................................................2795
Jane Norris
Responsibility in design: applying the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon ...............................................................................................2809
Sander Mulder
Space as a Becoming: Fresh Water Expo Pavilion as a Creative Practice for an Architecture to Come ..................................................2825
Emine Grgl
The Foam: a Possible Model for the Motion Graphic Design ...............................................................................................................2837
Anamaria Galeotti and Clice Mazzilli

Experience A Central Concept in Design and its Roots in the History of Science ................................................................................2869
Johannes Uhlmann, Christian Wlfel and Jens Krzywinski
SECTION 18
EMBODIED MAKING AND LEARNING
Introduction: Embodied Making and Learning ....................................................................................................................................2889
Marte S. Gulliksen, Camilla Groth, Maarit Mkel and Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen

The role of sensory experiences and emotions in craft practice ..........................................................................................................2895
Camilla Groth
Learning to learn: What can be learned from first-hand experience with materials? ...........................................................................2911
Biljana C. Fredriksen
Why making mattersdeveloping an interdisciplinary research project on how embodied making may contribute to learning ..........2925
Marte S. Gulliksen
Physiological measurements of drawing and forming activities ..........................................................................................................2941
Marianne Leinikka, Minna Huotilainen, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Camilla Groth, Mimmu Rankanen and Maarit Mkel
Code, Decode, Recode: Constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing knowledge through making ................................................2959
Anna Piper
Experience Labs: co-creating health and care innovations using design tools and artefacts .................................................................2965
Tara French, Gemma Teal and Sneha Raman

Volume 8
SECTION 19
DESIGN FOR TANGIBLE, EMBEDDED AND NETWORKED TECHNOLOGIES
Introduction: Design for Tangible, Embedded and Networked Technologies .......................................................................................2985
Sarah Kettley and Anne Cranny-Francis

Designing from, with and by Data: Introducing the ablative framework..............................................................................................2991
Chris Speed and Jon Oberlander

Feel it! See it! Hear it! Probing Tangible Interaction and Data Representational Modality ...................................................................3005
Trevor Hogan and Eva Hornecker

Designing Information Feedback within Hybrid Physical/Digital Interactions ......................................................................................3019
David Gullick and Paul Coulton

Harnessing the Digital Records of Everyday Things .............................................................................................................................3033
Dimitrios Darzentas, Adrian Hazzard, Michael Brown, Martin Flintham and Steve Benford
A Toaster For Life: Using Design Fiction To Facilitate Discussion On The Creation Of A Sustainable Internet of Things .........................3049
Michael Stead
Making Service Design in a Digital Business ........................................................................................................................................3069
Piia Rytilahti, Simo Rontti, Titta Jylks, Mira Alhonsuo, Hanna-Riina Vuontisjrvi and Laura Laivamaa
Ad Hoc Pairings: Semantic Relationships and Mobile Devices .............................................................................................................3085
Jason O. Germany
Serious Play Strategies in the Design of Kinetic and Wearable Devices................................................................................................3103
Lois Frankel and Ellen Hrinivich

Tangibility in e-textile participatory service design with mental health participants............................................................................3121
Sarah Kettley, Anna Sadkowska and Rachel Lucas

Wearable Sensory Devices for Children in Play Areas .........................................................................................................................3133
Cai-Ru Liao, Wen-Huei Chou and Chung-Wen Hung

Intuitive Interaction in a Mixed Reality System ..................................................................................................................................3149
Shital Desai, Alethea Blackler and Vesna Popovic

From nano to macro: material inspiration within ubiquitous computing research...............................................................................3165
Isabel Paiva
SECTION 20
Experiential Knowledge
Introduction: Experiential Knowledge ................................................................................................................................................3177
Nithikul Nimkulrat
Double-loop reflective practice as an approach to understanding knowledge and experience.............................................................3181
John Gribbin, Mersha Aftab, Robert Young and Sumin Park

Designing little worlds in Walnut Park: How architects adopted an ethnographic case study on living with dementia ......................3199
Valerie Van der Linden, Iris Van Steenwinkel, Hua Dong and Ann Heylighen
Bonding through Designing; how a participatory approach to videography can catalyse an emotive and reflective dialogue with young
people ...............................................................................................................................................................................................3213
Marianne McAra
Capturing architects designerly ways of knowing about users: Exploring an ethnographic research approach ....................................3229
Valerie Van der Linden, Hua Dong and Ann Heylighen

SECTION 21
INCLUSIVE DESIGN
Introduction: Inclusive Design ............................................................................................................................................................3247
Hua Dong ...................................................................................................................................................................................
Designing for older people: But who is an older person? ....................................................................................................................3251
Raghavendra Reddy Gudur, Alethea Blackler, Vesna Popovic and Doug Mahar
Towards designing inclusion: insights from a user data collection study in China ................................................................................3263
Weining Ning and Hua Dong

Difficult packaging for older Chinese adults ......................................................................................................................................3279
Xuezi Ma, Hua Dong

Crafted with Care: Reflections from co-designing wearable technologies with care home residents....................................................3295
Christopher Sze Chong Lim and Sara Nevay

To Shed Some Light on Empowerment: Towards Designing for Embodied Functionality .....................................................................3313
Jelle van Dijk and Fenne Verhoeven

Measuring Product-Related Stigma in Design .....................................................................................................................................3329
Kristof Vaes, Pieter Jan Stappers and Achiel Standaert

Towards more culturally inclusive communication design practices: exploring creative participation between non-Indigenous and
Indigenous people in Australia ...........................................................................................................................................................3349
Nicola St John
Designing meaningful vehicle for older users: culture, technology, and experience.............................................................................3373
Chao Zhao, Vesna Popovic and Xiaobo Lu

Towards Innovative and Inclusive Architecture ..................................................................................................................................3393
Sidse Grangaard
Hidden public spaces: when a university campus becomes a place for communities ...........................................................................3407
Davide Fassi, Laura Galluzzo and Liat Rogel

Volume 9
SECTION 22
FOOD AND EATING DESIGN
Introduction: Food and Eating Design.................................................................................................................................................3427
Hendrik N.J. Schifferstein

Designing with Empathy: Implications for Food Design.......................................................................................................................3435
Hafds Sunna Hermannsdttir, Cecilie Dawes, Hanne Gideonsen and Eva De Moor
Designing for sustainability: a dialogue-based approach to the design of food packaging experiences. ...............................................3449
Zoi Stergiadou, Jenny Darzentas and Spyros Bofylatos

Towards a sensory congruent beer bottle: Consumer associations between beer brands, flavours, and bottle designs .......................3467
Anna Fenko, Sanne Heiltjes and Lianne van den Berg-Weitzel

SECTION 23
OBJECTS, PRACTICES, EXPERIENCES AND NETWORKS
Introduction: Objects, Practices, Experiences and Networks ...............................................................................................................3479
Tom Fisher and Lorraine Gamman

Stories in a Beespoon: Exploring Future Folklore through Design ........................................................................................................3485
Deborah Maxwell, Liz Edwards, Toby Pillatt and Niamh Downing

Uber and Language/Action Theory .....................................................................................................................................................3503
Michael Arnold Mages

Emotional Fit: Developing a new fashion design methodology for mature women..............................................................................3521
Katherine Townsend, Ania Sadkowska and Juliana Sissons

From Afterthought to Precondition: re-engaging Design Ethics from Technology, Sustainability, and Responsibility ...........................3539
Jeffrey Chan
Design for Resourceful Ageing: Intervening in the Ethics of Gerontechnology .....................................................................................3553
Elisa Giaccardi, Lenneke Kuijer and Louis Neven

SECTION 24
REFRAMING THE PARADOX EXAMINING THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN EVIDENCE-BASED DESIGN AND DESIGN FOR THE PUBLIC
SECTOR
Introduction: Reframing the Paradox Evidence-based Design and Design for the Public Sector.........................................................3569
Luke Feast
Open Practices: lessons from co-design of public services for behaviour change .................................................................................3573
Simon ORafferty, Adam DeEyto and Huw Lewis

Capturing the How: Showing the value of co-design through creative evaluation ............................................................................3591
Arthi Kanchana Manohar, Madeline Smith and Mirian Calvo

Design in the Time of Policy Problems ................................................................................................................................................3605
Lucy Kimbell
The introduction of design to policymaking: Policy Lab and the UK government .................................................................................3619
Jocelyn Bailey and Peter Lloyd

Problematizing Evidence-Based Design: A Case Study of Designing for Services in the Finnish Government ........................................3635
Helena Sustar and Luke Feast
Designed Engagement .......................................................................................................................................................................3653
Gemma Teal and Tara French

Public design and social innovation: Learning from applied research ..................................................................................................3669
Caroline Gagnon and Valrie Ct

Design as analysis: examining the use of precedents in parliamentary debate. ...................................................................................3687
Darren Umney, Christopher Earl and Peter Lloyd

Exposing charities to design-led approaches through design research. ...............................................................................................3705
Laura Warwick and Robert Djaelani

Volume 10
SECTION 25
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Introduction: Sustainable Design .......................................................................................................................................................3725
Rhoda Trimingham
Design for Sustainability: An Evolutionary Review ..............................................................................................................................3731
Fabrizio Ceschin and Idil Gaziulusoy

Consumer Product Design and Innovation: Past, present and future...................................................................................................3755
Robin Roy
Product-Service Systems or Service Design By-Products? A Systems Thinking Approach ...................................................................3771
John Darzentas and Jenny Darzentas

Supporting SMEs in designing sustainable business models for energy access for the BoP: a strategic design tool ...............................3785
Silvia Emili, Fabrizio Ceschin and David Harrison

Extending clothing lifetimes: an exploration of design and supply chain challenges. ...........................................................................3815
Lynn Oxborrow and Stella Claxton

The effect of consumer attitudes on design for product longevity: The case of the fashion industry ....................................................3831
Angharad McLaren, Helen Goworek, Tim Cooper, Lynn Oxborrow and Helen Hill
Framing Complexity in Design through theories of Social Practice and Structuration: A comparative case study of urban cycling ........3847
Tobias Barnes Hofmeister and Martina Keitsch

Integrating Sustainability Literacy into Design Education ....................................................................................................................3861
Andrea Quam
Design of resilient consumer products ...............................................................................................................................................3873
Anders Haug
Designing for Sustainable Transition through Value Sensitive Design ..................................................................................................3889
Luisa Sze-man Mok, Sampsa Hyysalo and Jenni Vnnen

Mixing up everyday life - uncovering sufficiency practices through designerly tools ............................................................................3913
Miriam Lahusen, Susanne Ritzmann, Florian Sametinger, Gesche Joost and Lars-Arvid Brischke
Give car-free life a try: Designing seeds for changed practices ............................................................................................................3929
Mia Hesselgren and Hanna Hasselqvist

A sociotechnical framework for the design of collaborative services: diagnosis and conceptualisation ................................................3943
Joon Sang Baek, Sojung Kim and Yoonee Pahk

Moving Textile Artisans Communities towards a Sustainable Future A Theoretical Framework .......................................................3961
Francesco Mazzarella, Carolina Escobar-Tello and Val Mitchell

Sharing 10 years of experience with class AUP0479 Design for Sustainability ...................................................................................3983
Maria Ceclia Santos, Tatiana Sakurai and Verena Lima

SECTION 26
THE POLITICS OF COMMONING AND DESIGN
Introduction: The Politics of Commoning and Design ..........................................................................................................................4005
Bianca Elzenbaumer, Valeria Graziano and Kim Trogal

Commons & community economies: entry points to design for eco-social justice? .............................................................................4015
Fabio Franz and Bianca Elzenbaumer

Design Togetherness, Pluralism and Convergence ..............................................................................................................................4029
Monica Lindh Karlsson and Johan Redstrm

Designing participation for commoning in temporary spaces: A case study in Aveiro, Portugal ...........................................................4045
Janaina Teles Barbosa, Maria Hellstrm Reimer and Joo Almeida Mota
From Rules in Use to Culture in Use Commoning and Infrastructuring Practices in an Open Cultural Movement ...............................4063
Sanna Marttila
Index of Authors .. 4080
Editorial
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.651
The 50th Anniversary conference of the Design Research Society is a special event at an
interesting time for Design Research. The Design Research Society was formed in 1966
following the Conference on Design Methods held at Imperial College London in 1962. In the
lead up to DRS2016 we contacted the secretary to the 1962 conference, Peter Slann, who
now lives in Scotland, and who sent us the original reel-to-reel audio tape recordings of that
conference. Listening to those tapes it is striking not only how similar some of the
discussions are about design and design research, but also how much has changed. In 1962
every voice is a male British voice. One comment at the end of the conference stands out as
significant. Thanking people for coming to the conference and looking towards the future at
the end of the closing session, John Page, then Professor of Building Science at Sheffield
University, asks the audience three questions (the quote is verbatim):
if one agrees that there are bodies of knowledge that have been raised here, which
need further exploration particularly a case in point would be the terminology of
design is there any point in trying to get some kind of inter-disciplinary working party
going on these problems? In this question of disciplines, is there any machinery or any
way of arranging for an interchange of information between specialists and people
working at Universities? Lastly, is there any point in making the whole thing more of a
formal entity, a society, or something of that kind?
Fifty years later it is clear that there was a point. The DRS as it exists today can trace its
origins to the affirmation of that last question in 1962, and the some kind of
interdisciplinary working party that Design Research has become owes its identity to that
1960s future-focused thinking.
Since the Conference on Design Methods in 1962 many Design Research conferences have
been held, with the DRS often as a key organiser. Certainly in the earlier days, defined subfields of research originated from these conferences. Design Participation in 1971 started
the participative design movement that has grown into present day co-design. Design for
Need, held in 1976, and taking a global view of the population, started both sustainable and
inclusive design, and Design Policy held in 1980 introduced a much needed social, political
and international dimension to the design research field as Design itself lurched into the
consumerist 80s.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Peter Lloyd
From almost every conference comes a thread that leads to the present day, so the fiftieth
anniversary conference represents a point to gather these threads together, see how they
complement and blend with one another, and consider what kind of textile they might
weave in the coming years. Indeed, the early advice that many gave was not to spend too
much time looking back and to concentrate on the future. For DRS2016, as well as the
Design Research field more generally, the increasing number of PhD researchers is a sign
that this future is set to be a healthy one. A significant number of papers in these
proceedings are the result of doctoral research projects and organisations like PhD by
Design, who had a strong presence at DRS2016, ensure that todays PhD Researchers will
become tomorrows Design Research leaders.
The DRS Conferences have always looked to develop new formats for people to engage with
one another, over and above the standard paper presentation. The 1973 Design Activities
conference aimed at:
the provision of an extension of media forms beyond the normal verbalized media of
the average conference with the idea that such extensions were significant
contributions to dialectical form, and not just entertainments.
The 2014 DRS conference, in Sweden, continued that tradition by introducing

Conversations and Debates alongside the more traditional academic paper presentation.
It feels entirely appropriate that the field of Design Research is at the forefront of
conference design, appropriating new technologies in developing more productive formats
for discussion, networking, and presentation. And rightly so, because in an age when
research papers and keynote presentations are available online we need to ask whether a
conference, with all the travel, expense, and carbon involved, is still the most effective way
of energizing and invigorating a research field.
DRS2016 is no exception and continues this ongoing conference prototyping activity. We
have tried to develop a discursive conference that leans both towards the academic, in
research papers, but also towards the practical in Conversations and Workshops. So this is a
conference that presents existing research, projects, and discussions not as fixed end points,
but as ongoing dialogue. To do that we have tried to balance the online conference with the
offline one, and the ephemeral with the enduring. Partly this approach helps to provide a
continued legacy for the conference, but it also helps to include as many people as possible
in (re)directing the dialogical flow of research activity.
As an organising committee we met in January 2015 to talk about key questions, conference
themes and conference design. From that discussion the three individual words of the DRS
Design, Research, and Society were felt to define an interesting area for a conference; one
that was about the practice and doing of design but also about designs societal impact and
the moderating role that research plays between the two. Design + Research + Society
perhaps represents a larger area than that of the Design Research Society, but as these
proceedings demonstrate the appetite is clearly apparent for Design Research to embrace
ever-wider concerns.
ii
Editorial
The underlying premise, however, was that 50 years of design research has provided us with
a sound understanding of design and a solid foundation upon which to build. The interesting
questions, then, appeared to us as not so much how we do more of the same though that
of course has its place but in how we use what we now know. Hence the three broad
questions that the papers in these conference proceedings respond to:
How can design research help frame and address the societal problems that
face us?
How can design research be a creative and active force for rethinking ideas
about Design?
How can design research shape our lives in more responsible, meaningful, and
open ways?
The DRS has a number of established Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which the organising
committee thought important to prioritise but we also wanted to find a way to add
additional emerging and complementary research themes to these. This resulted in a call for
additional themes in June 2015 and a selection process that resulted in 15 further themes
(from 25 proposals) alongside the 9 themes represented by the Special Interest Groups. The
idea of a conference of conferences began to emerge, with theme papers managed by subchairs, but consistency of peer-review overseen by a central review committee across all
themes.
The systems currently available for managing paper submission, in the case of DRS2016 the
excellent ConfTool system, now provide comprehensive integrative platforms to conduct
sophisticated submission, peer-review, rebuttal, discussion, communication, and
programming of papers, which means we can be more confident than ever about the
academic quality of the final papers accepted for DRS2016. In total we received just under
500 paper submissions all of which were reviewed by two, and sometimes three reviewers,
as well as being managed by theme chairs. In total 939 reviews were written by 290
reviewers with 200 papers being accepted, and a further 40 accepted following revision. This
represents an acceptance rate of 49%.
The 240 papers in these proceedings have been grouped under 26 themes, 23 of which have
been closely managed and developed by theme chairs (the other 3 themes derived from an
Open Call). In these proceedings you will find an introduction to each theme by the relevant
chair(s), outlining the background to the theme and putting the papers that were finally
accepted and published into a wider context. Nine of the themes are the result of calls from
the Design Research Society Special Interest Groups, which are active throughout the year
and that report to the DRS council regularly. Many Special Interest Groups hold their own
conferences, supported by the DRS, so the papers in these proceedings, responding to the
overall theme of Future-focused Thinking, should be seen as a sample of those specialisms.
Fittingly for a 50th Anniversary conference there is a strong historical thread of papers the
field of Design Research now becomes a subject of historical study in the themes of Histories
for Future-focused Thinking, 50 Years of Design Research, and Design for Design: The
iii
Peter Lloyd
Influence and Legacy of John Heskett. This is a useful development, and shows the maturity
of the field now, with early work not just a familiar citation in reference lists, but something
that can be looked at in a wider cultural and historical context.
Many of the new themes bring a more critical and speculative approach to Design Research,
framing research questions and practices in ways other than what some see as more
traditional evidence-based approaches to research. These are papers that argue for a
particular position or approach to understanding design or practice. Examples of these
themes include Aesthetics, Cosmopolitics & Design; Design-ing and Creative Philosophies,
and Reframing the Paradox: Evidence-based Design and Design for the Public Sector. The
emerging area of Social Design is well represented in the areas of Design Innovation for
Society and The Politics of Commoning and Design and shows the importance of Design
Research to discussing and achieving concrete outcomes for social good.
The idea and limits of Design and Design Research are explored in many themes, but in
particular Objects, Experiences, Practices & Networks; Design and Translation; and Design for
Tangible, Embedded and Networked Technologies take a more systemic view of design,
placing it within a network of activities and technologies. In contrast to this other themes
focus much more on the individual and collective experience of designers and others
involved in the process of design, for example: Experiential Knowledge; Embodied Making
and Learning; Aesthetic Pleasure in Design; and Food and Eating Design.
Of course there are themes that have been ever-present in DRS, and in other Design
Research, conferences understanding design process and the nature of design knowledge
are the subject of the Design Epistemology and Design Process themes. The practical impacts
that design can have on all types of organisations are explored in Design Thinking, an area of
continued and increasing interest, and Design Innovation Management. Design Education
and Learning, now with its own large biennial conference series, was the most popular
theme for DRS2016, with 28 papers accepted from 53 submissions.
Finally, there are a set of well-developed themes, organised as part of DRS Special Interest
Groups, that broadly explore the welfare of others both in a small and large sense embracing
ideas of person-centredness, responsibility and ethics. These themes include Design for
Health, Wellbeing, and Happiness; Inclusive Design; and finally Sustainable Design.
As in any research field the definitions between sub-areas often blur and overlap, and there
are themes that contradict and conflict with one another, strongly arguing against a
particular approach or theoretical grounding of another area. The DRS2016 keynote debates
were designed to explore some of these issues and fault lines but more generally this should
be taken as a sign of health and maturity. For many years we have heard that Design
Research is a new field, still finding its feet, but as an organising committee we think the
definition and extent of the themes in these proceedings demonstrate precisely the
opposite. In Fifty years we have built up a strong and diverse research field that is widely
applicable, broadly inclusive and, in 2016, more relevant than ever.
iv
Editorial
There is a sense in which design research sits at the crux of a false dichotomy; between on
the one hand research in a pure form (which values objectivity, subjectivity, experiment,
discourse, history, analysis) and on the other the active engagement in shaping future forms
by suggestion, prototype, speculation, practice, and intervention at all levels, from the
molecular to the political, from the anthropological to the computational. In an increasingly
fragmented and atomised world Design Research is a field which reveals the falsehood of
the dichotomy. It is a field that collectively links disciplines, audiences, and technologies in a
critical but productive way. The design of a conference with its implicit value systems,
partiality to statistical analysis, but with an emergent structure and representation is no
bad example of a future-focused design research that shares what knowledge is known and
explores what knowledge is possible.
Finally, we would like to thank all people the local organisation, the international
programme and review committee, and all the reviewers involved in organising DRS2016
and who have contributed to such a huge collective effort. The valuable time that has been
given in helping to shape and deliver the conference has been very much appreciated.
Thanks should also go to the Design Research Society, for supporting the conference so
effectively; to the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London for providing time and
resources as partner Universities; and to the University of Brighton, particularly the College
of Arts and Humanities, for enabling the early vision of a 50 th Anniversary DRS conference to
be fulfilled.
Peter Lloyd
DRS2016 Conference Chair
Vice Chair of the DRS
Brighton, UK
Peter Lloyd
Previous Design Research Society and Associated Conferences

1962 Conference on Design Methods, London, UK
1964 The Teaching of Engineering Design, Scarborough, UK
1965 The Design Method, Birmingham, UK
1967 Design Methods in Architecture, Portsmouth, UK
1971 Design Participation, Manchester, UK
1972 Design and Behaviour, Birmingham, UK
1973 The Design Activity, London, UK
1974 Problem Identification for Design, Manchester, UK
1976 Design for Need, London, UK
1976 Changing Design, Portsmouth, UK
1978 Architectural Design, Istanbul, Turkey
1980 Design Science Method, Portsmouth, UK
1982 Design Policy, London, UK
1984 The Role of the Designer, Bath, UK
1998 Quantum Leap, Birmingham, UK
1999 CoDesigning, Coventry, UK
2002 Common Ground, London, UK
2004 Futureground, Melbourne, Australia
2006 Wonderground, Lisbon, Portugal
2008 Undisciplined!, Sheffield, UK
2010 Design And Complexity, Montreal, Canada
2012 Uncertainty, Contradiction and Value, Bangkok, Thailand
2014 Design's Big Debates, Umea, Sweden
vi
Volume 7
SECTION 16
DESIGN RESEARCH HISTORY, THEORY, PRACTICE:
HISTORIES FOR FUTURE-FOCUSED THINKING
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Introduction: Design Research History, Theory,

Practice: Histories for Future-Focused Thinking
Harriet Atkinsona* and Maya Rae Oppenheimerb
a
University of Brighton
Royal College of Art
*h.atkinson2@brighton.ac.uk
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.510
b
Writing soon after the 1962 Conference on Design Methods at Imperial College - the event
that led to the founding of the Design Research Society in 1966 J.C. Jones and D.G.
Thornley described the Conferences purpose as twofold. Firstly, the event determined the
parameters of a collective agenda and, secondly, it enabled discussions that would catalyse
future developments in design methods work (Slann, 1963). Making no apology for the
breadth of collected papers from this meeting, Jones and Thornleys edited volume
contained several contributions including the work of Christopher Alexander, William
Gosling, and Joseph Esherick, as well as Joness foundational essay, A Method of Systematic
Design. While varied in background, each author shared an epistemological belief in
systematic methods of problem solving, the application of scientific methods and
knowledge to their own particular problems, and, to break down the barriers that exist
between one activity and another, attempting to discover the possible connections that link
all creative activities (op cit, p.xi).
On the occasion of the Design Research Societys (DRS) fiftieth anniversary, this conference
strand continues this dialogue with a specific agenda: to assess histories of future-focused
thinking and to consider the histories, theories and practices shared between design
researchers. What emerges from evaluations of the Design Methods Movement and of
Design Research is the sustained search for a common language and methods and an
interest in problem solving by bringing scientific methods to bear on design. This initiative,
however, has not been a steady one.
Several authors have recounted this history in generational terms. Horst Rittel, for example,
asserts that the first Design Research generation spanned the 1960s and tended towards a
rational and systematic development of the field. The second generation moved away from

International License.
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previous formalizations with several forebears, including J.C. Jones, retaliating against early
work (Bayazit, 2004, p.21). According to the accounts of Jane Pavitt and Nigel Cross, a
bifurcation then formed between, on the one hand, critical work with an immersion in
research and, on the other, social projects over commercial interests and a continuation of
previous methodological goals (Pavitt, 2012, p.133; Cross, 1993, p.17). Margolin suggests
the third generation of the 1980s and early 1990s constituted a mix of the two, with Bruce
Archer and Nigel Cross advocating communication across professional perspectives and
diverse approaches for problem-solution collaboration (Margolin, op cit). Pavitt shares this
view but without characterizing it as a third generation, noting that Archer was so collective
in his work that he cannot be written about in isolation (Pavitt, op cit).
Characterizing Design Research in generational terms is a useful, albeit reductive, way of
understanding shifts in thinking, as is searching for disciplinary definitions and boundaries,
which has been another notable preoccupation in this area. In his paper, A History of
Design Methodology, which considered his activities in design research, Nigel Cross went
towards clarifying the terms design science (laws and rules of design), science of design
(body of work seeking to develop design via scientific method) and design methods
(application of systematic methods) to make room for other preoccupations (Cross, 1993).
Now, in 2016, we reconvene. If we continue to characterize the development of Design
Research in generational terms, this panel suggests that we are in the generation of rigorous
interdisciplinary collaboration. This stretches to include practice methods, research, writing
and diverse collaborations across academic colleagues from various disciplinary enclaves.
Victor Margolin echoed this vanguard at the DRS2010 conference, noting that design
research today pursues its interests based on its own criteria for best practice and
meaningful results (Margolin, op cit, p.1). We interpret this as pursuing meaningful
discourse on shared- and dual-inspirational, creative work in design developments. As part
of this collaboration we ask: what can design historians contribute to the understanding of
design research as a process comprised of history, theory and practice, particularly across
contexts of practice? And what can design research contribute to design historys interest in
critical, reflexive and inclusive investigations into past design contexts and developments in
order to ensure sound, future-focused thinking?
2. Main Preoccupations & Inquiries

Several of our speakers have taken this, the DRSs 50th anniversary, as an occasion for
charting the origins, mandate and progress of the Society. Since 1966, DRS has led in the
field of Design Research with peaks and troughs in its trajectory, as the DRSs own website
recounts.1 These fluctuations and fractures within the Societys ranks resulted, at times, in
conflicting priorities for the field. While this internal temperature-taking is revealing, we
must go beyond the DRS in order fully to understand the origins of Design Research; to
1
1 There were the early fruitless attempts to establish a published journal, and equally fruitless internal debates about the
Societys goals, which led to inactivity, only to be revived by the 1971 DRS Manchester conference on the theme of Design
Participation (DRS, n.d.).
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Introduction: Design Research History, Theory, Practice
survey other design organisations and networks through which design research has
developed (ICSID and VNIITE, for example). We must also turn to the various art and design
colleges that have pioneered design research (RCA, HfG and beyond), the international
journals, the conferences and exhibitions and the influential figures associated with this
embryonic movement. We might also look to pedagogical principles, design outcomes and
policy impacts.
In order to determine what design historians and design researchers can exchange to
mutually further their work, we have organised our paper submissions into three areas of
interest and activity: history, theory and practice. The early founders of Design Issues had a
similar approach for the mandate of their journal, adding the subtitle History, Theory,
Criticism to the first 1984 issue to encourage what they felt were key areas of work
(Margolin, op cit). Like them, we begin our trajectory with history: aiming to inform design
research by critically examining the contexts of historical precedents and their development.
Historical analysis operates in a number of ways within the papers in this theme: as a means
of comparison or clarification in contemporary design research (as papers by Boyd Davis &
Gristwood and Murali show); and for historians analysing the origins, motivations and
infrastructure of design research (Messell and Halland Rashidi). Pioneer figures within
design research also engaged with history to inform their future-focused practice, and their
work is referenced in several papers (Tomkin, Hall, Dorst). In addition, historical critiques of
and objections to the Design Methods Movement allow us to reflect on contemporary
cultures of design research and future scope in this area.
Our second panel theme is theory. With a predilection for examining the social, both
designers and historians are aware of their situations of engagement, and design historians
have the potential to draw connections between contexts of work, expand the field in
question, and to critically reflect upon dominant narratives in the history of design research
(from figures to geographies). As Andrew J. King highlights via his review of Joness book
Designing Designing for the Journal of Design History, The history of design theory is of
relevance to the history of design precisely because design theory evolves, questions, and
reshapes the idea of what design is - it redefines the subject matter of design history (King,
1995, p.75). Design pedagogy is also an area of interest, with the same potential for
redefinition: various speakers explore specific teaching and learning methods; others
develop this theme in relation to their own research including the PhD thesis as design
research (Boyd Davis & Gristwood; Rodgers & Yee; Woelfel & Woelfel) and oral histories as
critical reflection on the practices of design researchers (Tomkin).
Our third theme pertains to the application of work developed within the field of design
research and pays particular attention to the needs and quicksilver nature of contemporary
design work. How do social and cultural frameworks influence design research methods?
How do changing demands from alternative economies and emerging industry shape
evolving practice? By selecting practice as our third theme, we heed the noted change in
design trends from product to service and system. We also extend Crosss perspective,
making room for further discussion and progress not in design methodology but for design
2587
comprehension, both in the inclusive and intellectual - and perhaps tacit - definitions of the
word (Cross, 1993).
History, theory, and practice are all valuable components in any work; in our first panel
discussion, therefore, we present one paper as a representation for each theme. Our
intention here is to suggest these are all essential components for rigorous design research
work, but the ingredients and proportion of each will differ depending on the unique
requirements of the system or project under development. Stephen Boyd Davis & Simone
Gristwoods paper, The Structure of Design Processes: Ideal and Reality in Bruce Archers
1968 Doctoral Thesis, uses the document of their title to consider the relationship between
histories of design institutions and pedagogy and early design research challenges. Douglas
Tomkin uses oral histories of the Design Research community to underpin his paper, Closing
the Circle, and compares the period he spent at the RCAs Department of Design Research
working alongside Bruce Archer with his recent work at University of Technology Sydneys
Design Innovation Research Centre. Peter A. Halls, Re-integrating Design Education:
Lessons from History, also looks to histories of pedagogy to engage with visions of future
design. He focuses on specific elements of interdisciplinary application, active learning and
critical views of practice elements, especially in burgeoning areas of design-thinking and
sustainable futures.
3. Histories & Contexts

The origins of design research as a discrete area denoting a more systematic and rational
approach to design that emphasizes teamwork predates the DRS; its emergence in Britain
and North America is closely related to the professionalization of design practice. The need
for research within the design process was highlighted by critic and design historian Herbert
Read as well as advertising executive Marcus Brumwell, whose pioneering British
consultancy, Design Research Unit (DRU), emerged in 1943, bringing design and research
into an enduring relationship.1 The Design Profession, an essay by DRU lead designer
Milner Gray (1946) advocated design research as a client requirement, while design critic
John Gloag (1944) - who, like Brumwell, was director of an advertising agency - discussed the
need for Design Research Committees to direct design teams. DRUs Director, Misha Black,
meanwhile seized the opportunity to disseminate design thinking to a new generation of
designers becoming the RCAs first Professor of Industrial Design Engineering in 1959. A year
later, Dorothy Goslett, DRUs lynchpin office manager, wrote her much-reprinted
Professional Practice for Designers that gave extensive, practical advice regarding fee
structures for research (Goslett, 1960).
An early leaflet advertising DRUs services had stated one of the groups key aims was to find out by
comparative research where British products lag behind the products of other countries and to carry out
research into the needs of the consumer, realized or unrealized, and into the ability of the machine to meet
those needs (DRU leaflet, c.1946, Scott Brownrigg DRU Archive). According to DRUs logic, if research was
carried out, design would be more successful and more profitable.
2588
These were all important moments in building the case for a discrete organisation to
represent the Design Research community in Britain. The four papers in this panel reinforce
the importance of understanding histories and contexts as impetus for current and future
practice and reveal how design research has evolved across a range of diverse sociohistorical contexts. These contexts include design conferences (as was the case for the DRS
itself), government-sponsored design boards (including the GDRs Board of Industrial Design
in Woelfel & Woelfels paper) and designer-led organisations (such as ICSID in Messells
contribution), art and design colleges, universities and exhibitions (such as MOMAs 1972
exhibition of Italian design in Halland Rashidis paper). Each context offered itself as a site
both for evolving and disseminating design research thinking. In these papers - which are
predominantly focused on the period from the 1960s to the 1990s we encounter activities
that we might describe as design research occurring across diverse geographies, from the
US, to the GDR, to Mexico and the UK and united, at least at the outset, by an engagement
with the notion of a progressive, systematizing good design. Isabel Prochner and Anne
Marchands paper, meanwhile, make a renewed call for feminist critiques by surveying
histories of industrial design in which women still have limited presence. Despite the work of
historians such as Cheryl Buckley and designers including Sheila Levrant de Bretteville who
set to rectify this over 30 years ago, Prochner and Marchand seek future gender equality
within design practice (Buckley, 2009; Levrant de Bretteville, 1999).
4. Agency of the Designer: Process & Methods

Design Methods, in its earliest form, was pioneered as an activity distinct from design
practice. But today we might ask: if all design is increasingly understood as a form of
research, with or without realisation in material form, how is Design Research distinct
from other forms of research? And as Design Research is increasingly exported as a reliable
development strategy in areas as diverse as design thinking in business to healthcare, who
will steward and indeed safeguard future practice?
Papers in this final panel address a range of applications of Design Research and their
juxtaposition, from business development in the Pearl River Delta to craft production in
India. But are design researchers prepared or trained to conduct critical evaluations of
historical contexts and sources with a conscious management of their own bias? Kees
Dorsts paper, Design Practice and Design Research: Finally Together? speculates on an
apparent lack of unity and the possibility for a mid-field: Academic Design. Adam de Eyto
and Carmel Maher present a case study for communicating present debates around design
research practice in their contribution, Beautiful Nerds: Growing a Rigorous Design
Research Dialogue in the Irish Context. Paul Rodgers & Joyce Yee take the discussion to a
speculative, imminent tone, noting the strengths of design research to shape lives in
multiple contexts and the need to marshal accessible communication, training and migration
away from products and towards people.
These calls for frameworks for communication, multifarious and interdisciplinary strands,
and a focus on people over products echo with current design history trends. Design
2589
historians are particularly attuned to reflexive applications of critical theory and history in an
attempt to correct and progress their own discipline. As such, they are in a position to reflect
and to develop in tandem with design researchers. J.C. Jones once articulated the dual
process of firstly arriving at a thought, which is different from the subsequent task of writing
it down and communicating it. This practice, be material, intellectual or discursive, requires
both theory and communication. Inclusive research methods, such as oral histories and
anthropological turns, intersectional perspectives, and geographic variations to dominant
narratives, number among recent scholarly developments, which aid in this task.
The exercise of collective choice in the exploration of a [hu]man-made future
depends not only upon the use of sufficiently powerful methods but also on the public
acknowledgement that methods must be continually remodeled to reflect the
responses and insights, the beliefs and dis-illusionments, the protests and back-lashes,
the moods and fantasies, the laughs and cries, that may result from the use, or the
mis-use of our extending powers. In short: methodology should not be a fixed trace to
a fixed destination but a conversation about everything that could be made to
happen. (King, op cit, p.71)
These words, written by Jones in 1984, suggest that conversation is part of responsible,
flexible practice. Following his dictum counteracts the simplification of design methods to
behaviour training as well as the reduction of a creative, ambiguous and evolving work to
systematic, algorithmic protocols for design problem-solving.
5. Conclusion
This strand provides a structure for conversation, a kind of prospecting that allows
experimentation and reflection, exposing tensions and creating synergies. In a paper called
Design Research: Towards a History, presented at the 2010 DRS conference, Victor
Margolin argued, New connections need to be made between researchers who study
designs meaning in the past, present, and potentially in the future and those who are doing
the research that is generating new and unprecedented products (Margolin, op cit, p.7).
Margolin outlines not only the early history of the DRS but also the societies, conferences
and communities of discourse that have proliferated but not always communicated since
1962. He also underscores that the aim of these communities should not be to streamline
design research to a common goal but to improve the quality of work and facilitate a
greater understanding of design as a social phenomenon (Ibid., p.6).
This strand sets out to explore areas for collaborative discourse, broadly defined, between
design historians and design researchers: accessible communication networks, multiple
strands of research and contribution, emphasis on people over products towards
sustainable, meaningful and ethical design. Our goal here is to investigate mutual interests in
histories for future-focused thinking that can inform current communities of discourse in
design. This essential exercise demands we question the status, context and nature of design
itself rather than accept it as a social construct. We argue such action involves future
2590
thinking across constituencies of history, theory and practice; this, to borrow a principle
from Jones, is design at the level of life (Jones, 1991).
Acknowledgements: The authors thank Professors Jeremy Aynsley and Cheryl Buckley
for their support and advice on shaping this panel and to colleagues and members of the
Design History Society. Especial thanks to Professor Peter Lloyd and the DRS2016
conference committee as well as the paper reviewers this conference is the product of
much commitment to and investment in design.
6. References
Bayazit, N (2004) Investigating design: a review of forty years of design research, Design Issues, 1,
pp.16-29.
Buckley, Cheryl (2009) Made in Patriarchy: Theories of Women and Design- A Reworking, in Brody,
David and Clark, Hazel (eds.) Design Studies. A Reader, Berg.
Cross, Nigel (1993) A History of Design Methodology, in M. J. de Vries et. al. (eds.), Design
Methodology and Relationships with Science, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp.15-27.
Design Research Society (n.d.) History of the Design Research Society, http://bit.ly/1q9PK9k
[Accessed 9 May 2016].
Jones, J.C. (1992) Design Methods 2nd ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Jones, J.C. (1991[1984]) Designing Designing 2nd ed., Architecture Design and Technology Press.
Gloag, John (1944) The Missing Technician in Industrial Production, George Allen & Unwin.
Goslett, Dorothy (1984[1960]) The Professional Practice of Design, 3rd ed., Batsford.
Grand, Simon & Jonas, Wolfgang (2012) Mapping Design Research, Birkhuser.
Gray, Milner (1946) The Design Profession, in Read, H. (ed.), The Practice of Design, L. Humphries.
King, Andrew J. (1995) [Review] Design Methods by John Chris Jones; Designing Designing by John
Chris Jones. Journal of Design History, 8 (1) pp.70-75.
Levrant De Bretteville, Sheila (1999[1973]) Some aspects of design from the perspective of a woman
designer, in Bierut, Michael, et. al. (eds.) Looking Closer 3: Classic Writings on Graphic Design,
Allworth Press, pp.238-245.
Lippincott, J.G. (1947) Design for Business, P. Theobald.
Margolin, V. (2010) Design Research: Towards a History. Proceedings of the Design Research Society
International Conference Design & Complexity. Universit de Montral, Montreal, Canada, 7-9
July 2010
Pavitt, Jane (2012) Input/Output: Design Research and Systems Thinking, in Reeve, Octavia (ed.) The
Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art, pp.129-139.
Read, Herbert (1934) Art and Industry: the Principles of Industrial Design, Faber & Faber.
Slann, Peter A. (1963) Foreword, in Jones, J. C., Thornley D. G. (eds.) Conference on Design Methods
(pp. xi-xv), Pergamon Press.
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About the Authors:

Dr Harriet Atkinson is a design historian whose research interests
centre on designers' work within 'official' contexts. She completed
her PhD in design history at the Royal College of Art (awarded 2007)
and teaches history of art and design at University of Brighton.
Dr Maya Rae Oppenheimer is a designer, writer and educator. She
holds a PhD in Humanities & Cultural Studies (London Consortium)
and teaches in the Critical & Historical Studies Department at the
Royal College of Art.
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The Structure of Design Processes: ideal and

reality in Bruce Archers 1968 doctoral thesis
Stephen Boyd Davisa* and Simone Gristwoodb
a

Middlesex University
*stephen.boyd-davis@rca.ac.uk
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.240
Abstract: The paper centres on a single document, the 1968 doctoral thesis of
L Bruce Archer. It traces the authors earlier publications and the sources that
informed and inspired his thinking, as a way of understanding the trajectory of his
ideas and the motivations for his work at the Royal College of Art from 1962.
Analysis of the thesis suggests that Archers ambition for a rigorous science of
design inspired by algorithmic approaches was increasingly threatened with
disruption by his experience of large, complex design projects. His attempts to deal
with this problem are shown to involve a particular interpretation of cybernetics.
The paper ends with Archers own retrospective view and a brief account of his
dramatically changed opinions. Archer is located as both a theorist and someone
intensely interested in the commercial world of industrial design.
Keywords: systematic method; science of design; cybernetics; embodiment
Introduction
This paper is centred on a single document, the 1968 doctoral thesis of L Bruce Archer,
entitled The Structure of Design Processes. At the Royal College of Art (RCA) for 27 years,
Archer was a key figure in early Design Research and a driving force behind the attempt in
the 1960s to be rigorous, and in particular systematic, about the nature and practice of
designing. He sought to establish a philosophy of design (Archer 1981a: 33), even a science
of design (Archer 1968: Foreword), a phrase often associated with Simons Sciences of the
Artificial (Simon 1969) (Cross 2001). Essential to this science was Design Research,
understood not only as the study of designs methods, but also of its ontology as a discipline
and an activity. Archers design philosophy also affected education in schools, through the
Design Education Unit launched at the RCA in 1977 following a two-year study for the UK
Governments Department of Education and Science.1 Archer was a vital contributor to the
work of the Design Council, as a member of Council for ten years and of many of its
committees. Partly through his work with Michael Farr, a design management entrepreneur
and editor for many years of Design magazine, Archer engaged deeply with the commercial
world.2 He lectured extensively to business audiences. His influence extended
internationally through his work in Germany, the States, Canada, Turkey, India and
elsewhere. Archer acknowledged that he learned more from such interactions than he
might have realised at the time (Archer 1981b).
Archer wanted to grasp the nature of design as well as find better ways of designing. Of
these two ambitions, he favoured the first. Christopher Frayling recalls Archer insisting, I
am not doing this to help practising designers. I am doing this to completely understand the
design process (Frayling 2013). His doctoral thesis exemplifies a tension between theory
and practice that is still with us. Subtle features within it indicate the beginnings of a change
in his thinking that later led to a radical reformation of his views, derived from his increasing
real-world experience. J Christopher Jones, in an article for Design (Jones 1966), complains
of substantial but not always very practical publications, both vague and dogmatic, [with]
little reference to the work of practising designers. Archers thinking about design was
increasingly affected by practical design projects.
We will not rehearse here the many criticisms of design methods that have been made
over the years, a rebellion initiated early on by Jones (1969) and Alexander (1971). These
debates have been discussed by Cross (1993; 2007), Glanville (1999), Dorst (2003), Bayazit
(2004), Margolin (2010), Pavitt (2012) and many others. Our topic instead is the changes
generated within Archers own thinking and his attempts to match his theories to the messy
realities he encountered.
When Archer completed his thesis in 1968 he was 46 and had worked at the RCA since 1962,
first in the School of Industrial Design as a researcher invited by Misha Black, then rising
through a series of promotions to Research Professor of the newly named Department of
Design Research (DDR) in 1972-73. Previously he had worked briefly at the Hochschule fr
Gestaltung Ulm with Horst Rittel among others (Krippendorff 2008).3 His own education had
been in mechanical engineering at what is now City University. In an article for the RCAs
Ark magazine (Archer 1972a), Archer said he was a painter before being drafted into
industry by the then Ministry of Labour. Serving in World War II from 1941 to 1944, he was
discharged on medical grounds. By 1953 he had set up an engineering consultancy and was
teaching evenings at the Central School of Art and Design; he was a full-time lecturer there
by 1957. He was writing articles for Design magazine, promoting what he called a rational
Archer describes himself as a leading proponent of the concept of design studies as a fundamental component of the education of all
children at secondary level (Archer 1974).
2 In the acknowledgements at the beginning of his thesis, Archer thanks Michael Farr who gave the author many opportunities to put his
theories to the test within the framework of the Michael Farr design management organisation (Archer 1968).
3 The Ulm Hochschule is characterized by Woodham (1997:180) as embracing a move away from intuition to method, from component to
system, from product to process, and from the individual to an interdisciplinary design team as an appropriate means of solving problems,
all features of Archers later thinking.
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The Structure of Design Processes: ideal and reality in Bruce Archers 1968 doctoral thesis
approach to design. It was from the Central School that he was invited by Toms
Maldonado to work at Ulm. There Archer discovered two factions, the mathematician/
scientists (including theoreticians and applied psychologists) and the designers. He
inclined to the mathematicians camp (Lawrence 2001:43-44).
Figure 1 Bed height adjustment mechanism a simple resolution of two opposing requirements. The
Kings Fund Hospital Bed designed by Kenneth Agnew at the Royal College of Art under
Bruce Archers leadership 1963-67. Photo: L. Bruce Archer Archive, RCA.
The Archer who arrived at the RCA therefore had a lot of experience of real life, though
less experience of large, complex design projects. That would soon change. Black had
invited him to lead a research project on non-surgical hospital equipment funded by the
Nuffield Foundation (Archer 2004). Archer saw the initial task as the development of an
organised body of knowledge that will assist manufacturers to design and hospital planners
to select fixed and moveable equipment (p.1). Four problems were chosen as the focus of
the organised body of knowledge, including the need for a standard design of hospital
beds. There were over three hundred bed types in use, made in petty numbers by many
companies. The Royal College of Nursing had reported the high incidence of permanent
back injury among nurses due to the poor design of beds (p.2).
Probably because the outputs of this organised body of knowledge project appeared too
theoretical and produced no prototype products, the first years report to Nuffield was
rejected and the follow-on three years of funding were denied.1 As Lawrence (2001:51) puts
it, In the design method which Archer was devising, a precise formulation of the design
problem was essential, and this was what, in his view, the Report represented. This
insistence on requirements capture prior to designing would be tested to the full as Archer
gained more experience.
Lawrence (2001) remarks that the notes of Archers and his assistant Butters deliberations were couched in abstract terms and
exhibited a preoccupation with methodology, with rigorous, often self-referential, definition and with stepwise progression.
2595
Following the rejection of the Report, Archer worked nights in an ice cream factory and for
nothing at the RCA during the day (Archer 2004:3). Black found ways of keeping the rest of
the team together, and recruited one of his star graduates Kenneth Agnew. Each of the
four hospital projects was addressed, including the Kings Fund hospital bed which turned
out to be a very big exercise (ibid), and is exceptionally well documented by Lawrence
(2001). Prevented by official policy from creating a single design, the team had to create a
specification that manufacturers could respond to with their own solutions.1 Nevertheless,
it was clear that the team would need to build real prototype beds and evaluate them
against many criteria. The beds needed to be high to minimise injury to nurses, but low for
the patients to get in and out: the solution was an adjustable-height bed. But straightforward resolutions like this were unusual. During the project, the team had to deal with
intersecting issues of manufacturing, materials, healthcare, hands-on nursing, standards,
safety, hospital management, patient satisfaction, industrial commerce, external relations,
and institutional culture and politics at a number of levels. Such experience seems to have
modified Archers thinking and led him to question the simplicity of his original model of
designing.
The prehistory of the Archer thesis

Archers thesis was completed in 1968 (a remarkable year worldwide) but much of it had
already appeared in print in a series of seven articles, Systematic method for designers,
roughly 27,000 words, published in Design magazine from April 1963 (Archer 1963-64).2,3
Archer was a long-term contributor to the magazine founded by Alec Davis, its first editor, in
1949 and edited from 1952 by Michael Farr. Systematic method was published under the
third editorship, that of John E Blake. The trajectory of Archers thinking in these articles is
not a simple one, but some key ideas emerge that later inform his work at the RCA. His first
Design article (Archer 1954), published under Farr, argued the importance of both creative
invention and profound technical knowledge in an industrial designer, a theme reprised a
year later (Archer 1955). He then contributed a design analysis of a new typewriter (Archer
1955), this time highlighting poor British industrial innovation compared with competitors, a
topic often revisited that highlights his interest in the commercial world. Four articles from
1956 (Archer 1956a) began a series again arguing against purely technical engineers working
by rule of thumb: the industrial designer needed to be informed by both art and science. At
this stage, Archer clearly sees the intuitive part of designing as preceding the scientific part
(in italics he states It is necessary that a hypothetical design shall first be laid down before
1
Lawrence 2001 p.32. In 1967, a Report entitled The Design of Hospital Bedsteads was published by the Kings Fund in London. The
Report, which contained a specification for a bedstead suitable for general purposes, was the result of a four year project which had cost
in the region of 35,000.
2 In current terminology, the thesis Archer presented might be considered a submission for doctorate by prior publication. The level of
previously published material in it was surely unusual for the expectations and regulations of the time. To date no documents discussing
this question have been found in the archives.
3 Systematic Method was highly valued by the readers of Design. A note in issue 38 (1965) p.73 states: The unprecedented demand for
this series of articles has made it necessary for DESIGN to publish them as a bound reprint, revised and extended by the author.
2596
analysis can begin p.14) and explicitly says that design is not about the evolution of forms
by scientific methods.
In the second article of the series, Archer complains about the low proportion of trained
men engaged in scientific and technological work compared to other nations (Archer
1956b:32). Design Research is envisaged as including the calculation of the bounding space
of optimal solutions, based on data about requirements, materials and manufacturing
methods later a key part of Archers thesis. Archer notes how amateurism in
management plays a very big part in Britains industrial failure (p.33). In the thesis this will
lead him to think about management, game theory, and business decision processes. Still
disenchanted with technicians who neither think creatively nor are up to speed with the
state of their art, he is increasingly sanguine about science: Herein lies the brightest hope
for progress in design research and for the recovery of the art of designing from its present
intimidated state (p.35). The final series article (Archer and Zaczek 1956) calls again for
more rigour in designing from whatever discipline. Archers next article (Archer 1957a)
again calls for more science in design, but still does not necessarily require a science of
design.
A series of articles with J. Beresford-Evans (later a visiting lecturer under Black and a key
styling designer with him of diesel locomotives for British Rail (Jackson 2013: 63))1 show
Beresford-Evans focusing on the aesthetic aspects while Archer subjects cooking pans
(Beresford-Evans and Archer 1957a), hand axes (Archer and Beresford-Evans 1957), and a
free-standing fire (Beresford-Evans and Archer 1957b) to a series of tests. Archer continued
these design analysis articles into the next decade. The 1957 articles emphasise the need to
combine subjective and objective evaluation. There is a focus on qualities that matter to
people, almost atavistic and endowed with life in the case of the domestic hearth (p.53).
In Electronic Instruments Archer (1957b) rails at the assumption that a problem has only
one solution (p.29). In Honest Styling (Archer 1957c) Archer makes the telling remark that
the manufacturer has considered not merely a machine, but a man/machine/work system
and notes with approval that its dial has been redesigned close to principles enunciated by
the Applied Psychology Research Unit, Cambridge, and was developed with the aid of advice
obtained from the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, Farnborough.
On first studying the thesis, we thought we saw a simple transition: that Archer as a
mechanical engineer was attempting to scientise design. But the preceding material has
modified our view. Archers original emphasis was on the need for creative design in
engineering. He was arguing for rigour, not confined to scientific rigour, in industrial
practice. Design decisions should be based where appropriate on objective data, and
calculation used to identify the limits on optimal designs. No process would provide a single
best solution. He assumed that the designers vision preceded any application of logic.
The business within which Black and Beresford-Evans worked was the Design Research Unit, a commercial consultancy having significant
overlap with RCA academic staff but not to be confused with Archers Department of Design Research. See Cotton 2010 for a history of
the Design Research Unit 1942-1972.
2597
There is a strong emphasis on the commercial world, of survival and success in international
markets, and the inadequacy of current management.
Some influences on the Archer thesis

By the time Archer wrote Systematic Method and the thesis, he was increasingly optimistic
about a science of design. Now little is said about the need for creative input most of it
emphasises the power of a range of scientific disciplines. What led to this change? Titles in
his bibliography are illuminating, including: Scientific method; optimising applied research
decisions (Ackoff 1962); General systems theory, skeleton of a science (Boulding 1956);
Prediction and optimal decision (Churchman 1961); Problem analysis by logical approach
(Latham 1965); New product decisions: an analytical approach (Pessemier 1966). This was a
period of high optimism about rational methods, systematic thinking and calculation in
decision-making and execution. Operational Research (OR) and Organisation and Methods
(O&M) were seen to have yielded significant benefits in war (Kirby 2003) and administration.
Archer is unequivocal: A logical model of the design process is developed, and a
terminology and notation is adopted, which is intended to be compatible with the
neighbouring disciplines of management science and operational research. Many of the
concepts and techniques presented are, indeed, derived from those disciplines (Archer
1968: foreword).
Optimism about systematisation was closely allied to the adoption of computing. Agar
(2003: Chapter 8) charts the relationship between Treasury O&M and the computerisation
of government work, the government machine metaphor instantiated in actual
computational machinery. In 1968 computing was the key feature of Cybernetic Serendipity
at the ICA and in 1969 Event 1, the first major public activity of the Computer Arts Society,
was held at the RCA (Mason 2009). Many exhibitors were influenced by cybernetics, OR and
Systems Theory (Bertalanffys article General System Theory (1951) is cited in Archers
thesis and Bertalanffys book of that name came out in 1968). On the continent, New
Tendencies in Zagreb included Computer and Visual Research from 1968, while computing
featured in the Nuremberg and Venice biennales from 1969 and 1970. Max Bense, whose
pursuit of rational aesthetics involved him in one of the first computer arts exhibitions in
Stuttgart in 1965, taught at Ulm in the 1950s and was the intellectual backbone of the
school at that time according to Krippendorf (2008:57).
For the 1962 Conference on Design Methods, Jones opened his paper with the words, A
trend towards more logical and systematic methods of design has been evident throughout
the 1950s. In many cases they have appeared as the result of new technical developments
such as computers, automatic controls and systems (Jones 1963). Next year Archer wrote,
the logic by which computers work, and the clarity and fullness of expression which is
necessary to prepare a real-world problem for computing, are valuable indicators of the sort
2598
of logic which might work even without a computer (Archer 1963).1 A report on
government computing in 1956 had explained that all computing systems include input of
data and instructions, storage, control, operations for calculation or processing of data, and
output (National Physical Laboratory 1956: 3). This linear approach was in many ways just
what appealed to Archer, Jones and many others. They were stimulated by the need to be
explicit about the problem they were trying to solve and by the need for data at the outset.
But alternative models would also claim Archers attention, as discussed below.
Figure 2 Figure 2.4 from Archers doctoral thesis illustrating the case where a product may be
required to be as profitable as possible, with a low limit of profitability, but no high limit
(Archer 1968: section 2.10).
Archers thesis document

The Archer thesis is divided into chapters on definition of design, the nature of the act of
designing, the systematic model, the operational model, the design programme, the logic of
design procedure, design factors, the problem of aesthetics, the problem of imperfect
information, techniques in problem solving, and finally a summary and conclusions. It
comprises about 36,000 typewritten words, 80 pages of diagrams and 90 endnotes. The
argument proceeds by introducing a simple model of the design process and refining it
chapter by chapter. The diagrams are significant. Many are graphs (Figure 2). Many
resemble algorithmic flow charts (Figure 3). Others show the relation between such models
At a practical level as well as metaphorically the DDR under Archer pioneered the uses of computing in design. In 1964 it was stated that,
In recent years Mr Archer has devoted himself to the development of a system of logic for the solution of design problems and has
become deeply involved in the application of computer techniques. At the moment he is engaged in applying these techniques (Granada
Television 1964:6). George Mallen and Patrick Purcell were key figures within the DDR in this development, as was John Lansdown from
his position in the Science Research Council. See Gristwood and Boyd Davis (2014); Boyd Davis and Gristwood (2015; 2016).
2599
and the real world (Figure 4), illustrating Archers interest in connecting his schemata to
reality.
Figure 3 Figure 4.5 from Archers doctoral thesis illustrating the case where a system of systems
may form a closed loop, with every subsystem depending on inputs from another
subsystem (Archer 1968: section 4.9).
Figure 4 Figure 4.6 from Archers doctoral thesis illustrating how the design process is thus a
dialogue between the real-world and the operational model (Archer 1968: section 4.10).
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Figure 5 Figure 2.18 from Archers doctoral thesis illustrating how the interdependence of the
curves of feasible mutual states will constitute an n-dimensional hypersurface or realm of
feasibility. An important pre-requisite for an ultimate solution is that at least a portion of
the realm of feasibility should intersect the domain of acceptability, producing an arena
within which a solution must be found (Archer 1968: section 2.27).
An important feature is the calculation of the solution space within which the final design
must lie (Figure 5). To calculate this, clearly the requirements and constraints must be
known in advance. Archer tended to believe at this stage that the design process began with
defining the brief, establishing the requirements and giving them appropriate weights,
securing the necessary data and then actually designing. The requirements stand outside
the iterative cycle. His diagram (Figure 6), appearing in similar form in several works in the
1960s, clearly shows the brief as outside and preceding the design process proper. Data
analysis, synthesis and development are all allowed to retrospectively alter data collection
(presumably as the need for new facts becomes apparent) but none of these alters the brief
and therefore the requirements.
Figure 6 Simplified checklist from Archers handwritten notes entitled Lecture for London College
of Furniture 25 Feb 1965 Systematic method 1 Introduction from L Bruce Archer Archives,
RCA, London: box 2.1.2. The brief precedes and lies outside the design cycle.
Archer had a very particular view of designing as being prior to making: A key element in
the act of designing is the formation of a prescription or model for a finished work in
advance of its embodiment. Thus a sculptor working directly with his or her material is not
designing, but when a sculptor produces a cartoon for his proposed work, only then he can
2601
be said to be designing it (Archer 1963 Part Two: 70).1 But this ideal model, in which
requirements are finalised prior to designing, which then proceeds in an orderly manner,
shows subtle signs of disturbance in the thesis. Surely the fact that Archer had managed and
studied the horribly complex Hospital Bed and other live projects, rather than simply
observing designing at a distance, must have made him more aware of the messiness and
the embodied nature of real world design?
The model disrupted

There are a number of disturbances to the systematic model. These include complexity, the
need to revisit the brief and requirements, and the problem of securing good data.
Complexity
Archer always acknowledged that there are multiple solutions to design problems. Figure 5
and its associated thesis text (Archer 1968: section 2.27) make clear that multiple solutions
may occupy the spaces between the bounding surfaces of feasibility and acceptability. Yet
one key reason to be pessimistic about any systematic method is the interdependence of
factors. Fixing one problem opens another, and typically unforeseen consequences occur,
problems of complexity characteristic of socio-technical systems (Johnson 2010:120) such
as hospital beds. Even exhaustive computation may not do the trick: to derive a trend
which would point to an ideal solution, is only just becoming feasible and yet might never be
attainable because of the large number of variable factors which are not always
interdependent (Archer 1956a:14).2 Archers colleague at Ulm, Horst Rittel, memorably
characterised these as wicked problems in dialogue with C West Churchman at just the
time Archer was finalising his thesis. Both authors feature in the thesis (Churchman 1961;
Rittel 1965), and he explicitly notes the significance of dependence (Archer 1968: endnote
60). A characteristic passage in the Rittel chapter cited by Archer could be a description of
problems like the hospital bed: ...it can be expected that the exchange of associations
between several persons is likely to raise this threshold since each association acts as a new
stimulus on the other persons. In this manner not only C is increased but also the diversity
of the associations produced. This diversity is greatest when the individual reservoirs of
associations overlap least (i.e. they are specialists from widely different fields) (Rittel 1965:
209-210).
Requirements in contention
Despite diagrams like Figure 6 that appear to show the brief lying outside and prior to the
design process, Archer actually acknowledges at several points that the requirements which
the designers thought they were working to may be subject to revision at almost any point.
This leads Archer to the odd contention that a couturier is designing even when making a garment on the stand but only provided this is
not the finished item but a prototype for a garment that is going to be made subsequently (Archer 1963 Part Two: 70).
2 Given the context and flow of argument at this point, it seems possible that Archer meant to end this sentence are not always
independent. In any case it is clear that he believes there is significant interdependence between factors.
2602
As Rittel put it later: ...the irritating thing is that, depending on the state of solution, the
next question for additional information is unique and dependent on the state of solution
you have already reached (Rittel 1972:392). In Archers words, During the course of the
problem solving activity new objectives may tend to form and reform (Archer 1968: 2.29);
The complete set of objectives is only rarely definable at the beginning of the project. Most
of them emerge by mutual consent as the project progresses (Archer 1968: 6:15). He
seems comfortable with this, even though we might consider that it undermines some key
aspects of his system: It is open to the arbiter or arbiters in a problem to manipulate the
importance ratings in any way they wish, and to revise their ratings at any stage they wish,
so as to represent their true aims and interests as the consequences of their decisions
emerge, or fresh information becomes available. (Archer 1968: 3.30). And these are not
just minor refinements: any effective design procedure must therefore permit radical
reappraisal of the problem at any stage. (Archer 1968: 6:17 emphasis added). Again the
real-world complexities of design projects seem to have had a progressive influence on
Archers thinking, but without yet undermining his faith in the system.
Lack of good data

For Archer, the designer or engineer must work with the best possible information rather
than relying on intuition or custom and practice. OR and O&M had both promoted the
provision of adequate data in order to be effective. In ergonomics, Jones had been
advocating the use of strong data for more than a decade (Jones 1954). Dreyfuss influential
anthropometric files had been published repeatedly in the preceding ten years (Dreyfuss
1959). Yet in key areas that Archer considered essential to design, including aesthetics, he
acknowledges the lack of good data. A work cited frequently in the thesis confronts the twin
problems of interdependence and uncertainty (Tavistock Institute 1966). Archer bemoans
the lack of a corpus of knowledge or a set of techniques capable of providing rational
aesthetic decisions (Archer 1968: 8:17). This for him is a lack of good information, not a
fundamental difficulty in processing and using qualitative data: it should be possible to
collect data and to carry out analyses of trends and probabilities, using techniques well
developed in the natural and social sciences (Archer 1968: 8:16); The principal distinction
between phenomena from the operational point of view is therefore not in their qualitative
v. quantitative character but in their known v. not known character (Archer 1968: 9.4).
There are problems of both availability and quality: the data is difficult to find, and when
found it very often contains redundancies, errors and omissions (Archer 1968: 9.9). This
arises from the very nature of design problems, dealing as they do with so many kinds of
criteria (Archer 1968: 9.10). Later, Archer would present an important paper precisely on
computing with qualitative data (Archer 1972b. See Gristwood and Boyd Davis 2014: 622).
Games and cybernetics

We have discussed Archers inspiration in OR, O&M, computation and systematic decision
making. How did he deal with the kinds of problems we have just highlighted, which
2603
threatened to disrupt such models? Two key areas of his bibliography are concerned with
game theory and with cybernetics, disciplines that both deal with ongoing, unpredictable,
dynamic systems and with emergent properties. They are thus quite distinct from the
pipeline model that at first sight seems fundamental to Archers system and is the basis of
simple OR and O&M.1 As Pickering (2002) puts it, cybernetics grabs on to the world
differently from the classical sciences. While the latter seek to pin the world down in
timeless representations, cybernetics directly thematizes the unpredictable liveliness of the
world, and processes of open-ended becoming. Pickering distinguishes cerebral,
representational American cybernetics from the embedded and embodied UK cybernetics
created by Ashby, Beer and Pask, all of whose works appear in the Archer bibliography
(Ashby 1957; Beer 1959; Pask 1961). Cybernetics attempts to break the distinction between
biological and artificial systems, between brains and bodies, entities and their environments,
and cuts across the entrenched departments of natural science (Pask 1961: 11).
Cybernetics offers Archer a way to envisage how the design process is thus a dialogue
between the real-world and the operational model (Archer 1968: 4:10) (Figure 4).
Two cyberneticians in particular are relevant to the problems of complexity and uncertainty
Ashby and Pask. Ashby notes how complexity had been avoided traditionally: not until the
1920s did it become clearly recognised that there are complex systems that just do not
allow the varying of only one factor at a timethey are so dynamic and interconnected that
the alteration of one factor immediately acts as cause to evoke alterations in others,
perhaps in a great many others (Ashby 1957:5). Ashby and Pask can often be read as
though describing complex multi-stakeholder design projects: There is first a set of
disturbances D, that start in the world outside the organism, often far from it, and that
threaten, if the regulator R does nothing, to drive the essential variables E outside their
proper range of values (Ashby 1957:209). Ashby on emergent properties: Often, however,
the knowledge is not, for whatever reason, complete. Then the prediction has to be
undertaken on incomplete knowledge, and may prove mistaken (Ashby 1957: 111). Pask
also toys with situations where the objective is not obvious at the outset and only becomes
so when some tentative knowledge has been gained (Pask 1961: 19). Uncertainty stems
from ourselves and our contact with the World (p.21). Perhaps this remark of Pasks
appealed to Archer after all the tribulations of complex practical projects: Cybernetics
offers a scientific approach to the cussedness of organisms, suggests how their behaviours
can be catalysed and the mystique and rule of thumb banished (p.110).
Looking back
Several of the works that Archer cites exploit the notion of a black box (Ashby 1957, Beer
1959, Duckworth 1962, Pask 1961), the cyberneticians in particular celebrating the idea.
Archer does not echo their admiration, perhaps annoyed that designers themselves are so
1
One of the information management sources in Archers bibliography is unusual in offering the remark A sophisticated total system
would even include its own arrangements for adjusting (redesigning) itself to meet the needs of a changing environment (McDonough
1963: 242).
2604
unfathomable: meanwhile, the only effective black box is the sensibility of a discerning
and creative designer. He wanted to open the black box of designing and discover what was
inside. Though his structure and his systematic method look very like algorithms for
designing, in the end he was, above all, interested to understand what designing is.
McIntyre (1995) suggests that Archers thinking continued unchanged, yet this is clearly not
the case. Years later he felt that he had wasted a lot of time trying to bend the methods of
operational research and management techniques to design purposes (Archer 1979). He
now offered a dramatically different approach: humanities, science and design as equal
points of a triad of disciplines. Archer announced that there exists an under-recognised but
definable third area of human knowing, additional to numeracy and literacy (1978:
foreword, emphasis added). Ten years after 1968, the year of revolutions, it was Time for
a Revolution in Art and Design Education (Archer 1978: title), and Archer, through the
Design Education Unit led by Ken Baynes, would set about creating it (Green and Steers
2006).
Given Archers own negative re-assessment of his systematic method, there is a risk of
underestimating what Archer achieved. The year before he died (Archer 2004), he himself
felt that we had at least established that work study, systems analysis and ergonomics were
proper tools for the industrial designers trade. He was surely right about the need for
design to be informed by the latest knowledge and for custom and practice to be always
challengeable by new data. He championed research into how prototype products were
actually used in real contexts. How many objects and systems would be better designed if
only his rigorous questioning approach were more common, even now? Though he did not
foresee just how bad the decline in UK industrial innovation would become, he diagnosed its
causes.
When Jocelyn Stevens became Rector at the RCA in 1984, he closed the Department of
Design Research. For George Mallen (2011), the effect was to almost annihilate any
intellectual activity in the College. Stevens kept Archer on while sacking all his staff. It
broke Bruces heart in the opinion of Christopher Frayling (2013). Archers insistence that
he was not trying to help practising designers almost certainly told against him he paid the
price for such honesty. The other departments stood by and watched the Department close.
At Senate, nobody said a word. They were just relieved it wasnt them (Frayling 2013).
2605
Figure 6 An example page from Archers doctoral thesis. Section 6 introduces The logic of design
procedure and begins by highlighting two topics: 1. the piecewise procedural approach of
decomposition (an approach also fundamental to computer algorithm design); 2. the
theory of games indicating Archers increasing acknowledgement of the complex and
emergent nature of larger design projects.
2606
A note on the thesis document

The thesis was published in photocopied form in 1969 by the U.S. Department of Commerce
National Technical Information Service, and was republished, according to Archer (1971), in
Japanese in 1970 and in French by the Ministre des Affaires Culturelles in 1971. The
photocopy is from an original bearing many hand-written corrections and amendments. Not
least, the title has been altered, from The Structure of the Design Process to The
Structure of Design Processes. The chapter title The problem of aesthetics has added
underlining and a question mark the corresponding section of Systematic Method in
Design issue 172 was called The meaning of aesthetics and there are many other
alterations. Intriguingly, the very last page has an acknowledgement to the book designer
Brian Grimbly, which suggests that the thesis was at the same time a book manuscript. A
later archived letter from Terry Bishop (1980), editor at Design Council Books, begins:
Dear Professor Archer
A PHILOSOPHY FOR DESIGN
Im sure you remember our joint intention to produce a book based on your RCA
lectures under this title.
As your text is now long overdue, however, I wonder whether you want to proceed
with this project.
We can assume that this is not a book based on the thesis, given how much Archers thinking
had changed in the twelve years since its completion, yet it is intriguing to wonder at the
contents of the book that never appeared and how it would have reflected the profound
shifts in Archers thinking.
Acknowledgements: The authors are deeply grateful for interviews, providing essential
insights, with Kenneth Agnew, Miranda Archer, Ken Baynes, Sir Christopher Frayling,
Ghislaine Lawrence, George Mallen, Phil Roberts and Doug Tomkin; also to Neil
Parkinson, RCA archivist, and to the staff of the Design Archive at University of Brighton
and the DDR Archive at the V&A. They also gratefully acknowledge the valuable advice
of the anonymous DRS reviewers. Dr Simone Gristwoods research has been partly
funded by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the RCA.
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About the Authors:

Stephen Boyd Davis is Professor of Design Research at the RCA,
London, where he leads staff research in the School of Design. His
research focuses on the representation of knowledge through
computation, depiction and diagramming, with an emphasis on
chronographics.
Dr Simone Gristwood is Lansdown Research Curator at Middlesex
University. Her research focuses on uncovering the histories of the
use of computing in the arts and design from the 1960s onwards,
primarily through investigating the archives of pioneers.
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Closing the circle

Douglas Tomkin
UTS Australia
douglas.tomkin@uts.edu.au
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.288
Abstract: This paper describes a personal journey beginning at the Department of

Design Research (DDR), Royal College of Art in 1967 under the leadership of Bruce
Archer and culminating in the newly formed Design Innovation Research Centre
(DIRC) at the University of Technology Sydney under the guidance of Kees Dorst in
2015. The paper compares the processes and outcomes of the two centres in shaping
design research with a particular focus on design in the public sector. The paper
concludes with some reflections on the influence the different approaches have had
on the way designers design.
Keywords: history: public sector; theory, design thinking
Introduction
The 50TH anniversary of the Design Research Society has prompted a personal reflection on a
life linked with design research from a time close to its beginnings extending to where we
are today. My role in this journey has been part guinea pig, as designer testing new
methodologies under the scrutiny of researchers, part teacher of design methods and part
practitioner. I am not, however a practicing design researcher and offer this contribution
more as an outsider observing a period important to the history and the development of
design research.
In retrospect the influence of the public sector in furthering the interest of design research
was somewhat unexpected. The possible reason for this is briefly explored at the outset of
this paper. The remainder is a chronological account of design research through personal
experience and does not profess to recount all that occurred during this period. The Victoria
and Albert Museum archive holds extensive records of research activities at the Royal
College of Art from the early 60s to the 80s. Those records were indispensable in forming
this account, as were meetings with colleagues of the period. During this time one of the
pioneers of design research L. Bruce Archer established the Department of Design Research
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Douglas Tomkin
(DDR), the first of its kind in the UK. Trained as an engineering designer L. Bruce Archer
joined the Royal College of Art in 1962 following a one-year guest professor role at the
Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Ulm. While in Ulm he was tasked with bringing together two
factions. One faction viewed design from a science perspective and the other from an artistic
viewpoint. This experience proved to be influential in forming his understanding of design
and in establishing the structure of DDR. Crucially there was a symbiotic relationship in the
Department between design consultancy projects, mostly with government departments,
and academic research.
Design in the public sector

Tendering public sector projects
The public sector is a major purchaser of manufactured goods, yet unlike consumer products
where the designer works closely with the client, designers rarely form professional
relationships with public servants. The tendering system of purchase, aimed at reducing
corruption, discourages such collaboration. Designing for the public sector nearly always
entails responding to a detailed brief in the tender document with no opportunity for the
design consultant to question underlying assumptions. However where circumstances allow
for academic institutions to form relationships with government departments it is possible
to explore more fundamental issues and conduct research rarely possible in the private
sector. In the case studies below both Universities undertook design related problems in the
public sector and utilized the projects to simultaneously conduct design research.
Design research as a discipline

While the marriage of research and design into a distinct discipline in the 1950s was
dominated by engineering systems it was in the 60s that British academics began the design
methods movement with a focus on user needs (Cross 1984). User needs figured
prominently in Bruce Archers Systematic Method for Designers in 1965 (Archer 1965).
Archer spent the next 20 years practicing what he preached, overseeing more than 100
projects employing his approach to design (Parkinson 2012). With one or two notable
exceptions these projects were in partnership with the public sector. One such exception
was a two-day workshop with Lloyds Assurance where Bruce utilized a design thinking
approach (his words) to a problem not related to industrial design (Archer 1973).
Change in design research direction

Fast-forward 45 years and the relationship between design research and the public sector
holds good. The chance to explore new ways of approaching design and evaluating the
results in the real world remains the cornerstone in legitimizing the discipline and it is the
public sector that can offer this opportunity (Dorst, Kaldor, Klippan, Watson 2015). The
major difference between the 1970s and now is the adoption of design methods outside the
design profession. This change in context has provided new directions to design research
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Closing the Circle
particularly in the public sector where complex, seemly insolvable problems desperately
seek a fresh approach (Pritchett, Woolcock 2004).
Department of Design Research (DDR) at the Royal College of Art

(RCA) 1960s 80s
Key design and research projects
Design research at the RCA will for some time to come be associated with Bruce Archers
ground-breaking design methodology exemplified in the development of a new standard for
hospital beds for the National Health Service in 1967 (Swann, D. 2012). The project
culminated in a product that ultimately changed the face of nursing in the UK. The radically
new design was firmly focused on users, both staff and patients, with many of the features
eliminating backbreaking manoeuvres. Over 500,000 beds were built to the specification
around the world and many are still in use. The development of the specification and
prototype bed design was lead by Kenneth Agnew. The project exemplified a new
methodology for designers developed by Archer. A great deal has been written about this
project; the design, the methodology and the man. Probably the most comprehensive
account is by Ghislaine Mary Lawrence in her 2001 thesis Hospital bed by design: a sociohistorical account of the Kings Fund bed, 1960 -1975 (Lawrence 2001 a). Lawrence
recounts the complex journey of the Kings Fund bed and the significance of Archers design
method within the project and beyond to the wider design community. It makes for
fascinating reading but only tells part of the story of what went on in DDR. During its 20
years of existence DDR contributed a great deal more than the bed project. This included the
design of many socially oriented products, the first interactive computer aided design (CAD)
programs, and an ambitious and ultimately successful project to introduce design into
secondary schools. All these projects were underpinned by the Archer design method and
with the benefit of hindsight reveal much about the successes and failures of one of the first
and most influential design method movements anywhere in the world. As in any new
creative movement the leader, Bruce Archer played a pivotal role. Until his retirement in
1988 his focus was firmly on developing design as a knowledge based discipline comparable
with those of science but with its own unique framework. He was ably supported by a team
of researchers and designers contributing to the understanding of design, the role of design
in society and the meaning of design research. (Archer, B. 1981)
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Douglas Tomkin
Figure 1 Bruce Archer (on the right) examining a hospital bed with the Kings Fund bed designer
Kenneth Agnew (on the left) circa 1965
Figure 2 Pre-existing hospital bed and prototype Kings Fund Bed
Ethics and project diversity

Ethical considerations were ever present in the Department, encouraged by a new student
awareness and active participation in the policies of the RCA. This was a time when many
students in the UK and elsewhere felt empowered to question all aspects of life that
impacted on them. Distrust of authority led to many conflicts between students and police
in the late 1960s. Despite funding pressure (all research fellows were responsible for their
project funding) no work was undertaken unless it was seen to have value to society. One
project, the design of command and control rooms for the Glasgow Police Force, narrowly
escaped rejection (Wood 1975). However when completed the project did show evidence of
social contribution. The new control room resulted in a significant reduction in emergency
response time, saving lives (Wood 1976). New ergonomic specification for control room staff
was also developed as part of the project, with wider application for computer operators
(Wood 1975). Ergonomics is a design element well suited to measurement, test results can
be quantified, and as such it was a valued tool in DDR. This was particularly evident in early
CAD work. In collaboration with Nottingham University a computer-based avatar was
created to virtually test proposed hospital equipment designs. The stick figure avatar was
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Closing the Circle
used to assess nurse bed making and lifting under a variety of situations. (Archer, Mallen
1973) In hindsight it does seem incredible that with extremely limited computing power
researchers developed interactive software that enabled users with a light pen to perform a
bed-making task and be alerted when an action was ergonomically inappropriate. The
software was ultimately commercialised with the acronym SAMMIE (Das & Sengupta 1995).
These examples like all DDR projects were centred on the user. Understanding the user
viewpoint was seen as a key to successful outcomes whatever the problem.
With design beginning to be seen as a legitimate university activity, if not a science, the
value of the discipline in other spheres was not lost to Archer and a number of his
colleagues. They fervently believed that design offered a way of approaching problems in
every aspect of life. To this end Archer established a spin off department with the aim of
introducing design at all levels of education (Langdon 1969). Design, he believed should rank
alongside numeracy and literacy as the three pillars of education (Archer 1979). It could be
argued that design education research at the RCA provided the groundwork for the eventual
introduction of Design and Technology as a secondary school subject.
Figure 2 Print out from interactive computer aided design program with nurse and hospital
medicine trolley 1973 and resulting prototype
Lloyds Life Assurance design project December 1972

This project deserves special attention from the perspective of design research history.
Firstly I am not aware of any previous use of design method to solve problems outside of
design and architecture. Secondly it was the only DDR project to be condensed into a very
short period. Preparation and running the project spanned two months including three
intensive workshop days (Wood interview 2015). This contraction of the timescale and the
requirement for non-designers to engage with the process brings the Archer method into
sharp focus and allows comparison with design thinking methods in use today. Underlying
the project was Archers view that a properly structured methodology related to the
manipulation of information by sets of problem solving rules and was therefore independent
of the actual content of the information itself (Archer 1965). This project provided a unique
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Douglas Tomkin
opportunity to demonstrate that a method developed for designing artifacts was equally
appropriate to problem solving elsewhere. The problem, defined by Lloyds, was the need to
gain the competitive edge over rivals in the emerging pension policy market (Tester 1974).
The information providing the context for a solution was a complex mix of legal, brokerage,
shareholder and end user data. This was, in todays terminology, a co-design exercise.
Following four preliminary meetings a mixed discipline group of 14 individuals were isolated
from any distraction to resolve this issue. While a hierarchy was specified in the planning
documents (with both a chairman and project leader overseeing workshops) the structure
was kept informal. Participants were required to dress casually and care was taken to
prevent extreme embarrassment should anyone feel they were not contributing. Concern
that personality clashes might affect the quality of the outcome was documented. However
there was no evidence that this did occur. The process involved ten distinct steps (Tester
1974) In keeping with the Archer method a list of carefully prepared elements (nine in all)
viewed as essential for success were tabled followed by the generation of a stakeholder list
(ten in all). The workshop produced 30 attributes a new policy should have and developed a
matrix of attributes and stakeholders. New policy ideas were generated referring to the
element list and the matrix. The concepts were then ranked with respect to the matrix,
revealing the preferred options. Lloyds declared the process a success with three new
pension schemes outlined. Perhaps of greater significance (from the client perspective) was
the realisation that staff that had never met as a group and who were schooled in a
conservative meticulous attention to formal
procedure could operate successfully in such a novel environment. A full account of the
exercise can be found in the School of Design student publication North Carolina State
University volume 23 1974. How this knowledge changed company structure, if at all, is not
recorded. The Lloyds exercise was deemed newsworthy. The Times ran a story entitled
Heads down in the Lloyds think-tank while the workshop was still in progress (Speigelberg
1972).
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Closing the Circle
EXAMINEBRIEF
EESSENTIAL
IDENTIFY
IFY
ELEMENTSOFPRODUCT
N
IDENTIFY
FY
IINTERESTED
PARTIESINPRODUCT
R
P
IDENTIFY
FY
PRODUCT'S
DESIRABLEATTRIBUTES
A
RELATE
E
ATTRIBUTES
TT
TOINTERESTEDPARTIES
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ATE
A
ALTERNATIVE
PRODUCTIDEAS
SELECT
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SSOLUTION
O
DEVELOP
LOP
O
OUTLINE
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EVALUATE
UATE
DESIGN
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TAIL
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DESIGN
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Figure 3 Lloyds workshop list of steps
Figure 4 Lloyds workshop in progress. Bruce Archer is top left. 1972
Reactions to the DDR methodology

The DDR method had its critics in the 60s and 70s. G. Broadbent said the methods
neglected humanness, values and emotion or judgement (Broadbent 1979). It was also
thought that the concentration on detailed information research would never deliver all
there was to know about a problem. Therefore the idea that a full and exact exposition of a
problem would contain the solution was a fallacy (Broadbent 1979). Some departments in
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Douglas Tomkin
the RCA were hostile to Archers methods, Fashion and Textiles particularly so. There was a
view that a rigid formulaic approach to design led to a stunting of creativity. It was true that
the design profession, as distinct from design academics, showed little interest in systematic
design method (Lawrence 2002 b). These opinions are understandable especially when
based on text alone and not through participating in the process. I could find no direct
response to the Broadbent criticism, but my view and the view of other DDR design staff was
that the Archer method provided a unique and invaluable scaffold for approaching design
problems. Systematic method for designers was not widely adopted outside of DDR.
However the process did enable a cluster of successful social sector products and the
development of early CAD software. More importantly systematic method helped facilitate a
positive change in attitude towards the role design could play in commerce and in improving
government services. Design was taken seriously.
Figure 5 Section of the Archer systematic method showing the detail steps and cross-referencing
Intervening years
Much of the time between 1980s and 2000 might well be considered the dark age of design
research, over shadowed by postmodern reasoning with its emphasis on cultural relativism
and lack of objective reasoning. Exceptions were Nigel Cross and others who delivered new
insights thus keeping the debate on design research alive (Cross 1994). At the end of the 90s
the economic success of well designed hi tech products alerted businesses to the
importance of design and the benefits of participating in creative processes. During the same
period universities virtually mandated that design staff reach doctoral level to teach design;
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Closing the Circle
as a result design methods were explored in depth by this new wave of design academics.
Both design and design method became hot topics resulting in a rush of publications, new
courses and new vocabulary. Design thinking and innovation reached a status in business,
academia and even government not dreamed of in the 60s.
Design Innovation University of Technology Sydney (UTS) 2009 2015

Design innovation and design research
In 2009 the University of Technology Sydney teamed with the Justice Department NSW to
form a research centre aimed at reducing crime by design intervention, the Designing Out
Crime Research Centre (DOC). Predominately working in the public sector the concept
centred on bringing design method to complex issues that often results in criminal or anti
social behaviour (Watson 2013). While new physical, tangible products were seen as
valuable outcomes to the Centres work the wider brief was to bring in design thinking to
create new systems, structures, indeed any innovations likely to keep the community safe
from criminals. This was not the first time crime and design had been connected
academically (Wortley, Mazerolle 2013). However DOC did provide the first opportunity to
study, develop and publish design method as practiced on live and pressing problems in the
Australian public sector. The mastermind of the Centres approach was Kees Dorst. Kees
arrived in Australia in 2007 having practiced, taught and researched design in his homeland
Holland where he engaged with industry leaders and government agencies on strategy and
coping with technical change. A new way of thinking on how design might interact outside
the discipline was evident in his first book, Understanding Design (Dorst 2003). Perched on
the three-legged stool of research, consultancy and education DOC has completed an
impressive number of projects, many involving students, and staff papers in two disciplines:
design and criminology. Over a period of five years a problem solving process emerged, a
combination of a method articulated by Kees and refined through practical application. The
resulting Frame creation, a nine-step process is now the subject of two books, learned
articles and workshops (Dorst 2015). The method provides a platform for innovation well
beyond crime prevention. The success of DOC and the Kees Dorst method did not go
unnoticed in the wider university community outside of design. The new VC (appointed
2014) placed innovation as a top priority for UTS and as a consequence the Design
Innovation Research Centre was formed in 2015, bringing together many of the Universitys
creative thinkers in a partnership which included the DOC team (DIRC 2015). The largely
open plan office houses 20 plus staff, overseas guests and PhD students. Whiteboards,
butcher paper notes, table tennis and generous refreshment facilities dominate the space.
An informal drinks and music session starting 4 pm every Friday replaces brain storming
around the printer. An atmosphere of collegiality, exchange of views and a sense of purpose
is pervasive. While it is to early to predict if this hub of activity will contribute to design
research similar to DDR the signs are positive. The Centre is forming new relationships; some
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Douglas Tomkin
with international bodies such as UNESCO, others with local and federal government
departments in addition to key Universities in Europe and the US. It is the design-based
methodologies that underlie these relationships.
Figure 6 Kees Dorst presenting his frame creation approach to solving complex problems. UTS 2015
The DIRC research approach

There is no single approach to problem solving in DIRC. The coming together of such an
eclectic group means there are many paths practiced in reaching new solutions. However
two tend to dominate. The aforementioned frame creation and the second design led
innovation developed by Sam Bucolo (Bucolo & Matthews 2011). The context of the former
is local government, international issues, social problems and higher education. The design
led innovation approach is focused on industry, building government links and initiatives to
facilitate change in medium size Australian companies. Common to all methods in use in
DIRC are three elements - user focus, co-design and a set of design tools that aims to extract
key understanding and insight throughout the journey. 30 design tools have been identified
(Watson 2013).
Symbolic of design method and research in DIRC are end-to-end workshops, seminars, focus
groups and presentations. Active participation in process with clients, stakeholders and DIRC
staff blurs the distinction of roles and responsibilities. The objective is to transfer problemsolving skills rather than seek repeat business.
A recent DOC project in the public sector

Many of the projects undertaken by design innovation staff at UTS have been described and
reviewed in journals and the press (DOC website). This particular project has been selected
to elucidate the methodology common to most. The problem concerns the high level of
recidivism in Australian prisons. One study put the figures at 52 per cent of non-Aboriginal
people, and 88 per cent of Aboriginal people return to prison within five years. (Harding,
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Closing the Circle
1995). Many have a history of social disadvantage and lack basic numeracy and writing skills.
The early stages in the frame creation process identified education as a key way of tackling
recidivism. (Other opportunities were noted but most fell outside the time inmates were
incarcerated.) Educational programs in jails have had limited success, with few enrolments
and high dropout numbers. The issue was how to increase certificate level education in high
security correctional centres. In keeping with the reframing problem solving approach all the
stakeholders were engaged in the redefining (reframing) process, including prisoners. Once
the key issues were identified it became clear that a paradox stood in the way of an
acceptable solution (identifying paradoxes is a key process step in reframing). Put simply an
ideal learning environment is in total contrast with the typical prison environment. Prison
design is essentially about managing risk; risk to staff, risk of self-harm, risk from fellow
inmates, risk of escape and not least political risk. The result in design terms is what has
been described as cold conservatism (Clear, Candora 2001). A bleak, harsh aesthetic where
all furniture is steel and fixed, inmates are separated from staff by bars or glass, lighting is
unforgiving and all nature is removed should it interfere with surveillance. In contrast the
current wisdom is that learning works best in stress free, comfortable, flexible spaces with
natural light that encourages emphatic relationships and a focus on the task. Understanding
the root of this paradox, managing risk, proved to be the key in reaching a resolution. With
the knowledge that an emphasis on risk control had such a strong influence on the physical
space it became possible to explore other risk management approaches. It transpired that
overseers (key in determining control arrangements) believed risk in all its forms was less
likely when inmates were not tense or harassed and engaged in purposeful activity. The
reframing of an educational place was then possible, with dramatic results both in terms of
the resulting architecture, interiors and landscaping but also in the high numbers of
graduates (Lulham 2015). The reframing process works well when designers join with nondesigners in a co design partnership, indeed this shared responsibility is a core requirement.
The full case study with reference to frame creation methodology can be found at:
www.designingoutcrime.com (Intensive Learning Centre)
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Douglas Tomkin
Figure 7 top: existing prison architecture and cell interior. bottom: reframed learning space
Reflections
As a practitioner of Archers systematic design and of frame creation I can vouch that they
both worked. The creators of the differing approaches have been vindicated in multiple
tests of their methodologies. Clients got the results they sought and the design academic
community was provided with much to occupy their minds. Public sector projects proved to
be ideal for conducting design research. Both methods strive to provide the problem solver
with the necessary information to arrive at the all important light bulb moment and having
lit the bulb translate the breakthrough into practical, socially relevant solutions. That
moment of insight, the flash of inspiration still remains much of a mystery; at least to the
extent it cannot be replicated at will or by computer. The power of computing with respect
to much of the design process was clearly foreseen by Archer. Systematic method with its
mathematical underpinning was well suited to data processing. On the other hand frame
creation relies little on computing power or for that matter on a comprehensive collection of
data. The necessary information and the source of the solutions dwell rather in the minds of
participants, the process merely unlocks that which resides within. The two approaches to
problem solving can be seen as products of their time. In 1970, the dawn of the computer
age, it was appropriate to reduce problems into small bite (or byte) size pieces. It is perhaps
the degree in which computing is absent today in the development of new problem solving
methods that would have been surprising to Archer. That said I feel he would be delighted to
see how innovators and problem solvers outside of design have embraced processes
developed within the discipline. This is proof, if proof were needed that design research is as
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Closing the Circle
legitimate as any research in the sciences. The shift from an exceedingly systematic
approach to a more intuitive, value weighted process could be a reflection of the changing
way we view the world. Currently there is a responsive often-passionate connection with the
built environment that was not present in the 60s. An emotional design approach has
inspired some of the best of our buildings, products and communication systems (Norman
2005). Until software has emotional sensitivity its hard to imagine computing playing a key
role in design research as it did 50 years ago. Pending that game-changing breakthrough,
understanding the fascinating complexity of human thought and then innovating new ways
of doing things appears best tackled by creative, connected individuals. Improving process to
advance this endeavour seems likely to occupy the design research community for some
time to come.
Acknowledgements: Thanks are due to Kenneth Agnew, George Mallen, and John
Wood, all research fellows at DDR during the 1970s for their help in securing documents
and fact checking. Also thanks to Neil Parkinson, the archivist at the RCA and to the
archive staff at the V&A for their patience and assistance in locating lost files.
References
Archer, L. B. (1965) Systematic method for designers. Council of Industrial Design.
Archer, L. B. (1971) Technological Innovation A Methodology Science Policy Foundation
Archer, L. B., Mallen, G. (1973) Development of mathematical and operation modeling techniques for
application in equipment design. Job 124 V&A archive
Archer, B. (1973) Job 130 Development of a life assurance product. Royal College of Art AAD/1989/9
Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum
Archer, B. (1979) Design as a discipline. Design Studies, 1(1), 17-20.
Archer, B. (1981) A view of the nature of design research. Design: science: method, 30-47.
Broadbent, G. (1979) The development of design methods. Design Methods and Theories Vol 13 no 1
41-45
Bucolo, S., & Matthews, J. H. (2011) Design led innovation: Exploring the synthesis of needs,
technologies and business models. In Proceedings of Participatory Interaction Conference 2011.
Clear, T. R., & Cadora, E. (2001) Risk and correctional practice. In K. Stenson & R. Sullivan (Eds.),
Crime, risk and justice: The politics of crime control in liberal democracies (pp. 51). New York:
Routledge.
Cross, N. (1984) Developments in design methodology. John Wiley & Sons.
Das, B., & Sengupta, A. K. (1995) Technical note. Computer-aided human modelling programs for
workstation design. Ergonomics, 38(9), 1958-1972.
DIRC (2015) UTS Design Innovation Research Centre www.uts.edu.au
Dorst, K. (2003) Understanding Design BIS publishers, Amsterdam
Dorst, K (2015) Frame Innovation: Create New Thinking by Design, First, MIT Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts; London, England
Dorst, K. , Kaldor, L. , Klippan, L. , Watson, R (2015) Designing for the Common Good BIS publishers
Harding, R., Broadhurst, R., Ferrante, A., & Loh, N. (1995) Aboriginal contact with the criminal justice
system and the impact of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Annandale,
NSW: Hawkins Press.
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Langdon, R. (1969) Job 72 Role of design in educational technology. Royal College of Art AAD/1989/9
Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum
Lawrence, G. M. (2002 a) Hospital beds by design: a socio-historical account of the 'King's Fund Bed',
1960-1975 (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).
Lawrence, G. M. (2002 b) Hospital beds by design: a socio-historical account of the 'King's Fund Bed',
1960-1975 (Doctoral dissertation, University of London 174-175)
Lulham, R. (2015) Intensive Learning Centre Evaluation Designing Out Crime report for Corrective
Services NSW
Norman, D. A. (2005) Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. Basic books.
Parkinson, N (2012) L. Bruce Archer archive. Archives Hub Royal College of Art
Pritchett, L., & Woolcock, M. (2004) Solutions when the Solution is the Problem: Arraying the
Disarray in Development. World development, 32(2), 191-212.
Speigelberg, R. (1972) Heads down in the Lloyds Life think tank The Times December 12
Swann, D. (2012) Demystifying 21st Century Healthcare Design Practice.
Tester, D ed. (1974) The Lloyds Life Exercise. Student publication North Carolina State University
Volume 23
Watson, R., Tomkin, D. (2013) A New Visual Aid for Designing, IASDR Conference proceedings
Wood, J. (1973) Recommendations for running intensive design exercises Department of Design
Research Royal College of Art
Wood, J. (1975) Job 172 Ergonomic and technical evaluation of control room consoles Royal College
of Art AAD/1989/9 Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum
Wood, J. (1976) Job 175 Implementation of Strathclyde Police Divisional Control Rooms Royal College
of Art AAD/1989/9 Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum
Wortley, R., & Mazerolle, L. (Eds.). (2013) Environmental criminology and crime analysis. Willan.
About the Author:

Douglas Tomkin has been at the Designing Out Crime Research
Centre since 2009 involved in crime prevention projects ranging from
retail theft to counter terrorism in addition to work for Correctional
Services. Previously he was Head of the School of Design at the
University of Technology Sydney. Douglas arrived in Sydney in 1992
following fourteen years working as a designer in Hong Kong. Earlier
he spent eight years in London in research and development for the
Home Office and Health Department at the Royal College of Art.
2626
Re-integrating Design Education: Lessons from

History
Peter A. Hall
Central Saint Martins, UAL
peter@peterahall.com
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.287
Abstract: Throughout its short history, formal design education has struggled to find
a balance between imparting technical skills and fostering bigger picture, critical and
conceptual thinking; and also between notions of passive and active learning. As
educators become ever cognizant of a future marked by environmental crisis and
accompanying complex problems of population flux, civil unrest, pollution and waste,
achieving a balance between know how and meta-level thinking has become more
pressing. The premise of this paper is that a 21st Century design education can further
this goal by confronting the productivist entanglements of its past. It will argue that
the lessons of its turbulent relationship with industry provide the seeds for an
approach to learning that is better integrated with industry and society than
conventional hypothetical studio assignments allow.
Keywords: education; reform; futuring; interdisciplinarity
Introduction
The instigators and reformers of formal design education have, throughout its short history,
invariably wrought their strategies from a visionutopian or dystopianof the future. This
paper unabashedly perpetuates this practice by identifying where the threads of past
reforms might hold clues for the future of design education in an uncertain future of
unprecedented degrees of biophysical change and concomitant societal change. Rather than
paint a picture of the history design education as the gradual establishment of a bona fide
discipline within academe, the goal here is to tease out the ways in which design education
has modelled itself based on its perceived relation with the future of industry and society. In
doing so, an argument will be made for an outward-facing 21st Century design education
that is simultaneously engaged with industry and society but disentangled from a
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Peter A. Hall
productivist ethos and a consumerist model of learning, and one which favours holistic,
interdisciplinary and design-thinking based approaches to responding to complex problems.
Foundations of an Integrated Education

As is well documented, formal design education emerged in the UK in the wake of the
industrial revolution as part of a reform directed at what were considered poor quality
machine-made artefacts. Since the teaching of design skills seemed to require a special,
hands-on kind of approach different from, say, the learning of history or maths, various
pedagogues endeavoured to rethink the common learning by rote approach, or learning
about without learning how. This rethinking eventuated in apprenticeship models that were
fuelled by turn-of-the-20th Century zeal for the reform of society. The Central School of Arts
and Crafts opened in London in 1896, for example, as the result of a long-standing discussion
about the poor standard of British manufacture and how industrialization had brought the
decline of creativity and artisanship. The reference point was the Great Exhibition held at
the Crystal Palace in 1851, which was regarded as a showcase for goods made around the
world, and the poor quality of the British ones. Machine-made ornamentation applied to
mass-produced objects was, according to a British government inquiry degraded (Crouch,
1999, p.23-4). Among the critics of the loss of hand skills and craftsmanship were the textile
designer and socialist William Morris and the critic, painter and philanthropist John Ruskin,
who argued that materials have an intrinsic quality that should not be transgressed : your
art is base if it does not bring out the distinctive qualities of that material (Crouch, 1999,
p.24).
The Marxist-Romanticist zeitgeist around the Central Schools founding is apparent in both
the advocacy of individual expression through craftsmanship and in the productivism
present in much 19th century social, political and economic thought (Campbell, 2005, p.13):
increased material production was an explicit goal of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill (Craig,
2006, p.5). In the 21st Century, as design education confronts its own legacy in the form of
the environmental damage and accompanying problems associated with this productivist
bias (Campbell, 2005, p.13), University and College programs are increasingly turning away
from design as the production of goods and manufacture of consumer desire toward more
holistic, interdisciplinary and design-thinking based approaches to responding to todays
complex problems. Yet the challenge achieving this manoeuvre is that it can deprive design
graduates of the very outcome for which they chose to study design in the first place:
techne, or the skill of making.
In a 1993 paper, Clive Dilnot argued that questions of the evaluation of education cannot
be understood without an explicit or implicit model of design-society relations coming into
play (Dilnot, 1993, p.139). The suggestion in this paper is that such a model can be
furthered not by isolating or hothousing design activity in educational institutions but by
turning design education inside-out so that all teaching and learning activity relates to the
full relational complexity of real world design problems. A pair of deschooling strategies
could help achieve this reorientation: Better identifying the design professions complicity in
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Re-integrating Design Education
perpetuating an ecologically damaging way of being; and better recognition of everyday

design and design thinking within organisations. But in addition, design education has much
to gain from exploiting its ill-defined, itinerant status in the academy, as a subset of art,
engineering, architecture, information technology or as a truly cross-disciplinary activity. To
better exploit this position, an emphasis on design-in-society must replace the current
curricula emphasis on hypothetical and formal design problems; and the educational
institution should function to provide a preparation and reflection space for tackling wicked
problems collaboration with industry, and society.
The matter of the institutions relationship with industry and society is absolutely central to
the history and future of design education; rather than aim to eject productivism from this
history, it is helpful to learn from how the past has shaped present pedagogies. For instance,
one outcome of the hybridization of expression and mechanical production in the Arts and
Crafts education was, in places, a progressive trans-disciplinary pedagogy based on the
apprenticeship model. The founder of the Central school was the architect William Lethaby,
who, with the support of William Morris and others, advocated a direct handling of tools in
the classroom, and dissolving the barriers between the designer (then perceived as an
abstract, intellectual calling) and the craftsman or artisan (then seen as a baser calling)
(Gronberg, 1984, p.18). This approach bears a relation to what we would consider today a
thinking-through-making and mimetic learning (Billett, 2015) pedagogy. The
predominant 19th Century method of teaching art teachers involved copying from historical
ornament, progressing painstakingly from line to geometrical form, which Morris and Ruskin
felt stifled creativity. It was workers, not art teachers, they argued, who most needed
training and education. Lethaby likened the dominant theoretical approach to art and design
education as being like trying to learn to swim in a thousand lessons without ever getting in
the water. He dispensed with paper qualifications and examinations and appointed staff
who were specialist practitioners in the daytime, who taught at the school only after their
main jobs were finished. Students had access to workshops in the day, and were encouraged
to specialize in a particular handicraft while exploring the links between crafts: you must go
upstairs and see how stained glass windows are made and books are bound and gilding
done. (Gronberg, 1984, p.18).
The fairly simple principle, that problem-solving in one medium might be informed by
problem-solving in another, has a direct correlation in the digital era, as forwarded by
advocates of learning through play, in both analogue and digital media. Among his 36
learning principles of videogames, James Paul Gee includes the transfer principle whereby
skills and strategies developed in one game are applied to solve problems in another, and by
extension, to problems outside of a game format what Gee refers to as far transfer (Gee,
2003, 211). In a holistic model of design education, the importance of the transfer principle
cannot be underestimated, as it liberates a practitioner skilled in a particular disciplinary
area from a perceived obligation to solve a design brief as given. A designer with know-how
beyond her specialism is thus able to solve the given problem by recommending expertise
beyond her own. This becomes less a call for design polymaths than for adepts with
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Peter A. Hall
disciplinary skills supported by what Gee calls metalevel thinking skills -- active and critical
thinking about the relationships of the semiotic domain being learned to other semiotic
domains (Gee, 2003, 207). A solution to a graphic user interface problem facing a
Government retirement website under increased demand, for example, might be
reformulated as a larger problem of rethinking the entire user experience from website to
service centres. Conversely, a design brief to re-style a consumer hardware tool might be
revised as an opportunity to establish a tool rental service, thus removing the need for
disposable or barely-used tools altogether. Such scenarios were explored by Ezio Manzinis
sustainable everyday project (Manzini & Jegou, 2004).
Realigning Early Modernist Education

If the Central School was an educational experiment drawn from a Romantic-Socialist vision
of the future, subsequent institutions continued this experiment with the zeal of Modernist
productivism. One of the many visitors impressed by the Central School was Hermann
Muthesius, who went on to found the Deutscher Werkbund in Germany in 1907, an
organisation dedicated to the ennoblement of handiwork through the union of art, industry
and handcraft (Forgacs 1995, p.6). Its goal was to bring representatives of art, industry,
crafts and trades to raise the quality of work which they felt was threatened by
mechanisation. Walter Gropius, whose model factory was featured in Muthesiuss
Werkbund Exhibition in 1914 in Cologne, went on to found the Bauhaus in 1918 with a
rhetoric that seemed to explicitly address Marxs dystopia of the alienated factory worker,
disconnected from the products of his or her labour and depressed spiritually and physically
to the condition of a machine (Marx, 1844, p.4). Gropius advocated a pedagogy around the
unified collective work, which conceives the creative process of design as an indivisible
whole (Wingler 1978, p.51); in place of the divided labour of the factory, where unskilled
workers performed single or limited tasks, eliminating the long training period required to
train craftsmen, Gropius advocated programs integrated with industry and society. He
envisioned the well-trained artist having a factory at his disposal, creating new forms.
One problem with Gropiuss vision is that it led not to the takeover of factories by artists, but
to the supply of new forms to industry; the school was set up to counter and check the
trends toward productivism, but under pressure to integrate in the dominant economic
order, ended up feeding it. Among the critiques of the Bauhaus is Tony Frys claim, drawing
from Jean Baudrillard, that the schools bias towards art rather than industry mean that
industrial products were reduced to mimic an industrial look. Since Bauhaus objects,
images, rhetoric, projects, personalities all existed as published representations (Fry 1999,
p.158) the school provided the means for its own dissemination and historicisation,
regardless of actual produced output (of which there was famously little). Hence
Baudrillards audacious claim that the Bauhaus marks the dawning of the object that only
fully exists once it gains a sign function that transcends and directs its use function (Fry 1999,
p.158): Before the Bauhaus there were no objects (Baudrillard, 1981, p.185). Fry adds that
the Bauhaus sought to force the future into its form. There was a fundamental failure
2630
inscribed in this idealism unwittingly its zeitgeist helped expand the unsustainable
(Fry, 1999, p.154).
Rather than unceremoniously throwing out the early Modernist experiment from the canon
of design education history, a case can be made in the 21st Century for realignment of
emphasis. If productivism and the political economy of the sign have propelled human
civilisation towards its own destruction, the prospect of an overpopulated, resourcedeprived future should also potentially inspire a re-evaluation of key historical moments. A
contrasting journey to the Bauhauss gradual commodification was taken in Russia by the
VKhUTEMAS school, founded in 1920 by a state decree signed by Lenin, to offer, in the
spirit of freedom, an extraordinarily flexible, open and experimental course of studies
(Forgcs, 1995, p.186). Students and staff eschewed an education that nurtured personal
vanities in favour of collectivism projected in a formal language of pure colours and
intersecting straight lines. A curriculum influenced by Constructivism and taught by
luminaries including Alexander Rodchenko, prioritized collaboration with industrial
production: students progressed from colour to graphic to mass and space construction. At
the Bauhaus, industrial resources were readily available, but VKhUTEMAS staff were
required to perpetually improvise with limited available resources. Rodchenko was head of
the metal workshop but due to lack of metal attempted to design prefabricated buildings
using standardized wooden elements. Given the shortage of apartments in Russia, where
families were squeezed into single rooms, assignments were dictated by dire necessity:
tables that a single turn could change into a seat or a workbench, or chairs that could
convert into beds (Forgcs, 1995, p.191).
If the Bauhaus set in motion a contemporary design education based on the object as sign
and an increasingly codified, formalist education (see Grady 2006), the legacy of the
VKhUTEMAS is arguably yet to be felt. It has more resonance today, as we face the tasks of
designing tiny houses and smaller more flexible residences for ever-increasing human
populations. Vladimir Tatlins rallying cry might indeed serve a contemporary design-build or
service design assessment: We need objects that are as simple and primitive as our way of
life (Forgcs, 1995, p.191).
Lessons from Sixties Radicalism

The contemporary landscape of design education presents a bewildering array of models,
that might be arranged on a spectrum, from the vocational programme focused mainly on
providing job-ready technical skills and know-how, to the critical-theoretical programme,
focused on the critique of contemporary and historical design practices, and advocacy of
new approaches. In between these poles are a number of influential models, such as the
citizen architect approach of the Rural Studio at Auburn University, which has introduced
multiyear design/build engagements with deprived communities in rural areas of Alabama,
including a $20,000 house project: Student teams design and build one-bedroom homes
within a small budget, based on the maximum federal housing assistance loan amount
available to very low income home owners in Hale County, Alabama (Hinson, 2007, pp.24-6).
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Peter A. Hall
The inherent idea is that in the experiential process of learning on-the-job know how the
student also grasps a practical and theoretical understanding of ethics, social justice and
injustice. This has gained traction in other design disciplines in educational programmes in
recent years; it also underlies the research question behind the case study that will be
discussed in closing: How can learning technical and practical skills be better combined with
theoretical and meta-level reasoning skills via a work-integrated learning programme? (The
Australian term work-integrated learning is preferred here to the UK term work-based
learning because the latter tends to imply that the learning happens in the workplace.
While the scenario of a solo student on secondment in a professional workplace is also
common in Australia, the term integrated allows for an alternative model: the live
project is imported into the classroom, arguably more in the spirit of Lethabys Central
School model, with its teachers imported from industry.)
Before discussion of the case study, however, it is helpful to better develop the overview of
historical design education reforms and their larger contexts begun at the outset of this
paper. Of particular interest is the role of student activism in triggering reforms; this might
be seen as a counter to the autopoietic drive of institutions and professions to sustain
themselves. In the philosophy of Niklas Luhmann, this drive is commonly in spite of the
environmental complexity (and the ecological problems) in which these institutions exist:
The primary goal of autopoietic systems is the continuation of autopoiesis without any
concern for the environment (Luhmann, 1989, p.12).
Student activism provides a reasonably reliable indicator of situations in which institutions
(or systems) have become impervious to the currents of change underway in the larger
environment. When the architect Mies van der Rohe was appointed director of the Bauhaus
in 1930, students suspected reactionary tendencies and demanded that he exhibit his work
to enable them to decide whether or not he was qualified to direct the Bauhaus. (Mies
called in the police, and several students were expelled from the school) (Forgcs, 1995,
p.194). With its founding in 1920, the VKhUTEMAS reflected the demands of an art school
student conference in 1918, where students argued for an arts education free of petty
egotism and free of diplomas, ranks, awards and privileges. Fifty years later, students at
the Hornsey College of Art in London staged a sit-in, calling for a major review of an
anachronistic art curriculum, and critiquing the education system at the time in a document
published as The Hornsey Project. Students, no doubt inspired by concurrent events in Paris
in May 1968, called for the abolition of entrance requirements, exams and student control of
whatever took their place.
A context for the 1968 events is provided, post-event, by Ivan Illichs radical critique of
institutionalized education, in which he argued that true public education requires the
deschooling of society. Institutionalized schooling, argued Illich, has resulted in pupils
confusing teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with
competence and fluency with the ability to say something new (Illich, 1971, p.3). In place of
institutionalized education that seeks ultimately to maintain itself and the status quo, Illich
argued for a self-directed, incidental and informal education, supported by social relations:
2632
educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment
of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring (Illich, 1971, p.2).
Like Illich, Fry argues that we are taught ways of knowing and acting in professional and nonprofessional lives that replicate specific forms of the unsustainable. (Fry 2009, p.174). He
makes a case for a broader sense of education, beginning with a reflective interrogation of
ones knowledge, to begin to identify what one has formally and informally learnt and what
in hindsight, can be seen as an induction into error (Fry, 2011, p.214).
The implication that education is bigger, longer, and more important than what happens in
classes is echoed in the writings of the designer and anarchist Norman Potter. Together with
a group of architects, designers, a philosopher and English language specialist, Potter set up
the Construction School in Bristol in 1964, which drew in part from Lethabys approach to an
artisan, workshop-orientated design education. One of the Schools goals was to set up a
three-year design course without specialisation, leading to various areas of design including
architecture (a degree in which was completed in an additional two years). Students were
introduced to an intellectually demanding first year concerned with problem-solving and
communication; the second year opened out into workshop practice and technical studies in
wood, metals and plastics; and the third year linked disciplines in exhibition design. The
school achieved a noted level of critical discussion, strong student-centred learning ethos
and a high standard of work.
Potter, who started writing What is a Designer after the revolts of 1968, when he joined the
students at Hornsey college of Art, argues that the beginner can draw confidence from the
same source as a seasoned designer once it is realised that the foundations of judgement in
design are rooted in ordinary life and in human concerns not in some quack
professionalism (Potter, 2002, p.95).
This brings us to the identity crisis that perhaps prohibits a full confrontation within design
education. If design judgement is rooted in ordinary life and human concerns, then what is
the purpose of a formal design education? Illich, Fry and Potter would argue that most of the
time it is there to uphold the status quo and control who gets to call themselves a
professional designer. A profession, according to Potter, can become a self-protection
society with a very short term view of the priorities for professional competence (Potter,
2002, p.22). At the same time, both Fry and Potter clearly see another more subversive or
empowering role for design education.
The question is quite dramatically thrashed out in the spaces of learning we inhabit. In the
workshops and labs, under close supervision, students learn by watching and doing; in
tutorials and seminars, students learn by discussing, presenting and debating; in lectures,
students learn by watching and listening. But this is not a neat segregation of spaces and
methods, nor is it free of controversy. According to Jacques Rancire, the theatre and the
classroom are alike in that both seek to dissolve the very thing on which they are premised,
the distance between the stage and the audience, between the expert and the student
(Rancire, 2014, p.8). On the stage is the teacher whose aim is to dissolve the gap between
2633
Peter A. Hall
his expert knowledge and the students ignorance. This distance must be sequentially
dissolved and reconstructed; because if the students knew as much as their teacher, then
what is the teacher doing on the stage? The teacher achieves this by remaining one step
ahead of the students. Unless, as Rancire argues, we follow the lesson of the ignorant
schoolmaster, which argues for the equality of intelligence, that all learning is achieved by
individuals comparing what is in front of them (what they dont know) with what they do
know. In a direct challenge to the theories of the Frankfurt School, which tended to paint a
more pessimistic picture of the brainwashed masses, Rancire draws from the ideas of
Joseph Jacotot, a French schoolteacher who developed during the Restoration a method for
showing illiterate parents how they could teach their children how to read (Rancire, 1987
p.vii). The ignorant schoolteacher has uncoupled his mastery from his knowledge. He does
not teach his pupils his knowledge but orders them to venture into the forest of things and
signs, to say what they have seen and what they think of what they have seen, to verify it
and have it verified (Rancire, 2014, p.17).
This suggests that schooling needs to achieve a blend of modes to facilitate this process of
saying what has been seen and what one thinks of it, verifying it and having it verified: I
show you a thing, an idea or concept in the lecture; you go to the tutorial and say what you
have seen, compare it to what you know, and say what you think you have learned. This is
verified in class or in a paper, a sketch, model, prototype, schematic, map or final rendering.
It was suggested earlier that the late 19th and early 20th Century versions of visions of design
education prioritized artisanship and its integration in society for the improvement of living
conditions, yet slipped so easily into feeding new forms, fashions and obsolescence to a
consumer culture whose doppelganger was environmental destruction. In the 21 st Century,
we know that design problems cannot simply be solved with a neat logo, a road tunnel,
waterfront regeneration or a shopping mall. Design problems are complex and require an
understanding of relational systems, of the potential impacts of bringing a design into the
world. Understanding dynamic systems and our role in those systems is the first part of
changing our impact on those systems. This calls for an ability to navigate complex problems
and research them. As John Seely Brown argued in a PBS documentary on 21 st Century
learning, In a world of rapid change, the need to memorize something is a 20th century
skill. The need to navigate in a buzz of confusion and to figure out how to trust the
information that you find, if you can feel confident doing that, the world is yours (PBS
2013).
But at the same time, for a design student to become a professional capable of contributing
to complex problem tackling requires a recognisable skillset. The importance of strong craft,
visualization and technical skills, it would seem, is that they give the designer an opportunity
to exercise organisational, participatory planning, brainstorming, stage setting -- in short,
design thinking -- skills. This, then, is one reason why it becomes necessary to cultivate a
recognisable know-how or techne; for the designer to earn a seat at the negotiating table.
2634
Case Study
A closing case study aims to address the question raised earlier, how can learning technical
and practical skills be better combined with theoretical and meta-level reasoning skills via a
work-integrated learning programme?
The LiveSpace design studio, established by the author and colleagues at Queensland
College of Art in 2013, creates a simulation of a professional studio in the classroom,
supporting work-integrated learning on real-world projects scaffolded by higher order
thinking. This aims at creating a form of mimetic learning, which can potentially also
present an opportunity to transform what constitutesoccupational practice. (Billett,
2014, p.100). Billett suggests that when individuals engage in work activities for specific
purposes, they are actively remaking that occupational practice, thereby realising its
continuity. This act of remaking can either perpetuate existing practices in changing
circumstances, or it can contribute to the transformation of what constitutes that
occupational practice (Billett, 2014, p.13). Project-based learning at LiveSpace supports the
development of practical design-build and prototyping skills along with time management,
client communication and team-based learning. A larger curricular context emphasises
futural, participatory and sustainable design practices.
LiveSpace projects to date have explored a number of critical issues relating to
environmental crisis. For example, a project with a local museum established an interactive
exhibition aimed at introducing high school children to the problem of electronic waste.
Another current project with a local annual festival explores low impact fixtures and street
furniture that can be easily moved and disassembled, in line with concurrent learning
around the increasing importance of moveable architecture amid extreme weather events
and itinerant refugee populations. Finally, a project with a counselling service and University
based suicide prevention clinic developed scenarios and personas for testing the viability of
an app-based software programme for self-monitoring mood and anxiety. All three projects
purposely move the design project beyond traditional client-designer relations where the
brief arrives pre-cooked. Instead they support redirecting (Fry, 2007) the client brief so
that meta-level questions can be used to reframe the given problem. In the scaffolded
environment of LiveSpace, students are arguably able to test redirective strategies in
authentic scenarios, contributing to the remaking of practice.
Mimetic learning describes how, prior to industrial and institutionalized education, people
learned occupational skills in the workplace. Rather than novices being taught or even
guided, the key responsibility was for them to actively learn the occupation There was
evidence of arrangements for novices to engage in work activities incrementally and
progressively in developing the capacities required to practice the particular occupation
(Billett, 2014, p.vii). One challenge with work-integrated learning or placements today,
however, is familiar to any design student who has been told by his or her employer to
forget everything theyve learned at University. This is particularly problematic when the
2635
Peter A. Hall
program of study purposely sets out to redefine and reinvent the vocation for which the
student is being prepared.
Yet as Billett argues, in the history of mimetic learning it is inconceivable that the apprentice
would not, in some way, remake the practice while learning it. This idea echoes Rancires
case for the emancipated spectator and the student of the ignorant schoolmaster, the
student who learns by comparing and verifying what she has seen. The anthropologist Tim
Ingold argues that skills are not in fact passed on by learning rules or pre-formed
representations, but by placing novices in situations where they engage in active processes
of perception, action and attention; this remaking takes the form of guided re-discovery
which is analogous to Billetts concept of remaking and potential transforming. That
remaking can comprise the mere rehearsal and remaking of what has gone on before, albeit
in changing circumstances, or it can contribute to the transformation of what constitutes
that occupational practice (Billett, 2014, p.13).
To support such a transformation, argues Billett, an educational program needs to prepare
students for the work-integrated learning experience, (including the kinds of forget
everything youve learned contestations) and also to provide opportunities for students to
compare and contrast their work experiences during and after the event. This, as Rancire
noted, is a part of learning, to say what you have seen and what you think of what you have
seen, to verify it and have it verified.
In many ways, this account of reflective learning provides for the missing portion of the
idealistic educational reforms discussed earlier in the paper; because it allows for the
individual to reinterpret knowledge whether it is the knowledge learned on the job, in the
lecture theatre or from the designed artefacts that designers have sent out into the world.
Rancire, Ingold and Billett, in this sense, are providing a better account of how design
works in the world rather than how it works on the drawing board or in the computer.
Acknowledgements: The case study in this paper is adapted from research with
colleagues at Griffith University Queensland College of Art
References
Baudrillard, J. & Levin, C. (1981). Design and environment or how political economy escalates into
cyberblitz. In For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, St. Louis, Missouri: Telos Press.
Billett, S. (2014). Mimetic learning at work: Learning in the circumstances of practice. Cham,
Switzerland: Springer.
Campbell, C. (2005). The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism. Oxford, UK: Basil
Blackwell.
Craig, D. (2006). John Ruskin and the ethics of consumption. Charlottesville and London: University of
Virginia Press.
Crouch, C. (1999). Modernism in art, design and architecture. London:Palgrave Macmillan 1999.
Dilnot, C. (1982). Design as a socially significant activity. Design Studies, 3 (3) 139-146.
Forgcs & Btki, J. (1995). The Bauhaus idea and Bauhaus politics. Budapest, London, New York:
Central European University Press.
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Fry, T. (1999). A new design philosophy: an introduction to defuturing. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Fry, T. (2007). Redirective practice: An elaboration. Design Philosophy Papers 5(1) 5-20.
Fry, T. (2011). Design as politics. Oxford; New York: Berg.
Gee, J. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New
York: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Grady, M. (2006). Art and consciousnessthe pedagogy of art and transformation. Visual Arts
Research 32 (1), 83-91
Gronberg, T. (1984). William Richard Lethaby and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. WR Lethaby
1857-1931: Architecture Design and Education. Edited by Sylvia Backemeyer and Theresa
Gronberg. London: Lund Humphries
Hinson, D. (2007 ). Design as research: learning from doing in the design-build studio. Journal of
Architectural Education, 23-26
Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling society. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Luhmann, N. (1989). Ecological communication. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Manzini, E & Jegou, F. (2003). Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios of Everyday Life. Milan: Edizione
Ambiente.
Marx, K. (1844). Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844. Web, accessed 15 November 2015.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/preface.htm
PBS. (2013). Digital media: New learners of the 21st century. Tuesday September 3, 2013. Web
https://vimeo.com/20018135. Accessed 15 November 2015.
Potter, N. (2002). What is a designer? London: Hyphen Press.
Rancire, J. (1987). The ignorant schoolmaster. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Rancire, J. (2014).The emancipated spectator. London and New York: Verso Books.
Wingler, H. (1978). The Bauhaus. Cambridge Mass and London, England: The MIT Press.
About the Author:

Peter A. Hall is a design writer and course leader of the BA Graphic
Design at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. He
was previously head of the Bachelor of Design Futures at Queensland
College of Art, Australia
2637
(Re)working the Past, (Dis)playing the Future. Italy:

The New Domestic Landscape at MoMA, 1972
University of Oslo, Norway
i.h.rashidi@ifikk.uio.no
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.359
Abstract: Would a worka painting, a building, a chair or a displayalways operate

within the framework of human intention? To bring thinking into the future, there is
a need for future-focused methodologies. In this paper I will re-work the past by
addressing the agency beyond human intention. By using the 1972 MoMA exhibition
Italy: The New Domestic Landscape as the empirical case, the paper will show how
not only humans conceptualize reality, but things themselves have the capacity to
display the future.
Keywords: nonhuman agency; ontology; display; climate change
In July 1972 journalist Bill Marvel of The National Observer visited the most talked about NYC
event of the summer, the groundbreaking exhibition at the MoMA, Italy: The New
Domestic Landscape (INDL).1 The exhibition displayed both the achievements and the
problems of Italian design, it displayed objects and environments, it displayed utopia and
dystopia, it displayed both the past and the future, and, it displayed the making and
unmaking ofin the words of The New York Timesour ultimate environment, the planet
earth (Skurka, 1972). In Bill Marvels review, this uncertainty and ambiguity of what exactly
was on display permeated the text. In the ingress of the review Marvel captured not only an
uncertainty of the role of designers, but also an ontological uncertainty of the role of things:
As described in the press, INDL was hitherto the largest and most expensive exhibition at the museum: On the morning
of May 26, 1972, anyone passing the New Yorks Museum of Modern Art in West 53rd St., would have seen a great many
people excitedly awaiting the opening of the biggest and most expensive exhibition ever given at the Museum. The exited
wait for this colossal event was not at all dampened by the news spread by the press (Natalini, 1972). There is no doubt
that Italy: The New Domestic Landscape is a dazzling show, perhaps the most complex and ambitious that the Museum of
Modern Art has mounted so far (Degener, 1972).

Are designers the solution, or are they part of the problem? Can designers bring on
the millennium by creating objects that are rational humane, or have designers already
cluttered our lives with too many things we dont need, things that waste resources
and space and that end up owning us? (Marvel, 1972, my emphasis)
Design is not simply a series of stylistic operations, but conveys a more fundamental, a more
encompassing understanding of the relations and interactions between humans and the
world. Design mediates a play between human and nonhuman objects. Also, a temporal
notion is at work. Design is working with the past and playing with the future. Yet, this
definition must be followed by a political one. Design is always in conflict between moral,
political and even ontological disputes. Is it so, then, that designers make things that end up
owning us?
The world in which we now live is different than before. This arguably banal statement is
not, however, meant in a metaphorical and general sense but rather in literal one referring
to the geological era of the Anthropocene in which human presence and impact into the
world is now an irreversible matter of fact.1 Furthermore, an indisputable fact is that this
geological change will have vast ontological implications. In the Anthropocene, the longheld barriers between nature and culture are breaking down. The subject/object dualism
inherited from the Enlightenment, subtly but radically shifted thought about reality from
questions of ontology (being) to questions about epistemology (knowing). Knowing was
placed before being, epistemology before ontology, and this privileged humans over all
other objects, which were defined in terms of their relationship to human subjects. Put
briefly, objects existed only by the virtue of how they were known and signified by human
subjects. Within recent years, however, certain fields of research within the humanities
have objected to this Cartesian dualism, and movements within the material turn such as
new materialism/thing theory, ANT and object-oriented ontology have suggested a
corrective.
Humans have exploited natural resources to the point of catastrophe. Scholars such as
Timothy Morton, Jane Bennett and Manuel DeLanda have suggested that in order to
confront the catastrophe there is a need to destabilize the ontological hierarchy inherited
from Western Enlightenment philosophy that established humans as the superior power in
the world. Global warming is inflicting every aspect of the world, also within academic
research. How do we establish a posthumanist approach to design history?
In design research ANT has received severe resonance, and within the last two decades
many scholars have contributed to show how designed objects is constituted by both human
and nonhuman actantswith the special issue of CoDesign Designing Things Together:
Intersections of Co-Design and Actor-Network Theory as the most recent example. In ANT,
the world exists of both humans and nonhumans who in turn are connected through a
network of relationsa dynamic immaterial structure where nothing starts and nothing
ends: only connections and relations in motion. The actors in actor-network theory can be
1
The Anthropocene were coined as both concept and term in the year 2000, by the Nobel Prize-winning Dutch chemist
Paul J. Crutzen.
2640
(Re)working the Past, (Dis)playing the Future
compared to knots in this complex rhizome and can be either human or nonhuman. In ANT
all entities (human and nonhuman) are seen as active contributors that possess agency to
act the same way humans do. Action is thus an effect by the relations in the network and all
action must be considered relational and intertwined in social practices. As such, entities
are a relational effect of its association with other entities, as John Law explains: entities
have no inherent qualities: essentialist divisions are thrown out on the bonfire of dualisms
there are no divisions (Law & Hassard, 1999, p. 3). Echoing Law, this approach is utilized to
connect ANT and participatory design in the special issue of CoDesign: In ANT, things do not
have essential or absolute qualities. On the contrary, they are formed in collectives of other
things, of actor-networks and are always intimately entangled in practices (Andersen,
Danholt, Halskov, Hansen, & Lauritsen, 2015). However, as suggested by Bill Brown in the
anthology Things, things exist independently ofor adjacent tohuman perception of the
things (Brown, 2004). This argument is also the kernel of a recent development in
philosophy, object-oriented ontology. Things are not dependent on how they appear to us,
they are not constructed by human behavior or are a result of social relations. Things are
entities which exist in their own right, and are not confined by human intention. By the act
of emphasizing beingand not knowingtheorists within object-oriented ontology argues
that nonhumans will then exist in their own right and not as mere backgrounds for human
representations. This theoretical approach evokes a posthumanist reality where humans
become one thing among all other things. However, this does not necessarily imply
ontological equality. Different objects in different contexts can assume greater or lesser
importance, but essentially, this philosophical approach decenters humans. In the
Anthropocene, the relationship between design and nature needs to be reworked. We need
a deeper understanding how both human and nonhuman agents is working and playing in
different situations. For no object exists merely as a representation for some other object.
No object exists by virtue of its correlation to some subject. Objects are agents, existing and
acting in their own right, and if we want to explore and understand an event, for instance, a
display, we must give an empirical account for the agency of both humans and nonhumans.
In this paper, Browns approach will form the outset of the inquiry which in turn aims to
explore how design historical research can advance towards a destabilization of human
hierarchy.
Research conducted in the theoretical framework of a posthumanist reality, is often
criticized for not have much to offer except to say that nonhumans have as much agency as
humans do. In humanistic research over the last decade there have been many attempts to
locate nonhuman agency, and many attempts have been made to move beyond what
Quentin Meillassoux calls correlationism (Meillassoux, 2008).1 Do things; a mug, my
computer, a house, waste, the ozone layer, a display, Harry Potter, and absence, have as
much agency as humans do? If this rule holds true, it must be somehow possible to locate it,
even also prove it historically. My claim is that it is not enough to emphasize being over
knowing, and it is not sufficient to merely establish the ontological fact. This article will
1
See also (Barad, 2007; Bogost, 2012; Olsen, 2010).
2641
claim that the display at MoMA brought a new ontology into the world, and that this
bringing into the world happened beyond human conception. To give a persuasive account
of agency and how it is displayed through materials there is a need to go back in time. In
this paper I will attempt to locate the nonhuman agency in INDL on two different levels.
First, in one of the works on display: Gaetano Pesces environment The Period of the Great
Contaminations and then, in the exhibition itself. In this paper I will go back to the future, or
at least, where the future was displayed, back to an elevator shaft at the MoMA in 1972,
where the nonhuman agency of the material evoked both climate change and a
posthumanist reality.
Human agency
Everybody who designed every chair you ever sat in or every house you ever heard of came
to the invitational opening Tuesday night (Conroy, 1972). The vernissage of Italy: The New
Domestic Landscape was, according to the press, the event of the summer. The designer
Marcel Breuer was cited in The Washington Post describing the display clever, imaginative
and playful. Charles Eames, I.M. Pei and Philip Johnson were quoted by the same
newspaper as impressed by the exhibitions bold theoretical postulations (Conroy, 1972).
The New York Times described the exhibition as the largest in MoMAs history: the
provocative ideas represented in the Italian show at the MoMA, may well make this the
most exciting and controversial design and architectural exhibition seen in many decades
(Reif, 1972). The exhibition was hitherto one of the most visited shows at MoMA: That so
many people came back to see this Supershow so many times is a fact that the museum is
proud of [] an unusually high percentage of the total 266,206 ticket buyers were on their
secondor moretime around (DeNeve, 1972).
Curator of Design at MoMA, the young Argentinian architect Emilio Ambaszwho had
planned the exhibition for several yearsused Italy as a micro-model where a wide range of
possibilities, limitations and critical issues of design were brought into sharp focus. As stated
in the exhibition catalogue: The purpose of this exhibition, therefore, is not only to report
on the current developments in Italian design, but to use these as a concrete frame of
reference for a number of issues of concern to designers all over the world (Ambasz, 1972a,
p. 19). The exhibition addressed the ever more pressing global challenges concerning
consumption, poverty and pollution. One reviewer even criticized INDL for being too
concerned with the problems of the world: But the whole worksexhibit, catalog, items on
displayis also an example of the hubris that reigns these days in the design profession,
both conservative and radical wings. Anyone who has attended one of the big design
confabs at Aspen has been caught up in the sweaty atmosphere of save-the-world
evangelism (Marvel, 1972).
2642
In both design and architecture history INDL is often referred to as a pioneering and
controversial exhibition.1 The exhibition marked a final end to the sleek Scandinavian design
idiom and introduced and established Italian designwith its bold colors, playful idiom,
synthetic materials and advanced molding techniquesas the most significant design
discourse (Coles & Rossi, 2013). The exhibition title led one to expect a display of objects
and pragmatic design solutions for the domestic, everyday environment. However, the
press described the objects as futuristic solutions that nobody would want in their home.
There were many reasons why the display was considered controversial. First, the exhibition
had a clear political agenda. The design groups Superstudio, Archizoom and Gruppo Strum
opposed the act of design: the world did not need more objects, and all three design groups
participated in the exhibition with radical anti-design. Second, curator Emilio Ambasz had
turned MoMA into a cybertopia where TV screens, projectors, movies, sound installations,
music, and digital texts invited audience into an encompassing multimedia experience. And
finally, the exhibition was founded on an ambitious theoretical premise that had been
articulated at Ambasz symposium Institutions for a Post-Technological Society at MoMA
8-9 January 1972. The notable list of conference participants included the most
distinguished scholars in European and American intellectual discourse at the time.2 The
theoretical framework that suffused the exhibition was cybernetics, theories of networks,
social psychology, semiotics, and as stated in the catalogue the metaphysics of the
nonhuman environment.3
Dark is the atmosphere. The finality of history

The exhibition was divided into two sections, the exhibition started in the MoMA Garden
with the section entitled Objects and ended inside the museum with the Environments
section. The Objects section in the Garden displayed 180 commercial products of the
most acclaimed Italian designers of the late 1960s until 1972 (Figure 1). The objects were
mounted in tall mini-skyscraper wood cases, behind glass windows. Several reviewers
questioned the meaning of the evident commodity fetishism of luxury products in an
exhibition that problematized consumer society. Although reviewers almost unanimously
gave critical acclaim to the innovative, creative, elegant and irresistible Italian products, the
display in the Garden was interpreted as an ironic comment on the present-day consumer
society.
For research on the exhibition see: chapter 5 Italian Design and the New Political Landscape in (Scott, 2010, pp. 116149).
2 As described by Scott: The Advisory Board for the conference, who also functioned as the peer-review committee,
included Stanford Anderson, Rosalind Krauss, Carl Schorske, Peter Eisenman, Joseph Rykwert, Abraham Moles, Suzanne
Keller and Emilio Ambasz. Conference participants were Henri Lefebvre, Alain Touraine, Michel Foucault, Martin Pawley,
Octavio Paz, Toms Maldonado, Umberto Eco, Hannah Arendt, Jean Baudrillard, Christopher Alexander, Gyorgy Kepes,
Manuel Castells, Gillo Dorfles, Ronald Dworkin, Meyer Schapiro, Sheldon Wolin, Anatol Rapoport, Richard L. Meier. Those
who reluctantly declined the invitation on account of other commitments included Louis Althusser, Roman Jakobsen, and
Roland Barthes.
3 See (Scott, 2010).
2643
Figure 1: Installation view of the exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, MoMA, New York,
26 May to 11 September 1972. Photo: Ingrid Halland Rashidi/MoMA Archive.
As Adolfo Natalini, one of the founders of Superstudio, noted: Italian design, shut up in the
wooden towers of a parody of Manhattan [] is shown in these pharaonic chambers through
a series of heroic acts, of grand gestures perhaps, bravura pieces that under the spotlights
become the last act of a mysterious melodrama (Natalini, 1972, p. 469). Ambasz was,
together with his assistant Thomas Czarnowski, responsible for the design of the wooden
skyscraper cases that according to critic Rose DeNeve was to symbolize the transitory yet
beautiful nature of the Objects, and created the illusion of a giant and grotesque Fifth
Avenue of Italian design (DeNeve, 1972). Although the individual commercial objects were
admired by both visitors and the press, there was a general impression amongst the
reviewers that the objects were too avant-garde. The objects on display were not relatable
to ordinary people, as one visitor uttered: the objects dehumanized the furnishings.1
The second part of the exhibition was 11 specially commissioned full-scale environments
displayed in the entire East Wing of the museum. Ambasz had put together a Call for
participation which had been sent out to invited designers such as Ettore Sottsass, Joe
Colombo, Gae Aluenti, Mario Bellini and Marco Zanuso. The design process commenced
Textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen quoted in (Huxtable, 1972).
2644
with the designers elaborating their designs in drawings and texts. Then Ambasz responded
to almost all of the propositions with a request of moving further into the unknown. 1 He
demanded more radical solutions and more futuristic thinking. The final 11 environments
presented in the museum answered Ambasz directions in a highly diverse and multifaceted
way, but although environments were uttermost diverse and multifaceted design solutions,
they all seemed to have references to a futuristic dystopia. One upset visitor wrote to the
museum: The exhibition is cleverly installed [], but it seems to me horrible and repulsive. I
would not been caught dead in any of those environments, and I would certainly not live in
any of them.2 A journalist reported that the display tends to recall astronauts
descriptions of the Moon as a lonely and dangerous place ("Letter from America," 1972).
The reviewers references to outer space and to Sci-Fi movies, such as Stanley Kubricks
2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockworks Orange, were frequent. The Building Design
described the exhibition as a stunning spectacle, however Clockwork Orange is its parallel.
Dark is the atmosphere; chill the air. Cool, plastic and flashing (Kay, 1972). Likewise, in
another review the exhibition resemble[d] nothing [more] as a lunar landscapeor
furnishings out of some futuristic spaceship (DeNeve, 1972). Furthermore, one reviewer
commented that humans apparently didnt belong in this environment: [The display] is
admirably efficient. But, like so many of the immaculate living spaces on display and the
sterile little plastic things meant to furnish them, it leaves very little room for human
cussedness (Marvel, 1972). And finally, Vogue recommended the exhibition to their
readers: For a glimpse of, in H.G. Wellss words, Things to come, see Italy: The New
Domestic Landscape. Its a shocker, an eye-opener, and an informative, beautifully
conceived show that defines the esthetic of the space age for the first time (Rose, 1972).
The Environments section was considered ambiguous, intriguing and complex. As written
in Casabella: [] the environments functioned as an instrument of criticism to reinforce
doubts of the finality or relativity of history. The projection into the future goes beyond
predictable future goals and utopia itself ("Radical Design," 1972). The projection into the
future was emphasized by a pervasive techno-utopia that seemed to cause a somewhat
disturbing effect: The very layout of the show is a sign of the problem, for it is itself grossly
overdesigned. Visitors are not invited in to take a look around and form some ideas; they
are firmly directed through a program (Marvel, 1972). The program in question was a
brand-new multimedia system by the manufacturer Olivetti. The Implicor System was
present in several parts of the Environment section and was put together by the artist
Umberto Bignardi, who had selected photographs of varied architectural, anthropological
and political contentrefined them into line drawings, and converted them into 2500 slides.
The slides were programmed onto 32 slide projectors and rear projected on numerous
special mirrors, which both served as viewing screens and reflected light from the opposite
1
Ambasz response to Joe Colombo initial design was as follows: The Review Committee has met to consider the proposals
submitted to it. Although they liked the approach that yours represents, they are aware that it belongs to an already known
family of solutions. Letter from Ambasz to Colombo, 06.13.1971. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, NY. MoMA Exhs.
1004.10.
2 Letter signed Your cantankerous Member. The Museums of Modern Art Archives, NY. MoMA Exhs. 1004.147
2645
walls. The projections were synchronized by a studio tape unit, one track regulated the slide
feed, and the other carried the audio portion to the amplifier and the speakers.1
Finally, in the review entitled Home Was Never Like This the journalist Norma Skurka
concluded with the following postulate: [The environments on display] are meant to shock
us into changing outmode ideas about the way we live. Their message? Our very lives
depend on curbing consumption and limiting expansion in order to preserve our ultimate
environment, the planet earth (Skurka, 1972).
The Period of the Great Contaminations

One of the environments on display was a two-level room cast in brown polyurethane
designed by Gaetano Pesce (Figure 2). The structure was isolated from the other
environments and mounted at the bottom of an elevator shaft on the ground floor in the
East Wing. Audience could enter the claustrophobic square bunker, and apart from two
video screens that showed two naked people walking around in the bunker, the
environment didnt contain any objects or furniture. The work played with the notion of
temporality. The bunker was discovered underground in northern Italy in an archaeological
excavation in the year AD 3000 and the archeologist was Pesce himself. After researching
the underground shelter, the archaeologist assigned the structure to the year 2000 and the
room was then completely excavated and moved to MoMA. The reason why humans had to
seek shelter underground in the year 2000 was not quite clearbut the archeologist
concluded that an immense cataclysm must have been a factor. The archeologist stated that
it somehow had become impossible for humans to breathe, and they had to withdraw from
the surface of the earth. The New York Times quoted the wife of the Italian ambassador,
Mrs. Egidio Ortona, who described her feeling when experiencing the environment: an
extreme point of viewa warning of what might happen if we are not careful(Huxtable,
1972).
All information on Olivettis Implicor System, see MoMA Exhs, 1004.15.
2646
Figure 2 : Reproduction of Gaetano Pesces environment, scale 1:10. Photo: Centre Pompidou.
Nonhuman agency
Would a worka painting, a building, a chair or a displayalways operate within the
framework of human intention? To bring thinking into the future, there is a need for futurefocused methodologies. In this section I will re-work the past by addressing the agency
beyond human intention. By using Italy: The New Domestic Landscape as the empirical
case, I will show how not only humans conceptualize reality, but that things themselves have
the capacity to display the future. As it happens, the environments in INDL are allowing this
approach through their design. In the previously mentioned Design Program Emilio
Ambasz wrote the following beneath the subtitle The metaphysics of the nonhuman
environment:
[] the environment[s] should be so designed as to permit us to improvise
ceremonies and gestures, the meaning of which we need not to be conscious of at the
time of their spontaneous performance, but of which we may become aware
afterward, when we reinterpret them. Underlying the proposal of such a feasible,
nonrepressive environmental arrangement is the basic premise that mans actions and
visions are irrational; only after the word is pronounced and the deed committed can
we assign it a possible logical structure to describe its purposes and explain its laws.
(Ambasz, 1972b, p. 145, my emphasis)
In the INDL exhibition the metaphysics of the nonhuman environment takes its departure
from this statement. Inscribed in the design, then, is the basic premise that mans actions
and visions are irrational. This premise allows for an inquiry of the nonhuman agency of
Gaetano Pesces environment and in the exhibition itself. According to Ambasz, both his
2647
own and Pesces actions are thus irrational, and only when the deed of designing the
environment (and the exhibition) is committed, it becomes possible to describe its purposes
and explain its laws. To depend solely on human agency when scrutinizing the purposes of
the INDL exhibition, would therefore lead to an irrational conclusion. In the following, I will
advance towards describing and explaining the metaphysics of the nonhuman environment,
in respectively, Pesces environment and in INDL itself. My claim will be that the nonhuman
agency is not necessarily confined by human intention, and that the material did something
on its own that both Pesce and Ambasz did not anticipate.
To evoke a situation
In Gaetano Pesces dystopian environment humans had to withdraw from the surface of the
earth by the year 2000. Pesces intention of the exact reason to why humans had to
withdraw from the earths surface was unclear. The archeologist from the year 3000 could
only speculate on why it was impossible to breath and humans had to isolate themselves in
a plastic bunker. In the catalogue Pesce (or is it the archeologist from AD 3000?) is listing
possible, but vague, situations. Amongst many situations, we can read: Incompatibility
between human environment and the atmosphere, Need for isolation, Rejection of
human contact, Non-communication as a characteristic of life, Decline of the
technological dream, Insecurity as the prospect of the future, Tendency to overcome
fear through inflating the idea of death (Ambasz, 1972a, p. 216). However, the brown
polyurethane bunker, unintendedly, confirmed that the situation in question was in fact
global warming. Humans had to withdraw from the surface of the earth, and isolate
themselves in the plastic bunker because human beings had destroyed our ultimate
environmentplanet earth. Moreover, Pesce himself confirmed this in a talk, recorded on
video, with Peter Lang at The Architecture Foundation in 2013:
When I presented this project, I presented it as an archaeologist. Not as a designer,
not as an architect. I am an archaeologist from the year 3000 discovering in north of
Italy, underground, in a huge cavern, an empty cavern. Supposedly from oil. This
cavern is empty. Three years later in Europe, there was the crisis of oil. [...] I said
'people had decided to go and live inside earth. Why? Maybe because outside [it] is
impossible to breath. Interesting, later, it came out, the story of the pollutionit was
interesting. Because with a project you are able to evoke a situation that was coming
two or three years later.1
At a first glance, this statement might not seem very controversial. Pesce is saying that
pollution was not one of his (the archeologist) situations of why people needed to withdraw
from the surface of the earth. He had suggested that one of the possible situations was an
incompatibility between human environment and the atmosphere, but at the time,
pollution was not thought of as one of the reasons for the incompatibility. However, the
crisis of oil emerged, and the story of pollution became more pervasive, and the work itself
came to display its own intentions. Yet, in this quote, Pesce is not only adding and confirming
1 Gaetano
Pesce in conversation with Peter Lang. Architecture on Film: Italy The New Domestic Landscape, MoMA, 1972
+ Q&A with Gaetano Pesce and Peter Lang. The Architecture Foundation 28.11.2013.
2648
something unintended, he is re-working causality. Pesce is saying that the project evoked a
situation that was coming two or three years later. Evoke, meaning to draw forth, or
produce, or to summonthat is to request to appear.1 Did the environment cause global
warming? Did the agency of the polyurethane bunker at MoMA itself evoke the oil crisis,
pollution and global warming? Then, the causality would be reversed. The effect then
causes the cause. In that situation, The Period of the Great Contaminations evoked the
period of the great contaminations. This conclusion would not be that far-fetched if we take
the design of Pesces environment into consideration. The environment was, in fact,
designed so that actions at the time would be irrational, but when the deed was committed,
it became possible to describe its purposes and to explain its laws. Through design, then,
through Pesces dystopian environment, the environmental future was evoked.
People pollution
In August 1972 journalist Fred Steckhahn wrote a review of INDL in the journal After Dark
entitled Art, Ecology and the Future. After describing the outset and the premise of the
exhibition, the criticism became harsh: Its not the subject matter, the different
approaches [to] design concept[s] or the effective display I critize [sic.], but the purpose. If
this exhibition is to illustrate the design concepts, the entire show is spurious and a
complete waste of time. Its obvious that these Italian designers are ignorant of the basic
laws of ecology, since practically every object is made from a synthetic or plastic
(Steckhahn, 1972). Steckhahn then refers to two articles in The New York Times, (Sept 25th
and October 2nd 1971) by the ecologist Barry Commoner, who had warned the public that all
of earths ecosystems were threatened. Echoing Commoner, Steckhahn wrote that manmade materials, such as plastics require tremendous amount of energy to produce [] and
this energy will never re-enter the eco-system. Therefore, argues Steckhahn, plastics are
indestructible and cannot be recycled: Whatever the future brings us, we can only hope it
wont be more plastic (Steckhahn, 1972). Steckhahn ended the review with a most gloomy
conclusion: Im pessimistic as to whether mans drive to procreate will abate in ensuing
decades. I hope so. More people, of course, mean more people pollution and more
polluting products. Its not funny, but Italy: The New Domestic Landscape is a killer
(Steckhahn, 1972).
INDL was a killer. Like the reviewers had pointed out: this was no place for humans. Nobody
would want to live in those environments. The use of synthetics and plastics dehumanized
the objects. The furnituremodular systems of latex foam, steel frames, molded plastics
shells, stacking plastic chairs and molded plastic tableswere polluting the world.
Domestic pollution, as one of the newspaper reviews was titled. However, humans were
not only polluting the world with things, but in Steckhahns words, with our selves. The
exhibition removed humans from the environment. Journalist Meredith Palmer, titled her
review Environmental Future Shock at MoMA, and suggested that through design, humans
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=evoke&searchmode=none
2649
had degenerated the ontological status of ourselves: Emilio Ambasz has put together an
exhibition that changes our ideas of design, and in this prophetic implications of life in the
21st century further reduces mans feeling of importance on this planet, by design solutions
focused on encapsulated living spaces (Palmer, 1972, my emphasis). The intended
theoretical framework of INDL was semiotics, cybernetics and communication theories, in
this paper Im re-working the past, and claim that the display, unintendedlyhad a
posthumanist theoretical framework and henceevoked such a reality in itself.
The posthumanist theoretical framework manifested itself through the exhibition layout.
The museum display offered a micro-model of the environment, or rather; it displayed the
future of the environment ontology. First, in the Garden, it displayed the state-of-the-art
situation. How things were at the time. Sleek, plastic objects were literally encapsulated
into the man-made wood mini-skyscraper cases. Just as the Objects section of the
exhibition was an ironic postulate of the present-day consumer society, the micro-model of
the environment ontology projected an ironic postulate of the present-day Cartesian
dualism where humans dominate the Garden, conceptualize the objectsand thus make the
environment. Humans moved around in the man-made Garden where objects existed only
by the virtue of how they were known and signified by human subjects, and this privileged
humans over all other objects. Then the audience entered the museum. The walls and
ceiling were painted black, and the floor was covered with black felt. A dark atmosphere; a
chill cybertopia of the future. As a journalist in St. Louis Post-Dispatch pointed out: Inside
the Museum in a dark labyrinthwhere the visitor is educated by virtual messages in movies
or in television screens (Degener, 1972). Adolfo Natalini noted: The environments appear
to us under strong and unreal lighting as funeral presences. Each is presented as a definitive
testimonial on a contradictory and fluid situation. [] And each one of the eleven episodes
is quite alone, with muddled history behind it, and an uncertain future (Natalini, 1972). Not
only was the design future on display, additionally, the ontological future was displayed. In
the Environments section, the audience became immersed and overpowered by
nonhumans. Olivettis Implicor System, the isolated dark environments that floated in
space, voices from the TV films; confusing cacophony from all sides (Scott, 2010, p. 127),
the technologies and the machines evoked a posthumanist reality where humans became
one thing among all other things. By exiting the man-made Garden, and entering the
cybertopia, the future became real: the future was displayed as a result of nonhuman
agency of INDL.
Italy: The New Domestic Landscape problematized what humans were doing to the planet
and the answer was rather dystopian. Humans polluted the planet with both things and
ourselves, and as a result objects ended up owning humans. Would it be irrational, then, to
suggest that these two situations are connected? That the posthumanist reality in
humanistic research was evoked because of climate change?
2650
Things to Come
Humans had such an immense effect on the earth that we are now considered not only a
biological agent, but also a geological one.1 Nature does not exist anymore (Morton, 2007).
Humans are now entangled with nature. There is no return; we have polluted the world
with our presence. As a result, there is no other way then to withdraw ourselves into the
ontological plastic bunker, beneath the surface of the earth where humans are one thing
among all other things. Gaetano Pesces The Period of the Great Contaminations showed us
a vision of the reality in year 2000. It seemed irrational at the time, but years later, in 2013,
Pesce confirmed that the environment had evoked climate change. The environments
structure and laws became evident after the deed was committed: The Period of the Great
Contaminations is not just the period of pollution, but the period of people pollution.
Pesces environment did indeed evoke the future; something happened when we
approached the millennium. The term Anthropocene was coined, and as a consequence of
people pollution, humans had to withdraw from the earths surfacenamely; the
ontological reality. Thinking within the humanities took a different direction and resulted in
a paradigm shift with vast ontological implications. The material turn2 removed human
agency as the essential force, and scholars such as Bruno Latour, Gilles Deleuze, Felix
Guattari and Donna Haraway laid the foundations for a new understanding of being that is
further elaborated by authors such as Annemarie Mol, Karen Barad, Jane Bennett, Benjamin
Bratton, Graham Harman, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Timothy Morton. They have all
contributed to evoke a posthumanist reality, where the agency of human beings have the
same ontological status as the agency of a chair, an exhibition, climate change or
nothingness.
An exhibition doesnt conclude anything. The fixed relations it displays are only temporarily
fixed. When the material manifestation of the temporarily fixed relations were broken
that is, when the exhibition closed and the environments were destroyed, and when
MoMAs concluding press release were filed in archive box 1004.166it wasnt finished. As
I have shown in this paper, the exhibition continued to work. With Ambasz own words: only
when the deed is committed can we assign it a possible logical structure to describe its
purposes and explain its laws. Things themselves; machines, chairs, plastic environments,
Gaetano Pesces environment, Gaetano Pesce himself, Olivettis Implicor system, Italy: The
New Domestic Landscape, evoked themselves. My claim is that design conveys a more
fundamental, a more encompassing understanding of the relations and interactions
between humans and the world. And yes, Vogue was spot on: For things to come, [go and
see] Italy: The New Domestic Landscape (Rose, 1972), and as it happenedthe things
didIcome. The future was evoked through the display. Environmental future shock at
MoMA3: Triumph of plastic over wood, of machine over man.1
See e.g. Catherine Malabou, Anthropocene, a new history? European Graduate School, 2015.
As explained by Jane Bennett, the paradigm shift draws on philosophical concepts by amongst others Spinoza, Bergson,
Heidegger and Latour. See (Bennett, 2010, pp. 1-10).
3 Referring to the title of the review Environmental future shock at MoMA (Palmer, 1972).
2
2651
References
Ambasz, E. (1972a). Italy: the New Domestic Landscape: Achievements and Problems of Italian
Design. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
Ambasz, E. (1972b). Italy: the New Domestic Landscape: Achievements and Problems of Italian
Design: New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Conn.
Andersen, L. B., Danholt, P., Halskov, K., Hansen, N. B., & Lauritsen, P. (2015). Participation as a
matter of concern in participatory design. CoDesign, 11(3-4), 250-261.
doi:10.1080/15710882.2015.1081246
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway : quantum physics and the entanglement of matter
and meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.
Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter : a political ecology of things. Durham, N.C: Duke University Press.
Bogost, I. (2012). Alien Phenomenology, or What Its Like to Be a Thing. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Brown, B. (2004). Things: University of Chicago Press.
Coles, A., & Rossi, C. (2013). The Italian avant-garde, 1968-1976.
Conroy, S. B. (1972). Triumph of Plastic Over Wood; of Machine Over Man The Washington Post.
Degener, P. (1972, 30.07.). Mini-environments for Megalopolis. St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
DeNeve, R. (1972). Supershow in Retrospect. Print.
Huxtable, A. L. (1972, 26.05). Italian Design Show Appraised-Ambiguous but Beautiful. New York
Times
Kay, J. H. (1972, 1.09.). La Dolce Vita. Building Design.
Law, J., & Hassard, J. (1999). Actor network theory and after. Oxford: Blackwell.
Letter from America. (1972, 1.06). Daily Telegraph.
Marvel, B. (1972, 15.07). Italian Designers Prophesy (gulp) The Future. The National Observer
Meillassoux, Q. (2008). After finitude : an essay on the necessity of contingency. London: Continuum.
Morton, T. (2007). Ecology without nature : rethinking environmental aesthetics. Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press.
Natalini, A. (1972). Italy: A Domestic Landscape. Architectural Design, 42(August), 469-473.
Olsen, B. (2010). In defense of things: archaeology and the ontology of objects. Lanham, Md:
AltaMira Press.
Palmer, M. (1972). Environmental Future Shock at MoMA. The Harvard Crimson.
Pickering, A. (1995). The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science: University of Chicago Press.
Radical Design. (1972). Casabella, July(367).
Reif, R. (1972, 22.05.). MOMA Mia - That's Some Show. The New York Times.
Rose, B. (1972). From Italy: Mind-opening designs for living in the future Vogue, July.
Scott, F. D. E. (2010). Architecture Or Techno-utopia: Politics After Modernism: MIT Press.
Skurka, N. (1972, 21.05.). Home Was Never Like This. The New York Times.
Steckhahn, F. (1972). The Art Scene: Art, Ecology and the Future After Dark, August.
Referring to the title of the review Triumph of plastic over wood, of machine over man (Conroy, 1972).
2652
About the Author:

Ingrid Halland Rashidi is a Research Fellow in Design History at the
University of Oslo. She is a part of the research project Back to the
Sustainable Future. Her research interests include exhibition theory,
Posthumanism, New Materialism and Speculative Realism.
2653
Recommendations to rebuild the body of feminist

work in industrial design
Isabel Prochner* and Anne Marchand
Universit de Montral
*isabel.prochner@umontreal.ca
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.255
Abstract: Feminist work exists in industrial design and contributes to society, the
feminist movement and the industrial design field itself. Though much of the work
dates from the 1980s and 1990s, which leaves the contemporary industrial design
field without much feminist critique and intervention, and without the many
contributions of this body of work. Thus, there is a need to rebuild the body of
feminist work in industrial design. However, the feminist movement in industrial
design is difficult to grasp and its hard to know how to move forward and contribute
to this rebuilding. This paper provides recommendations to inform this complex task
based on readings on the topic of feminism and a literature review on feminism in
design. The recommendations touch-on how to address the limited presence of
feminism in industrial design, the contemporary relevance of older feminist work in
industrial design and how contemporary feminism could inform newer work.
Keywords: feminism; industrial design
Introduction
This paper introduces the feminist movement in industrial design, its contributions and its
major challenge - the shortage of feminist work in industrial design. It argues that there is a
need to rebuild the body of feminist work in industrial design, but that this is a difficult task
given that feminism in industrial design is a complex topic. This paper addresses this
problem by providing perspectives on how to inform the rebuilding of the body of feminist
work in industrial design.
This paper helps respond to the DRS 2016 question: How can design research help frame
and address the societal problems that face us? Feminism in industrial design contributes to
society by identifying feminist concerns in the industrial design field and proposing and
adopting solutions to address them. It contributes to the feminist movement by adding to
its reach and grasp of the depth and complexity of feminist concerns. Finally, it offers ethical
contributions to the industrial design field by highlighting issues and helping to advance
industrial design theory and practices for increased equality.
Context
Feminism
There have been significant gains in the rights and status of women in the last century.
However, inequality, injustice and oppression of women remain present in contemporary
societies. This includes issues like gender-based violence, gendered employment and
difference in pay, and social discrimination (Walby, 2011).
Feminism is an emancipatory political activity assumed by women or men for women
(Jardine & Smith, 2013; McCann & Kim, 2010). It is based on the view that women live in
unjust conditions, which can and should be changed (McCann & Kim, 2010). Feminism has a
dual goal of identifying and exploring these issues and establishing and carrying out plans for
change with the goal to improve the lives of women (McCann & Kim, 2010) and to achieve
equality between women and men (Rich, 2014). Feminism has been integral to the
advancement of the rights and status of women and remains a critical component in the
fight to address the remaining concerns.
Problems of inequality, injustice and oppression permeate all levels and parts of society
including politics, the economy, the media, the medical field and sports (Walby, 2011).
There are feminist projects in each of these areas to identify and address them (Walby,
2011). It follows that these issues also seep into the industrial design field and there is a
discipline-specific feminist movement to identify and address them.
Feminism in industrial design

Feminist work in industrial design exists in research and in practice. Industrial design
theorists, often historians, typically present the feminist concerns. Resolutions are mostly
found in industrial design practitioners writing, especially when they discuss their own
feminist design practice.
Problem
The bulk of the feminist work in industrial design dates from the 1980s and 1990s. Though,
at that period, it was acknowledged that there was little work on the subject, both in theory
and in practice (Rothschild, 1999). The presence of the feminist movement in industrial
design has deteriorated even since then. There have been few examples of feminist work in
industrial design since the year 2000. This shortage limits this body of work by preventing
depth and breadth of discussions.
This problem is compounded by the fact that feminism is context dependent: its priorities
and perspectives change across time and place (McCann & Kim, 2010). As such, the
2656
Recommendations to rebuild the body of feminist work in industrial design
concerns and resolutions presented in the existing work might not be relevant today. This
leaves the contemporary industrial design field without much feminist critique and
intervention, which is detrimental to society, the feminist movement and the industrial
design field itself. Thus, there is a need to rebuild this body of feminist work in industrial
design. My doctoral research and the work of several other recent design researchers and
doctoral students in design contribute to this end.
Yet, in the earlier period, the feminist movement in industrial design was relatively unified
and organized. There were anthology publications (for instance, Attfield & Kirkham, 1989
and Rothschild, 1999) and conferences on the subject like the Re-visioning Design and
Technology: Feminist Perspectives conference in New York in 1995 (Rothschild, 1999). This
would have helped contributors to understand where the movements been and to discuss
where its going. Today, researchers and practitioners in the field work separately and in
parallel. These discussions dont seem to take place. Further to this, the feminist movement
in industrial design is difficult to grasp. There are many intersecting and complex topics
(feminism, industrial design and feminist work in industrial design) and factors (changes over
time and the limited presence of feminist work in industrial design) at play. At present, each
contributor to the movement would need to grapple with the topic on their own.
Combined, this situation makes it difficult to know how to move forward and contribute to
this rebuilding, and is likely detrimental to the feminist movement in industrial design itself
as it could lead to an overlap of work, prevent collaborations and limit outreach to
individuals outside the movement.
Research focus
The goal of this text is to inform the rebuilding of the body of feminist work in industrial
design. To this end, it dissects the complex topics and factors related to the feminist
movement in industrial design.
The text starts with a rough history of feminist ideological strands and notes on the changing
visibility of feminism. This provides a framework for the discussions that follow.
The next three sections are the heart of the paper.
The first proposes why feminism in industrial design has had and continues to
have a limited presence and how this can be addressed moving forward.
The second introduces the older feminist work in industrial design and
discusses its contemporary relevance.
Finally, the last section proposes new directions for feminist work in industrial
design based on contemporary feminism.
This paper is the culmination of three years of extensive research on the intersections of
feminism and industrial design. It is based on many readings on the topic of feminism and a
broad literature review on the feminist question in design. Here, the discussion of feminism
in industrial design is centred on literature that explicitly mentions feminism and industrial
design to enable a precise and discipline-specific understanding of the topic.
2657
Feminism
Feminist Ideological Strands
Within feminism, there are numerous [feminist] ideological strands that differ in the scope
and the change sought, the extent to which gender inequality is linked to other systems of
domination- especially class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality- and the significance attributed to
gender differences (Dahl Crossley et al., 2012, p. 500). These provide guidance as to the
actual positions one should take within specific cases (Blattberg, 2001, p. 194). The
following is a rough history of Western feminism to showcase key arguments and trends,
and changes over time.
Feminism first emerged in the mid or late 19th century and lasted until the early 20th
century (Lanius & Hassel, 2015). It was largely focused on achieving rights for women as
citizens like the right to vote and to education (Lanius & Hassel, 2015, p. 12).
Feminism re-emerged in the 1960s with the understanding that equality in daily life cannot
be obtained through simple legal, political or institutional modifications (Eichler & Lavigne,
2015). There were two major branches of feminism during this period: liberal feminism, a
reform movement, and radical feminism (Ryan, 1992).
Liberal feminism was inspired by Betty Friedans critique of womens role in the home in The
Feminine Mystique (Ryan, 1992). As Deborah Wills explained, Friedans solution for
womens emotional enslavement to being mother and wife is to promote the view that
women become educated and work outside the home (2000, p. 214). Thus, the liberal
feminist ideology argued that women can improve their position by working outside the
home and entering politics (Taylor, Whittier & Pelak, 2004). Its followers also critiqued
sexism, which they associated with gendered socialization like how parents interact with
female or male children (Krolokke & Scott Sorensen, 2006).
While liberal feminism focused on progress in the lives of individual women, radical
feminism focused on women as a group and large-scale change (Taylor, Whittier & Pelak,
2004). Radical feminism was inspired by The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (Taylor,
Whittier & Pelak, 2004), especially the arguments that women are oppressed as other and
the only authentic moral action is womens collective struggle for their own liberation
(Davis, 2000, p. 39).
The radical feminist ideology holds that patriarchy is a universal system (Hines, 2015) that
emphasizes power, competition and hierarchy (Tong 2014) and results in the systematic
male dominance of women (Hines, 2015, p. 24). Patriarchy is based in institutions like the
family that exploit women through domestic work and keep them from entering the public
world (Hines, 2015). Patriarchy is so entrenched that it cannot be reformed but only ripped
out root and branch (Tong 2014, pp. 2-3).
There are several divisions within radical feminism. For instance, cultural feminism holds
that womens subordination can be resolved by assigning a higher value to feminine gender
or by inventing a new understanding of femininity or femaleness (Tong, 2014). Some even
2658
believe that womens essential nature was better than mens and that women ought to
govern men (Tong, 2014, p. 53). Ecofeminism is an offshoot of cultural feminism
(Henwood, 2007). It associates ecological destruction with male power, where men
subordinate both women and nature, seeing themselves as masters of both (Henwood,
2007, p. 277). In contrast, it argued that women are naturally closer to nature because of
processes like childbirth and values toward cooperation and nurturing (Henwood, 2007).
Feminism transformed in the 1980s and 1990s as new ideologies developed and became
dominant (Krolokke & Scott Sorensen, 2006). These represent greater diversity and explore
how womens lives are shaped by race, nationality, class, and sexuality, as well as by
gender (McCann & Kim, 2010, p. 22). The term intersectionality refers to the overlap
between these different systems (McCann & Kim, 2010). The following are examples of
these new streams of feminism.
Postcolonial feminism is an exploration of and at the intersections of colonialism and
neocolonialsm with gender, nation, class, race, and sexualities (Sunder Rajan & Park, 2008,
p. 55). It is strongly inspired by Can the Subaltern Speak? by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
(1988), which argued that Western thought is entrenched in the colonial legacy and doesnt
see the subject position of other populations (Tong, 2014).
Postmodern feminism draws on postmodern and poststructuralist theories (Mehta, 2000),
which show that gender, class, race and ethnicity can no longer be regarded as an essential
or even a stable category and, thus, puts into question the category of women (Waugh,
1998, p. 185). These theories can be applied in a variety of ways and to varying extremes
(Flyn, 2002). Patricia Waugh points to Donna Haraways Manifesto for Cyborgs as an
example of this strong application of postmodern feminism (1998). In this work, the cyborg
is a creature in a postgender world (1987, p. 3; Waugh, 1998) and is a metaphor through
which Haraway critiques limited visions of concepts like woman, man, race or identity
(1987).
This diversity of feminist streams heralded a third wave of feminism in the 1990s, which
continues to this day (Hines, 2015). The third wave was led by a new generation of women
(Orr, 1997) that respected the diversity of different feminist theories and had open views on
who could be a feminist and how (Marecek, 2000, p. 474). The third-wave is
consequently not one, but many (Krolokke & Scott Sorensen, 2006, p. 17). It also places a
strong emphasis on contemporary issues like technology and mass media (Snyder, 2008).
Changing Visibility of Feminism

In The Future of Feminism (2011), author Sylvia Walby explained that feminism has become
less visible over time (Walby, 2011). It transitioned from a public protest movement to a
more institutionalized movement with its own agencies in governments and organizations
(Walby, 2011). These agencies activities are less frequently publicized in the media
compared to those of a protest movement (Walby, 2011). Further, feminism is increasingly
combined with other projects like the environment and human rights, and may not be
2659
identified in these situations (Walby, 2011). Finally, feminism is stigmatized: [it] has
acquired connotations of separatism, extremism, [and] men-avoiding lesbianism (Walby,
2011, p.2). As such, individuals may avoid using the term feminism, in favour of a related
term like equality (Walby, 2011).
Limited Presence of Feminism in Industrial Design

Several authors in the 1980 and 1990 period hypothesized about why the feminist
movement in industrial design had a limited presence. Cheryl Buckley hinted that the
shortage of feminist work in industrial design research was because feminism is a
challenging and controversial subject (1999). She said: Questions about womens role in
design remain tangential to the discipline and are tackled with reluctance (Buckley, 1999,
p.109). In turn, the shortage of feminist work in industrial design practice could have been
because [industrial] designers who are women-and who identify as feminist-still remain
relatively few ... [and] they have yet to write extensively about their work (Rothschild &
Rosner, 1999, p.23).
These limitations probably still hold true today. Feminism remains a challenging and
controversial subject and there are likely still few feminist designers. Several polls published
online show that only a small percentage of Americans consider themselves feminist: the
number ranges from 18% (Perry Undem, 2015) to 28% (YouGov, 2013). Further, according
to the survey by YouGov, more women consider themselves feminist than men: 38%
compared to 18% (2013). This difference is significant to industrial design. In Canada, only
about of industrial designers are female. In 2006, women represented 27% of Canadian
industrial designers (Service Canada, 2013) and, according to a 2011 report, 24% of
members of an industrial design association in the province of Quebec (ADIQ; Tison, 2011).
Thus, a renewed body of feminist work in industrial design would not necessarily surpass the
level from the 1980s and 1990s, but might be able to match it.
The changing visibility of feminism likely also plays a part in the limited presence of feminism
in industrial design today. It is unlikely that feminist work in industrial design is merely
hidden, as this research involved an extensive literature review. Instead, feminist work in
industrial design is probably not identified as such. One example is the work of Sputniko!, a
design researcher and practitioner based at MIT. Many of her critical design projects align
with feminist goals, but none are directly associated with feminism, either in her writing or
in reviews of her work. As an example, Nanohana Heels (2012) is a critical design product by
Sputniko! in response to Japans Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 (Sputniko!, 2015). It is a
pair of high-heeled shoes that automatically plant Rapeseed plants, which are known to help
absorb radioactivity. The project is a commentary on the relationships between female
empowerment, femininity, sexuality and the national psyche (Sputniko!, 2015).
The situation that feminist work in industrial design is not identified as feminist has
advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, its positive that researchers and practitioners
continue to support the position of women through their work. Further, avoiding the term
2660
feminism might encourage greater support and collaboration on these projects. The survey
by Perry Undem, cited earlier, shows that 78% of respondents believe in social, political,
legal, and economic equality for women and men, including those that do not consider
themselves to be feminist (2015, p. 15). Yet, its problematic that avoidance of the term
feminism could be motivated by a negative stigma. As such, efforts moving forward should
support any industrial design project aligned with feminist goals, but, at the same time,
strive to improve understanding of feminism and its image.
Older feminist work in industrial design

Feminist Concerns in Industrial Design
The industrial design field is a male domain: In their 1999 article, Clegg and
Mayfield explain that product design is a male thing. This is attributed to the
gendering of technical competency where women are made to feel that they
cant do certain technical things like hammering (1999, p. 9). These gendered
perceptions shape the choices of men and women in design education (Clegg
& Mayfield, 1999, p. 15). Thus, there are less women in technical fields like
product or furniture design than in (apparently) less technical design fields like
fashion design (Clegg & Mayfield, 1999). This could be seen as a liberal
feminist critique given Clegg and Mayfields emphasis on equality in the
workplace.
The industrial design field is rooted in masculine values: Amelia Amon explains
that industrial design is rooted in masculine values, which is demonstrated, for
instance, through the alignment of designers with corporations and an
emphasis on cost savings (Amon, 1999). This dominance of masculine values
neglects feminine values like those that emphasize compassion and prioritize
the environment or users (Amon, 1999). Amon appears to draw on cultural
feminism and possibly ecofeminism in her discussion.
Women had limited and gendered roles in industrial design: In historical
discussions, Buckley (1989) and Kirkham (1989) explain that, in the rare cases
that women did participate in design, they often had gendered roles. Their
roles were assigned based on perceived female traits of being physically weak
(Kirkham, 1989) and suited to delicate tasks (Buckley 1989). Women
decorated pottery in the pottery industry (Buckley, 1989) and upholstered
furniture in the furniture industry (Kirkham, 1989). Based on their focus on
equality in the workplace, these articles are likely aligned with liberal
feminism.
Female industrial designers are not diverse: Buckley (1989) and Gorman (2001)
briefly note that class and race also mediate womens participation in design.
These authors draw implicitly on intersectionality in their texts.
2661
Womens roles in industrial design are devalued and ignored: Cheryl Buckley
explores these points in Made in Patriarchy: Toward a Feminist Analysis of
Women and Design (1986). As she explains, [in] a patriarchy, men's activities
are valued more highly than women's (1986), so the role of furniture
upholsterer would have had a lower status than furniture maker. Second, she
explains that womens interventions are ignored through methods including
the definition of design (1986). Historically, craft allowed women an
opportunity to express their creative and artistic skills outside of the male
dominated design profession (Buckley, 1986, p. 7). Thus, [to] exclude craft
from design history is, in effect, to exclude from design history much of what
women designed (Buckley, 1986, p. 7). Buckley proposes to expand the
definition of design to include craft (1986). Yet, Carma Gorman disagrees with
this last point, as [s]uch a redefinition can do absolutely nothing to change
the fact of past inequities (2001, p. 79). Indeed, understanding these
inequalities is important to move forward (Gorman, 2001). Cheryl Buckleys
arguments appear to be based on radical libertarian feminism given her focus
on patriarchy and challenge to divisions between female and male activities.
Designer-consumer relationships are patriarchal: The primarily male industrial
design workforce controls female consumers through the products they create
(Partington, 1989). For instance, designers make products with a specific
vision of how they should be used (Partington, 1989) and these products frame
consumers lives (Lupton, 1993). Yet, in The Designer Housewife in the
1950s, Angela Partington notes that female consumers do have some agency
in this process, as products are invested with other meanings and values by
female consumers where they can apply their own knowledge and creativity
(1989, p. 211). These critiques seem to draw on radical feminism given their
focus on patriarchy and the distinction between the public and domestic
worlds.
Designer-consumer relationships reinforce patriarchy: Patriarchy defines the
designers perceptions about womens needs as consumers (Buckley, 1986,
p.8) and designers exploit and perpetuate womens gendered roles by drawing
on these perceptions (Schwartz Cowan, 1983). This can be especially the case
when designers try to help female consumers through labour saving
household equipment. Angela Partington explains it is well known that the
introduction of labour saving equipment has coincided with an increase in the
average amount of time women spend on housework (1989, p. 212). This
could be explained through Philippa Goodalls 1983 discussion of the
microwave: while the microwave is meant to improve convenience, for the
housewife it is a duty, a duty to provide food at all times, even when the
shops are shut or the market closed and most of the family has already eaten
(Goodall cited in Buckley, 1986, p.8). Once again, these works seem to draw
2662
on radical feminism because of their focus on patriarchy and the public and
domestic worlds.
Male designers might not understand female users: From a likely cultural
feminist perspective, Nancy Perkins argues that female designers are best able
to understand female users, and when women are absent criteria for what
is comfortable, appropriate, and appealing to women may be overlooked
(Perkins, 1999, p. 120).
International exportation of products has been harmful to and controlling of
other populations: In Representations of Women and Race in the
Lancastershire Cotton Trade, Mumby is critical of the export of cotton from
Britain to India and China in the 19th century (1989). She explained that this
process destroyed local cotton industries in India (1989). Further, prints on
the cotton and its advertising had caricatures of Indian women that showed
them as poor, passive or sexual objects (Mumby, 1989, p. 27). Mumby saw
these representations as a form of oppression and cultural control (1989).
Mumbys arguments seem to draw on postcolonial feminism by critiquing
power relations between Britain and India and China, and by focusing on how
the textile makers ignored the subject position of Indian women.
Different points of view on gendered products: There are conflicting views in
literature about the value of gendered products. In Objectifying Gender: The
Stiletto Heel (1989), Lee Wright provided a counter argument against the
typical feminist critique of the stiletto heel, a highly feminine product and
one that restricts womens mobility (1989). Wright argued that the stiletto
shoe is empowering to women because of its femininity and because it
represents a new woman that has a life outside the home (1989). Her
discussion likely draws on cultural feminism given her focus on the
female/feminine alignment.
Feminist Resolutions in Industrial Design

The resolutions presented here were identified in a series of three essays written by
industrial design practitioners for Joan Rothchilds book, Design and Feminism: Re-visioning
spaces, places and everyday things (1999). In one essay, Angela Partington suggests that
feminist design practice should be exploring the ways in which femininity is celebrated
through womens use of commodities (1989, p. 212). Another writer, Amelia Amon
proposes that it should emphasize users needs and wants and employ appropriate
technologies [and] alternative energy sources which use natural systems (1999, p. 126).
Amon applies this vision in her practice (1999). An example is a solar-powered ice-cream
cart she designed for Ben and Jerrys (1999). Finally, Wendy E. Brawer sees feminist design
practice as ecologically and socially responsive (1999, p. 129). She also applies feminism in
her practice (1999). An example is the Deposit Bank, which is a public bottle and can
recycling box accessible to bottle pickers (1999). This product was installed in New York
2663
City and provided bottle pickers healthier and more dignified access to recyclables (1999).
These discussions are based on cultural and sometimes ecofeminist perspectives.
Contemporary Relevance of this Older Work

The older literature draws on many different strands of feminism and its feminist alignments
change over time, reflecting changes to feminism more broadly. Yet, the literature is quite
old; the bulk of it dates from the 1980s and 1990s. Further, in many cases, the feminist
streams in design literature align with feminism from about a decade earlier. Thus, feminist
perspectives and priorities from about the 1980s onward are minimally represented.
That being said, contemporary feminism is open to different perspectives and priorities.
While older feminist streams are less popular today, they still represent legitimate
perspectives. Nevertheless, this work could be limited by its relevance to the current
context. Goodalls critique that the microwave creates more work for housewives is a case
in point (1983/1996). A discussion of working womens experiences might be more relevant
now. Thus, this literature could be applied in the renewed body of feminist work in
industrial design if its content were screened for contemporary relevance.
Intersections of Contemporary Feminism and Industrial Design

New feminist work in industrial design could apply more contemporary feminist streams like
postcolonial and postmodern feminism, which were minimally represented in the older
work. Mumbys application of postcolonial feminism hints at the potentially valuable
contributions of this more contemporary feminist stream to reimagine elements like
production, trade and markets (1989). Further to this, contemporary feminism would
support the co-existence of a diversity of perspectives.
As mentioned earlier, today, feminism places a strong emphasis on contemporary issues like
technology and mass media (Snyder, 2008). Industrial design research and practice is closely
aligned with these two topics. Thus, the feminist work in industrial design could contribute
to these existing discussions. Finally, it was mentioned that feminism is increasingly
institutionalized in agencies and combined with projects on related issues like the
environment or human rights. This new work in industrial design could follow these models.
It could aim to inject a feminist perspective in industrial design institutions like professional
associations, education institutions, or research societies. Further, potential alignments
between feminism in industrial design and other movements like design activism, critical
design or even sustainable design could be explored.
Conclusion
This paper presented the value of the feminist work in industrial design as well as the
challenges facing this body of work: its limited quantity and its contemporary relevance. The
major goal was to develop some recommendations to inform the rebuilding of this
specialization. I explained that it is probably not reasonable to expect the quantity of
2664
feminist work in industrial design to surpass the level from the 1980s and 1990s, but it might
be able to match it. Efforts moving forward should support any industrial design project
aligned with feminist goals. This could include translating the older work to the
contemporary context or applying the multitude of contemporary feminist streams to
industrial design research and practice. This could equally involve less intuitive projects like
contributing to feminist discussions on technology and mass media from an industrial design
perspective, injecting a feminist perspective in industrial design institutions, and exploring
the alignment between feminism in industrial design and related design movements,
provided that improving understanding of feminism and its image remain a focus.
Much of the new feminist work in industrial design is already moving in these directions.
The following are some individuals that Ive encountered in person or through readings
working in this area. Sandra Buchmller is a researcher associated with the Berlin University
of the Arts in Germany (Design Research Lab, n.d.). She is working on a model of feminist
design research and practice that merges feminist standpoint theory and the gender
theories, performing gender and undoing gender, with human-centred design (Buchmller,
2012). Karin Ehrnberger is a doctoral student at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden
(KTH, 2015). She has published several feminist critiques of industrial design norms. As an
example, she co-authored an article with professors Minna Rsnen and Sara Ilstedt, on
gendered industrial design products and the harmful implications of a gendered approach
(2012). Finally, Sarah Fox is a PhD student at the University of Washington in the United
States (Dub, n.d). She has co-authored papers on the phenomenon of feminist
hackerspaces, workspaces that support the creative and professional pursuits of women
(Fox, Ulgado & Rosner, 2015, p.1) and the intersections of feminism and critical design
(Ulgado & Fox, 2014). Their work touches on many of the topics discussed above and often
blends several areas of emphasis like applying contemporary feminist theories in design and
exploring the alliances between feminism and other design approaches like universal design
or critical design. Nevertheless, their work also leaves many subjects open for exploration.
Hopefully this paper will be a step toward reinvigorating the valuable feminist movement in
industrial design by informing and inspiring new contributions.
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About the Authors:

Isabel Prochner researches alternative frameworks for industrial
design with a focus on feminism and sustainability. At present she is
a doctoral candidate at the Universit de Montral.
Anne Marchand is trained as an industrial designer and holds a PhD
in environmental design from the University of Calgary. Her research
focuses on cultural consumption as a new manifestation of
responsible consumption, and on the valuation of heritage
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Design practice and design research: finally

together?
Kees Dorst
University of Technology Sydney and Eindhoven University of Technology
Kees.Dorst@uts.edu.au
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.212
Abstract: Early design research was driven by the ambition to create a coherent
Science of Design an ambition that was later abandoned in favour of a more
pluralist approach. But despite great progress in the last 50 years, Design Research
can still be criticised for being (1) too disconnected from design practice, (2)
internally scattered and confused (3) not achieving the impact that was hoped for. In
this paper we will discuss possible solutions to these conundrums by learning from
three professional and academic fields: Marketing, Art Theory and Management,
respectively. Based on these three discussions an attempt will be made to create an
integrated answer by considering how design research and practice might come
together in the creation of a new field, Academic Design.
Keywords: design research; design practice; academic design
Introduction
In the 1960s and 70s, at the moment that design research was first formulated as a
separate and worthwhile pursuit, the aim was to create a true Science of Design that would
be at a par with the Natural Sciences. Herbert Simon and others set out to create a body of
work on a science of the artifical [Simon, 1992] that would be based on a fundamental
understanding of the man-made world, and of the processes that all humans would have in
common to create it [Hatchuel, 2001]. Through their logical analyses they were seeking to
create a deep, underlying shared body of work that through its coherence would be the
bedrock for more applied (practice-oriented) knowledge, and that through its depth and
rigour would demand recognition as an equal to the hard academic disciplines [Cross,
1984].
Fifty years and many attempts later ([ Suh, 1998][Roozenburg, 1995]) we have to confess
that apart from some delightfully stubborn exceptions (C-K Theory), much of the design
Kees Dorst
research community has more or less given up on this quest. It is hard to say what sparked
this turnaround it could be the fact that the proposed fundamental theories of design
turned out to be divisive rather than unifying, pitching the art-and-design discourse against
the engineering-design discourse and the academic researchers against the practitioners
[Cross, 1984]. But perhaps the project to create a grand theory of design was abandoned
simply because it had become irrelevant in more post-modern times where the other
sciences were steadily becoming less monolithic themselves.
But still, the ambition to provide a pure, strong and coherent basis for design research has
been immensely valuable in its day and there is merit in keeping it alive (although today we
might be better off not striving for a single, but multiple theories of design). A coherent basis
for design research would help design researchers learn from each others studies and
better build on each others knowledge. The emancipatory agenda is also still open - a
stronger theoretical basis for the field would definitely help to further the recognition of
design in academia [Dorst, 2013].
The author has earlier attempted to address some of these issues in the 2008 paper Design
research a revolution waiting to happen [Dorst, 2008], which has become an oft-quoted
critique of developments in design research. In this paper we pick up the thread again, seven
years later, and reflect on where design research has come to in these years, and map out
the current challenges to the field. We will do this by carefully considering three lines of
critique that have been prevalent in discussions, and find inspiration/borrow solutions from
other academic discplines to come up with at least a new set of (con)temporary answers.
The three common lines of attack to design research are: (1) Design research is disconnected
from design practice (2) Design research as field of inquiry is scattered and confused, (3)
Design research is using the wrong paradigm: it is too analytical, and not future oriented.
Based on these three critical discussions an attempt will be made to create a partial answer
by considering how the body of design research is actually contributing to the creation of a
new field of Academic Design and we end with ideas on how this could be done more
effectively.
The missing link

Design practitioners often complain that design research seems to be disconnected from the
day-to-day reality of their profession. And although this is inevitable to a degree (research is
in the business of abstracting away from everyday details), it is worth taking this critique
seriously. One could rephrase the critique slightly more neutrally by saying that knowledge
of design resides both in practice and in academic research and that the problem is that
there is little common ground or communicaton between the two.
If we take written text as a repository of knowledge, then we can see that on the practiceside, professional design magazines show the newest designs, richly illustrated to spark
inspiration, and they publish interviews with leading designers to further reflection and
understanding. On the research-side, knowledge resides in academic journals, which are
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Design practice and design research: finally together?
almost purely text-based, and that are looking to support the development of decontextualised knowledge such as processes and procedures. They aim for rigorous insight
rather than inspiration or reflection on practice. They are oriented towards an academic
audience, with some lipservice to conclusions for practice. Again above this level of
academic research sits a level of philosophical reflection, which harbours the metadiscussions on the epistemology and ontology of both design and design research.
It is useful to compare this situation with other fields of practice that do seem to have a
better knowledge flow between academia and practice. If we look at the case of Marketing,
for instance, there is an interesting layer of publications that sits between the journals of the
practitioners and academic writings that are focused on creating models and theories that
further the understanding of the field. That layer consists of a body of well-described
extensive case studies, both rigorously gathered and described (so that they can be used as a
basis for serious academic study), well-written and amply illustrated (so that they can be
used as a basis for reflection and inspiration by practitioners). The layers of knowledge in a
field can be pictured as a ladder, and to support a lively and current discussion, knowledge
and insights need to travel up and down. The disconnect between design practice and
academic design research could be repaired by creating this new, in-between rung of the
ladder (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: The ladder of design research
From the field of Marketing we can learn that these could be semi standardised, well
described cases (like the Harvard Business Cases), consisting of at least 10-15 pages, that
describe the design activity and the outcomes achieved in great detail, and (most
importantly) include the complete context in which the design project took place. Such a
thorough and detailed description of the facts of the matter could be supported by graphic
material that allows a practitioner- reader to be inspired and develop his/her own insights
based on the material, while the academic reader would find a validated case study (data
set) that is open for multiple analyses
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Kees Dorst
For design there might be other forms than case studies that would support the knowledge
transfer equally well see for instance [Horlings, 2015] for an interview-based approach to
expressing this intermediate level of knowledge.
Scattered and confused

Design as a notion and as a field of mutiple professions is incredibly broad, and scattered. As
a result the small body of knowledge that has been built up over 50 years of design research
is also spread very thinly. What doesnt help is that design research has developed quite
haphazardly one gets the sense that decisions on what to investigate in design research
tend to be based on the opportunistic question where there is a theory from another field
that can be borrowed to elucidate an aspect of design, rather than strategic considerations
on what would most help design research or indeed, design practice. As a result, design
research conferences can be acutely confusing experiences, with an avalanche of
unconnected studies and theories thrown at the participants. And design is only becoming
broader these days, as design practitioners address more and more types of problems (e.g.
service design, social design, etc) design research could be stretched even further. How
can we still make sense of these developments? How can we keep design research together
when the idea of a single model that would connect all of these studies has had to be
abandoned?
This is more or less the same question that Rosalind Krauss tried to answer in her seminal
paper on the revolutionary developments in sculpture, Sculpture in the expanded field
[1979]. At that time, modern sculptures had (literally) left the pedestal, and had moved
beyond the usual materials (from bronze and stone to butter), shapes (from the human
figure to radical abstraction), even giving up on the sense of permanency (throw-away
materials, performances) and object orientation (e.g land art). In brief, sculpture had moved
away from being a set profession to become a conceptual field, and this sparked an acute
sense of crisis among artists and art schools. In her essay, Krauss attempted to describe
these radical steps away from traditional sculpture as part of a logical development, a
dialectic of sculpture with and against its defining characteristics. She showed that in its core
modern sculpture was still dealing with the deeper issues of classical sculpture (place,
materiality, 3D relationship to the body). The fact that these new objects and experiences
were still part of that same discussion qualified them to still be called sculpture in an
expanded meaning of that term.
Contemporary developments in design can be described and understood in much the same
way. The professional field that we so easily label design is complex, and full of inner
contradictions. These inner tensions feed the discussions in the field. To name a few: (1) the
objectives of design and the motivation of designers can range from commercial success to
the common good. (2) The role and position of the designer can be as an autonomous
creator, or as a problem solver in-service to the client. (3) The drive of the designer can be
idealistic, or it can be more pragmatic (4) The resulting design can be a thing, but also
immaterial (5) The basis for the process of designing can be intuitive, or based on knowledge
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and research Etcetera The development of the design disciplines can be traced along
these lines of tension - with designers in different environments and times changing position
relative to these fundamental paradoxes, but never resolving them. Ultimately, the real
strength and coherence of design as a field of professions comes from recognizing these
contradictions, and the dynamics of the field is a result of continuous experimentation along
the rifts defined by them. Rather than a common set of practices and skills that designers
might have [Cross, 1990] it is these inner contradictions in design that define its culture, its
mentality. Design research should be an active force in these discussions, building bridges
between them where possible. Not to resolve them into a monolithic Science of Design, but
advancing the discussion in this dynamically shifting set of relations.
The wrong paradigm?

In his book Managers, not MBAs [2004], the economics Nobel laureate Henry Mintzberg
expresses his extreme displeasure at the type of research that is currently being done in
Business Schools around the world. He criticises them for their overwhelming emphasis on
positivistic, analytical research. He argues that the choice for this research paradigm
inevitably leads to the study of practices that have worked in the past, which to his mind is
too backward-looking and limiting for a dynamic field like Business, that at its core is
concerned with creating new possible futures. He proposes that business schools should
switch to what he calls design research but interestingly, his main example of design
research is actually medical research. He sees medical research as a good model as it is
curative (trying to make the world better), and hence inherently active and forward looking.
He then points out how medical research consists of many different layers, that reside with
different parties in the medical ecosystem. Practitioners like your local General Practitioner,
medical specialists, surgeons, nursing staff, R&D departments at university hospitals and in
the pharmaceutical industry all hold specific knowledge and contribute to the field. They do
vastly different kinds of research, using different methodologies, techniques and create a
wide array of outcomes that finds its way to a myriad of outlets. The stated aim of all this
diverse research activity is to improve medical tools and practices.
Comparing this to design research, we can see that like in Business Schools a large part of
the research over the past decades has been analytical, trying to create a theoretical
underpinning of design and understand the current practices of designers. With Mintzberg I
would argue that as a research agenda for a field that is concerned with creating better
futures, an exclusive focus on analysis would be too limited. Design research should be
forward-looking, seeking to future-proof tools and practices in a world that is changing so
quickly that the value of best practices (as examples of what worked in the past) is actually
rather questionable. A more pro-active stance would put design research in the position to
do the R&D of design itself: reflect on the forces at play on the design professions, the
challenges faced by them (globalisation, increasing complexity, etc) and use academic
theories and discussions (e.g. complexity theory) to devise a possible response, effectively
developing new design practices. In an ideal scenario the strength of such an academic
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Kees Dorst
approach would be that through the comparative distance from practice, overiew and
access to theories and practices from other fields, an academic design research community
could come up with fundamentally new practices for design that would not be easy to
conceive by design practitioners as they respond to these forces on a more day-to-day,
practical basis.
Academic Design: integrating design practice and research

So far, these three critical discussions have led us to quite different solution directions: (1)
reducing the distance between design practice and research by creating a body of work that
is attractive to and can be accessed by both; (2) addressing the scatteredness by seeing
design as a field of dynamically interrelated discussions (3) reconsidering the appropriate
paradigm for design research, from analytical to curative.
Behind all of these attempts to bridge the gaps, lies the silent assumption that design and
research are fundamentally separate as ways of thinking, and as entities in the world. Yet it
could be better to look at ways in which the two could actually come together, intertwined
in a new hybrid that could be called academic design [Dorst, 2013]. Such a new field of
academic design would have a few distinguishing features.
(1) Academic design would sit between the field of design practice/ problem solving and the
field of academic discussion. Thus academic design has a dual nature: it can be seen as the
use of theory for the framing of a real world problem when we look from the side of
practice, while from the side of academia, it can be seen as a design experiment that has
been derived from academic thoughts and discussions, translated into potential
(experimental) action. Academic design, then, is the locus where theory and practice
interact (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: the position of Academic Design.
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Thus academic design transcends real-world design practice by not just dealing with extant
situations and discussions, but delving deeper and creating a position from which we can
propose scenarios that project further into the future than professional practice can
normally see. This could lead to radically new designs.
(2) Academic design is very much an artifically constructed field, rather than something that
evolves naturally from design practice. Its position between practice and academia means
that it can be criticised from both of its parents, and will often be required to answer to
their two very different sets of quality criteria until it has grown its own set of criteria and
has worked to get them accepted.
(3) This dual nature means that at its core lies discourse, discussion and debate; it is neither
research or theory purely for its own sake, although for stretches of the academic design
process, when a deeper understanding is needed, this type of thinking can be quite
dominant. Nor is it applied research, as in the mere application of academic knowledge to
design problems.
(4) Academic design is also fundamentally nomadic. Academic designers have a foot in
practice as well as in universities. With more and more design researchers working in
companies, design research has already found multiple homes. A good deal of the best
academic design takes place in companies like IDEO, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, XEROX
PARC.
A good example of such a new academic branch of the design family tree is the development
of Emphatic Design [Mattelmaki et al, 2014]. At the end of the nineties, the rise of new
information technology posed industrial designers with novel challenges: they had to find
ways to understand software and interaction as materials, and they had to develop
processes for achieving a much more detailed and dynamic understanding of users. When
searching for new ways of designing, empathic designers in practice and in design schools
turned to several sources they learned ethnographic methods from anthropology and
sociology, which they sought to combine with the tools for conceptual design that came
from design practice. This gave rise to the development of cultural probes, and the recasting of data gathering, interpretation and analysis as an iterative process in which
observations lead to questions that lead to further observations and so on. Empathic Design
is explicitly informed by theories such as symbolic interactionism [Battarbee, 2004], and
could not have been developed without them. Empathic design simultaneously negotiates
its way through academia and practice, and its frameworks are used by academic
researchers and industry alike.
What does this look like on the ground, on a project level lets turn to a different branch of
Academic Design, more associated with the developments in Social Design, for an example
of design practice with a difference. The following project was done by Andr Schamine
(consultant at Twynstra Gudde), Vera Winthagen (TU Eindhoven/ Van Berlo Design) and
Tabo Goudswaard (artist) - see [Dorst et al, 2016]. The case study will first be described from
a practice-perspective.
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Kees Dorst
The A9 highway around Amsterdam is one of the busiest roads in the Netherlands. To
provide better accessibility, improve air quality and reduce sound levels a new 12-lane
tunnel will be built and on the roof of the tunnel, a new park will be made. The
planned construction time is 5 years, and these works will heavily impact the adjoining
residential neighbourhood, the Bijlmer (a poor, multicultural district of 80.000 people
from 186 nationalities). A tightrope-job for the Stakeholder-manager whose task it is
to communicate the program to those impacted and to handle complaints. The
context in which they have to operate is one of hard facts and figures: these
engineering works require strict planning and control. Communication with the
external stakeholders is professionally handled through extensive consultation
processes, to prevent costly delays.
In mapping out the problem, its existing context and the broader field, the
designers/researchers immersed themselves in the Bijmer area to glean what
underlying Themes that were important in the lives and minds of the people,
municipality and companies. This was a very rich process and many fruitful Themes
were identified, leading to frames and solution directions. Just an example: the
researchers uncovered that there are many small and excellent entrepreneurs in the
area, but that a good many of them are semi-legal. Many conversations in the Bijlmer
circled around jobs, and how to get by economically. This theme led to the
development of a new frame, that captures the needs of the people and organizations
in the area: what if you could see the building of the tunnel as a new temporary
economy? What new connections could we make then? The framing of the five years
of construction work as a welcome time for experimentation and renewal also strikes a
chord in the local community. Welcoming the workers as temporary inhabitants of the
area and supporting them with small entrepreneurial activity that can spring up
around the works (food stalls, childcare, repair services, airbnb, etc) is a great way to
prototype the facilities that can eventually populate the park that eventually will cover
the tunnel. In the process, these firms can be helped to professionaise and become
legal, opening them up to investment for the first time.
Please note that the approach taken in this project is very designerly, a far cry from the
normal problem solving approach which centers on consultation and complaints
management. From an academic perspective, this experimental approach is based on
research into design practices, in particular Frame Creation [Dorst, 2015] and problem
solving in the networked society [Boutellier, 2013]. Its broader academic context is anchored
in contemporary public sector management theory [Stacey and Griffin, 2000, 2006], and the
proposed solution is inspired by Nussbaums capability building approach to aid and
development issues [Nussbaum, 2011]. The knowledge gained through this experimental
project is circled back into the development of theoretical frameworks, and broadly
disseminated into the practice community through lectures and the written word [Dorst et
al, 2016]. Thus this academic design project in its own small way addresses the three critical
disucssions that are explored in this paper: it reduces the distance between design practice
and research by creating a body of work that is attractive to and can be accessed by both:
the project has sparked keen interest from major engineering firms, and the opportunity has
arisen to create a body of work to explore this approach more deeply. The project addresses
the scatteredness of design by the integration of social aspects into a major infrastructure
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project. This opens up the discussion in Engineering Design about the conventional limits of
that field. Risk is a central notion in engineering, but if the nature of the risk in these projects
is social rather than technical, aspects of social design will need to be integrated into the
engineering approach. The project is seeking to create new knowledge by pro-actively
experimenting with a proposed methodology, in this case Frame Creation. In doing so it
moves away from purely analytical research, that would have led to a description of current
best practices, and seeks to further theories and methods from design research, problem
solving and change management through an experimental practice.
Conclusion: as design matures

As design matures, bridges are being built that in the end will create a new connected field
that naturally includes design and research. Perhaps the early idealism in design research to
strive for the creation of a Science of Design was more based on the eagerness to fit into
the mould of the sciences than based on confidence in the designers and designing
disciplines themselves. What should have been unifying theories created a rift between
design research and design practice that we are still mending see the three critical
discussions that form the basis for this paper.
This rift would have been largely unnecessary if we, as an academic design research
community, had realised then that over the years, design would gravitate towards an
academic status once the developing design practices would need academic knowledge to
address new and complex challenges.
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Kees Dorst
References
Battarbee, K. (2004). Co-Experience. Helsinki: UIAH.
Boutellier, H., (2013) The Improvising Society; Social Order in a World without Boundaries, Eleven,
The Hague.
Cross N.G., (1990) The nature and nurture of the design ability, Design Studies Vol 11, No 3
Cross NG (1984) Developments in Design Methodology . Wiley, Chichester
Dorst, K., Kaldor L., Klippan, L., Watson, R., et al. (2016) Designing for the common good, BIS
Publishers, Amsterdam
Dorst, K. (2015) Design Innovation create new thinking by design, MIT Press, Cambridge MA
Dorst, K., (2013) Academic Design, published inaugural lecture at the TU Eindhoven, Tu Eindhoven,
The Netherlands.
Dorst, K. (2008) Design Research: A revolution-waiting-to-happen, Design Studies, vol. 29,
no. 1, pp. 4-11.
Hatchuel, A., (2001) Towards Design Theory and Expandable Rationality: The Unfinished Program of
Herbert Simon Journal of Management and Governance September 2001, Volume 5, Issue 3, pp
260-273
Horlings, H., (2015) Design lessons from practice, Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, Amsterdam
Krauss, R., (1979) Sculpture in the expanded field, October, Vol 8 (Spring 1979), pp 30-44
Mattelmaki, T., Vaajakallio, K., Koskinen, I. (2014). What Happened to Empathic Design. Design
Issues, 30(1), 2014
Mintzberg, H., (2004) Managers, not MBAs., Berret-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.
Nussbaum, M.C., (2011) Creating Capabilities., Belknap, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Roozenburg, N.F.M., Eekels, J., (1995) Product Design: Fundamentals and Methods, Wiley,
Chichester.
Simon, H.A. (1992) Sciences of the Artificial, The MIT Press, Cambrigde MA.
Stacey, R., Griffin, D.,Shaw, P., (eds) (2006) Complexity and the experience of managing in public
sector organizations, Routledge, New York.
Stacey, R., Griffin, D., Shaw, P., (2000) Complexity and management fad or radical challenge to
systems thinking? Routledge, London.
Suh, N.P., (1998) Axiomatic Design Theory for Systems., Research in Engineering Design December
1998, Volume 10, Issue 4, pp 189-209
About the Author:

Kees Dorst is professor of Design Innovation at the University of
Technology Sydney, and director of the Design Innovation research
centre there. He also holds a professorship at Eindhoven University
of Technology.
2678
Design Research is Alive and Kicking

Paul A. Rodgersa* and Joyce S.R. Yeeb
a
Lancaster University
Northumbria University
*p.rodgers@lancaster.ac.uk
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.23
Abstract: This paper explores the current situation of design research with a
particular emphasis on how emerging forms of design research are framing and
addressing contemporary global issues. The paper examines how design research can
be a creative and transformative force in helping to shape our lives in more
responsible, sustainable, and meaningful ways. Today, the plurality in design
research is clearly evident given the wide range of conceptual, methodological,
technological and theoretical approaches adopted. Moreover, various forms of
design research now routinely appear in a vast array of disciplines in and around
modern design praxis, including business, engineering, computing, and healthcare.
This paper reviews a rich selection of the state-of-the-art design research that
exemplify the range of approaches, methods, applications, and collaborations
prevalent in emerging forms of design research and presents 10 characteristics of
good design research that will support design researchers in addressing the complex
global issues we face.
Keywords: design research; practice; interdisciplinary, plurality
Introduction
This paper explores the current situation of design research with a particular emphasis on
how emerging forms of design research are framing and addressing contemporary global
issues. The paper examines how design research can be a creative and transformative force
in helping to shape our lives in more responsible, sustainable, meaningful, and valuable
ways. In fact it has been said that design is now the best tool we have available to us in
making sense of the increasingly complex situation we find ourselves in (Sudjic, 2009). In a
similar vein a decade earlier, Nigel Cross claimed in his seminal paper Design Research: A
Disciplined Conversation (Cross, 1999, p.5) that: Design research is alive and well, and living
in an increasing number of places. Today, this plurality is clearly evident given the wide
Paul A. Rodgers and Joyce Yee
range of conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches in

contemporary design research pursuits. Moreover, various forms of design research now
routinely appear in a vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including
business, engineering, computing, healthcare and management. Based on the authors
earlier work (Rodgers and Yee, 2015) and building on previous reviews of design research
(Roth, 1999; Bayazit, 2004; Sevaldson, 2010), this paper seeks to determine the nature of
contemporary and emerging forms of design research and propose future directions for how
we might best cultivate it. As such, the paper reviews a rich selection of the state-of-the-art
research into (about), through and for design (Frayling, 1993) that exemplifies the wide
range of approaches, methods, applications, and collaborations that are prevalent in current
design research. In so doing, the paper will identify new emerging forms of design research
and present 10 characteristics of good design research that echo Dieter Rams enduring 10
principles of good design.
A Recap of the Past 50 Years

Design research is now almost 50 years old. During this time, it has gone through
considerable change and development. Reviewing the informal histories of design research,
we can generally identify three major intellectual waves. The first wave (started in the
1960s) is sometimes referred to as Design Science (Hubka and Eder, 1996) where
researchers generally took a scientific approach to the study of design methods. Rittel (1972
cited in Bayazit, 2004) labels this embryonic phase as the First Generation Design Methods
movement. Much of this early design research was focused on studying and codifying design
activities and processes and was largely dominated by the field of architecture, engineering
and industrial design. Design research at this time mainly looked at rational methods of
incorporating scientific techniques and knowledge into the design process to make rational
decisions to adapt to the prevailing values, something that was not always easy to achieve.
They were attempting to work out the rational criteria of decision making, and trying to
optimize decisions (Bayazit, 2004, p.19). Two of the leading figures in British design research
movement around this time were Bruce Archer and John Chris Jones. They were among the
organizers of the initial conference on design methods, which was held at Imperial College,
London in 1962. Jones motivation was to see designers working at higher levels of system
and community design as well as making designers methods more transparent, changing
the common belief that design arose from a black box of inspiration. Archer was more
flexible than some of his contemporaries in characterizing design as a practice that lay
somewhere between science and art. Archers establishment of the Industrial Design
Research Unit at the RCA in the early 1960s was a major step forward for design research.
Upon becoming the Department of Design Research, design research became a central
feature in the RCAs other departments and in 1981 he published a seminal article in the
proceedings of the 1980 conference, Design: Science: Method, which provided a long list of
design research projects noted for their emphasis on products for special users rather than
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on consumer goods and for their attempts to deal with values, methodology and related
issues.
The second wave came about in the 1970s as a reaction against the prescriptive nature of
the earlier design methods movement. Horst Rittel criticised the first wave as simplistic,
immature, and not capable of meeting the requirements of complex, real-world problems.
At this time, Rittel introduced the term wicked problems and argued that designers often
face ill-formulated and confusing problems (Buchanan, 1992, p.15). Design researchers
here posited that design should be understood through its own terms rather than through
the lens of a positivistic approach a model still dominant in the Sciences. Donald Schn, in
particular, disputes this positivistic approach by arguing that design functions in situations of
uncertainty, uniqueness, and conflict which makes it difficult to approach in a scientific
manner. Schn challenges Simons (1969) view that designing is based on well-formed
problems, arguing instead that professional design practice has to deal with uncertain, illdefined, complex, and incoherent problems (Schn, 1987). Instead, Schn proposes to
search for an epistemology of practice implicit in the artistic, intuitive processes which
some practitioners do bring to situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value
conflict (Schn, 1983, p.49).
The founding of the Design Research Society (DRS) in 1976, with Bruce Archer as one of the
original members, questioned how we should characterize design. Was it a science or
something else? What made design knowledge unique and different from other kinds of
knowledge? What constituted design knowledge and how could design be characterized as a
discipline? All of these questions persisted at DRS conferences and were continued in Design
Studies, the DRS journal that was founded in 1979. The move away from positivistic models
and scientific approaches in design research has finally come full circle in the current third
wave, where design is acknowledged as a distinct discipline, neither an art nor a science.
Cross (2006) calls for a balanced approach to the development of a design discipline, on the
one hand recognising that design has its own appropriate culture but on the other hand not
completely disregarding other cultures. Cross terms this as a designerly way of knowing
and the current variety of types and forms of design research are evident of how far this
idea has developed. Design researchs recent past is littered with attempts to rationalise and
articulate various approaches to define a range of design activities. But what does design
research look like today and how might we best describe it?
Current Context
Research is Expected in the Academy
The number of designers pursuing postgraduate research programmes has been increasing
since the late 1990s. This has happened for a number of reasons. The restructuring, national
assessments and general academicisation of design research in the UK, Australia and
Western Europe has led many Art and Design colleges to be merged or subsumed into large
comprehensive multi-disciplinary universities (Melles, 2008). This has introduced a research
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dimension to the subject and an expectation of a research culture. It marks a paradigm shift
in design education, especially in the UK. Research is now often more valued in teaching and
professional practice, and increasingly, a PhD qualification is the basic requirement for an
academic post in higher education institutions around the world.
Research is Now a Key Skill in Professional Practice

This shift mentioned above has also coincided with growth and expansion of user-centred
and participatory practices such as interaction, service and social design. These new
practices in design require additional skills that are focused more on research, user studies
and evaluation. The trend to use design as an innovation and a change management tool has
also brought more scrutiny to the practice, requiring designers to be more transparent, open
and co-operative in how they work. Unsurprisingly, the job title of design researcher has
begun to emerge in the last few years in design consultancies, businesses, government
agencies, research institutions and policy organisations. A search on the Linkedin.com site
(in October 2015) using the term design researcher returned 1,333 results featuring designled companies like IDEO and Uber, large multi-national corporations like Yahoo and Samsung
and technology companies like Microsoft, IBM and Facebook. While many of the job
postings do not explicitly state a PhD qualification for the role, there is an expectation that
whoever applies must be able to demonstrate familiarity with well-known research methods
and have the ability to analyse and synthesise data and communicate findings in objective
and compelling ways. These are all expected traits and training provided by a research
degree. These jobs are the most direct representation and evidence of how academic
research training can and is being used to inform professional practice in design. However,
research for innovation is not just reliant on traditional quantitative and qualitative research
but that it requires both evidence and intuition; evidence to become informed, and
intuition to inspire us in imagining and creating new and better possibilities (Fulton-Suri,
2008, p.53).
What Does Design Research look like Today?

Having set the scene, we now move on to highlight trends that we have seen in recent
design research projects, specifically focused on PhD studies and on occasions referring to
funded research. The selection of the PhD projects included here is based on the authors
comprehensive survey of contemporary design research published recently (Rodgers and
Yee, 2015).
New Topics of Inquiry and Applications

There are increasing numbers of studies focusing on service design, design thinking and
social design, representing new practice areas for design (Yee et al, 2013). Recently
completed PhD studies on service design (Warwick, 2015; Yu and Sangiorgi, 2014; Rao,
2012), design in social innovation and social design (Amatullo, 2015; Tan, 2012)
demonstrates a growth of interest in these new areas of practice. There are also increasing
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studies exploring the realm of design as critical practice, most notably Matthew Malpasss
study into the field of critical design in product design (2012) and more recently Tobie
Kerridges PhD (2015) on role of speculative design in generating upstream public
engagement in a science and technology context. Much of this research encompasses a
political dimension that is intended to be both useful and impactful.
Laura Warwicks PhD (2015), for instance, explored how design can effect transformational
change in a voluntary community sector (VCS). Her study reveals five organisational factors
that are critical for the Design for Service approach. Additionally, establishing trust and
operating as a critical friend is crucial in increasing the influence of design in the
organisation. Her study represents a first in the application of the Design for Service
approach in a VCS context and provides detailed evidence and insight into the capacity for
transformational change using design. She has also developed a prototype design-readiness
self-assessment tool to help VCS organisations evaluate if design is right for them.
Mariana Amatullo is the Co-Founder and Vice President of Designmatters, the awardwinning social impact department of Art Center College of Design in the USA. She is a
practitioner-scholar involved in social innovation projects directly through her work at
Designmatters and an example of a design practitioner who is using research to ground and
enrich her practice. Her PhD, Design Attitude and Social Innovation: Empirical Studies of the
Return on Design takes a different tack to current popular qualitative approaches in design
research. Her study has sought to explain the phenomena of design for social innovation in
a broad context and to systematically address the question of how might we elucidate the
value designers bring to the field of social innovation? Her analyses rely on original
empirical evidence, collected and framed in a mixed methods exploratory design sequence
that combines elements of qualitative (grounded theory and ethnographic) and quantitative
research approaches. Her study is also interdisciplinary relating to our next point as it
integrates theories of social innovation, organisational culture, institutional logics and design
and eventually builds on the construct of design attitude (Bolland and Collopy, 2004;
Michlewski, 2008). Her theoretical contribution is a new framework that conceptualizes
what she calls the return on design (ROD) for social innovation.
Inter/multi/cross/trans/alter Disciplinary Studies

In the recent national assessment of research excellence in the UK (REF, 2014) that
comprised all areas of design, including all forms of practice and the historical and
theoretical study of design, the list of other disciplines that featured included medical and
engineering science, computer technology, philosophy, history, anthropology, and
ethnography. Similarly, a significant number of research outputs were of an interdisciplinary
nature and were in the form of collaborative projects. A significant part of this
interdisciplinary activity entails collaboration with disciplines such as media studies,
literature, engineering, medicine and history. As is the case with new areas of inquiry, many
of these studies have focused on exploring the professional culture, defining the range of
activities, establishing measurements of value, identifying ethical issues and establishing
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professional legitimacy within a wide range of context such as business, public sector,
healthcare, voluntary community sector and government.
Thus, design now is well established in and across many new sectors and contexts (Marshall,
2008). Consequently, design research is increasingly an inter/multi/cross/trans/alterdisciplinary pursuit. Graham Pullins PhD (2013a), combines speech, disability and design. It
focuses on pioneering more expressive communication for people who cannot speak and
currently find themselves limited by text-to-speech synthesis. His study, 17 ways to say Yes,
exploring tone of voice in augmentative communication and designing new interactions with
speech synthesis explores an often overlooked issue of voice output communication aids
with the sensibilities and skillsof interaction design (Pullin, 2013b, p.14). The activities of
exploration and design practice were used to visualise tone of voice, in order to catalyse new
conversations, through two original design research projects (Figure 1). Due to the subject
matter, his research is not only relevant to design research but has made important
contributions to the augmentative and alternative communication field through
publications, projects and keynotes.
Figure 1. Six Speaking Chairs by Pullin and Cook (Photo: Andrew Cook).
New Ways of Looking at Old Things

As well as new topics of enquiry introduced in the previous section, we have observed new
ways of exploring the more established topics of design research. For example, Anthony
Forysths ongoing PhD study examines the poetic quality of design objects. His study is
concerned with what Bayazit (2004) would call, the physical embodiment of man-made
things and how they work. Rather than take a historical or critical approach to the research,
Forsyth is using his practice as the platform for his investigation, informed by expert
interviews and a contextual study. He is creating a series of new lighting objects to challenge
and define his poetics framework (Figure 2).
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Figure 2. Work-in-progress images depicting early, functional prototypes of Anthony Forsyths

Flicker lamp concept (Forsyth et al, 2015). Flicker is inspired by the play of candlelight
on the surrounding environment and employs a wind sensor coupled to an Arduino board.
With programming to modulate the effect, an LED array dims and brightens in response to
air currents passing across the sensor.
Studies concerned with design as construction as a human activity, how designers work,
how they think, and how they carry out design activity (Bayazit, 2004, p.16) can be argued
as one of the earliest subjects of interest for design researchers. Early design researchers
relied on a strong positivistic philosophy, in which they worked on the premise that there is
an objectively correct method for designing, which could be described by theoretical models
(Holness, 2000). This was in part driven by researchers who were not trained as designers
but rather from other disciplines more at ease with this approach. However, with
increasing researchers coming to research from a design background, the turn to more
sympathetic and introspective way of researching is becoming increasingly common.
Phil Luscombes PhD thesis, Making Things Up: Workshop Practice as a Place of Design,
considers workshop practice, specifically the production of three-dimensional wood, metal
and plastic products, as a place of design (Figure 3). Luscombes exploration into the nature
of tools, techniques and material engagement during the making of designs is based around
a reflective, autobiographical account of the making process (Schn, 1983). A practitioners
use of tools has been a key interest for design researchers for many years. Luscombes thesis
builds on existing approaches of anthropological studies of productive work (Rosner, 2012;
Ingold, 2011) and practice-based design research by investigating, both practically and
theoretically, the tools (including hammers, saws, files, laser cutters and CNC milling
machines) and techniques of workshop practice.
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Figure 3. Making Scissors (Luscombe et al., 2013).
The aim of Luscombes PhD research is to explore how design practitioners might think
about, and subsequently think through, the process of making. Drawing on sources from the
fields of anthropology, archaeology, craft and philosophy, the research explores theoretical
understandings of the process of making and posits that the act of making is best
understood not as an attempt to realise a pre-existing design, but as an improvisatory
engagement with tools and materials an act of discovery rather than transcription. The
research presents a collection of concepts that allow contemporary designing and making
practice to be interrogated in novel ways, offering new insights into: the relationship
between designing and making; the epistemic potential of workshop processes; a
practitioners engagement with tools and materials; and the nature of workmanship.
A New Criticality and Responsibility

The social potential of design has become a key research concern due to new applications of
design within the strategy, social and policy space. Design is no longer just about the
orchestration of material, but increasingly about the manipulation of people and other vital
resources. Human behaviour as the object of design is the focus of Ben Singletons PhD
(2014) in which he explores how designers might approach human behaviour as a material
to be worked on. He was critical of the lack of debate and discussions on what he saw as a
potent potential of design to design human behaviour, especially pertinent in light of the
emergence of service design as now an established design discipline. This questioning of the
role and ethics of design is really important if design is to flourish and gain professional
legitimacy in other disciplines. There is a sense that if design wants to play in these new
social spaces, it has to learn to understand and be responsible for its impact.
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The research of Daniel Carey provisionally entitled Developing and Delivering Innovative
Disruptive Design Interventions in Health and Social Care involves exploring the potential of
design disruption within the context of informal health and social care. Careys ongoing Arts
and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded PhD research in collaboration with
Newcastle Carers seeks to map and understand better the experiences of people caring for
people living with dementia (Figure 4).
Figure 4. A Small Part of a Carers Journey.
The aim is to identify and define the interactions between informal carers and governmental
and charitable support organisations, their perception of the services available to them, and
other informal methods employed to cope with the caring role. Careys maps offer a
valuable new way of visualising the complex interrelationships between support
organisations, and they highlight a number of significant problems faced by informal carers
and their families.
More Messiness on Show

Design research can be messy and complex without comprising rigour. This
acknowledgement of complexity and messiness in a research project is especially important
in research studies focused on understanding how design influences and impacts on
peoples behaviour. This awareness is evident in a number of ways. Firstly, the research
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methodology used in many recent Design PhDs have been focused on allowing new ideas to
emerge through the use of an abductive approach to researching. Abduction, compared with
deduction and induction is a process of forming explanatory hypothesis through linking ideas
together when there is no clear hypothesis or principle available. As the what if questions
are becoming more common in design research, it makes sense to see a growing use of
abduction in research projects. As abduction has been closely linked to the activities of
designing (Kolko, 2010; Dorst, 2015), it is unsurprising that abduction would work just as
well for design research.
Abductive reasoning may not be true but produces insights and ideas that are plausible
(enough) but provisional to help move a project forward (Kimbell, 2015). These insights
require further exploration and elaboration before the switch to more traditional inductive
or deductive reasoning at the latter stages of the research. For that reason, there is usually
an exploratory phase in the research design to explore a number of possible research
directions based on the initial research questions. For example in Michael Leitners 2014 PhD
on mobile interaction trajectories, he framed his first research stage using Binder and
Redstrms programme and experiment approach (2006) and explained that each
programme (stage) acts as a conjecture, rather than a hypothesis (Figure 5). This open and
exploratory research design offered him a flexibility in the way he approached his next
research stages and subsequently helped direct his two design experiments.
Figure 5. Micheal Leitners Hanky Probe package created to study mobile relationships.
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Messiness in research tends to be swept under the carpet and cleaned up through the
rationalization process of writing. As a result, the nuances and intricacies of the research
activities and decisions often get lost in the final reporting of the research. Pullin (2013b,
p.5) attempted to address this problem by creating a guide to his thesis framed as
navigational notes. He states that while a strong narrative thread is established through a
more traditional thesis format, the interwoven navigational notes provide a means to
capture important complexities that might have been lost. free to act as reflections on the
main text, the navigational notes are an opportunity to be more transparentand more
honestabout what happened and when.
Social Dimension and Context

Design researchers are increasingly recognizing the importance of individuality and context
in their research approach. Many questions asked in design research cannot be simply
answered with a binary yes/no or true/false answer and instead sit on a continuum of
interpretations that will change based on any given context. Tommy Dykes PhD is focused
on understanding how design might improve day-care facilities for the elderly. He has
created a number of evocative and thoughtful interaction objects that aims to foster
conversation and curiosity (Figure 6). Dykes chose to create objects that allowed openended and playful interactions between people. Dykes research highlights the bias of always
using focused problem solving approach, since it can often lead to products that represent a
very narrow range of experiences and usage. Instead, he chose to make objects that help
make life richer instead of easier.
Figure 6. PhotoScrabbler (Dykes, 2014) is a prototype that slowly transitions and gently fades in a
slideshow of Flickr images that change to reflect the words created with wooden Scrabble
tiles on a letter holder. It was designed as a way of bringing joy of exploring Flickr to small
groups of people living with dementia in an Adult Day Centre.
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Lizette Reitsmas PhD (2015), Dynamics of Respectful Design in Co-creative and Co-reflective
Encounters with Indigenous Communities, deals with the often-problematic area of designing
with indigenous communities. Because of designs overarching aim to improve things many
design approaches are often guilty of colonising. Reitsmas research has explored ways to
deal with such concerns. Adopting a Respectful Design approach that seeks to ensure that
the indigenous community benefits from design projects, Reitsma has developed a
framework so that the designer has space for dialogue to guarantee such benefits (Figure 7).
Reitsmas co-creative and co-reflective encounters with indigenous communities have led to
a model of respectful design space and recommendations on how to reach such a space.
Figure 7. Analysis tool to explore Respectful Design (Reitsma, 2015).
Different Ways to Communicate Research

With the growing practice of using design as a vehicle of research, an area that is in constant
debate is how to document the realities of practice-based research more analogously. Whilst
the traditional conference paper, journal or essay format is still the dominant format of
dissemination, more multi-layered and dialogical forms are being proposed and trialled by a
number of different researchers. For example, in the interdisciplinary field of HumanComputer Interaction (HCI) (Gaver, 2011; Gaver, 2012) and Bowers (2012) have articulated
strategies for communicating practice-based research that privileges provisional and
contingent expressions through the creation of annotated portfolios and workbooks. This
shift to practice has also been recognised by academic conferences (e.g. Research Through
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Design, Making Futures, All Makers Now, PhD by Design) that offer a more synergistic
platform to support and encourage experimentation, interdisciplinarity and visual
argumentations.
There are also a number of doctoral studies that challenge the current convention of
research communication. For example, Daria Lois doctoral thesis (2004) was presented in
the form of a suitcase. Her research was focused on exploring ways to foster organisational
spaces where collaborative activities can be undertaken using design tools and methods. The
thesis was presented as a suitcase containing participatory devices to enable readers to have
a discourse with the thesis, while at the same time actively demonstrating some of the
concepts that the thesis discusses. In a more recent example, Nick Sousanis submitted a
doctoral dissertation in a graphic form titled Unflattening (Figure 8). Sousanis Unflattening
concept relates to multimodality, about interdisciplinarity, about image-text, that is both
public and scholarly. Its saying that we need to dimensionalize the kinds of conversations
we have rather than coming at them head-on (Sousanis, 2015). Considering the subject
matter, it made sense for Sousanis to represent and communicate this concept through the
multi-modal form of a graphic novel. While there is current debate (as seen on the PhDDesign List email archive) as to whether the graphic form sufficiently demonstrates and
evidence a method of scholarly, scientific or professional analysis, it is nonetheless an
interesting example that challenges our perception on accepted modes of design research
communication.
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Figure 8. Excerpt from Nick Sousanis Unflattening PhD thesis, page 91 (2015).
Design research is also increasingly presented, discussed and influenced through a co-design
and participatory process. Cobbs design research project entitled The 100-Mile Suit
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explored regional supply chains with the aim of reintegrating and reconnecting the wearer
of clothes to local trades and economies (Cobb, 2015). Cobbs research intends to introduce
a dialogue about resources and community in an attempt to unravel disconnect between
consumer and producer. Cobbs project was disseminated as part of a museum exhibition
focusing on local communities and collective gestures where a regional garment supply
chain was simulated so that the community could witness the process of making clothing,
talk to the makers and touch the materials (Figure 9).
Figure 9. 100-Mile Suit Materials, Exhibition Shot, Detail (Cobb, 2015).
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This range of research dissemination format is also reflected in the range of outputs
submitted in national research assessment exercises. For instance, the UKs Research
Excellence Framework (REF) of 2014 recorded over 20 forms of output submitted. The UK
REF (2014) for Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory, one of the largest sectors in the
exercise, reported on the: range, energy and vitality of the submissions it received.
Adding that: over 60 per cent of the submitted work was considered to be world-leading or
internationally excellent and that this quality of work was found across the discipline
range, and at all career stages of submitted staff. (Figure 10). The REF (2014) also found
that design research has been a pioneer and supporter of practice-based research through
previous RAEs, and the increasing quantity and quality of practice-based research in REF2014
confirms that the sector is a leader in this mode of research activity. Much of this focus has
produced a large quantity of high-calibre research outputs. These are most notably in
digital design; design and the business process; product modelling; transport design; and
health. REF (2014) also noted that much of this activity is undertaken with small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger-scale industrial producers, and collaboration
across other organisations and institutions. It is acknowledged, however, that not all
countries allow the range of submission types accepted by the UK's REF exercise.
Figure 10. Research Output Types in Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory REF 2014
Submission.
Ten Characteristics of Good Design Research

This paper has highlighted that design research is alive and kicking and residing in a number
of places by examining recent design PhDs drawn from the UK and USA. We began by
contextualising current developments of design research in relation to its past and have
reflected on and highlighted emerging trends in how design research is practiced, discussed
and communicated. We now conclude by summarising these trends into characteristics of
design research.
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Design research is not only alive and kicking, it continually challenges research conventions.
The plurality in emerging forms of design research is clearly evident in the wide range of
conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches. Furthermore, many
forms of design research regularly appear in a vast array of cognate disciplines, including
business, engineering, computing, healthcare and management and many techniques and
approaches from those disciplines are often altered and exploited in design pursuits such as
Graham Pullins PhD (Pullin, 2013a).
We maintain that design research that purposely blurs distinctions and has challenged
existing academic models, from being disciplined to being irresponsible, will be best placed
to make connections that generate new ways to identify other dimensions of design
research, activity and thought that is needed for the complex, interdependent issues we
now face (Rodgers and Bremner, 2011). Moreover, developments in digital technologies
have dramatically modified extant models of design thought and action, and design research
must now transform itself from a convention domesticated by the academy (disciplined) to a
reaction to globalisation that is yet to be disciplined. In these conditions we introduce 10
characteristics of design research (Figure 11), based loosely on Dieter Rams 10 principles of
good design, (Klemp and Ueki-Polet, 2010) that not only represent the variety of current
design research but can also act as a reference point moving forward.
Table 1. Ten Characteristics of Good Design Research (based on Dieter Rams 10 Principles of Good
Design).
Dieter Rams 10 Principles of
Good Design
Rodgers and Yees 10

Characteristics of Good Design
Research
Good design:
Good design research:
is innovative
is disruptive
makes a product useful
is useful
is aesthetic
is messy
makes a product understandable
is political
is unobtrusive
is impactful
is honest
is critical
is long-lasting
is enduring
is thorough down to the last detail
does not need qualification
is environmentally friendly
is thoughtful
is as little design as possible
is clear
These characteristics should not be used to label or qualify different types of design
research and in this respect, the authors agree with the tenet in Cameron Tonkinwises
recent essay entitled Just Design: Being Dogmatic about Defining Speculative Critical Design
Future Fiction when he says:
2695
Every time you qualify design with, or add design to, some other quality or practice,
you are claiming that design does not already do that. All these phrases are redundant
and/or appropriative of design: Design Futures, Design Fiction, Speculative Design,
Critical Design, Adversarial Design, Discursive Design, Interrogative Design, Design
Probes, Ludic Design. Designing that does not already Future, Fiction, Speculate,
Criticize, Provoke, Discourse, Interrogate, Probe, Play, is inadequate designing.
Thinking that these need to be added to design reinforces the mistaken belief that
design is just an instrumental technical task styling. These qualifiers are precisely
what allows (commercial) designing to not (have to) do all those things, or, ironically,
constrains (commercial) designing from doing all those things. Calling out all these
specialist versions of designing benefits only the artificial ecosystems of academic
design research, especially the bubble that is HCI. (Tonkinwise, 2015).
Conclusions
This paper puts forward 10 characteristics of good design research, based loosely on Dieter
Rams 10 principles of good design, that not only represent the variety in current design
research pursuits but can also act as a reference point for the next 50 years. To move
towards achieving relevant, valuable, and responsive research in an uncertain era, this paper
posits that design research needs to be:
1) Disruptive Design is very good at offering new ways to view the world through
alternative futures. In this respect, good design research should disrupt the status quo
and offer new perspectives.
2) Useful Research is practiced in order to be useful. It must serve a defined purpose.
However, the most important task of design research is to optimise the utility of its own
usefulness (Rodgers and Bremner, 2011).
3) Messy Good design research makes you think, it makes you question and because it is
not clear-cut, it is inherently messy. Messiness does not negate the fact that research
still has to be rigorous but that it requires untangling using approaches that do not oversimplify nor merely seek to reduce.
4) Political Design research needs to acknowledge its political dimensions and direction.
Design research must now respond to new globalised perceptions and clarify its stance
on the worlds significant challenges poverty, mass migration, ageing, isolation,
conflict, security, and many others.
5) Impactful The regular (every 4 or 5 years) United Kingdom Research Excellence
Framework (REF) national assessment of the quality of research in UK higher education
institutions, assesses the impact of research outside of academia and is defined as: an
effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services,
health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia. Thus, design research
should consider how it will contribute to having impact in one or more of the following
walks of life Civil society (including in regional and local contexts), Cultural life,
Economic prosperity, Education, Policy making, Public discourse, and Public services.
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6) Critical Design now starts from a globalised state of culture, so contemporary forms of
design research must not only comprise an understanding of historical, cultural, and
social perspectives but also be critical and challenging of these perspectives.
7) Enduring Design research should avoid the trap of only focusing on current hot topics.
Well-structured design research should reflect a profound evolution in our vision of the
world and our way of inhabiting it.
8) Does not need qualification There is less need to define particular types of design as
practice-based or research-through or research-into and so on. The importance of
design research now lies in its rigour, relevance, quality (questions asked, methodology,
results), and impact. Distinction between research-through, research for, researchinto, etc. should no longer be used to defend a particular way of doing design research.
9) Thoughtful Design research must be serious about what it is doing as design looks to
address difficult issues which includes economy as well as ecology, with traffic and
communication, with products and services, with technology and innovation, with culture
and civilization, with sociological, psychological, medical, physical, environmental, and
political issues, and with all forms of social organization. (Rams et al., 1991).
10) Clear Design research should bring clarity to the processes, activities, meanings, roles,
value etc. of design. At best, design research is self-explanatory.
These 10 characteristics of good design research will support design researchers in framing
and addressing the complex global issues we now face. It will help ensure that emerging
forms of design research play a major creative and transformative role in shaping our future
living in more responsible, sustainable, meaningful, and valuable ways.
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About the Authors:

Paul A. Rodgers is a Professor of Design at Imagination, Lancaster
University, UK. His research explores the discipline of design and how
disruptive design interventions can enact positive change in health
and social care and elsewhere.
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Joyce S.R. Yee is a Reader at Northumbria University, UK. Her

research focuses on the role of design in service design and social
innovation, the role of practice as a form of inquiry, and the inherent
messiness of design.
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Reverse Innovation: How Has Design in the Greater

Pearl River Delta Region Changed the World
Ningchang Zhoua and Tao Huangb*
a
South China Agricultural University

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
*thuang@siu.edu
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.153
b
Abstract: After more than 40 years of rapid development, industrial design in

Mainland China is due for a thorough documentation and examination. In particular,
design in the Greater Pearl River Delta region has played a crucial role in this process
and must be studied carefully to help us understand what could transpire in the
future. This paper aims at deepening the understanding of the cultural context of
innovations in the Greater Pearl River Delta Region. Based on years of direct
involvement with the growing of the industrial design profession, the authors started
a research project to document significant design companies that marked the
trajectory of development of the profession and business of industrial design. The
paper further aims to uncover culturally significant design innovations and
innovations that have gained great international success that could be categorized as
reverse innovation. Both have played a role to the advancement of the profession.
Keywords: reverse innovation; industrial design; Chinese design; design history
Introduction
Design in the Greater Pearl River Delta Region
Since 1979, the Greater Pearl River Delta region has been at the front and center of the
extraordinary development of manufacturing and design in China. The Pearl River Delta
region encompasses nine major cities in the southeast part of Mainland China, including
Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan (including Shunde), Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Huizhou,
Jiangmen, and Shaoqing. The Greater Pearl River Delta region also includes Hong Kong and
Macau special administration district (The Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 1993).
Collectively comprising one of the most densely populated region and the most

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economically dynamic regions in the world, the cities in the Greater Pearl River Delta region
were the first to open their market for international trade. Toh Mun Heng and Shandre
Thangavelu stated that:
The Pearl River Delta has become the worlds manufacturing base for products such
as electronic goods, toys, garments, and textiles, plastic products, and a range of other
merchandise. Much of this output resulted from the large amounts of foreign direct
investment and is geared towards the export market. In 2001, approximately five
percent of the worlds goods were produced in this region, with a total export value of
US$289 billion. The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone accounts for approximately onethird of Chinas trade value. (Saw & Wong, 2009, p. 102)
Alongside the great expansion of manufacturing capacity for both domestic and export
goods, the regions need for all forms of design services has increased dramatically. This is
especially noteworthy in the area of industrial design and visual communication design. In
1980, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts became one of the first Chinese universities to
establish an industrial design undergraduate program. In 1991, Guangdong Industrial Design
Association was established, indicating the beginning of the governmental effort to organize
and develop the profession.
A great number of manufacturing, consumer goods, and high-tech companies, such as Midea
Global, TCL, and Huawei Technologies, were established in the region and many of them
have achieved international success. More and more, these companies have begun to
recognize the value of design and rely heavily upon design to enhance their competiveness
in the market.
Chinese design from the Greater Pearl River Delta region are increasingly being recognized
by the international design community. In 2014 alone, Chinese companies won 124 IF Design
Awards in the category of industrial design. Designers based in Shenzhen (a major design
hub in the region), for example, won 37, nearly 1/3 of the awards (iF Design Forum
International GMBH, 2014).
In this unique environment, industrial designers in the region are highly entrepreneurial and
productive. Throughout the years, designs in the region have progressed from imitation to
creative solutions to satisfy local and international needs.
Recent Recognition of Industrial Design in Mainland China

There has been an unprecedented increase of both recognition and understanding of the
value of industrial design in Mainland China. In the Manufacturing in China 2015 report
released in May 2015, the Chinese government recognizes many challenges facing its
manufacturing sector and clearly states that technological innovation is one of the most
important driving forces for this sector to enable to successfully compete in the global
market in the near future (State Council of the People's Repulbic of China, 2015). The report
also clearly goes on to point out that industrial design is one of the most important
industries that helps advance the manufacturing sector. The industrial design community
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Reverse Innovation: How Has Design in the Greater Pearl River Delta Region Changed the World
rejoiced when the report was released because it clearly identifies the values of design and
therefore provides support for the business continued growth.
Therefore, at this crucial moment of the development of industrial design in mainland China,
there is a great need to reflect upon how design in the Greater Pearl River Delta Region, one
of the design centres in the country, has changed the world. To achieve this, the authors
have studied the evolution in design thinking and process followed by a selection of several
design companies that succeeded in solving culturally specific problems with originality, but
also saw their culturally specific solutions transferred and adopted by other cultures in other
parts of the world.
Reverse Innovation
While there are numerous approaches that could be taken while studying the contemporary
design history in Mainland China, this research project has its focus on Reverse Innovation.
In recent years, researchers and designers in developed countries started to notice what
they call Reverse Innovation (Govindarajan & Trimble, 2012), the phenomenon that
innovations that happen in developing countries trickle UP to the developed countries.
These innovations might be creative new uses of traditional methods or technologically
advanced solutions. They might be rooted deeply in the local culture and aimed at fulfilling
local needs, but subsequently become noticed by other cultural groups as providing a new
and different approach to design that proves to be useful for those consumers outside the
region (Huang & Anderson, 2013).
Though this term might be viewed as a patronizing or even slightly pejorative description of
these innovations from developing countries, it calls peoples attention to the fact that
innovations originate all over the world and should be treated with equal respect. The
Greater Pearl River Delta region has provided numerous such examples.
The Research Team

Our team consists of practicing designers and educators with deep understanding of the
local design profession and with broad view of the design education in the Greater Pearl
River Delta region. In 2014, the team was formed after continual discussions on WeChat (a
social media app that is extremely popular in China, which in itself an excellent example of
culturally sensitive innovation). Common interests in the subject drew the team together,
despite the fact that we live on two continents and have never met in person. We all agreed
that there is a need for an in-depth research survey of historically important industrial
design companies in the Greater Pearl Delta Region that have contributed to the shaping of
the practice from 1979 to 2015 to demonstrate how designers in the region have elevated
the importance of design with their collective efforts. There is in an urgent need to
document witnesses accounts and collect and study artefacts before they disappear amidst
unprecedented economic and social changes. Our case study will provide a snapshot of the
Chinese design industry in general. Their successes and failures will be documented and
provide lessons learned valuable for generations to come.
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Methodology
This paper is the first publication of a longitudinal research project that might span over
several years. This research project will be conducted using historical research methods. We
will collect four types of data: archival data, secondary sources (literature review), running
records, and recollections through interviews. When possible, the research team will also
collect artifacts to study. In the first phase of this project, which is discussed in this paper,
the team focuses on literature review and establishing parameters and protocols for the
project.
The research team has started the interview process using social media, with more
interviews planned for summer 2016. We have identified several key interviewees, whom
might lead us to create a map of individuals and significant projects to link many local design
companies together through their careers, then uncover the trajectory of development of
the local industrial design business.
The list of interview questions is as shown below:
Individual Context: What were the main projects you worked on while at these
companies? What were the most significant in your opinion (both success and
failure)?
Project Context: How was the problem(s) of these projects framed? Who
proposed the problem (the client or your design team)? What kind of research
was conducted to define the problem, if any at all? What was the social and
cultural context for this problem(s)?
The initial solutions: Who proposed these solutions? What were the testing
methods for these solutions? How were the final solutions selected? What
worked and what didnt?
The final solutions: How were the final solutions perceived by the users? Were
there any more improvements on the design based on the feedback? What
were the numbers of production? What were the price points? What were the
non-design related criteria if any? When did the product cease production and
why?
Contributions: with the benefit of hindsight, could you tell us if the final
solutions influenced any social or cultural trend and vice versa in any way?
There have been hundreds of design offices in the Greater Pearl River Delta region. It is
critical that we establish a clear set of criteria for selecting a few to study. The criteria for
selection for cases as defined as followed:
We select one or two important companies for each decade from 1979 to 2015
as the main focus of our project.
We aim at selecting design companies that succeeded in solving culturally
specific issues with originality, while over time, their solutions were adopted or
have the potential to be adopted by other cultures in other parts of the world.
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We include both in-house design units of large companies and pioneering small
design companies to provide an overview of the industrial design industry.
We select companies that have long lasting influence on the business and
practice in industrial design in the region.
This paper provides a short summary of these case studies. In the complete report, the case
studies will be written in this manner:
Summary
This part will summarize the rationales of selecting this company and their key
design projects (their historical significance), the research process, the
outcomes, and the conclusion.
Back story
This part will include: the details of when and how these companies were
established; the main contributors to the companies; the main successes and
failures; the trajectory of development and the future of the company (for still
existing companies), etc.
Key projects
Focusing on the key projects of this company, this part will include an analysis
and interpretation of the interview data.
Conclusions/Reflections
This part will include our critical analysis of the design contribution of these
companies.
Case Studies
Initially, we have identified these design companies to be studied, categorized by decades:
Midea Design Center (1979-1990); South Industrial Design Office (SID, 1990-2000);
Guangdong Xingbao Electrical Appliances Holdings, Co. Ltd. /Donlim Brand (2000-2010); and
Echom (2010-2015). Our rationales, short summaries, and highlights of these companies are
introduced in Table 1.
Table 1 Summary of Selected Companies.
Company Name
Year Active
Size
Type
1995-present
Large (300+)
In-house design office
1988-1994
Small (10-20)
Private design office
Guangdong Xingbao
Electrical Appliances
Holdings Co. Ltd.
1988-present
Large
Corporation
Guangzhou Echom Science

& Technology Co. Ltd.
1997-present
Large
Corporation
Midea Design Center

South Industrial Design
Office
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4.1 Midea Design Center

As a subsidy of one of the top ten electronics companies in Mainland China, the Midea
Design Centre was founded in 1995 (Ann, 2008). According to the corporations website
(Midea Global, 2013), it was the first manufacturing corporation in Mainland China to create
an internal design centre. We choose it to be the representation of industrial design
business of the decade of 1979 to 1990 because Midea is one of the earliest appliances
companies (founded in 1968 as a plastics manufacturer and entered the small appliances
business in 1980) established in Mainland China (Midea Global, 2013). Mideas longevity as a
small appliances company is highly unusual in a volatile market such as the one that has
characterized Mainland China over the past 40 years.
Midea has a long tradition in manufacturing for both the local and global market. Though
their main products sold in the US are their space-saving window air conditioners and
refrigerators (according to their US website), their Chinese line-up is far more diversified.
Some of the highlights of recent innovations include: the WFZ4011XM smart rice cooker. By
connecting to the Alibaba Cloud Computer App (Chinese name: ) using WIFI, the
rice cooker tremendously expands the capacity of a traditional and essential product in
every Chinese household. By moving most of its controls from hardware to software, it
solves the problem of user-unfriendly, complex and difficult controls common to many
multifunctional products (Midea China, 2015). Through the app, users can download recipes,
send them to the rice cooker, set a timeframe for it to get ready, and get notification when it
is done. The overall user experience has been enhanced and the same thinking could be
applied to Mideas entire product portfolio. Midea commissioned Hangzhou Delan
Technology Co. Ltd to develop another app MSmart for their air conditioner units, setting
the stage for a possible innovation.
These recent innovations show that Midea is making bold moves towards creating the
internet of things of home appliances. In this highly competitive sector, design and
innovation have helped Midea stay in the business for over 30 years. Today, the design
centre is dismantled and the approximately 300 designers are now dispersed into many
departments in the corporation (according to one of our interviewees, Yongyun Feng, a
current industrial designer at Midea). Nonetheless, industrial design has played a crucial role
in the companys success and continues to be valued. Mideas designs have won the Red
Dot, IF, and IDEA multiple times in recent years.
South Industrial Design Office (SID)

When researching design history in the Pearl River Delta Region, South Industrial Design
Office is one of milestones that cannot be overlooked by anyone. It was established in
October 1988 as the first private industrial design office in Mainland China. During its six
years of operation, it worked with numerous local companies, while also experimented with
commercializing their own designs (Zhang & Ye, 2003). Through relentless efforts, designers
at SID spearheaded the industrial design revolution in the region.
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Due to the manufacturing needs locally, SID focused mainly on small electronic appliances,
which remain the bread and butter for design companies in the Greater Pearl River Delta
region even today. Their primary clients were small to medium size local companies, such as
Polaris Watch (established in 1915 as the first Chinese watch manufacturer) (Yantai Polaris
Holdings Limited, 2014), and Kaiwee radio, just to name a few.
Besides educating clients in the value of design, SID was also experimenting with design
management. As the pioneer in design business, SID established a client management
department, industrial design department, engineering department, model making shop,
and testing department (Zhang & Ye, 2003).
In many ways, SID could be compared to Unimark International, the short lived but
influential American design firm that operated from 1965 to 1977 (Conradi, 2009). The
influence of SID cannot be overstated also because over a dozen designers and engineers
who worked for SID became founders of their own design offices, or became professors in
top design schools in the region, such as Huiming Tong of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts,
Chongxi Tang of University of Guangzhou, and Jinguang Wang of Guangdong University of
Technology. They in turn mentored generations of designers who are currently the core
components of design professions in the region.
Guangdong Xingbao Electrical Appliances Holdings, Co. Ltd. /Donlim Brand

As a little known electrical appliances company in Shunde (an affluent district in the middle
of the Greater Pearl River Delta region), Guangdong Xingbao Electrical Appliances Holdings is
one of the many local companies that specialize in ODM (original design manufacturer) and
export to the western markets. However, this particular firm stands out because their design
innovations have sold extremely well overseas and have won many awards for their original
designs.
The most successful product is their Donlim XB-8002 toaster and egg poacher combo. It was
originally designed for West Bends Back to Basics brand (circa 2006) by Donlim designer
Zhiwen Liao1. It is still on the market today, selling for about $50 in the US and about $35
dollars (200 RMB) under the Donlim brand in Mainland China. According to Liaos interview
with Hidesigncloud (a design service provider platform established by another important
Chinese electronics producer, Haier) (Hidesigncloud, 2015), this breakfast combo machine
has sold over 5.5 million units both overseas and in China.
Another successful design is the EC-1655 steam iron. Its Chinese name means Stand on its
own when put down. The iron is heavy on one end and lighter on the iron end, which
means as soon as the user puts it down, it would automatically rest on its heavy end and lift
the hot surface off the table. This safety feature proves to be popular with users. In our
interview with Liao, he told us that this model was ordered by Sunbeam in the US and over
630,000 units have been shipped, clearly another example of reverse innovation.
1
Zhiwen Liao went on to establish his own design office SixVector, which was awarded as one of the top 10 best industrial
design companies in Mainland China in 2012 (SixVector, 2012).
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Donlims unusual success defies the usual low quality image associated with Made in China
products and instead established good examples for the success of Designed in China. Few
Western consumers know that these products were not only made in China but also
designed in China. Though the EC-1655 iron solves a universal need, in the case of the
breakfast machine, the concept was not based on traditional Chinese breakfast needs, but
rather based on research on the Western breakfast preparation process. It is generally used
to make breakfast egg muffins, which is not a traditional nor common breakfast item for
Chinese. As there are many design offices working on design for foreign companies, we need
to investigate how these innovations came about, especially how the cultural barrier was
crossed.
Guangzhou Echom Science & Technology Co., Ltd

Echom was founded in 1997 as one of the few large companies that hold industrial design as
its core service, while at the same time provide complete services for the entire
manufacturing process, forming a service model combined design with manufacturing and
providing customers with excellent design industrial programs and excellent industrial
design products. (Echom, 2015) Its clients can expect to receive services from Echom from
conceptual design, prototyping, mold making, all the way through the final production of the
products. Its clients range from Fortune 500 companies to small and medium-sized local
companies.
Echom is also unusual for other reasons: Headquartered in Guangzhou, it has 10 subsidiaries
around the country with a total asset of RMB 2.7 billion (about 400 million USD)1. It is also
publicly traded which is highly unusual for an industrial design office. Indeed, it claims to be
the first industrial design company in Mainland China to became publicly traded (held its
initial public offering in 2010)2. Its core business is to design and manufacture structural
external components for flat screen televisions, relying heavily on advanced mold making
technologies.
Though Echoms design works might not be as well known as those of the previously
mentioned three cases, Echoms business model alone is worth more investigation. The
transformation of a traditional design company to a high tech and publicly traded company
that provides full service to the entire production chain must offer many lessons to other
companies that might they be inspired to explore the design + capital = exponential
growth model.
Further Research
This initial phase of this research project also includes documentation of the process, the
establishment of a database to share with the team, and initial literature review (to compile
1
According to their most recent financial report of the third quarter in 2015, their total asset is 4.047 billion RMB (Echom,
2015)
2 Hangzhou R&D Design PLC also claimed to be the first publicly traded industrial design company, which held its IPO in
2014 (Visual China, 2015).
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and analyse available quantitative data). The team plans to begin the field work in mid May,
2016, mainly in Guangzhou, Shunde, Dongguan, and Shenzhen.
To continue our inquiry, the team will continue to review historical documents, interview
key designers for their key projects, compare these cases to major events in design during
the same period, and based on these evidence, contextually analyse their impacts on the
society at large. The list of our case studies might be expanded slightly but no more than
eight companies will be included.
This research project will provide researchers in the region and beyond with an in-depth
analysis of local innovations through the analysis of key design companies and their projects.
Through the study of history, it will shed light on future trends in design, especially in the
area of design management, design innovation, design within specific cultural context, etc.
We also anticipate that the findings from this project will be used to uncover some insights
of the local design business success and failure. These should serve to help us understand
the unique challenges of creating, managing, and sustaining design companies in the Greater
Pearl River Delta Region.
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank our colleagues in Hong Kong Kowloon M+
Museum and Hong Kong Design Trust for their discussions with us on the topic. We
would also like to thank our colleagues in our institutions and our interviewees for their
contributions in this process.
References
Ann, E. (2008, 04). The Top 10 Myths & Truths about Design in China. Retrieved 10 29, 2015, from
core77: http://www.core77.com/reactor/08.04_china.asp
Conradi, J. (2009). Unimark International: The Design of Business and the Business Design. Zurich,
Switzerland: Lars Muller.
Echom. (2015). Company Profile. Retrieved 11 9, 2015, from Echom.com:
http://www.echom.com/en_index.php?typ=gsjj
Echom. (2015). Echom Third Quarter Financial Disclosure Report. Guangzhou: Echom.
Govindarajan, V., & Trimble, C. (2012). Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere.
Boston, MA, USA: Harvard Business Review Press.
Hidesigncloud. (2015, 9 30). Interview with Zhiwen Liao. Retrieved 11 3, 2015, from hidesignclooud:
http://www.hidesigncloud.com/News/Detail/eef34468dd864f9b941a5c758f2811bd
Huang, T., & Anderson, E. (2013). Reverse Innovation: DISRUPTIVE MINDSET CHANGES IN PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT. IDSA Education Symposium Conference Proceeding. IDSA.
iF Design Forum International GMBH. (2014). iF Design Awards 2014. Munich, Germany: Prestel.
Midea China. (2015, 10). Product Introduction. Retrieved 11 5, 2015, from Midea Mall :
http://mall.midea.com/detail/index?id=74943&icid=109057&mtag=40003.12.2
Midea Global. (2013, 5 31). Summary of Industrial Design. Retrieved 10 29, 2015, from About Midea:
http://www.midea.com/cn/about_midea/technological_innovation/201305/t20130531_12225.sh
tml
Saw, S.-H., & Wong, J. (2009). Regional Economic Development in China. Singapore, Singapore:
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
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SixVector. (2012, 9 15). Awards. Retrieved 11 3, 2015, from SixVector Company Website:
http://www.sv-id.net/awards.htm
State Council of the People's Repulbic of China. (2015). Manufacturing in China 2015. State Council of
the People's Repulbic of China. Beijing: State Council of the People's Repulbic of China.
The Encyclopedia of China Publishing House. (1993). Encyclopedia of China. Beijing, PRC: The
Encyclopedia of China Publishing House.
Visual China. (2015, 7 13). Interview with the CEO Qi Li of R&D Design PLC. Retrieved 11 9, 2015, from
Visual China: http://shijue.me/show_text/55a311488ddf875c7c05a653
Yantai Polaris Holdings Limited. (2014). Introduction. Retrieved 11 3, 2015, from Polaris Company
Website: http://www.polaris.cn/CompanySite/company_qyjj.aspx#
Zhang, X., & Ye, Z. (2003, July 5). Dream, Collision and Success An Article about South Industrial
Design Co. Art and Design: Product Design (7), pp. 57-59.
About the Authors:

Tao Huang, PhD has taught and practiced in multiple design fields for
over 15 years in mainland China and the United States. Her research
interests include: sustainable design, design for disaster resiliency,
and reverse innovation.
Ningchang Zhou, has taught and practiced design in Guangzhou for
10 years. He has won several international design awards and is the
organizer of one of the largest online design educator community in
Mainland China. His research focuses on furniture design.
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Beautiful Nerds: Growing a rigorous design research

dialogue in the Irish context
Adam de Eytoa*, Carmel Maherb, Mark Hadfieldc and Maggie Hutchingsc
a
University of Limerick
Institute of Technology Carlow
c
Bournemouth University
*adam.deeyto@ul.ie
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.268
b
Abstract: Ireland is a country with a small and emergent design research community.
Relative to other countries, the practice of design itself in Ireland is a recent
development with the first formal design courses materialising in the mid-1970s.
Without historical legacy and sustained coordinated support from design specific
state development agencies, the progress of this nascent Irish design sector has been
fragmented and unfocused. Irish Design 2015 (ID2015) a yearlong government
backed initiative sought to address this lack of coherence in tandem with increasing
the visibility and profile of Irish design. This article reflects on the historical context
Irish design research and practice sits within and explores the early success of the
ITERATIONS Design Research and Practice review as one of a series of initiatives
launched as part of ID2015. It makes the case for robust dialogue and advocacy in
addressing the needs of an emergent community of practice.
Keywords: Irish Design, Design Research, Design Practice, ITERATIONS Design Research and
Practice Review.
Irish Context
Ireland in the 1950s was a poor and underdeveloped country. In an effort to maintain and
honour its newly found independence the government had adopted a stance of selfsufficiency and isolationism which did not prove conducive to economic growth and while
other capitalist countries were experiencing increasing economic growth, Irelands economy
was on the verge of disaster (Tobin 1984; Brown 1987). The industrial revolution did not
happen in Ireland as it did in other countries. There was little understanding of design and its
benefits and as outlined by Marchant and Addis, there were few industries, fewer designers
International License
Adam de Eytoa, Carmel Maherb, Mark Hadfieldc and Maggie Hutchings
and almost no innovation in Ireland (Marchant and Addis 1985). Credit for the introduction
and early development of industrial design in Ireland is unequivocally attributed to the Irish
Export Board, (Cras Trchtla Teo, CTT) and its then general manager Mr W. H. Walsh.
At this point in time responsibility for design in industry was assigned to the newly
instituted (1951) Arts Council of Ireland. Design at this time was defined as applied arts and
as defined would have appeared to fit naturally under the remit of the Arts Council.
However, as outlined by Hogan, despite its best efforts, the Council was not equipped to
build bridges to industry(Hogan 2005). In 1960, the responsibility for design in industry
was transferred solely to the Irish Export Board as the government came to recognise the
problematic positioning of industrial design in the sphere of cultural provision (Walker
2013).
Mr. Walsh, the then general manager of the Export Board was fast to act on his new
responsibility. In 1961, he orchestrated a survey of Irish design by a group of eminent
Scandinavian designers. The five-man team spent two weeks visiting factories, colleges,
museums and shops (Marchant and Addis 1985) in Ireland and their evaluative survey
report Design in Ireland (Franck et al.) was published in 1962. The authors were critical of
standards of design in Irish industry, commerce and education but optimistic in the potential
they saw for development. Particularly, they noted the lack of art and design education in
Irish schools, noting that this was where an informed and appreciative public, so necessary
for design development is shaped. Expanding on this point, they outline how,
A remarkable feature of Irish life which we noted, even after a few days, is the
manner in which todays Irish culture has developed a distinct leaning towards
literature, theatre, the spoken word and abstract thinking, rather than creation by
hand or machine and the visual arts-the other side of human activity in civilisation
(Franck et al. 1962, p1).
This continues today to a lesser extent. Art is part of the school curriculum now, but design
specific subjects have only just begun to be introduced. For Walsh and his team, the Design
in Ireland report provided an impartial international assessment, while also endorsing his
future programme for development (Hogan 2005).
Purposeful and fruitful development did happen in the form of the setting up of the Kilkenny
Design Workshops (KDW) which was instigated by Walsh in 1963 as part of his development
plan. Marchant and Addis describe how
The organisation would be a missionary centre of influence, but its emphasis would
be on practical demonstration. It was to be a community of experienced designers,
with craftsmen and technicians who would prove their work in prototype before it was
adopted by industry. Irish staff were to be recruited where possible but it was
accepted that many of the professional designers and other specialist staff would be
recruited from abroad, with Irish craftsmen and trainees working alongside them to
gain experience and confidence (Marchant and Addis 1985, p 10).
Established in 1963, and by bringing craft and design expertise from abroad, it utilised the
proven apprenticeship model for developing a broad selection of design disciplines, from
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Beautiful Nerds: Growing a rigorous design research dialogue in the Irish context
craft to visual communications and industrial design. It was unique in that it was registered
as a private company, providing it with autonomy, while also benefiting from complete state
financial support at the start to develop the premises and employ the necessary expertise,
making Ireland the first country to establish a state design service. A retail outlet on the
premises provided a further source of revenue, but more importantly a test bed for
prototypes and a platform to promote good design. Kilkenny Design Workshops (KDW)
operated successfully between the years 1963 1988. Its early operations focused almost
exclusively on craft as it was seen as the quickest and least expensive means of increasing
public awareness of design (Marchant and Addis 1985, p20) while also developing craft
skills and craft based industries. However, its primary objective was to cultivate design for
industry, and consequently in 1971, the Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI) was set up as it was
hoped that this might free KDW up to concentrate on this main objective, design for industry
(Hogan cited in Quinn 2005).
Now with less responsibility to crafts, KDW conducted a survey of the design needs of the
rapidly growing Irish engineering industries. The survey, which took place in 1973, was
followed by a targeted expansion plan to provide model making, prototyping and technical
support for these industries. Conversely, the expansion plans coincided with cutbacks in
state expenditure and the first international oil crisis which left them short of the necessary
capital (Marchant and Addis 1985; Walker 2013). Yet, the focus of the Kilkenny Design
Workshops did change over time from individual designer-craftsmen to a multi-disciplinary
design team active and influential in most sectors of industry(Marchant and Addis 1985,
p36). This was to be short lived however, because the workshops closed in 1988. They closed
for a variety of reasons, but mainly financial due to a phasing out of government grant aid
and the recession of the 1980s. Nonetheless, the KDW legacy remains undisputed, having
put in place a strong foundation for the development of the craft, industrial design and
graphic design industries in Ireland. Particularly, it raised design awareness and set
standards of excellence for design practice in Ireland.
Following the closure of the workshops, the Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI) took over the
mainly craft training element of KDW. While the workshops were in operation, the first
industrial design undergraduate courses had also been founded. Funding from the European
Union led to the establishment of Regional Technical Colleges (RTCs) around the country
(Turpin 1994) and Carlow Regional Technical College established in 1970 put in place the
first National Council for Educational Awards (NCEA) accredited course in Industrial design in
1973. (Broderick et al. 2004). The National College of Art (NCA) renamed The National
College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 1971 also introduced an Industrial design course in
1975. These courses continue to provide design education in Ireland along with a large
number of others. The Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI, 2015), a voluntary body set up in
1972, continues to represent the interests of Irish designers along with the publically funded
Crafts Council of Ireland now called the Design and Craft Council of Ireland (DCCoI, 2015).
In the following years, the Irish design industry continued to develop and grow but as
outlined in a report on the industry commissioned by a government agency, Enterprise
2713
Ireland, in 1999, it has suffered from a lack of cohesion and leadership (Bradley and Mc Gurk
1999, p11). This report, Opportunities in Design: Strategies for Growth in the Irish Design
Sector identified a number of issues and factors impacting upon the development of design
in Ireland.
The positioning, structure and cohesiveness of the Irish Design Industry

The marketing of Irish design internationally
Awareness of the value of design
Skill base and training
Organisational and operational effectiveness of design businesses
Design education (Bradley and Mc Gurk 1999, p11-13)
Many of the issues identified in the 1999 report still exist today. The low level of design
integration within locally owned Irish companies needs to be addressed and with increasing
pressure from international markets the need for design specialisation has become even
more pressing. Ireland is taking its time, unfortunately, catching up with the European
trends having only in the last few years established government funded design centres in
Shannon (Design Shannon, est. 2000), Sligo (Centre for Design Innovation Sligo, est. 2005)
and Dublin (Design Ireland est. 2000). The remit of these groups is to increase awareness
amongst Irish industry about the implementation and utilisation of design as a resource and
strategic tool in product and service development, whilst also establishing a profile for Irish
design in the international context. At time of writing all of these centres had closed or
declined significantly due to lack of funding in the economic downturn of 2009-13.
The Institute of Designers in Ireland, The Design and Craft Council of

Ireland and Irish Design 2015
As outlined Ireland has had a series of initiatives over the past half century which have
sought to elevate the visibility and profile of design and to capitalise on the benefits that
design can bring to society and industry. For continuity it has relied on a number of special
interest bodies whose remits often overlap and it can be challenging to support design
research under any of these bodies. Two of the leading bodies over the past two decades
have been the professional body which represents designers and design educators, the IDI,
and the government supported DCCoI which represents and promotes the interests of
largely craft based designers.
The IDI relies mainly on membership fees and volunteers to support its activities. It is now
the largest representative body for designers on the island and it has a strong tradition of
advocating for policy development, recognition and promotion of design. It holds annual
graduate design awards and well-respected industry design awards along with providing a
travel bursary for students. More recently the IDI introduced a voluntary register for
designers who wish to have their experience and qualifications recognised in a formal
manner. It is expected that this may be a first step towards chartership. The IDI is run by an
2714
elected council and nominates a president on an annual basis. It is the IDI that has
recognised the need to support the emergent design research community.
The DCCoI (DCCoI 2015) is supported by the state development agency Enterprise Ireland
and is mandated to promote and support craft and more recently design. The DCCoI is set up
as a client-serving agency that works for the interests of its members. It runs a variety of
training and business support programs and has some liaison with education. Traditionally
the DCCoI has focused its energies on the craft sector however in the past number of years it
has moved to widen its remit to cover the design sectors also. While this has caused some
duplication of representation the practicing designers and design educators largely decide
themselves which of the bodies they engage with. It was the DCCoI who initiated Irish Design
2015 (ID2015) initiative and secured the funding from the government departments.
ID2015, is a yearlong programme for the development of Irish design, it aims to foster
dialogue and collaboration and to bring a public awareness around design and the
contribution it can make to the Irish economy, society and everyday lives of citizens. This is
perhaps the first time in the history of design on the island that such an ambitious project
has been undertaken to embrace all the stakeholders.
Through our year-long programme of events, well work towards: Raising the profile
of Irish design, at home and abroad. Increasing awareness of the value of design in all
aspects of life. Building on the international reputation of Irish design. Encouraging
links between local and global Irish designers. Showcasing the importance of design to
success in business and as a driver of economic growth (ID2015)
There is currently a palpable sense that this initiative has gained traction with the general
public and with policy makers and business leaders. For the first time there is widespread
dialogue through national media, television and print journalism about the value rather than
just the content of Irish design. Vibrant discussions are developing on a variety of social
media platforms and there is almost an overload of conference, niche events and showcases
that are generating a collaborative dynamic around design that few of the design community
have previously experienced.
ID2015 aims to foster dialogue and collaboration by encouraging investment in design
as a key component of competitiveness and innovation, the overall objective is to
sustain and grow employment opportunities and sales and export potential for the
Irish design sector into the future.(DCCoI 2015)
The opportunity to build an all island design research network dovetailed naturally in to this
initiative as it allows the convergent themes of design practice and design research to bring
a more rigorous dialogue to the fore. Subsequently, one of the projects ID 2015 provided
funding for was ITERATIONS Design Research & Practice Review (ITERATIONS, 2015)
2715
ITERATIONS Design Research and Practice Review

The formation of an idea
The idea was born from one of those frustrating discussions around the limitations of the
support structures available for design and design research in Ireland. Marc ORiain, the then
incoming president of the IDI and one of the authors here (de Eyto) discussed the
opportunity to develop a design research journal back in 2013. However it was not until Irish
Design 2015 (ID2015) made a call for project proposals in Autumn 2014 that it was acted
upon. As is often typical of a funding call the idea was not fully formed but what was clear
was the need and interest from various stakeholders in developing a platform for design
research and practice An outline draft proposal for a review style publication was developed
by de Eyto and ORiain and the core group of collaborators from across the country were
asked to support the bid. These included design academics and researchers in research
centres and groups who had a clear track record of promoting design research. These
included: Design Factors (University of Limerick), The Architecture Factory (Cork Institute of
Technology), Design CORE (Institute of Technology Carlow), Letterfrack Furniture College
(Galway Mayo Institute of Technology), Limerick School of Art and Design (Limerick Institute
of Technology),The School of Creative Arts (Dublin Institute of Technology), School of Design
(National College of Art and Design), SAUL (University of Limerick), RIAD (University of
Ulster).
Context
As far as could be established there had never been a formal review of this nature in Ireland
specifically addressing design research and practice. Other publications such as CIRCA
(CIRCA, 2015) and the Irish Arts Review (IAR, 2015) have published articles on design but
they remain predominantly art and visual culture focused. Architecture Ireland, the journal
of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) also publishes opinion pieces and
features on Irish architecture and some design related material but critically it is not blind
peer reviewed. Design has had a number of predecessors in professional body publications
such as Creative Axis and Ratio both produced by the IDI. There are of course numerous
international examples of well-established academic design journals such as Design Issues,
Design Studies, The International Journal of Design & The Journal of Design Research. Irish
researchers have and continue to publish in these with some success. The ITERATIONS team
also looked to regional examples of best practice such as the Swedish Design Federation
(SVID) Design Research and publications such as the Journal of the Service Design Network,
Touchpoint.
There is a specific challenge faced by Irish design researchers who work within the university
sectors and this is one of defining the impact of their research. As in many countries, the
Irish universities and Institutes of Technology (IoTs) are requiring design researchers to
publish in predominantly international scientific and humanities journals in order to increase
their own profile and that of their institutions. This creates a culture of strategic positioning
2716
of design research and is affecting the type of research outcomes that are being expressed.
Practice led and practice based design research is in an emergent state in Ireland and
consequently few researchers feel confident enough to publish in the high profile
international design research journals. The tendency has been therefore for many Irish
researchers to angle the research that they undertake to target other niche disciplinary
journals which have a high impact rating. In the absence of any REF (Research Excellence
Framework) style impact assessment in southern Ireland, design researchers have to justify
their activities arbitrarily using metrics largely designed in house in the universities & IoTs.
These metrics are heavily dictated by the established Scientific, Business and Humanities
disciplines and often do not reflect the needs of design research.
The proposition therefore was to develop an open access review/journal that provided a
platform for the emergent design research community on the island of Ireland. From the
outset double blind peer review and the inclusion of design practice was deemed essential
to the mix. The bid for seed funding from ID2015 was successful and with that the challenge
of setting up the review proper commenced.
The reference to Beautiful Nerds in the title of this paper comes from the sentiments of the
working group who began developing ITERATIONS early in 2015. Very quickly the
conversation around the nuances of the review, its conventions and its focus became
passionate, nerdy and of course design focused, akin to the 99% invisible podcasts of Roman
Mars (Mars, 2015). A sense of humour mixed with a passion for what design research could
be in the Irish context developed.
The Co Design of ITERATIONS

A clear proposition had been made to ID2015 for seed funding, however the nuance of the
review and its conventions had to be developed. The consortium sought to co design the
review by working collaboratively and seeking views and opinions from the wider design
research and practice community. There was a strong sentiment that something locally
appropriate had to develop. Our academic colleagues in the north of Ireland are subject to
the rigours of the UK REF (Research Excellence Framework) while in southern Ireland a
similar framework is only in development by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
With this in mind the consortium chose to work towards a Green open Access model
(Harnad et al, 2004 & Laakso et al 2011) as this would future proof it for consideration under
the UK REF evaluations and also for any developments within the south of Ireland.
In line with best practice rigour was considered essential to the long-term credibility of the
review. While the Irish design research community is small it was felt that a double blind
peer review process could be developed where robust critique could be sought and given
without prejudice. There is evidence (Ware 2008) that double blind peer review as practiced
internationally is less than perfect however, for now, it seems the closest workable
mechanism to achieve un-biased feedback. The ITERATIONS board decided that the edition
editor holds the position of being the sole individual who knows the identity of both authors
2717
and reviewers. It is not always possible to anonymise all submissions, especially those
relating to practice where the artefact, design consultancy and or context inevitably signals
who the author might be. The editorial board therefore developed a set of guidelines for
reviewers in an effort to ensure that consistency and impartiality can prevail.
The mixes of articles on both design practice and design research emerged as a key tenet of
the new review. It was observed that some of the most relevant research work being done
within the Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is practice facing, practice led or practice
based (Frayling, 1993). In addition many practicing designers and design consultancies had
expressed the need to have their work expressed on a rigorous public platform. The first two
issues have managed to achieve this balance with a slight bias towards research articles. The
call for the third edition has addressed this with a preference for reflections on practice and
or monologues or interviews based on design practice work.
Fig 1: ITERATIONS First Issue, Published June 2015
2718
ITERATIONS (Fig 1) was formally launched in June 2015 in conjunction with another
initiative of ID2015,the first Irish design research conference entitled Faultlines- Bridging
Knowledge Spaces. The review was very well received with 500 print copies of the first issue
released for sale and distribution over the following weeks and months. The interest from
the design community reinforced the need for such a platform and this was backed up by
offers of follow on long term funding from the board of the IDI, extra seed funding from
ID2015 and institutional subscription. At the time of writing this paper the second issue (Fig
2) has again received widespread interest and the third issue has called for submissions. The
developments to date ensure that the review has a sustainable open access model which
gives access to readers from a national and international audience. More importantly
perhaps it has contributed to the collaborative nature of design research and design practice
in a small emergent community. It has increased the level of discourse to the extent that the
editorial board now has the task of enlarging the reviewer panel. Clearly the amount of
interest in submission publication has grown as authors take example from previous issues
and articles. The review has received critical acclaim locally by being shortlisted for the
prestigious IDI annual design awards in the ID2015 Special Award for Collaboration category.
Fig 2: ITERATIONS Second Issue, Published November 2015
2719
Conclusions
At the time of writing the ID2015 year is drawing to a close however plans have already been
developed to continue the legacy through a series of initiatives led by the IDI, DCCoI and the
state agencies. The Irish design community is small and scattered in various locations on the
island however ITERATIONS has created a platform for dialogue to occur within this
scattered and fragmented community. This has happened formally through the publication
itself but more importantly informally as designers and researchers meet to collaborate on
the various activities required to make the publication a reality. The editorial board meetings
provide for lively discussions that establish a common consensus on what constitutes good
design research and practice in an Irish context. International benchmarking is constantly to
the fore in these discussions and the inclusion of the Northern Ireland design research
community helps provide a bridge to the UK models.
A series of conferences and seminars such as Faultlines, Danta (Danta, 2015) and the IBEC
CEO conference (IBEC, 2015) have formalised the dialogue but perhaps in a more
encouraging development, there is evidence that collaborative design research projects, MA
& PhD co-supervision across institutions and collaborative paper writing is becoming the
norm rather than the exception for Irish design researchers. Design practitioners have also
embraced the change publishing formal reflections on their process to share with the wider
community.
It is too early to tell if this legacy will have long-term effect however the signs are positive.
The beautiful nerds will have to reevaluate this impact in the years to come!
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge the hard work and
dedication of the ITERATIONS editorial board who continue to support the review;
Barry Sheehan Head of Design, Dublin School of Creative Arts, DIT
Colin Deevy Lecturer / Researcher, DesignCORE, IT Carlow
Con Kennedy Lecturer, DIT
Grainne Hassett Hassett Ducatez Architects, Senior Lecturer SAUL School of
Architecture, University of Limerick
Prof. Ian Montgomery Dean, University of Ulster
Jeremy Madden Lecturer / Researcher,Letterfrack, GMIT
Prof. Karen Fleming Director of Art, Design and Architecture Research Institute, Ulster
University
Liam Doona Head of Department, School of Creative Arts, IADT Dun Laoghaire
Marc ORiain President of the institute of Designers in Ireland
Martin Ryan Programme Director for Product Design, Maynooth University
Dr. Muireann Mc Mahon Lecturer and Course Director, Product Design/Design Factors,
University of Limerick
Pamela Heaney Fashion, Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT
Dr. PJ White Principal Investigator, DesignCORE, IT Carlow
Sam Russell Head of Industrial Design, NCAD
Dr. Simon ORafferty Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Design Factors, University of
Limerick
Dr.Tracy Fahey Head of Fine Art/Head of Centre of Postgraduate Studies,LSAD,
Limerick Institute of Technology,
Trevor Vaugh Lecturer, Department of design innovation, Maynooth University
Prof. Alex Milton Programme Director, Irish Design 2015
2720
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of open access journal publishing from 1993 to 2009. PloS one, 6(6), e20961.
Marchant, N. and Addis, J., 1985. Kilkenny Design:Twenty-one years of design in Ireland. London:
Lund Humphries.
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15/11/2015].
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Ware, Mark. "Peer review: benefits, perceptions and alternatives." Publishing Research Consortium
4,(2008).
About the Authors:
2721
Dr.Adam de Eyto Lectures in Product Design and manages the Design

Factors research group at the University of Limerick. His research
expertise is in Design for Sustainability, New Product Development,
Sustainable Product Service Systems, Transdisciplinary education,
Medical Devices, Behavioural Change and Soft Product Design.
Carmel Maher lectures in Industrial Design in the Institute of
Technology, Carlow. Currently she is investigating the nature of
creativity, its impact on design research and the benefits of
conducting research in a creative environment for her PhD with
Bournemouth University.
Dr. Mark Hadfield is Professor of Design and Technology at
Bournemouth University. He leads a Tribology and Design Research
Unit with the Department of Design and Engineering. He has research
interests concerned with the durability of products.
Dr. Maggie Hutchings is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health
and Social Sciences at Bournemouth University with research
interests in practice-based education, interprofessional learning,
technology enhanced learning, and lifeworld-led approaches for
transformative learning and humanising care.
2722
Design Research in the East at Universities and the

Board of Industrial Design of the GDR between the
1960s and 1990
Sylvia Wlfela and Christian Wlfelb*
a
TU Berlin
TU Dresden
*christian.woelfel@tu-dresden.de
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.370
Abstract: This paper focuses on design research in the GDR. There, the Board of
Industrial Design (Amt fr industrielle Formgestaltung, AIF), a commission reporting
directly to the government, promoted and subsidized design research that was
adequate to the policy of the board. Besides, the (state-owned) industry, universities
as well as art and design schools closely cooperated on design research projects. The
economic design policy of the GDR has largely been developed in the PhD thesis of
the board's head Martin Kelm, who pursued his functionalist approach to design at
different levels. On the other hand, there was critique and a public debate about the
design approach in the GDR and in the Soviet bloc in general, accompanied by
constant exchange between designers and design researchers of the GDR and the
Federal Republic of Germany. With the recurring interest in functionalism, the East
German design approach is getting more attention. Furthermore, teachers and
academic approaches of design research survived the political (and economic)
turnaround of 1990 and are now part of the pan-German design landscape.
Keywords: design history, design research history, GDR, functionalism
Introduction
Germany has a long tradition in design and design research as well. After 1945, the
professionalization and institutionalisation of design in both parts of Germany was largely
based on the heritage of the inter-war modern movement and the confrontation with the
devastating consequences of the NS era.
Whereas Bauhaus and Werkbund or Ulm and Braun as modernist icons have received
enormous interest in the sub-disciplines of architectural history and theory or art history,
East German design after 1945 still remains a marginal topic for some specialists. East
German designers took part in an East-Western functionalist debate and considerable
efforts were being made at giving the GDR a modern appearance, which were informed by a
close look at contemporary precedents from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Great Britain or
Western Germany and which could draw on the legacy of the modern movement in Dessau,
Halle, Magdeburg or Weimar. Parallel developments with Western design as well as
divergences related to the politically intended integration of COMECON states and the
construct of a specific socialist modernity demand an explanation and call for further
research.
This is why we conceptualize design as an integral part of the modern project. It was part of
the modernist vision of technology-driven endless social and economic progress that
transcended political borders. The search for a new, an organic or a fair society
characterized various high modern concepts of how to deal with permanent socio-economic
change from the 1880s to the 1970s. Design, more precisely the design of industrial goods,
can be seen as a specific answer to challenges of the industrial society. Designers claimed a
healing function as a profession with technical and creative competencies and with
organising power. The term Functionalism served as a keyword in East and West Germany,
implying hopes and dreams of a better future with functional and aesthetic products serving
the needs of people from all social classes and improving their quality of life from the spoon
to the city.
This particular design approach connected designers across borders and was deeply rooted
in modernism as a cultural movement originating in the late 19th century. Early ambitions to
reconcile the potentials of mass production with product quality and aesthetic value led to
the formation of the Werkbund in Germany in 1907, where substantial issues such as social
and cultural consequences of the machine age or the relationship of usefulness, a rational
use of materials and beauty had already been discussed. Principles of functional design and
a social commitment were central to the self-understanding of its members linking it to a
strong belief in science, technology and social progress that was fundamental for Western
and Eastern high modern societies. The claim of functionalist designers, to create products
for the common good and the development of a modern society mirrored this belief in
progress and development in both German states. Design was part of that modernity project
as a profession concerned with how (good) things for a new society should be and involved
in the aesthetic coding of future worlds.
Design in the GDR was furthermore understood as being part of a political project to build
up a modern socialist society superior to capitalist competitive struggle and consumerism.
However, as in various economic and societal domains, there was a clear gap between
political ambitions and the reality of design. Especially in the late GDR, the modern socialist
society turned out to be an ideological fallacy. And those few remaining designs which
could be implemented were intended for export to Western markets. Design was part of the
economic system of the GDR, hence its aspirations largely failed due to economic realities in
the 1980s. However, industrial design in the GDR had some impact during the early years of
2724
Design Research in the East at Universities and the Board of Industrial Design of the GDR
reconstruction, when visions of a peaceful society, raising cultural standards, or good

design for a better society inspired designers, consumers and politicians alike. On that
basis, the foundation for a differentiated school and university system, advanced training
programs, employment opportunities as well as support and funding structures had been
laid in the 1950s and early 1960s and these structures had an influence on how some actors
in this field thought about design and design research until the 1990s.
In sum, we argue that Eastern and Western design research built on similar traditions and
developed in parallel for a certain period of time, promoting a science based and systematic
design approach with a strong social and technical determination. However, in contrast to
Western debates on functionalism and postmodernism that started in the late 1960s, East
German design research did not experience such a deep rift with functionalist design.
Consensus was maintained that functionalism was best suited to meet the needs of a
socialist society even though it needed modification and advancement. West German or
Italian postmodern experiments failed to win general approval and were regarded as formal
games or formal noise (Hckler 1996: p. 69). Thus, the subsequent fragmentation (and
weakening) of the West German design research community had no equivalent in East
German design research.
Design in the GDR between reconstruction and the Formalism

Campaign
Young designers in the late 1940s and early 1950s were inspired by a post-war optimism and
at the same time there was a deep-seated uncertainty. They felt that it was on them as
designers to create new and better products for the reconstruction of a largely destroyed
country. But after the moral collapse and total breakdown of civil society in 1945, a simple
recourse to role models of the Bauhaus and Werkbund in the German interwar period
seemed unthinkable. Hence, Heinz Hirdina1 described these designers as restless seekers,
seeking for valid reference points and an appropriate position in times of change.
The post-war landscape of industrial design had to be built from scratch and a handful of
designers established new degree courses and business relations. In Weimar and Dresden
actors of the pre-war modern movement started with first attempts to develop industrial
design for the East German economy (e. g. Gronert 2012). In Weimar, the Professor of
industrial design and interior design Horst Michel and his students mainly focused on
furniture design and in Dresden, the former Bauhaus guest lecturer Mart Stam tried to
revive pre-war efforts to establish close connections between academic design and the
industry. These early beginnings lost their importance in favour of institution-building in
Berlin and Halle in the 1950s. East Germanys first industrial design curriculum had been
developed by Rudi Hgner, architect and wood carver, and colleagues at the college of art in
Heinz Hirdina: One of the most renowned experts in East German design, long-standing chief editor of the East German
design journal form + zweck and author of the 1988 standard reference Gestalten fr die Serie. Design in der DDR
19491985, which he published under political censorship but with support of the AIF.
2725
Berlin-Weiensee since 1953. The first class graduated in 1958. One of them, Erich John,
later became assistant and professor at the same college. The three remaining, Martin Kelm,
Horst Giese and Jrgen Peters later became influent in the the Board of Industrial Design
(Amt fr industrielle Formgestaltung, AIF) and its predecessors, as designers for the industry
and as design officials. Following graduates had a great impact and responsibility as
designers working for the industry because companies reported a rising demand for welldesigned products and the developing design schools could not yet meet the needs. It
resulted in student designs being implemented and mass produced or young professionals
being responsible for an entire product range. Most prominent was Hgner's graduate Karl
Clau Dietel, who worked as a freelance designer and was honoured with the design award
of the Federal Republic of Germany for his lifetime achievements in 2014 as one of the most
important product designers of the former GDR1 (cf. Kassner 2010, see figure 1).
Starting in July 1950, design had to face the implications of the notorious debate on
formalism therein following the Soviet attacks on the freedom of the arts. The underlying
consideration was to force back American influences and to stress the subordination of
artistic expression to political interests. According to the party ideology, formalist art (and
design) did not meet the needs of a socialist culture (e. g. Pugh 2014). Political hostilities
were directed against modernism and a decadent Western art market. Even though
ideological attacks against formalistic furniture or ceramics marked the late 1950s and early
1960s, functionalist design remained the dominant design approach. In contrast to
architects and artists, designers could point to the economic relevance of good design
especially for industrial goods and Western exports.
figure 1: left: car body, designed by Karl Clau Dietel under supervision of Rudi Hgner, plaster
model, ca. 1960. The design had been developed at the college of art in Berlin-Weiensee
and essentially specified the shape of the later Wartburg 353 car body. Right: Wartburg
353, designed by Fischer and colleagues, followed a rather functional design approach and
has been produced from 1966 to 1988 (sources: SLUB/Deutsche Fotothek; Wikimedia).
Karl Clau Dietel: Professor and 19881990 chairman of the Association of Fine Artists of the GDR (Verband Bildender
Knstler der DDR, VBK-DDR), that also served as a professional association of industrial designers since the 1960s.
2726
Design, research and education institutional set-up 19651990

As one of the first industrial design graduates, party member and convinced socialist, Martin
Kelm was being sent by the Socialist Unity Party (SED) to restructure the arts and crafts
school (Werkkunstsschule) Halle Burg Giebichenstein into a University of Industrial Design
(Hochschule fr industrielle Gestaltung) according to the educational approach of BerlinWeiensee. The aim was to provide the industry with skilled design experts to meet the
growing economic need (a problem that existed until the late 1980s). With Kelm as the
leader of the Institute for Research and Development (Institut fr Entwurf und Entwicklung)
of the Burg Giebichenstein, the team developed hundreds of products mainly for the rapidly
growing plastics industry around 1960. That decade generally experienced a high level of
acceptance of new technologies and product innovations. This applied especially to plastics
as a new material opening up a number of great opportunities to designers. A whole new
world of objects within the reach of all people could be developed due to low prices. Heinz
Barth, Gnter Reimann, Horst Giese, Manfred Heintze, Albert Krause and Martin Kelm
designed numerous products for public and domestic use that had been produced until 1990
(in some cases beyond 1990) and could be found in literally every household. Thus they
were highly influential on bringing new materials and modern design into the material
culture of the GDR. They focused on cheap, but simple, useful and stackable products in a
friendly and lucid colouring, therefore utilizing a functionalist design approach.
Similarly, at the colleges in Dresden, Weimar and Berlin, industrial projects were part of the
developing design education. As early as 1950, the Institute for Industrial Design (Institut fr
Industrielle Gestaltung) had been outsourced from the college in Berlin-Weiensee due to
tensions within the college. This institute, founded by Mart Stam, was the nucleus of the
later AIF and primarily conducted industrial design projects.
Following the debate on formalism, the institute was renamed and reoriented towards folk
art under the leadership of Walter Heisig. In 1962, Martin Kelm had been appointed as the
new leader of the institute, being politically rewarded for his work in Halle. Step by step,
Kelm reorganized and strengthened this institute as the central design authority in the GDR.
Besides the cultural value of design, Kelm began to emphasize the importance of design as
an economic factor. He managed to bypass the largely cultural debate on formalism by
transferring his institute as Zentralinstitut fr Gestaltung into the economic sphere, joining
the board of standardization and quality assurance (DAMW) for nearly a decade.
Eventually Kelm managed to establish the Amt fr Industrielle Formgestaltung as the central
design authority directly subordinated to the government of the GDR in 1972 (figure 2). As
such, the AIF as well as the VBK (see footnote 1) had been part of the centralistic and
totalitarian political system. This organizational integration led to difficult conflicts within
the design community regarding the relationship between innovativeness and central
planning, self-employed and employed design work or creativity and bureaucracy. Like any
institution in the GDR, the AIF had been observed and to some extent been infiltrated by the
Ministry for State Security Stasi (e. g. Sorg 2014). As a peculiarity, the AIF and some
2727
designers were under surveillance by two divisions of the Stasi, one dealing with economic
affairs, the other one observing dissident movements in arts.
figure 2: Institutional development of non-academic state institutions for the promotion of

(industrial) design.
Functionalism and beyond objectives and practice of design

research in the GDR
In his PhD thesis, Martin Kelm (defended in 1968, published in 1972; for a detailed historical
analysis cf. Sudrow 2014) illustrates the contemporary design approach of the 1960s with a
strong focus on a functionalist understanding of product quality and practical value
(Gebrauchswert). In coherence with functionalist approaches in general, the design
approach of Martin Kelm and the AIF denied styling, a rapid adoption to trends or planned
obsolescence. These factors were perceived as an American or capitalistic way of design
focusing on generating new or unnecessary consumer needs. Instead, an emphasis on
longevity, the practical value, utility and reparability of products was considered as desirable
and suitable with respect to the limited financial and material resources of the GDR. In an
official brochure the East German AIF referred to this context and listed objectives for
design quality and valuation criteria for various commodity groups and environment spheres
according to the following principles, which reflected the functionalist design approach:
2728
Optimation of useful values according to the aspects of envisaged use and the
relationship of investment and use,
Compliance of forms, colors, surface effects, material combinations comprising
the complex design of housing [private] environment and work environment
and other spheres, with cultural and aesthetical requirements
Consideration of psycho-physiological demands of commodities, i. e.
favourable operation, sight, precision indication of machines and implements,
maintenance and safety aspects, etc. [sic!] (AIF 1976)
While industrial design in the GDR still had its close affiliation to fine arts, the official
approach also stressed the scientific character of design. Hirdina characterizes the 1960s and
early 1970s as the scientific design era in accordance with industrial standardization,
concentration and specialization processes (Hirdina 1988). To master the so-called scientifictechnological revolution, engineering but also design processes had to be analyzed and
systemized to provide the possibility of teaching and learning. In this context, there was a
strong emphasis on ergonomics. In coherence with the official design approach of the Soviet
Union, promoted by the AIF pendant VNIITE, ergonomics were seen as the scientific basis of
design (Azrikan 1993; Cubbin 2012, Soloviev 1973/1980, cf. figure 4). Since 1974, a
COMECON joint research program tried to develop a scientific foundation for ergonomic
standards and requirements and in 1978 the development of a scientific foundation for
standards and requirements of technical aesthetics (Soviet term for industrial design)
complemented this framework program. Key elements were the advancement of a
coherent terminology, a basic methodology of complex design tasks, scientific principles of
standardization, methods for the assessment of consumer products and principles for the
design of working environments. Hence, socialist cooperation in design issues particularly
referred to the scientific and technical dimension of design with ergonomics at the center.
Technical aesthetics in this narrow perspective should primarily identify and exploit
considerable rationalization potential regarding the simplification of product ranges, the
application of standards and types or modular principles on an industrial scale
(Formgestaltung im RGW, 1980; Soloviev 1980).
Key political driver to promote industrial design as a rationalization and modernization
factor was the aim to catch and overtake the West in terms of production and consumption
figures. Design should help to build up a modern socialist country with good design for the
home, public spaces and working environments. But, referring to western standards
contained risks. Due to multiple transfer processes, the population of the GDR permanently
compared Eastern and Western standards of living, with Western products defining the
norm (on East West exchange of designers see also Hhne 2011). The Western, more
precise, the American way of life set the standard for a good life from the 1950s onwards.
In consequence, the definition of a specific socialist culture of consumption was an
ideological construct of a rationality of human needs that did not meet the needs of many
2729
East German consumers and failed at the consumption junction in the light of Western
abundance.
However, the AIF functionalist design approach had at least some impact on the material
culture of the GDR and on the general orientation of the design (research) community. As
the leader of the AIF, Kelm was able to shape design policies according to his functionalist
and political convictions in the political and economic system of the GDR. One of the
supervisors of his design PhD thesis was Gnter Mittag, the powerful leader of the economic
commission of the SED party. Accordingly, Mittag was Kelm's principal in the political
hierarchy of the GDR for many years. In the 1950s and early 1960s, design still needed
powerful advocates and intense lobbying to explain the effect of design and to legitimize
governmental support.
figure 3: Guidance and Control this scheme of design evaluation in any product development
process within the state-owned industry of the GDR has been developed in Martin Kelm's
PhD thesis and later became policy of the AIF. Translated from Wlfel et al. 2014, p. 14.
2730
Kelm rapidly expanded the board to a network of institutions with more than 200 employees
that should control and guide design in the economic system of the GDR. One of the core
duties of the AIF was to implement design issues in any product development process within
the state-owned industry. Industry and trade managers as well as leading engineers were
more likely to be skeptical about design as an innovation factor and acceptance increased
only slowly. The corresponding scheme regarding the integration of design in product
development is shown in figure 3. Not only from a review standpoint, this scheme had been
criticized for being overly bureaucratic and rigid. However, many designers working in the
industry remembered the involvement of the AIF as helpful for asserting design quality in
product development and convincing technical experts of the usefulness of design (e. g.
Roeder 2014).
Although universities and schools of design had no direct dependencies with the AIF, there
were also collaborations in the field of design research. The AIF subsidized academic design
research especially when it promised impact on the aims of the AIF. These research projects
were characterized by close interdisciplinary cooperation between designers, psychologists,
ergonomists and others. At the VEB Designprojekt, a state-owned design studio
subordinated to the AIF with more than 100 employees in six regional studios, there were
facilities and competences for design research on an academic level (figure 4).
figure 4: design research at the VEB Designprojekt Dresden an interdisciplinary

approach involving designers, psychologists, ergonomists and others.
Source: Archive of Designprojekt Dresden GmbH
2731
Besides the orbit of the AIF, design research had been conducted at art colleges and
universities, e. g. in Halle, Berlin or Dresden. At the University of Industrial Design in Halle,
international symposia took place on theoretical and methodological issues of design. Also,
academic institutions were involved in design research and development for the industry.
Figure 5 illustrates the involvement of various universities in transportation design projects.
As with the work of professional designers, the outcome of academic design research was
more likely to end up in the drawer than to be implemented especially since the
deteriorating economic situation of the late 1970s. These developments led to a high level of
frustration and intense debates on the state of design in the 1980s. The AIF carried out
surveys that showed the level of dissatisfaction with actual working conditions on the one
hand and the great commitment of many professionals to their work as designers on the
other hand (Kahl et al. 1987).
Figure 5: A snapshot of design research at a university. Car and caravan design models are tested in
the wind tunnel of TU Dresden in the 1980s. Source: Archive of TU Dresden.
A large number of designers still agreed to consider functionalism with a strong social
determination, a focus on usability and a careful use of natural resources as being a key
element of their professional self-conception. Proof of this was a series of articles in the East
German design journal form + zweck in the 1970s and 1980s with contributions by Karin
Hirdina, Horst Oehlke, Clauss Dietel, Heinz Hirdina, Chup Friemert or Bruno Flierl. In answer
to Western debates on postmodernism, the AIF had also organized a seminar on
2732
functionalism in 1982 to discuss whether functionalism should be seen as a (then dogmatic)

theory or as a (rather flexible) approach on design methodology. Some authors reflected a
possible neglect of the aesthetic dimension in product design and whether design had
ignored its roots in arts and craft while overemphasizing science and technology. However,
amid all the criticism on functionalism as a style (grey, square and stockable), they opposed
the postmodern project as superficial styling and adequate philosophy for affluent societies.
The postmodern accusation of technicism was rejected as the dismissal of the sociopolitical program of functionalism to design products of high quality for all. Karin Hirdina
stated that functionalism meant the utopian anticipation of a non-capitalistic order of
relationships between man and his material environment (K. Hirdina 1975). Broadly
speaking, postmodernism had been criticized as reactionary and antisocial, as a subjection to
a capitalistic logic of exploitation.
Across the wall: pan-German exchange before 1990

East German industrial design has always been integrated in international design debates
and institutions and cannot be explained in an exclusive national framework. It operated in
an area of tension between the tight framework conditions of the GDR as part of the
socialist Eastern bloc and the transnational dimension of design discourse and design
development. The formation of functionalism as the prevailing design approach in the GDR
was based on an intense and lasting interest for (among others) Scandinavian functionalism,
the policy of the British Design Council, the influential Ulm Design College or Austrian,
Italian, Polish and Czechoslovak product design. Despite all political measures to stress
relations with Eastern European partners and to emphasize the leading role of the Soviet
Union, Northern and Western influences were of particular relevance. Scandinavian,
especially Finish and West German industrial design remained central reference points for
designers in the GDR until the late 1980s.
Due to a lack of substantial research, we would describe working relations within the
COMECON only with all due caution as more selective than systematic. Especially
Czechoslovakian, Hungarian, Yugoslavian or Polish design knowledge and design methods
were highly appreciated in the GDR and there has been a lively exchange of objects,
technologies and knowledge at congresses, exhibitions or fairs in the Eastern bloc. But the
Soviet design authority VNIITE did not achieve the status of a leading design institution and
cooperation remained on a rather theoretical level. Soviet design officials considered East
Germany to be one of the most developed industrial countries within the socialist sphere.
East German industrial design expertise concerning quality assurance or range streamlining
was thus appreciated whereas little is known about collaborative design projects with Soviet
involvement and tangible results.
Design as a specific field of activity has enjoyed a remarkable degree of communication,
mobility and cooperative work and at the same time it was faced with travel restrictions,
political paternalism and surveillance for those considered politically unreliable. Only
selected designers were able to travel to the West, some of them on behalf of the AIF,
2733
others on behalf of the VBK-DDR, which was regarded by designers as the more liberal
institution. Also, in product development an international state-of-the-art analysis
(Weltstandsvergleich) was part of the required design briefing (detailed documentation
published by the AIF (Ed.) 1984). Due to the need to export products to Western markets,
any newly designed product had to compete with Western standards. This also fostered an
intensive evaluation of Western design developments (even though only a small number of
competitive design concepts eventually went into series production).
The Bauhaus building in Dessau can be seen as another space within the GDR for exchange
between Eastern and Western designers. Retarded by the ideological debate on formalism
until the late 1960s, the Bauhaus and its heritage had only been rehabilitated in the GDR of
the 1970s. By then, the AIF was pushing the reconstruction of the Bauhaus building in
Dessau, later using the site for international workshops and exhibitions and selling the GDR
as the legitimate inheritor of the Bauhaus idea. Scandinavian, Dutch, American or West
German designers took part in international and inner-German Bauhaus seminars. In 1978,
an international seminar in Dessau was led by American designers with the slogan Industrial
Design Education in the United States. In return, Erich John, Professor in Berlin-Weiensee,
was invited as Visiting Professor to the US and selected students of the college of art BerlinWeiensee were allowed to study in the USA.
figure 6: the Bauhaus Dessau building in a 1980s English leaflet of the AIF, illustrating East West
Exchange in the field of design during the cold war.
Especially the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), founded 1957 in
London, became an important international stage for East West exchange. In the 1960s,
ICSID grew to include design societies from non-capitalist countries and the AIF joined ICSID
in 1967, two years before the Soviet counterpart VNIITE. As a member, the AIF enjoyed
2734
equal rights at a time when the diplomatic status of the GDR was still contested by West
Germany. Design was seen as a profession that could transcend political borders and build
bridges between East and West. Martin Kelm was elected into the ICSID Executive Board in
1971, entrusted with the subject areas environment and design and design as state policy.
Though, the high aiming policy of exchange and cross-border professional cooperation of
ICSID in the Cold War period has to be contrasted with travel and speech restrictions and
censorship on the Eastern side. Western designers also spoke about a mere theoretical
presentation of Eastern design efforts on ICSID conferences, wondering how and when
especially Soviet concepts and plans would be realized. On the ICSID-stage, East German
design gained some relevance regarding the design of playgrounds and toys, the design of
capital goods, the re-opening of the Bauhaus as well as the structure and organization of
design funding. Still, there was a huge gap left between theoretical aspiration and claims on
one side and everyday experience of designers and the public on the other.
What is left
After the wall came down, East German design had to face deep structural changes. New
positioning was necessary in order to cope with the meltdown of industrial structures. The
AIF and most of its sub-institutions were closed in 1990. Even though East Germanys
industry recovered to a notable degree in the following years, there is still little industrial
research and development due to a lack of big companies and scarce financial resources of
small businesses. At the universities and colleges of art, specific design approaches adopted
more slowly to the new situation. As explained above, design research in the GDR was not
disconnected to western developments, accordingly many designers and design researchers
were able to continue their work under new market conditions.
Today, there is a co-existence of empirical design research and design research inspired by
cultural studies. The roots in the specific East German functional design approach can still be
traced in departments focusing on the design of industrial goods. The University of Industrial
Design in Halle has been renamed to College of Art, accompanied by a shift to more artistic
approaches of design. However, there is an increasing interest in functionalist design
approaches, which might provide a useful framework for actual challenges. Here, the
adjusted functionalism of the late GDR may be of interest, since it had been developed in
order to cope with critique against functionalism or to merge different views into one
(centralistic) holistic functionalist design approach, while a strong shift to postmodernism
more or less stopped the development of comprehensive functional design approaches in
West German design research. The legacy of design and design research of the GDR may
provide considerable material for further investigation, since a large number of the
documents, photographs and even design objects, models and prototypes are preserved in
the archives of federal institutions, museums and universities.
2735
References
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Planen und Prognostizieren des Designs. Berlin.
AIF (Ed.) (1976) Industrial Design in the German Democratic Republic. Industrial Design in the Sign of
State Attention. Berlin.
Azrikan, D. (1993) VNIITE, Dinosaur of Totalitarianism or Platos Academy of Design?, Design Issues,
15 (3), pp. 4577.
Cubbin, T. (2012) From Technocracy to Techno-Utopia: Futurology and the Soviet Home at VNIITE
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Dietel, K. C. (1982) Funktionalismus entstand und lebt nur mit Kunst, form + zweck 6/1982, pp. 33
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Friemert, C. (1982) Zur Entzauberung des Designs, form + zweck, 14 (5), pp. 4449.
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soziales Portrt. In: AIF and Designzentrum (Eds.), Designforum 1987, Design und Qualitt. Berlin.
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Roeder, R. (2014) Zur Situation der Formgestalter im Raum Dresden zwischen 1960 und 1989 eine
persnliche Sicht, in C. Wlfel, S. Wlfel and J. Krzywinski (Eds.) Gutes Design Martin Kelm und
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2736
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pp. 241258.
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S. Wlfel and J. Krzywinski (Eds.) Gutes Design Martin Kelm und die Designfrderung in der DDR,
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About the Authors:

Sylvia Wlfel, Ph.D. is a historian of technology, researcher and
lecturer at Technische Universitt Berlin, Germany. Her research
interests include the environmental history of engineering, the
history of relationship between engineering and design and Eastern
Europes history of economic and political transformation.
Christian Wlfel, Ph.D. is a trained industrial designer, researcher
and lecturer at Technische Universitt Dresden, Germany. His
research interests include, among others, product experience in
professional domains. His own design practice focuses on industrial
goods and medical devices.
2737
International Norms and Local Design Research:

ICSID and the Promotion of Industrial Design in Latin
America, 1970-1979
Tania Messell
University of Brighton, UK
t.messell@brighton.ac.uk
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.461
Abstract: The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) was

founded in 1957 to raise the professional status of designers and to establish
international standards for the profession. While the organisation expanded to
include member societies from developing economies in the 1960s and 1970s, it was
predominantly led by Western members, and design mainly promoted as a tool for
industrial development, due to ICSIDs close collaboration with the United Nations
Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Examining ICSIDs early promotional
activities in developing countries, in particular its first congress in Latin America
Industrial Design for Human Development, held in 1979 Mexico, this paper
appraises the reception of Western design precepts by a circle of Latin American
designers and theorists, whose design methodology, which promulgated the primacy
of local needs, resources and expertise, paved the way towards a more multifaceted
understanding of design within ICSID and beyond.
Keywords: ICSID; Promotion; Latin America; Local/Global
Introduction
The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design was founded in London in 1957 by
designers from Europe and the United States, to raise the professional status of designers
and to establish international standards for the profession, at a time when a collective need
existed for a greater recognition of [designers] value to business, commerce and society
(Woodham, 1997, p.175). ICSIDs expansion from members from eight countries in 1957 to
37 countries by 1980 included the entry of member societies from developing countries,
whose diverse expectations, coupled with the international communitys heightened
concern for development in the 1970s, resulted in ICSIDs growing interest in the
contribution of design in the peripheries. The council as such established the Developing
Countries Working Group, and through its close collaboration with the United Nations
Tania Messell
Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), set out to promote the benefits of industrial
design to countries in the course of industrialisation. However, ICSID was primarily
governed by Western designers and its alliance with UNIDO, whose agenda aimed at
accelerating industrial development on a world basis, led the organisation to promote
industrial design as a close ally of science and technology, within a Western narrative of
progress.
Figure 1
ICSIDs membership in 1980, Working Group on the Future and Structure of ICSID,
1981, p.40, ICD/6/10/12, ICSID Archives, University of Brighton Design Archives.
Diverging visions on the contribution of industrial design in developing countries however

emerged in the same period, particularly in Latin America, where the professions Western
ethnocentrism and ICSIDs vision of developing countries were a source of growing
discontent. These critiques culminated during ICSIDs first congress held in a developing
country, in 1979 Mexico, where a circle of Latin American designers promulgated the need
for a design approach answering the diversity and specificities of the Latin American context,
in line with local needs, resources and expertise. The groups discontent resulted in the
creation of the first Latin American design association, ALADI (Asociacin Latinoamericana
de Diseo), which alongside the establishment of other regional groupings, led to ICSIDs
decentralisation in the late 1970s. Thus at a time when debates on regionalism and identity
prevailed, ICSIDs expansionist endeavour aimed at the global development of industrial
design, as its President Kenji Ekuan expressed in 1977 (Ekuan, p.32, 1977), had reached its
limit, and ICSIDs survival lay in the fragmentation of its activities. The development of local
design research, which countered the dominant design approach, promulgated by
industrialised nations, in turn reverberated upon design institutions, through which it played
a key role in promoting a multifaceted understanding of the profession.
2740
International Norms and Local Design
For Bruce Archer, one of the founders of the discipline of design research, whose systematic
approach of the discipline assisted in theorising the practice (Pavitt, p.2012, p.131), design
research is a systematic search for and acquisition of knowledge related to design and
design activity (Archer, 1981, p.47). For the design historian Jonathan Woodham, the study
of ICSID on the other hand has much to offer to historians seeking to research a more
comprehensive and inclusive geographical and cultural spread of industrial design activity
(Woodham, 2005, p.263). This paper, through a close examination of the production of
ICSIDs design precepts and their reception in Latin America, specifically in Mexico, thus
posits that the production of design knowledge acted as a key articulation of power in the
meeting between developed and developing nations in the 1970s, and that the examination
of ICSIDs activities in developing countries allows for a better understanding of these
dynamics. The production of international design standards indeed assisted ICSID in raising
its status, in reinforcing the young profession, and in legitimising its activities in developing
countries, a process which took similarly place in the latter. Indeed, while ICSIDs design
precepts were translated, and thus actively assimilated in the peripheries, as the design
historian Anna Calvera suggests (Calvera, 2005, p.374), this paper argues that the
development of new local design methodologies impacted upon ICSIDs aims and
functioning, where they challenged the supremacy of a design research arising from
industrialised nations.
This paper will start by examining how the development discourse produced by international
agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) after the Second World War impacted
upon ICSIDs mission in developing countries, alongside its attempt to establish industrial
design as a fully-fledged profession. The mixed reception of ICSIDs presence in Latin
America will thereafter be treated through an examination of ICSIDs congress in Mexico,
where the redemptive powers of foreign expertise were both praised and shunned, and
ultimately led to the creation of ALADI, which reinforced the position of advocates of
independent design research. It must be noted that although terms such as Third World',
'Less Developed Countries', and 'Periphery' have been used to designate the area that
includes the larger parts of Africa, Latin America, South and South East Asia, and the Middle
East (Er, 1994, p.8), as ICSID employed the term developing countries, the latter will be
used in this paper. This decision arises from the anthropologist Arturo Escobars vision of
terms such as First and Third World, which for him reinforce the production of differences,
subjectivities, and social orders, ultimately preserving dynamics of colonialism (Escobar,
2011, p.9). The use of ICSIDs terminology will thus assist in highlighting the binary
understanding ICSIDs nurtured towards the peripheries, where the organisation regarded its
contribution in the act of assistance.
Development and the Rhetoric of Assistance

Recent scholarship on international non-governmental organisations often presents NGOs
under a neo-colonial light, as organisations furthering Western thinking and interests. For
the sociologists John Boli and Georges Thomas, NGOs are indeed transnational bodies
2741
Tania Messell
employing limited resources to make rules, set standards and propagate principles [] vis-vis states and other actors (Boli & Thomas, 1997, p.172). Development furthermore
offered a key arena in the 20th century for international organisations to raise their profiles
as actors in their own right, build legitimacy and thereby extend their authority (Frey,
Kunkel & Unger, 2014, p.4). As a consequence, the involvement of NGO in developing
countries intensified after the Second World, and their discourse, as the historian Kevin
OSullivan writes, like colonialism carried [a] familiar subtext: that western agencies were
bringers of all that was modern and advanced (O'Sullivan, 2014, p.301). For Escobar,
this discourse lay in a very western imagining of the Third World, in which
poverty became an organising concept [which] brought into existence new discourses
and practices that shaped the reality to which they referred. That the essential trait of
the Third World was its poverty and that the solution was economic growth and
development became self-evident, necessary and universal truths. (Escobar, 2011,
p.24)
Such a politic of truth relied on areas in which the generation, validation and diffusion of
development knowledge was organised, which included professional practices (Escobar,
2011, p.45). Professionalization and development were in fact closely intertwined and
together, as Escobar suggests, constituted an apparatus that organises the production of
form and knowledge and the deployment of forms of power, through conferences,
consultancy and local implementations (Escobar, 2011, p.46). For Boli, Thomas, Meyer and
Ramirez, the development of normative expertise is a central component of
professionalization, as experts develop transnational accounts and models, yielding a selfreinforcing cycle in which rationalization [] institutionalizes professional authority (Meyer,
Boli, Thomas & Ramirez, 1997, p.166). The development of rationalized and universalistic
knowledge in turn strengthens a professional discourse as by turning local and parochial
practices into universally applicable principles [it can be] rationally adopted [] and copied
by modern entities everywhere, as such securing its perpetuation (Meyer & David Strang,
1993, p.502). At a time when ICSID aimed at becoming the leading international
organisation, and design remained a relatively young profession, its promotion of design as a
universal problem-solving activity (General Assembly Minutes, 1963) was coupled with a
rhetoric of assistance, which implied that design knowledge originated from industrialised
nations. Indeed, as ICSIDs Secretary General, Josine des Cressonires, expressed at an
Executive Board meeting in 1970:
The only justification of ICSID is to help. We must do it with all the assets and means
particular from ICSID which derive from its international status and allow for: A)
exchange and information (which we can do better than anyone). B) a channel of
assistance of more advanced countries, no longer in need of help (Sweden for
instance) towards those who need (sic) it acutely. (Des Cressonires, 1970)
As found in the meetings minutes, ICSIDs Past President Henri Vinot furthermore
suggested that as ICSID acted as a platform favouring comparisons, it could give more
assistance to countries where industrial design is least developed (Vinot, 1970). The
2742
board member Andr Ricard similarly employed a vocabulary of assistance and emergency,
and described ICSIDs educational mission using military terms. Indeed for Ricard,
It is ICSIDs duty and privilege to make people think of what they are doing- we must
intensify the reasons, philosophy and direction of their work. In this connection,
particular assistance must be brought to countries where industrial design is in course
of development. These people badly need contacts, they need to discuss and
communicate. We should send ICSID commandos [sic] where they are most needed,
organise seminars and small regional meetings in between congresses, especially in
developing countries. (Ricard, 1970)
The council in turn rapidly set out to assist developing countries by subsequently
establishing the Developing Countries Working Group to produce events, exhibitions and
publications promoting the benefits of industrial design in developing countries, as well as
with establishing closer ties with UNIDO. While a shift from good design to scientific
operationalism had taken place in ICSID under Tomas Maldonados presidency in the late
1960s, which favoured the close collaboration between designers and industry, mixed
opinions towards a design model adapted to developing countries existed within the
organisation. For Gui Bonsiepe, while industrial design ought to act as an instrument for
industrial development, it was not to be developed for the peripheries but rather in and by
the peripheries, which for him constituted the only path towards the regions technological
independence (Bonsiepe, 1976). Spearheaded by Victor Papanek, a second group privileged
the sociocultural needs of developing countries, in stark contrast with the high-tech bias of
design expansionism felt to be desirable by some in ICSID as Papanek recalled a few years
later (Papanek, 1983, p.46). Indeed while Bonsiepe located the liberation of developing
countries in indigenous technology, Papaneks condemnation of the Wests mass
production, brought him to promulgate the development of designs answering the real
needs of men and women, in harmony with local resources, in a primarily grass-root
approach (Papanek, 1972). ICSIDs close collaboration with UNIDO, which culminated in the
signing of the Ahmedabad Declaration in 1979 towards design promotion in developing
countries, however led the council to present design as an ally of industrial development.
For UNIDO, whose 1975 Lima Declaration aimed at increasing industrial output in developing
countries from 7% to 25% by 2000 (Osmaczyk, 2003, p.1325), the historical role of the
designer lay in his capacity to apply design creativeness to increase production in
developing countries (Kayalar, 1977). Thus the experts dispatched to developing countries
by ICSID and UNIDO in the 1970s introduced methods to rationalise and increase the
production of goods, with the ultimate aim for these to enter international markets
(Soloviev, UNIDO-ICSID Meeting, 1979, p.21). As seen below, this rhetoric of growth was
countered by a group of designers during ICSIDs congress in Mexico, whose design method,
by turning its gaze to the local with the aim to answer ethnic specificities, offered an
alternative path to capitalist growth. However, as seen below, for the committee charged
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Tania Messell
with organising ICSIDs first congress in Latin America, foreign expertise constituted the
cornerstone of a successful design implementation.
Industrial Design and Human Development

Many reasons prompted Mexico to be selected as the host of ICSIDs 1979 congress. To
begin with, the country could boast an active design scene, ranging from two design
organisations, the College of Industrial and Graphic Designers of Mexico (CODIGRAM) and
the Technical Political National Institute, a national Design Centre, and thirteen design
programmes (Mullin, 1978). These developments were followed closely by ICSID and were
well regarded upon, such as by its Secretary General Yoshio Nishimoto, for whom watching
the young designers of Mexico is like watching the latent energy of an unerupted [sic]
volcano. There is a future in design in this country (Nishimoto, 1979). Mexico was also a
good location as it bore similar traits to the Indian context, which was to come under
scrutiny during the Ahmedabad Declaration. The country similarly faced the need to spur
collaboration between manufacture and industrial production as 75% of Mexican products
remained hand-made, and craft was Mexicos second source of income (Novelo, 2003, p.29).
As ICSIDs president, Yuri Soloviev, shared in the events opening address, holding the
congress in Mexico represented a decisive step for the organisation and a new step in the
history of industrial design in developing countries, [in which] the unity of industrial design
experience and national cultural traditions become a very important factor for further
success. ICSIDs president subsequently informed the audience that:
at present it is possible to use design much more efficiently. This is due to the new
level of technological basis, provided by modern scientific and technological
revolutions [of which] it is particularly important that countries with growing
economies can profit (Soloviev, 1979).
As such, while the cultural heritage of developing countries was to be preserved, industrial
design could only be implemented through the import of scientific and technological
innovation modelled in developed countries.
The congress organising committee was headed by the president of the Technical Political
National Institute, Alejandro Lazo Margin, under the supervision of the architect Pedro
Ramrez Vzquez. Both men had close ties with the Mexican government as Margins
father, the architect Carlos Lazo was the recipient of numerous national commissions and his
godfather was the minister of Tourism and past president, Miguel Alemn Valds. The
Instituto had acted as a political party and lobby group for industrial and graphic design since
1973, whose main aim was to create social designs through means of technical and
industrial development, in allegiance to the Partido Revolucionario Institutional, which since
1928 ruled the country (Lazo, undated). Vzquez on the other hand was a central figure in
the fields of architecture, whose career included the orchestration of Mexicos image in
numerous World Fairs and of the highly mediatised 1968 Olympics (Almeida, 2013). By the
time Mexico was to host ICSIDs XIth congress, Vzquez had designed the political campaign
2744
of the president Jos Lopez Portillo, and acted as Minister of Public Settlements and Public
Works, underlining his strong ties with the head of state and active role in national policies.
The congress thus quickly received support from the President and from the majority of the
state secretaries, whilst financial support was granted from Alemn Valds (Lazo, 1977). The
organising committees close bonds to the party thus secured financial resources,
prestigious locations and the inauguration by the President Lopez Portillo, which resulted in
the high visibility of the event.
The theme of the congress Industrial Design and Human Development was selected by the
organising committee under the supervision of ICSIDs Board in 1976 (des Cressonires,
1976). As the designer Claudio Rodriguez, member of the organising committee, stated in
interview, the topic was chosen as it resonated with the wider interest in development, and
reflected ICSIDs humanistic ideals, as such securing a wide attendance to the congress
(Rodriguez, personal communication, 7 May, 2015). Incidentally, the topic also answered the
Mexican government's agenda, which, while it may have moved closer to the interest of the
middle class, was awash with social discourses and programmes aimed at gathering the
support of workers and peasants (Lpez, 2010, p.278). This inclination is reflected in the
events promotional materials sent to the press, companies, travel agencies, airlines, and
embassies, which displayed a populist aesthetic through hand-drawn images of craftsmen
and a logotype inspired from pre-Hispanic Huichol designs.
The sovereignty of foreign design expertise however loomed over the events preparation
and unfolding. To begin with, Margin and Vzquez publicised the benefits of design and
the congress as closely related to the governments extensive industrialisation plans
launched in 1976, of which the Alliance for Production plan had constituted the core of
Lopez Portillos presidential campaign (Mirn, Prez & Fernndez del Castillo, 1988, p.35).
Margin indeed presented industrial design as the fundamental element for the success of
the Alliance for Production plan to design students in 1979 (Lazo Margin, 1979), while
Vzquez stressed the relation between designers and all the areas where they can serve the
country with proper technology, as is essentially the National Industrial Development Plan
in the paper he presented at the congress (Vzquez, 1979). However, whilst these plans
aimed at the countrys economic independence, they relied on the import of foreign
technology purchased through the revenue of newly discovered oil reserves in Mexico
(Small, p.14, 2004). This strategy had existed since Echeverras presidency between 1970
and 1976, during which a new legislation had been adopted which facilitated the purchase of
foreign technology and technology transfer agreements (Haas, 1997, p.238). The
government favouring the export of technical products such as transportation equipment
and other machinery, capital-intensive methods were thus imported to Mexico (Grayson,
1981, p.106). Indeed, Mexican elites, bitter over a legacy of U.S. discrimination [saw] in
shiny new equipment a sign of the countrys technological machismo, while labor-intensive
techniques betoken backwardness (Grayson, 1981, p.107). A joint exhibition promoting the
interchange of technology, engineering and research between the United States and Mexico,
Techno-Transfer '79, was thus organised and publicised during the event, revealing the
2745
Tania Messell
congress instrumental role in the governments industrial policy (Mexico ICSID Oct 79, black
brochure, p.89).
Also of significance, the committees promotional travels were mostly undertaken in Europe
and in North America, where its members prioritised visits to national chambers of
commerce and industry and well-established companies such as Philips, Braun, Knoll
International and Olivetti, later invited to exhibit their most innovative products at the
congress Exhibition of Technological Innovations (Lazo Margin, First Preparation Report,
1978). Indeed while the events social character was addressed by the international student
competition which featured projects around the topics of education, health and childhood,
objects such as the newly released Mercedes Benz C-111 3 were displayed, which embodied
the height of Western technical achievements.
Figure 2
Pedro Ramrez Vzquez sitting in the Mercedes Benz C-111 3 at the Exhibition of
Technical Innovations, 1979, Personal archive of Alejandro Lazo Margin.
Finally, although the conference aimed at favouring exchanges between designers from
developed and developing countries, the selection of speakers for plenary sessions,
undertaken once again under ICSIDs supervision, featured a majority of well-established
designers from Europe and the United States, with one contribution only from a national of
a developing country, by Vzquez himself (Mexico ICSID Oct 79, golden brochure, p.24).
This phenomenon was replicated in the panel sessions, in which only four out of 26
coordinators were nationals from developing countries. Of great significance, the American
designer Arthur Pulos was appointed to lead the round-table on professional practice
(Mexico ICSID Oct 79, golden brochure, p.24), which further implied that design experience
remained the monopoly of industrialised nations, and which, by suppressing professional
dialogue, positioned designers from developing countries as mere recipients.
2746
Design for Latin America

The large scope of the event however offered a forum for diverse design visions to meet, at
a time when wider doubts existed towards the professions capacity to act beyond a
Western-centric perspective and commercial interests (Clarke, 2015, p.3). Critics included
the designer Ettore Sottsass, for whom the congress focus on development was irrational as
it promoted the idea that design could surpass the logic of markets to answer the real
needs of society, while for the designer Oriol Bohigas, developing countries were to avoid
the trap of mass-consumption, if a sustainable future was to be achieved (Press Release
n16, 1979). Bonsiepe on the other hand warned against the belief that the centre
possessed the universal magic formulae of industrial design, which prevailed in both
developed and developing countries (Bonsiepe, 1976, p.18). This vision was shared by some
of the Mexican speakers who attended the event, whose discourses were informed by the
Appropriate Technology movement and the Intermediate Technology Development Group,
which alongside Alternative or Radical Technology, promulgated the use of second and third
rate technology (Madge, 1993, p.153). The concept of appropriate technology, born from
1960s counter-culture, had indeed gathered a wide interest in former colonies since the
mid-twentieth century, where the introduction of foreign production systems, grounded in
energy-intensive machinery, were regarded as resulting in pollution and unemployment
(Oropallo, 2014, p.533). In his paper titled The Role of the Industrial Designer in the
Framework of a New Productive Structure, the founder of the left-wing National
Autonomous Metropolitan Universitys design programme, Horacio Durn, promoted the
teaching of intermediary technology to produce semi-artisanal capital goods, which
ultimately could be exported to developing countries in large quantities.
For Durn, who mainly produced furniture using local materials, drawing from traditional
Mexican forms, this production was to take primarily place in the rural context, where cheap
manpower existed and employment would be secured, as such countering Mexicos lack of
advanced technology and exploitation of the countrys resources (Press Release n2, 1979).
A more radical proposition was voiced by the head of the universitys graphic design
programme, Jess Virchez, for whom the development of national design expertise could
only by achieved by limiting the entry of foreign designers in Mexico and through the use of
national design curriculums. In his view, the countrys widespread lack of self-confidence
had resulted in the prejudice of "malinchism" (Mexican term for a preference for all things
foreign), which prevented it from developing a design practice beyond factors of power and
speed (Press Release n13, 1979). As seen next, these ideas informed the creation of a
regional association by a group of Latin American designers, which beyond favouring
collaboration, aimed at circumventing the grip of industrialised countries on Latin American
design practice.
2747
Tania Messell
The formation of ALADI

A growing disbelief towards ICSIDs activities in Latin America had spread amongst a group
of designers from Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Peru, Salvador, Brazil in the 1970s, for whom
the former did not answer the regions diverse sociocultural and economic conditions. Many
of them met during ICSIDs first Interdesign workshop in Latin America in 1978, titled
Alternative Energy Sources: Wind and Solar Energy for Use in Rural Areas in Mexico, where
the creation of the Asociacin Latinoamericana de Diseo, the Latin American Association of
Industrial Designers (ALADI) was discussed. Its future members indeed regarded the
workshop as ill fitted for communities where acute poverty and lacks of expertise prevented
the installation of alternative technology, which furthermore did not reflect the larger Latin
American context (Polo, personal communication, 10 June 2015). For ALADIs future
president, the Colombian designer Rmulo Polo, the event provided an utopian or
idealistic solution to such communities, which revealed how the priorities and approaches
of some international forums, did not match the situation of developing countries (Polo,
1980, p.17). The Argentinian Basilio Uribe, Brazilian Jos Abramowitz, Polo and Bonsiepe
consequently met in Bombay during the Ahmedabad Declaration and together drafted the
associations objectives, many of which formed part of its constitution. In their views, the
association needed to offer a communication network to Latin American designers, promote
industrial design policies to governments (Polo, 1980, p.18) and intensify technical
cooperation between developing countries, while acknowledging the specificities of each
nation (Buitrago, 2014, p.160).
Members of the group met during the congress in Mexico, and as one of ALADIs founders,
the Chilean designer Fernando Shultz stated in interview, the 1979 congress was highly
problematic in their views, as it did not address the Latin American reality in its regional
diversity and assisted ICSID in importing a Western lifestyle, ultimately serving the interests
of multinational corporations (Shultz, personal communication, 10 May, 2015).
Figure 3 Photograph of the meeting of ALADIs founders during the Mexico Congress, 1979, Personal
archive of Alejandro Lazo Margin.
2748
Shultz then taught at the Autonomous Metropolican University, where most of the groups
representatives in Mexico worked. With colleagues, he had published the book Against a
Dependent Design (Contra un Diseo Dependiente) in 1976, which defended the need for a
place-based design methodology, and which included a contribution by the philosopher
Enrique Dussel, for whom the liberation from the centre's cultural, military, and economic
domination could only be attained by reclaiming the cultural inheritance of developing
countries. Indeed for its authors:
If we take into account the operational or functional criteria governing technological
processes that produce industrial design in the "centre", we discover that these were
born from a well-defined cultural and economic context. Take for example the
operational criteria of design and of highly developed technology: the scarcity and high
price of labour causes these designs to use the maximum of capital and technology,
which impacts on scientific research and technical discoveries of the countries from
the centre". This criterion aims to be universal and imposed on the international
market. Therefore, accepting this technology [] means implicitly accepting this
criteria which, when applied, would fall into contradiction in countries where there is
abundant fairly skilled labour to low price. Even if the indiscriminate use of imported
technologies would be fruitful, [] the immediate effects being unemployment and
social pressures, make it a sufficient reason to dismiss it. (Gutierrez et. al., 1977, p.2)
The text subsequently encouraged designers to make use of local technology, materials, and
expertise applied to large and small-scale industry and to craft, and most importantly
offered a design methodology titled the General Model of Design Process, grounded in an
interdisciplinary approach. For its authors, a design problem was indeed to be approached
through an initial analysis of factors ranging from the anthropometric to the technological
and the social, rather than by the product itself, in order for the artefact to answer the
specific needs of the producer, the designer and the users (Rodrguez Morales, 2004, p.36).
This method was most certainly applied by the UAMs design students at the
aforementioned student exhibition, as reflected in the conception of a didactical appliance
aimed for young children, most certainly made out of locally sourced materials (see figure
10).
Figure 4 Display of the UAM Student projects at the International Student Exhibition, 1979, Personal
archive of Alejandro Lazo Margin.
2749
Tania Messell
The UAMs General Model of Design Process, which counts as one of the few developed in
Mexico, remains in use today, as it constitutes the base of the universitys design
programme (Rodrguez Morales, 2004, p.38), and has since 2009 encouraged the
development of Mexicos national design policy (Fr as, 2010, p.35). The aspiration of ALADIs
members to produce a local design knowledge, challenging the dominant model was in turn
reinforced through the organisation, whose impact upon ICSID, paved the way to a more
place-based understanding of design.
The congress resulted in the signing of a proposal for the regional design organisation by 98
attendees (Buitrago, 2014, p.160), and epitomised a wider movement within ICSID towards
the creation of regional groupings, at a time when wider doubts existed towards the
councils centralised structure and capacity to answer local specificities. Regional groupings
were indeed formed in Asia and Europe at the time, leading ICSIDs Executive Board to face
the shortcomings of its universalising mission. It consequently set up the Working Group on
the Future and Structure of ICSID in April 1980, which a few months later reported that the
difference of culture, need and orientation of our membership have to be recognised and
harnessed, not eliminated and submerged (Working Group on the Future and Structure of
ICSID, 1980). ICSIDs Executive Board was in turn urged to distribute responsibilities to
member societies and to facilitate regional activities (Working Group on the Future and
Structure of ICSID, 1981, p.43), recommendations which were implemented throughout the
1980s (ICSID, 1987). The primacy of locality remains today, as although ICSIDs current
project Renew ICSID promotes the role of design for a Better world, it is grounded in
what is happening at a regional level as its current president, Brandon Gien, announced in
February 2015 (Gien, 2015).
Conclusion
To conclude, this paper has shed light on the dissemination and reception of ICSIDs design
precepts in Latin America, which as it has revealed, were inextricably linked with the rhetoric
of assistance produced by NGOS and international agencies in the post-war period. As it has
shown, ICSIDs understanding of its role in developing countries was heavily affected by
these discourses, which led its members to disseminate a design approach grounded in
raised industrialisation or inadequate alternatives to assist developing countries to catch
up with Western standards, to use the term of the design historian Guy Julier (Julier, 1997,
p.2). In this context, the production of design research which grappled with local
specificities was crucial in countering Western design doctrines in the 1970s, and the
creation of ALADI participated in shaping a more cosmopolite design vision within ICSID,
which continues to influence contemporary practices. Indeed, the methods developed by
ALADIs members participated in challenging the traditional boundaries of the profession
along other movements which called for increased relocalization, decentralization and local
cosmopolitanism (Clarke, 2015, p.3), the approaches of which crystallised in larger
institutional formations, as this paper set out to highlight.
2750
Acknowledgements: This research has been conducted thanks to the generous support
of the School of Humanities of the University of Brighton, which allowed for a research
trip to be conducted in Mexico in April 2015.
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Tania Messell
About the Author:

Tania Messell is a PhD Candidate investigating the International
Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) at the University of
Brighton. Her thesis, due to completion in October 2017, focuses the
organisations promotional activities between 1957 and 1980.
2754
SECTION 17
DESIGN-ING AND CREATIVE PHILOSOPHIES
Introduction: Design-ing and Creative Philosophies

Betti Marenko
University of the Arts, London
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.602
As this strand concerns an encounter between design as a process (designing) and

philosophy as a creative act, the question we wish to ask is: what might emerge as these
practices collide, fuse or repel? To answer this we will map some of the ways of bringing
together design and creative philosophies.
We recognise that the term creative philosophies might not be common usage, however.
For us organising and participating in this strand it highlights philosophy as a pragmatic
activity of creating concepts that have material affects in the different milieus in which they
are deployed. As such, Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari thinkers for whom philosophy was
a profoundly creative practice write that philosophy is determined not by truth or falsity,
but by success or failure. Similarly, we think about design as a creative enterprise that needs
creative conceptual inputs to evolve and expand, because once we open philosophy up to
the creative, the creative is also affected by the philosophical. Lets name some names, as
with these, we will locate some ways of thinking and doing creativity that are resolutely
intertwined.
So in the roster of creative philosophies we will find Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari (as
mentioned), Michel Serres, Alfred North Whitehead, Baruch Spinoza, Isabelle Stengers,
Gilbert Simondon, Georges Canguilhem, Jane Bennett, Bruno Latour, Brian Massumi, Peter
Sloterdijk, Rosi Braidotti, Manuel De Landa, Sanford Kwinter, Lars Spuybroek, to name but a
few, and also Jorge Luis Borges, William Burroughs, Alfred Jarry, Lucretius and many more.
What all these thinkers have in common is an affinity to an explorative, nonlinear,
affirmative, creative thought.
Why, then, might it be so important to think differently about design?
Design as a set of disciplines, discourses, practices, concepts and ideas, acquires tangibility in
its own making. Further, design, even as a set of diverse things is mutating and expanding.
Which is why we insist on the gerund form designing to indicate its inherently processual
and future-related nature. In a way we have no choice but to think differently about design,
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Betti Marenko
as it is already thinking, doing, making, practising, and so on, differently about itself. A
philosophy that creates successful (or otherwise), impactful (or not), memorable (or
forgetful) concepts is ripe for an encounter with a practice, thinking and discourse-set that is
a mutating, processual designing.
We have noted that, with Deleuze and Guattari, we consider philosophy as the practice of
creating concepts; to this we add designing as the practice of materialising possibilities. It
can be said, then, that both philosophy and design are concerned with expressing the not
yet in many impactful and creative ways. Design and philosophy are already profoundly
entangled and it is time, therefore, to investigate some of the ways in which this
entanglement occurs, while offering new and unexpected trajectories. Both design and
philosophy are creative practices: each a way of doing the other, using materials, skills and
experiences particular to each, as well as engaging with discourses, themes, practices and
concerns that cross them both. In so doing, they amplify the creative in the other, and allow
for the unfolding of a creation that unfolds at once both in practice and in theory. In these
ways, the possibilities of new futures can be thought and materialised: creatively designed in
thought and materially philosophised in practice.
Indeed, we believe in the creative power of philosophy to inform design in a myriad of ways:
for example, seeping through matter while allowing forms to emerge; mapping topologies of
future actualisations; creating space for unforeseen creations to run wild and free.
It is a matter, then, of putting in place the conditions for an unexpected encounter between
designing and creative philosophies to occur. An encounter between ways of thinking and
ways of doing, so that through such an encounter theory gets redesigned and design gets
rethought: a two-pronged reboot. For if we follow Deleuze and Guattaris assertion that a
philosophy can only be pragmatic if it creates concepts that can always be intertwined with
other practices, then the creative, pragmatic philosophy that ensues will itself also be
disruptive and intensifying: it cannot help but have a feedback affect upon the multitudes in
which it is embroiled.
One of the key concerns underpinning this strand is to explore ways to interrogate the
rapidly evolving world of design. As such, design demands new and flexible bodies of
theorisations capable of articulating its mutating nature and propensity to capture the
future. This does not mean to say that current or past theorisations are redundant. On the
contrary, what it suggests is that an exploratory adventure into creative philosophies can
supplement, expand and recraft design, keeping pace with emerging discourses within
design, and ultimately, with designs appetite for changing the world, one project at the
time. Neither an approach to design nor philosophy should be used to totalise the other, we
posit; so finding ways of colliding philosophies into mutating designs to see where each
cluster might go seems to respect the differences in possibilities that we see.
Sure, the coming together of creative philosophies and designing does not produce easily
defined relationships. Their encounter is not, and cannot be, a linear affair. Rather, what is
envisioned is a series of ripples, swerves, strange hybridisations and collisions that are as
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Introduction: Design-ing and Creative Philosophies
unpredictable as potentially enriching as well as disruptive. It must be clear that there is

no prescription in force here. We do not propose a superior philosophy supervising what
design is doing; neither are we looking to extract ready-to-use ideas from established
thoughts to apply them to design; nor do we want to produce a branded, scholastic form of
design loyal to a specific school of thought. Instead this is about thinking design with creative
philosophies, inspecting the points where they touch and repel, and exploring the possible
alignments, discordances and crosspollinations between them. This is a processual way of
proceeding (albeit not a method), a way of redesigning the relationship between thinking
and doing from a nonlinear, emergent, open perspective.
This echoes what Deleuze asserts about philosophy: that philosophy is always concerned
with the outside, it exists only through the outside. Which does not mean that philosophy
needs to appeal to outside disciplines to seek for authority or validation. On the contrary, as
the practice of creating concepts, philosophy possesses a performative force that acts in the
world, with concepts becoming thought-experiments unleashed in the world, cascading from
one practice to another, requiring risk and adventure. What philosophy does in its relations
to its outside such as designing, we claim is to extract potential, to recraft it, to push it in
unexpected directions, trafficking it across disparate territories. Practised in this way
philosophy is utterly metabolic, it is about provoking change and inducing transformative
effects: an alchemical laboratory, a fablab of thoughts. This is a striking view of what
philosophy is, and what philosophy can do: philosophy as an inventing machine, as
designing.
Unlike a philosophy that tries to establish truth or falsity, a creative philosophy is concerned
with the how. The key question becomes: what can philosophy do? To which we add: what
can design do with it? And we might answer: it can cast new light on future making and
articulate the conditions under which the new is created. If all this rings plausible, then
philosophy needs designing as much as designing needs philosophy.
Designers, practitioners, critics and theorists, operating in contexts increasingly marked by
complexity and contingency, are coming together to reflect on, and to respond to, the
changes traversing established modes of practice within design, either by rethinking the
economic models upon which design is predicated (planned obsolescence, anyone?),
pushing the technological boundaries within which it operates, or questioning the traditional
top-down attitude of designers and manufacturers towards end-users. Design is shifting its
loci of impact on the world, and at the same time undergoing further ontological disruption.
What is remarkable is that this shift we are witnessing (and are part of) is no longer based on
what design is, but on what design is becoming because of what it can do: a shift from
design as problem solving to design as problem finding. The former is a rational and linear
interpretation that evaluates designs activities in terms of efficiency and performance, and
has dominated the world of design since the advent of modernity. In this sense, design is a
task-oriented, performance-measured, linear exercise that ultimately reduces uncertainty by
promoting functional competence. This is the conventional view of design as enforcing and
reproducing market ideologies and working as a technology of affective capture. On the
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other hand design as problem finding has to do with increasing complexity: problematising
the existent, developing a critical and conceptual perspective, first of all on design itself. For
example, design for debate and critical design use their materials, whether objects or
concepts, to raise discussion on specific issues and to frame new problems.
The interdisciplinary nature of design and design research has been highlighted many times,
we have already underlined the ways in which it is never quite able to inhabit one set of
rules, practices or agendas. By advocating an open-ended enquiry that reflects the
participation with the practices of making worlds and creating futures found in designing,
the encounter with creative philosophies will highlight those aspects of designing that are
both ontologically dynamic and create dynamic ontologies.
Designing as we are envisaging it here, is a creative act that has the possibility to disrupt the
present. It becomes an articulation of myriad creative responses to any (proposed)
opportunity space: in other words, the tangible embodying of speculative operations upon
possible futures. Thought in this way, designing as creative process comes close to
philosophy as creative process. This is not to demand that they operate under one, allencompassing schema, but that they allow for their possibilities to connect even
momentarily to see what might happen, what could be done.
Design has done well throughout its history in incorporating within itself, its selves, a
multiplicity of different thoughts, activities, processes and outcomes. This strand situates
itself within such an activity, so to emphasise and intensify it. The more design changes,
expands and broadens its scope and field of action, the more it needs to collide with what
philosophers, critical thinkers, theorists, and designers of concepts are developing.
And to catalyse this encounter is precisely what this strand aims to do.
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Probing the future by anticipative design acts

Annelies De Smeta* and Nel Janssensa,b
a
KU Leuven
Chalmers University of Technology
*annelies.desmet@kuleuven.be
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.79
b
Abstract: We discuss anticipation as a particular type of future focused thinking.

Based on our own design and research practices we position the anticipative mode of
thinking and acting in relation to design approaches that are oriented towards
qualities of becoming and sense-making. We argue that the act of anticipation in a
design context holds the aspect of making artefacts that create openings in the fuzzy
reality and act as imaginative probing instruments in the complexity of continuously
evolving transformation processes as they occur in our research field: the field of
urbanity. In this context, we feel that developing tactics of attentiveness and the
competence to anticipate can enhance both the capacity of 'seeing' (as a creative,
imaginative act) so-called Kairotic moments and grasping the opportunities to
construct and actualise possible futures.
Keywords: anticipation; presencing; sense-making; becoming
Reader's guide
This paper features two voices, both expressing design thinking. One talks discursively,
grappling and toying with concepts, in an attempt to draw a frame of thought (part 1-4).
Independently from the discursive voice, the other voice narrates visually and associatively,
in an attempt to instantiate the concrete design acts that belong to this frame of thought
(part 5-7). Together, they construct an argument on anticipating gestures in artefactual
realities. The argument is developed from lines of inquiry that originate in two different
research practices. One is a solo research practice that operates on the level of direct
embodied immersion in messy urban conditions, adopting a micro perspective. Here,
carefully instructed and rigorously enacted close encounters with an environment are
developed to bring forward latent tangible and intangible aspects of urbanity (instances 5-6).
The other research practice is based on design projects developed within multidisciplinary
collectives and involves modeling on a macro, i.e. regional, scale and scope to question
current urbanization concepts and principles by critical, utopian design. (instance 7).
Although, being very different in scale, scope (micro - macro) and overall set up (solo team), the design projects developed within both these practices aim to act as probing
instruments that carve out openings in the present and with which we attempt to access and
activate the hidden layers of what can be considered the future present.
"How can we learn to better sense and connect with a future possibility that is seeking
to emerge? How can we act from the future that is seeking to emerge, and how can
we access, activate, and enact the deeper layers of the social field?" (Scharmer, 2009,
p.8)
The quality of design as anticipative mode of thinking.

Generally, the broad field of design - being concerned with change - seems to relate
seemingly natural to the equally broad field of future-focused thinking. In this paper we
focus on a more specific aspect of this broad field and relate it to a specific design approach.
We discuss anticipation as a particular type of future focused thinking. Based then on our
own design and research practices we position the anticipative mode of thinking and acting
in relation to design approaches that are oriented towards qualities of becoming and sensemaking.
Etymologically "to anticipate" comes from acting in advance, and is based on anticipare
from ante- before and capere to take(Oxford Dictionary, n.d.). Anticipation is taking
something in advance and acting before something might happen. The term is linked to
notions of preparation, expectation and valuing something probable. Different modes of
anticipation can be distinguished in which different types of design can play a role. One
might argue that the success of an anticipative act is dependent on reliable information
about evolutionary trends. Scientific analyses of different phenomena then come to the fore
as a privileged partner. It has been said that sciences have an interest in the future that is
predominantly explanatory and oriented towards gaining understanding in what the future
will bring. Therefore the methodology in (natural) sciences aims at controlling reality by
emphasizing systematic procedures of actions, in order to develop stable knowledge. This
stable knowledge is meant to be the resource for prediction. Wolfgang Jonas states in that
respect that
"science is aiming at predictability, thus needs stable models, which deliver 'the same'.
Science has to purify its models in order to transfer them from vague hypotheses into
prediction machines." (Jonas, 2012)
In contradistinction, design, according to Jonas aims at "single new phenomena that have to
fit various unforeseeable conditions" (Jonas, 2012). He emphasizes that "design has to
intentionally create variations, differences, because the 'fits' dissolve, fade away, get oldfashioned" (Jonas, 2012). In this light, we argue that the competence to anticipate is not only
dependent on the availability of data, facts and knowledge but equally requires a designerly
capacity to work confidently with the unknown and the unpredictable. This latter capacity is
essential when operating in conditions of complexity, uncertainty, and dynamics of
continuous transformations that involve people and their environment. Apart from the
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necessary stable explanatory knowledge people also need to be able to engage in processes
that allow them to make sense of and give significance to the environment they inhabit,
based on the continuous evolvement of experiences, emotions and values. These so-called
secondary-sense data are the primary resources to generate meaningful interactions
between the environment and its inhabitants. Secondary-sense data are geared towards
interactions that focus on transformations in the world. This implies that what is at stake
here is not really prediction but rather a preparing, in the generative sense, of some things
that might happen in the future. And this is a matter of anticipation. Transformations that
involve people and their interactions are always only partially predictable. In our experience,
in design and artistic research a lot of expertise is being developed in actively involving
secondary-sense data. Therefore, we suggest that developing the anticipative mode of
thinking and acting in a design context can meaningfully contribute to future-oriented
research and can complement the prediction-oriented mode of thinking in the sciences. In
this context, anticipative acts aim at dealing with shape-shifting aspects of reality. Design
and design research then offer a fertile context to enrich and strengthen anticipative
competences and actions that enable to access, embrace and navigate through that what is
fuzzy, slippery and changing. In such fuzzy conditions, anticipating the 'to-come' or the 'notyet' is considerably depending on the strength of imagination as the mode of thinking that
can deal with the gaps in the explicitly known and with latent and hidden aspects. The
imaginative mind departs from a different attention to the world, one that is able to
construct a dialogue with the unknown and hence, enables to learn from the future, and to
anticipate on different grounds than prognosis.
In our research practices we construct a kind of designerly 'spectacles' and 'binoculars' to
study phenomena of urbanity. They allow to 'see', in the imaginative sense, latent aspects of
the urban condition and to observe different states of becoming and as such, they serve as
instruments of anticipation. In the field of urbanism the research approach is often guided
by scientific analysis, prognosis, and extrapolation of different trends into the future. This
approach risks being insufficient because in urbanism the complexity of overlapping timeand scale frames create a problematic that, in our opinion, is impossible to grasp by mere
analysis, engineering and explicit knowing. Therefore, we suggest to add the strength of
imagination to analysis to access seemingly closed or absenced perspectives on the urban
future. In this situation, anticipation requires the development of a specific tactic of
attentiveness. We are surrounded by multiple 'becomings' in which we, wittingly or
unwittingly, take part. A conscious tactic of designing can help to intensify our attention to
these becomings. Making artefacts is then a way to open up our minds for things that might
happen. The projects and artefacts, we make, are conceived to frame openings through
which latent aspects of urbanity emerge and invite us to participate in a process of
continuous reattribution of meaning and value. The focus is on making latent aspects of our
current reality present such that they enable us to connect to and make sense of the future
urbanity that erupts from the present urbanity in a continuous process of becoming.
When you cut into the Present the Future leaks out (Burroughs, 1976)
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Anticipation and attentiveness: flirting with

Throughout its existence, mankind has developed many concepts of time. Future-focussed
thinking assumes sensitivity for these differentiated concepts of time and how they
influence our thinking and acting. Future comes via Old French from Latin futurus and is
the future participle of esse, being. It goes back to the stem fu-, which ultimately
comes from to grow, to become (Oxford Dictionary, n.d.). Future indicates a time of not
yet (completed, fulfilled) and still to come. Therefore, future can be understood as the
time to come and as particular form of becoming because it closely connects to a state of
prior to, and in front of being. In a design context we are particularly intrigued by the spatial
and embodied dimensions of time, how these 'becomings' get materialized and embodied.
For instance, while we consider the future to be in front of us and the past behind us, the
ancient Greeks stood facing the past, the future being behind them. We experience concepts
of time generally as being quite abstract and intangible but the ancient Greeks impersonated
different types of time by creating gods. More specifically, we are thinking of the Ancient
Greek personifications of two complementary modes of time (Kairos) and
(Chronos). The former is referred to as the god of just the right moment and god of the
opportune moment, while the latter is the god of chronological time. A clear introduction
to these concepts of time is provided by Hermsen (2014) on the basis of their figuration:
, the youngest son of Zeus, is regularly portrayed with winged feet and shoulders
holding a pair of scales. His posture attentively bows towards the balance, while a strand of
hair from his otherwise bold head falls forward. This glinting lock suggests that whenever
passes by, one has to be able to grasp him before the opportune moment elapses. As
a result, until the sixteenth century, sparked imagination as the embodiment of time
that holds chances, of time that is significant. Moreover, his figure is closely related to a
profound encounter with beauty, insight and creativity. Fundamentally, is a strategic
concept to break free, interrupt and transgress the chronological time of . This god,
who is the grandfather of , has a long beard and holds a sandglass in his hands. He is
counting; measuring the time that continuously ticks away. Relating back to modes of
anticipation the Kairotic concept of time can be considered to be active in anticipating the
unknown and the unpredictable; while the Chronological concept of time then seems to be
more related to anticipating to what is (at least partially) known by means of predicting.
describes a quantitative time that structures our lives by endless repetition in
contrary to the critical time of opportunity where something could happen (Cocker, 2010).
Since classical antiquity, moments "wherein something could happen" are connected to
chance, contingency and unpredictability. When opportune moments transgress
chronological time, unstable characteristics of reality and our experience of it become
present. In this interval, the known, the routine and the predictable are transgressed by that
what is unknown, unstable, and incalculable. As a result, we do not longer experience a
chronological line but we are confronted by an intertwinement of past, present and future.
In the kairotic moment all times are present simultaneously.
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The unpredictability of the kairotic moment brings to anticipation a sense of excitement and
beckons to pleasure-full, adventurous and sensual ways of relating. By the pre-stage of
acting beforehand, it is likely that bounds are still in the air, delicate and young. This
position requires tactics of attentiveness that relate to competences of sensing,
encountering and interrelating. In this context, it is important to notice that anticipation is
not only taking action upon something that might happen, but that it is simultaneously a
form of exposing oneself to the desirable. Thus, anticipation is also linked to excitement,
hope, hopefulness and suspense while being outwards oriented. As a result, anticipation is
an outwards and future oriented act driven by desire. As such, it is a strong force that
propels the anticipating designer and thereby the anticipative design practice into multiple
becomings. Even though this venture is not without risk, obstacles, failings and defects, the
temptation - - is too strong to resist. We propose that anticipation as a form of
becoming that is based on external forces, located in the confusing, blurry and messy world
we live in, is a kind of flirting with , with the opportune moment, with chance and
risk. The etymology of flirting learns that fl- and -irt suggest sudden movements
(Oxford Dictionary, n.d.). In that sense, flirting requires a feel for the sudden and opportune
moment, while requiring courage towards the open-endedness of it. Gavin Butt pointed out
how flirting can offer alternative ways of relating to serious matters in general and
especially to seriousness in the context of scholarship and academia (Butt, 2006). Butt
emphasizes, based on Adams Philips book On Flirtation (1994), not to oppose flirtation to
the serious but rather grasping it as an odd or unusual engagement with it (Butt, 2006).
This frivol, playful and pleasurable way of acting and relating is powerful because of the
sustaining desire in it. We consider Butts plea for flirtatious ways of doing (art,
performance, writing and research) to be a specific style of anticipating because of the
interest it takes in contingency and because it encourages a specific way of knowing.
So, flirtation puts into play what it knows. Indeed this play is the very way in which it
knows what it knows. It is not that flirtation is antithetical to epistemology but rather
that what it knows it does so through the promise of this Perhaps. [] Or, in Phillips
formulation, we can understand the epistemology of flirtation by understanding the
ways in which it eroticizes the contingency of our lives by turning doubt or
ambiguity into suspense (Butt, 2006).
In our research practices, the anticipative design projects and anticipative design acts aim to
materialize this suspense. They attempt to create a window of opportunity through which a
view on what otherwise remains invisible and hidden is offered. They probe and poke the
present in attempts to invite the opportune moment for the creation of future possibilities.
An opportune moment is not powerful in itself. It is Nietzsche who warns us, that we will
need "five hundred hands" to grasp (Hermsen, 2014). Nietzsches metaphorical
instruction underlines the active role of the subject, as well as the requirement of a skilful
body and mind in a kairotic moment. Therefore, grasping demands actions and
perceptions that allow a subject to notice and to respond to the potentials of the moment. It
seems then that a strong tactic of attentiveness is needed here and we suggest that such a
tactic involves making things present in the form of anticipative designs that act as
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invitations to encounter and connect with a future yet unknown in a flirty, that is - openended and risk-taking, manner.
Presencing the future

Flirtatious anticipative acts are not only future and outward orientated, they also express
our ability to encounter and connect with possible futurities and with others including nonhuman others (Braidotti, 2006). By these anticipative gestures we explicitly and deliberately
reach out for, and thereby practice the, bumping into anything or anyone that is new,
unknown, unseen and unheard of. Each stretch towards this trains a form of try-out sensing
and engaging that is in any case situated and situational. As a result, an anticipative act
should not be conceived in isolation or abstraction. Nor it should be considered without any
erratic aspect connected to it. Rather, anticipative gestures and movements are latent until
situations and sites entice them. They mess up reason, by appearing unannounced and
without clear reasonable motive from the outside. Precisely this specific characteristic of
anticipative acting and thinking resonates well with latent possibilities and potentialities of
the unknown future. The desire to respond by flirty, anticipative gestures to an unknown
future connects the practitioner to the latent while it dissociates him/her from the urge to
pin down thoughts into hermetic constructs of logics and neat synthesis. In our research we
are driven by the desire to access the latent, which we imagine to run like a layer of fluid
magma underneath the manifest stony reality. By creating little openings in this already
formed reality, we stimulate our imagination to form other realities. The latent however, is
elusive and basically formless. So, in order to grasp its potentials it needs to be made
present in an imaginative way. Hence, what is at stake in anticipative making of the
unknown, the unheard of and the new is the problem of form. This problem lies of course at
the heart of every design practice. However, and especially in anticipative acting, form must
not be interpreted too narrowly. Sanford Kwinter says that
"the use of the term form must not be interpreted in the poor sense as in
formalistic, but in reference to the largely unthought-of dimension of all active
patterning processes in the universe, comprising linguistic, social, political, and
biological behaviours and forms, in addition to aesthetic ones." (Kwinter, 2001, p.6)
Kwinter discusses the emergence of form in relation to the notion of 'virtuality', which is
based on Bergsons concept of the virtual. The term 'virtual', although it has also an aspect
of being hidden and invisible, has a more active or activating aspect than the term latent,
which bears a more passive connotation. Kwinter says about the virtual that
"it does not have to be realised, but only actualised activated and integrated and
that the actual does not resemble the virtual as something preformed or pre-existing
itself. The relation of the virtual to the actual is therefore one not of resemblance but
rather of difference, innovation or creation." (Kwinter, 2001, pp.9-10).
In this context, we conceive the latent as the virtual potentiality that drives, guides, and
generates form in actual and physical reality. Designed artefacts then offer a very concrete
and materialized medium for latent possibilities to come into being and to become
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knowledgeable through the act of form-giving. Consequently, form-giving is essential in our

(research) practices precisely because the latent reality that is anticipated comes into being
through the act of making. In other words, each act of anticipation holds an aspect of
sensing the latent through making and bringing into 'artefactual' reality. We adopt here
Scharmer's term presencing, "the blending of sensing and presence" (Scharmer, 2009,
p.163). The anticipated reality is a presenced, made and artefactual reality that "mediates
between the abstract and the concrete, between the real and the virtual, between present
and future" (Janssens, 2012). This kind of mediating can be conceived as a particular form of
becoming. The reality that is designed, projected, drawn...is not real, yet present in the
etymological sense of being at hand and before being, from "prae" "before" and "esse" "to
be"(Oxford Dictionary, n.d.). In other words, in the act of presencing, external influences are
incorporated and internal affects are ex-corporated, or brought outwards. In and ex
mediate and emulsify. As a result, the anticipator and that what is anticipated remain in the
open-ended state of becoming, keeping a sense of suspense and longing. In a design
context, presencing, like we described it above, seems to us a vital component of researching the future. Presencing is a process that needs to be kept open and running in
order to provide a fertile breeding ground for anticipation. This requires the anticipative
designer to have a specific skill and intelligence that keeps thinking and acting supple and
agile. Consequently, one of the mayor challenges in this type of research is to create and
work with a kind of propelling, ever shifting hypothesis that allows a form-giving that does
not close off and annihilates the contingency and complexity of the moment but rather
reflect it in a heterogeneous, unexpected and imaginative manner.
The specific skill and intelligence we are looking for in this anticipative context can be
brought in relation to the earlier discussed Ancient Greek rhetoric of . The opportune
and right time () can be connected to mtis, a skilful and intuitive intelligence, and to
techn a knowing-when knowledge:
Techn is thus a practice of mindfulness, which against the reactions of impulsive
habit holds back, bides it time. It is the art of knowing-when, of catching the limit
off-guard. Techn is associated with an attendant form of cunning intelligence (mtis)
and a mode of time characterized by opportunism, the right time (kairos). (Cocker,
2012)
Techn is here not conceived in the strict sense of practical and technical knowledge. Rather,
it is an unsettling kind of knowledge that comes into being by responding to situations that
are new, contingent and unpredictable. Techn is a model of known-not knowledge
(Cocker, 2012), that allows us to work within and with the indeterminacy of presencing. As a
result, techn is also situational and continuously changing. Techns companion mtis, is
especially interesting because of its concrete orientation towards seizing opportunities.
According to Cocker, mtis:
implies a complex but very coherent body of mental attitudes and intellectual
behaviour which combine flair, wisdom, forethought, subtlety of mind, deception,
resourcefulness, vigilance, opportunism [...]. (Cocker, 2012)
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Frequently, mtis is understood as feeling ones way and as a form of guessing. Though,
mtis is more specific. It is an improvisational adaptability to the logic of the moment, like
the catching of the wind or turn of the tide (Cocker, 2012). In the logic of mtis and techn
opportune moments are actively searched for, created and grasped. Therefore, we consider
presencing the future and the unknown as creating the opportune time and space for
rehearsal of realities to come. Anticipative gestures therefore, in presencing should be
considered as 'kairotic' acts, since they create a brief opportunity within the continuum of
everyday life, whose latent potential needs to be actively seized or else lost (Cocker, 2010).
Together, mtis and techn set conditions wherein each kairotic act itself might arise as a
new beginning, turning point and disruptive momentum. Simply, because these acts do not
spin out in all directions, but signals towards the opening of an invitational encounter,
which produces a rupture or aperture in habitual ways of thinking and being (Cocker, 2010).
We are convinced that these anticipative moves guided by mtis do not only keep thinking
and making supple, but also imagination by means of maybes, ifs and perhaps-es. In our
opinion, this is particularly fruitful for research in the field of urbanity. For instance, for
those research practices concerned with unsystematic driftings at work in the processes of
design, or for studying the manifoldness, messiness and paradoxical-ness of our daily urban
reality as well as for researching futurities by prefiguring utopian urbanisation models. The
challenge then is to move carefully through this undercurrent of possible, emergent futures
and to surface the value and meaning we attribute to urbanity by imaginatively probing the
unimagined layers of the urban condition.
It must be clear that in our research this particular time and space of presencing and making
artefactual realities, navigated by anticipation, brings forward materialized suspenses, unprogrammed mutations and disruptions. These abysses on which the anticipator walks the
tightrope, are moving and challenging because from this uncertain and plural setting, new
sense-making ventures might arise.4. Future oriented Sense-making: cherishing the state of
becoming.
We have argued that the act of anticipation in a design context holds the aspect of making
artefacts that create openings in the fuzzy reality and act as imaginative probing instruments
in the complexity of continuously evolving transformation processes as they occur in the
field of urbanity. Research can provide analytic knowledge on the many different aspects
involved in these processes, while design then is often used to bring analyses back to a new
synthesis, which can be considered as a type of closure. Our design and artistic research is
not situated on this analytic knowledge or synthesis level. Instead, the purpose of our
research is to contribute to and inspire sense-making processes that involve emotions,
experiences and values, while relating to the uncontrollable and unpredictable nature of
becoming.
Sense-making in the general sense is a process of giving meaning to experience. Often this is
considered on the individual level, i.e. how an individual frames his or her experiences into
what might be considered a personal theory on matters. Gary Klein et al. have presented a
theory of sense-making as
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"a set of processes that are initiated when an individual or organization recognizes the
inadequacy of their current understanding of events. Sense-making is an active twoway process of fitting data into a frame and fitting a frame around the data. Neither
data nor frame comes first; data evoke frames and frames select and connect data.
When there is no adequate fit, the data may be reconsidered or an existing frame may
be revised." (Klein et al., 2006a)
This disruptive moment of recognizing the inadequacy of our understanding and

dysfunctional fits might be considered a kairotic moment, a moment where things suddenly
start to move and shift, a moment of uncertainty and opportunity. In this time-space of
unsettlement, things seem to have lost their sense. Things that were (known, framed, stable)
are propelled into a state of becoming (other, yet unknown, unstable). In this situation we
are challenged to imaginatively look for a renewed significance, to re-sign as re-attributing
meaning and value in order to make sense again. We therefore consider future oriented
sense-making as a dynamic and continuous process of becoming. Never completed, never
fixed In the poststructuralist philosophy of Braidotti, and of many others, becoming is an
important ontological concept to counteract Being. As a consequence, ideas and concepts
become mobile entities and thereby alive.
"Becomings are the sustainable shifts or changes undergone by nomadic subjects in
their active resistance against being subsumed in the commodification of their own
diversity. Becomings are un-programmed as mutations, disruptions, and points of
resistance. Their time frame is always the future anterior, that is to say a linkage across
present and past in the act of constructing and actualising possible futures." (Braidotti,
2006)
Kairotic moments offer the time of opportunity for constructing and actualising possible
futures. In the field of urbanity changes happen slowly but frictions and disruptions happen
all the time (between individuals and their environment, between society and its
environment). The city is in a permanent state of becoming. Sense-making thus is on-going,
so individuals simultaneously shape and react to the environments they face. As they project
themselves onto this environment and observe the consequences they learn about their
identities and the accuracy of their accounts of the world (Thurlow & Mills, 2009). More
exactly, sense-making is the process of creating situational awareness and understanding in
situations of high complexity or uncertainty in order to make decisions. It is
"a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among
people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively."
(Klein et al. 2006b, p.71)
In this context, we feel that developing tactics of attentiveness and the competence to
anticipate can enhance both the capacity of 'seeing' (as a creative, imaginative act) Kairotic
moments and grasping the opportunities to construct and actualise possible futures. Our
argument is that design can play an important role to enable such sense-making processes.
John Forester states that in design as sense-making the communicative character is
fundamental, and with it the embodied and situated character of the design process. What is
at stake in these practical conversations, according to Forester, is "a process in which the
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giving of form and the making of sense are profoundly coterminous" (Forester, 1985, p.19)
In such processes of sense-making, plausibility is favoured over accuracy. Sense-making is
put in evidence through narratives and (pre)figurations that convey the sense that is made
of a situation. As (pre)figurations the design projects then aim to inspire rather than to
inform. Karl E. Weick states that
"in an equivocal, postmodern world, infused with the politics of interpretation and
conflicting interests and inhabited by people with multiple shifting identities, an
obsession with accuracy seems fruitless, and not of much practical help, either."
(Weick, 1979).
Sense-making processes are, in our opinion, inextricably bound up with time, space, and the
intensity of being affected. Moreover, what matters in sense-making processes is the
affective space and time that activates a sense-making process. In this affective time and
space our desire to construct something else, to become something else is incited. We
would like to state that sense-making processes driven by anticipative gestures and tactics
do not only take place in, but also create, a different temporality. It is a temporality that is
deeper, more discontinuous and connected to the time of transformation, resistance and
becoming. It is therefore a time of cherishing our becoming and embracing the
uncontrollable because the only certainty we have is that the future still remains
unpredictable because the future does not concern revealing or predicting but rather
anticipative imagining and presencing.
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Acknowledgements: We wish to show our gratitude to Gerard De Zeeuw for sharing his
thoughts on instructions, anticipation and the incorporation of secondary-sense data in
research. And we also thank Charlotte Geldof for generously supplying the material of
'The Future Commons 2070' project and for formulating valuable and constructive
feedback on the 'Three Instances'.
References
Braidotti, R. (2006). Affirming the Affirmative: On Nomadic Affectivity. Rhizomes, 11/12(Fall
2005/Spring 2006). http://www.rhizomes.net/issue11/braidotti.html (Accessed August 4 2015).
Braidotti, R., & Van Rossem, K. (2004). Op doorreis: nomadisch denken in de 21ste eeuw, Boom.
Butt, G. (2006). Scholarly Flirtations. The Serious Scholar. http://summit.kein.org/node/234
(Accessed September 1 2014).
Burroughs, W. (1976). Origin and Theory of the Tape Cut-Ups, [lecture at the Jack Kerouac School of
Disembodied Poetics], Naropa University, 20 April.
Cocker, E. (2010). R.S.V.P.: Choreographing Collectivity through Invitation and Response. Rhizomes,
21(Winter 2010). http://www.rhizomes.net/issue21/ (Accessed July 8 2015).
Cocker, E. (2012). Tactical Research: Practices for Thinking (Oneself) Differently [personal
blog],http://not-yet-there.blogspot.be/2012_01_01_archive.html, (Accessed June 12 2015).
De Smet, A. (2016). Anticipative Drawing, forthcoming in Tracey Journal, Drawing and Presence.
Forester, J. (1985). Designing: Making Sense Together in Practical Conversations. Journal of
Architectural Education, 38(3), pp.1420.
Geldof, Ch., Janssens, N., Goossens, C., Goris, E., Dagmar, P., Labarque, P. (2011) The future
commons 2070, Map C01 Harwich to Hoek van Holland and Dover Strait, Ghent,
magnificentsurroundings.org
Hermsen, J. J. (2014). Kairos: een nieuwe bevlogenheid, Singel Uitgeverijen.
Ignaz, G. (1765-70). Chronos, Sculpture, 52 cm x 62 cm x 27 cm, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum,
Munchen.
Janssens, N. (2012) Utopia-driven Projective Research. A design approach to explore the theory and
practice of Meta-Urbanism. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Architecture, Chalmers
University of Technology.
Jonas, W. (2012). Mapping Design Research. Essay 1: Exploring the swampy ground - an inquiry into
the logic of design research. In Grand, S., Jonas, W. & Michel, R. (eds.) Mapping Design Research:
Positions and Perspectives, ActarBirkhuser.
Klein, G., Moon, B. & Hoffman, R.R. (2006a). Making Sense of Sensemaking 2: A Macrocognitive
Model. IEEE intelligent systems, 21(5), pp.8892.
Klein, G., Moon, B. & Hoffman, R.R. (2006b). Making Sense of Sensemaking I: Alternative
Perspectives. IEEE intelligent systems, 21(4), pp.7073.
Kwinter, S. (2001). Architectures of Time toward a Theory of the Event in Modernist Culture, MIT
Press.
Oxford Dictionary. (Ed.) (n.d.) (2005-2011 ed.).
Salviati, F. (1552-1554). Kairos, Wall Painting, Palazzo Sacchetti, Rome.
Scharmer, C.O. (2009). Theory U. Leading from the Future as it emerges. The Social Technology of
Presencing, Berrett-Koehler.
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Thurlow, A. & Mills, J.H. (2009). Change, talk and sensemaking. Journal of Organizational Change
Management, 22(5), pp.459479.
Weick, K. (1979). The Social Psychology of Organizing, McGraw-Hill.
About the Authors:
Annelies De Smet: Holds a master degree in Visual Arts and
Architecture. Her graduate research Wandering off in the urban: to
move towards being moved is supervised by Prof. J. Verbeke and Dr.
N. Janssens.
Nel Janssens Obtained a PhD in Architecture: 'Utopia-driven
Projective Research, a design approach to explore the theory and
practice of Meta-Urbanism'. Currently, she is assistant professor at
KU Leuven and visiting scholar at Chalmers University. Member of
the non-profit design collective magnificentsurroundings.org.
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Making polychronic objects for a networked society

Jane Norris
Jane.norris@network.rca.ac.uk
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.251
Abstract: In the light of current debates on materials and the future of making, the
polychronic object research combines temporal theories with material
experimentation to identify possible paradigm shifts in making for a networked
society. The research interrogates a triangulation of concepts. Firstly, digital aerial
viewpoints proposed by theorists such as Amelia Groom and James Bridle. Secondly,
the application of non-linear time in making through the act of mapping and
crumpling as defined by Giles Deleuze, Flix Guattari and Michel Serres. Thirdly, a
practical translation of speculative realist approaches to materiality through the
writing of Jane Bennett, Levi Bryant and Timothy Morton. The knowledge gained
from these three positions aids navigation through the practical experience of
making, producing pleated material history as polychronic objects. This is then
contextualized through a polychronic re-reading of the history of technology and an
exploration of different design approaches that offer appropriate models for this
practice.
Keywords: polychronic, aerial-view, materiality, crumpling, mapping.
Making Polychronic objects

This research into making polychronic objects, uses time based making strategies to combine
materials from different historical eras, integrating these material times into one polychronic
object. This approach opens up a different set of making possibilities by folding together
materials and techniques unlikely to have been combined in previously historically linear and
hierarchical approaches to materiality. My research proposes multi-temporal making
strategies such as the crumpling and pleating of time, referencing Michel Serres use of the
term polychronic: An object, a circumstance, is thus polychronic, multi-temporal and
reveals a time that is gathered together, with multiple pleats (Serres 1995 p60). The term
polychronic was first used in anthropology by the cultural theorist Edward Hall in his book
The Silent Language (Hall 1959) to describe a societies or individuals ability to attend to
Jane Norris
multiple events simultaneously, as opposed to monochronic individuals and largely western

cultures that handle events sequentially. The polychronic objects in this research operate as
actants in a digitally networked polychronic global society, extending Halls use of the term
polychronic from anthropology to include approaches to making, materials and objects.
The conceptual framework for my research is structured across three contrasting but
overlapping fields of knowledge: digital visual cultural theory; the philosophical writing on
time by Deleuze and Serres; and elements of speculative realism such as Actor Network
Theory and Object Oriented Ontology, all explored and folded together through emergent
making strategies. Across all fields of design currently, there is what could be described as
cultural vertigo and an anxiety in relation to making and progress. Will our unstoppable
consumption of global resources inevitably lead to humanities downfall? Is our designing
and making just contributing further to this problem? How should we progress as designers?
Where should we be positioning ourselves? Embedded in this anxiety about development
and progress is a reappraisal of the future itself. The visual culture blog by Ross Wolfe:
Memories of The Future states: Today it is well known that the future has become a thing of
the past (Ross 2012). This revision of futurism has gathered momentum, bringing about a
growing critique of a linear concept of time. This model of time, associated with
Enlightenment ideas of endless progress and which through Modernist ideals drove mass
production; has become linked to the growth of capitalism and the rise of consumerism. The
nineteenth century narrative that the future would automatically bring progress,
improvement and endless development has lost authority today. The Modernist dream of
our democratic access to objects has in reality become a tidal wave of cheap mass-produced
goods. Today these are perceived as low quality, as they often fall apart and are poisoning
the planet. The wisdom of mass manufacturings over-production is now under question and
is requiring us to re-think this mantra of progress.
Meanwhile, we have shifted our sense of time to a new orientation. Amelia Groom, editor of
Time (Documents of Contemporary Art) observes that: the dislocation and non-fixity of
networked digital space is both symptom and catalyst of the broken, multifarious time that
we find ourselves in. (Groom 2013, p13) This digital dislocation uncouples us from a linear
viewpoint of time, shifting us to experience an aerial view that connects many different
times and events laterally. We suffer a growing temporal dizziness as we adjust to this fresh
viewpoint. James Bridle champion of The New Aesthetic, has described the aerial view as the
view of our age (Bridle 2012). He suggests that our default perspective has become aerial
images from Sat Navs, Google maps, drone targets etc, that offer us an apparent abundance
of reference points within a sea of digital content. However, Bridle prompts us to
remember, digital maps are animations on pause (Bridle 2013). This aerial view of time is
itself a time-based perspective that is distracting, disorientating and disturbingly difficult to
adjust to.
What does it mean to approach materials from this aerial view of time? This radical shift
offered by an aerial view of time, opens up the possibility of an ahistorical map of materials
that pulls everything into the present. The resulting unfolding of this overview allows every
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material to become available for use in the present, combining to make polychronic objects.
This is in contrast to using a reduced palette of materials from a limited historical proximity
that has often been used in design. The selection of this reduced set of materials seen as
desirable having largely been driven by aspirational forces, rather than a materials
effectiveness for the job
As part of the polychronic research, a global map of selected materials and an
approximation of their earliest use was produced and used as an interactive tool at the
Polychronic Objects stand at designjunction 2014. Members of the public were invited to
crumple up this time / materials map, then to read the material combinations resulting from
the creasing, to discern unusual polychronic material options for themselves to make objects
from. Through papers given at the Research Through Design Conference 2015 and the
Making Futures Conference 2015 this materials map has continued to develop, informed by
the feedback from delegates and by further material experiments in the studio.
Emergence theory has been a key approach to the polychronic objects research when
combining seemingly unrelated theories and considering significant shifts in strategies for
making objects, as it points to unimaginable change being achieved by small iterations that
bring about a critical mass. As Eugene Holland describes in a paper on non-linear historical
materialism:
Emergence is a key concept in non-linear mathematics, complexity theory, and
contemporary science: it refers to the spontaneous self-ordering of physical as well as
social systems. Order emerges from chaos, without that order being imposed from
above or pre-determined from before. (Holland 2011 p531)
The introduction of an aerial view of all materiality from all of history, inevitably results in an
excess of information and a level of complexity that appears to be chaotic and unstructured.
It is important however to resist forms of proscribed order that result from cultural trends.
These simplistic selections informed by contemporary styles are often the result of a
semiotic use of materials. A material as a signifier that is valued for its appearance alone
rather than the properties that it has imbedded within it. Materials viewed in this way
transport a pre-imposed set of social values, that are often at odds with the task at hand.
Louis Althusser coined the term becoming-necessary to characterise the form of immanent
self-ordering that is required (Althusser, 2006 p163207). This becoming-necessary emerges
as a set of localised material solutions. The complex range of choice that crumpled time
offers through this wider material possibility and access to more technical experience,
becomes self organised through the necessity of a specific need. The economical and
ecological necessity for a change in how we view and use materials is increasingly calling out
for an immanent self ordering, an ecological becoming-necessary solution. New approaches
to techniques and materials used in fabrication are need to emerge to unlocked designers
from twentieth century linear ideas of material hierarchy, speed and volume of production.
The shift in perspective from a linier view of time to an aerial one, facilitates the move from
a localised sense of progress with global generalised manufacturing, to a globalised sense of
development together with localised specialist making.
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Jane Norris
The polychronic bowl experiments followed an emergent pattern of development, where

the combination of theoretical influences and localised materials in the studio resulted in
the development of a series of different polychronic strategies for making. This process is
often difficult to articulate, and it is always tempting to identify patterns retrospectively.
However, it is crucial to recognise the value of this unstable phenomena. Deleuze and
Guttari in A Thousand Plateaus refer to the need to retain complexity and the non-linearity
of pre-existing conditions, so that an objects present being is understood as temporary,
unstable and is a contingent expression of its becoming (Deleuze et al 1987 p361-374). A
significant element of learning in this research has been the importance of resisting an early
closing down of processes to secure clear definitions and the temptation to retrospectively
fit the material experiments into existing patterns and models of making. Whilst this would
have achieved consistent results, it would however have prescribed the outcomes and
reduced the possibility of accessing new paradigms of making.
Figure 1. Plastic 1856 UK + Felt 6500 BCE Turkey
The polychronic making strategies for combining materials in the bowls attempted to retain
this complexity by using an aleatory approach to sidestep the researchers experience and
conditioning. Themes have emerged through making such as employing a system of
perverse partners, focused on dissonance to highlight the strangeness of the material
combination. An example of this is wiping setting plastic round the edge of handmade felt
bowl (Figure 1 Plastic 1856 UK + Felt 6500 BCE Turkey). These two materials, usually kept
apart, contradict a view that their contact is a contamination and a failure in the object. This
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bowl produced a particularly strong reaction from a number of textile designers who visited
the research when exhibited at designjunction 2014, and the feedback suggested that this
combination would have been taboo in the textile industry.
Figure 2. Concrete 800 BCE Italy Nylon 1939 USA Rubber 15th C Mexico
Another emergent technique for object making centred around triple crumpling which
pleated three different strata of time together. An example of this is the bowl, (Concrete 800
BCE Italy Nylon 1939 USA Rubber 15th C Mexico) where concrete, 800 years BCE Italy is
combined with nylon (1939 USA) and rubber (pre 15th century Mexico) but used by Europe
and America in the nineteenth century and therefore viewed as modern. This bowl seems to
highlight our inconsistent perceptions of material time, with materials in contemporary use
being regarded as modern, and a collective colonial amnesia silting over their historical
origins. Another theme that exemplified a similar approach is historical stretch evidenced in
the bowl (PLA 2011 USA, Shellac 3000 BCE India) which perhaps demonstrated the biggest
span of historical time crumpled together. The result of this particular material combination
is interestingly difficult to place visually, experienced designers have expressed surprise at
the bowls 3D printing origins but also struggled to recognise the shellac exterior. It is almost
as if both materials transform each other through their temporal combination.
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Jane Norris
Figure 3. PLA 2011 USA, Shellac 3000 BCE India
A theme that perhaps pushes against the simple idea of historical stretch is competing
cousins identified in the bowl (Boiled Leather 13th C France, Plastic 1856 UK) Here material
properties are replicated and overlaid in a single object. The use of plastic with leather for
example layers up two materials that have been employed for similar functions historically.
Many of the objects currently used such as plastic water bottles would previously have been
made from boiled leather, and both the materials share similar properties. The combination
of these two in one object questions both materials function and historical position.
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Figure 4.Boiled Leather 13th C France, Plastic 1856 UK
The polychronic bowls were formed largely by casting from generic plastic bowls. This
process of casting from mass produced plastic bowls suggests a Deleuzian iteration, a
stuttering development from plastic mass manufacturing, a generation of the next
generation. This approach also repositions the plastic bowls as a valuable tool rather than an
end product, having progenerative value rather than being merely a consumable object. This
in turn suggests a more horizontal and rhizomatic relationship between objects, shifting the
relations between these objects towards a network of actors. This way of working with
materials seeks to map crumpled time through making. The importance here is not tracing
by returning to pre-existing materials and techniques or histories of crafts, or illustrating pre
identified concepts, but proposing through material/time experiments in functional objects
such as bowls, ways to discover different making relations. As Deleuze and Guttari observe:
What distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely oriented toward
experimentation in contact with the real. (Deleuze & Guttari, 1980:13). It is only through
actually making these experimental bowls that this contact with the real is made. Deleuze
and Guttaris use of the map as a motif re-emphasises the need for an aerial view to
democratise the material and object plane, and to spatialize time.
Kevin Clayton, writing in Time Folded and Crumpled: The Methodology of Michel Serres,
suggests that Deleuze presents a more technical description that explains time as a self
organising emergent phenomenon, Serres, whilst agreeing with the description of the
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Jane Norris
emergent process, contrasts traditional forms of knowledge organisation that groups

elements translating them into a unity, with a more experiential fluid textured approach.
The former method produces stasis, stable objects and processes, linear logic,
statues; the latter produces fluid and turbulent patterns patterns, ... that can
actualize into any number of different forms in different spatial and temporal
locations, patterns that are relational in a topological or non-Euclidian sense rather
than relational in a conventional geometrical sense, patterns that are fluid, turbulent,
non-linear and very adaptable. (Clayton 2011: 955)
The polychronic research seeks, through making, to reveal textures and patterns in material
combination that are relational in this fluid and non-linear sense. That are adaptable enough
to be relevant to personal and localised situations, whilst informed by a digital global field of
information. This approach favours a bricolage strategy that improvises with materials at
hand, and leads to localised emergence. The result of this is an extended customisation, a
flexible globally informed relevance that maps against the local real.
Jane Bennett and William Connolly in The Crumpled Handkerchief raise the question:
What initiates the congealing that makes objects? Is it possible to identify phases
within formativity, plateaus of differentiation? If so, do the phases/plateaus follow a
temporal sequence? Or, does the process of formation inside Becoming take the shape
of a non-chronological kind of time? (Bennett and Connolly 2011, p 3419)
This research suggests that polychronic making may indeed be a form of non-chronological
time as referred to by Bennett and Connolly. Serres uses this description of a crumpled
handkerchief as a different form of temporal map. He presents a crumpled handkerchief as a
model of crumpled time that then could be extended as a model to produce polychronic
objects:
Time can be schematised by a kind of crumpling, a multiple, foldable diversity... this
intuition is clearer than one that imposes a constant distance between moving objects,
and it explains more... An object, a circumstance, is thus polychronic, multi-temporal,
and reveals a time that is gathered together with multiple pleats. (Serres 1997, p16)
The time pleated together in polychronic objects offer a map-like aerial view, connecting
knowledge and experience of materials, cultural forms, and historical functions from many
different times crumpled or folded into one object.
The third reference point in this research is speculative realism. Objects from this view are
no longer on the end of a long, narrow, evolutionary chain of improvement, but sit side by
side in horizontal relationships. As Bruno Latour states in We Have Never Been Modern: I
may use an electric drill, but I will also use a hammer (Latour 1993, p166). We are
accustomed to viewing objects in terms of function, cost of materials, or by their semiotic
reference to cultural values. Valuing the combination of different material-times within an
object offers a different paradigm for both making and consumption. Time as a reference
point significantly shifts our value systems, displacing humans at the centre, and shifting to a
crumpled present tense that folds materials and humans into new links as relational actants.
As Levi Bryant, the founder of OOO, states:
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In short, the difference between humans and other objects is not a difference in kind,
but a difference in degree. Put differently, all objects translate one another.
Translation is not unique to how the mind relates to the world. And as a consequence
of this, no object has direct access to any other object. (Bryant 2011 p26)
The selection of materials for the polychronic bowl experiments is based on a personal
contact with and experience of materials during my time of making, and as such reflects the
impact of these materials on my experience and my knowledge of them. The bowls
therefore reflect a community of materiality and actants, of which I am one element. The
maker is then an element to be crumpled with any number of locally available materials and
construction techniques to produce a polychronic object that utilises time as experience,
time as making, time as material knowledge and time as visual historical language.
The growing interest by Western society in hand making and localised customisation, means
it is increasingly important to develop a thorough critique of the resurgence of artisan craft
and localised design making situated in places such as Fab Labs. This is a vital current task for
designers and makers. Dunne & Raby, writing on the collapse of Utopian design that
explored alternative options for the future, identify 80s neoliberal capitalism as responsible
by defining Speculative Design as economically inviable and therefore irrelevant (Dunne &
Raby 2013, p8). In our 2008 post-financial meltdown, what are the alternative options to this
model? Franco Bifo Berardi in After The Future observes: In the Middle Ages, perfection
was placed in the past (Berardi 2011, p167). Perhaps today objects can be constructed from
the futurability that is all around us.
So what does it mean to approach making from this aerial view of time? Is this just
extending our consumerist thirst for disappearing materials and skills, re-packaging them as
the new and the interesting? This research would suggest not: crumpling together materials
and techniques from different times, from an informed overview, stabilises the rush for the
next trend, and offers localised solutions in post mass-manufacturing societies. The same
object can be made from different time combinations in different places, reorienting
historical making practices. Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges offers an aerial approach:
Every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it
will modify the future (Borges 1962, p195). This suggests that making and objects have a
dynamic relationship to time, and that material combination has the potential to rearrange
the past and re-construct the future. This perhaps indicates a more fundamental shift in
making. By crumpling materials and time, we can incorporate the dynamic scope of the
aerial view, and potentially withdraw from a linear hierarchy of materials.
Making in a Networked society

It is important to put material use into context by considering the impact of social attitudes
to manufacturing. It is of little use proposing polychronic material selection if society as a
whole does not shift from a linier developmental viewpoint that prioritises a developmental
modernism. Increasingly elements of manufacturing in different countries are restructuring
as global networks, connecting different time zones and a range of cultural approaches to
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time. However, the predominantly western modes of manufacturing that have been
exported around the globe are still prioritising historically linier modernist models of
production. The benefit of viewing these historical modes of production from a polychronic
perspective is that this highlights how anachronistic a linier approach is, and it enables us to
see some of the strange anomalies that a relentlessly modernist approach to manufacturing
has produced.
The craft writer Tanya Harrod, discusses social influences on manufacturing in her book The
Real Thing. She describes how it is social attitudes that have driven the choice of materials
and modes of production in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and identifies a
strange conflict between aspiration and reality: In the early twentieth century, part of being
modern was to be anti-modern. (Harrod 2015 p329) During that time there was a
considerable concern expressed about the lost domain of craft skills. This was due to an
anxiety about the changes in material use and production skills that mass-manufacturing
was engendering. Alongside this there was a concern about the disappearance of specialist
knowledge embedded in previous ways of making. Harrod identifies the bias that
underpinned these fears: Our ideas about the effectiveness of goods and materials are
skewed in the favour of newness (Harrod 2015 p332) This may be easier to understand now,
but it was only felt as a vague unease at that time and not fully articulated. As the social
historian Jose Harris observed there was a sense that change was inevitable, in many
respects desirable, but that its gains were being purchased at a terrible price (Harris 1994
p36). This contradictory behaviour led to strange decisions in many areas of manufacturing.
The most serious of which was the abandoning of particularly useful materials, processes
and skills because they were not deemed modern enough; whilst as the same time publicly
mourning the loss of this tacit knowledge and the mode of production that went with it.
Sociologist David Edgertons book The Shock of the Old highlights the mismatch between our
perceptions of technological progress, and the reality that happens in day to day
manufacturing. Edgerton stresses the importance of terminology and the way that it reveals
the perspective of the viewer. He compares the perspective of invention and innovation with
a user perspective. To consider technology from a broader use-based history, gives a
different perspective on the history of technological development. As Edgerton stresses
alternatives exist for nearly all technologies but to often histories are written as if no
alternative could or did exist. (Edgerton 2008 pxiii). With a linier developmental view of
technology, the range of alternatives that sat alongside the chosen processes have often
been disregarded and written out of our manufacturing history. When this happens equally
valid options or combinations of materials and making processes are lost to this incessant
drive for the new with the result that our accounts of significance have been peculiarly
invention-centric, and tied to particular accounts of modernity where particular new
technologies were held to be central. (Edgerton 2008 pxii). This has given us a warped and
inadequate historical account of invention and innovation, as only technologies and
materials that were perceived as modern were the ones that became recorded. Edgerton
suggests that when considering the history of invention and innovation we need to focus on
2804
all inventions and innovations at a particular time, independent of their later success or
failure (Edgerton 2008 pxiv) This underlines the need to move from a linier modernist
viewpoint to an aerial overview of invention and innovation to gain a more realistic
understanding of the history of technology.
As a prime example of this, Edgerton describes the transition from using wood to metal in
aircraft construction in the interwar years, describing how material choice and
manufacturing process was hijacked by cultural perception:
Moving to metal was often taken as an index of technical progress metal was
obviously better, and the quicker designers switched to metal the more advanced they
were made to appear. Conversely, the late use of wood was seen as the result of some
eccentricity. But the assumption that wood was inferior to metal does not hold. What
drove the shift from wood to metal was the belief that metal was the material of the
future and thus inherently more suitable for aircraft, an ideology later subscribed to by
historians of aviation (Edgerton 2008 p10)
it is interesting to note that successful aircraft such as the British de Havilland Mosquito of
the second world war continued to be manufactured with wooden sections until the1950s.
Automobile designers at Toyota have recently returned to considering the benefits of using
wood for cars, and are due to debut the Setsuna concept car made primarily out of wood at
the Milan Design Week 2016. In other forms of transportation such as bicycles, the fast
growing wood bamboo, which was used for frames in 1896, is finding popularity again in
public projects such as the Ghana Bamboo Bike Initiative and in local projects the US and
Brazil.
The increased danger today of a linier approach to materials and manufacturing based on
perceptions of newness, is that Web 2.0 has speeded up communication and with it the
consumption of this perceived new. This has let to an accelerated privileging of the new.
There is a now an enlarged global networked demand, driving inflated consumption of an
increasingly skewed range of desirable modern materials and technology. With the result
that this has accelerated consumption into an ever narrower and more rapacious beam,
threatening a global depletion of this narrow range of modern materials such as oil based
plastics and rare minerals.
In the mainstream narrative of a history of technology, this acceleration of development is
perceived through Moors Law as an increasing rate of technological improvement
throughout history. In the #Accelerate Manifesto by Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek, there is
an attempt to take this narrow beam and focus it in an even more concentrated way to
enact a recovery of the future. Through doing this, they are seeking to push the process of
technological evolution beyond what Williams and Srnicek view as the constrictive horizon
of capitalism. The manifesto states an accelerationist politics seeks to preserve the gains of
late capitalism while going further than its value system, governance structures, and mass
pathologies will allow. (Williams and Srnicek 2013 03.2) Their perspective is one of highly
linier modernism, and their stated wish is to accelerate what they view as technical
evolution. In this manifesto they discuss the need for a legitimate vertical authority to avoid
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Jane Norris
a capricious emergent order beyond our control (Williams and Srnicek 2013 03.22). This
traditional linier and hierarchical model of manufacturing and economics will inevitably be
threatened by new material combinations and modes of manufacturing that are emerging in
a horizontal and polychronic plane. Dispersed models of making that emerge in an
unpredictable way through a becoming-necessary coalition of forces are however much
more likely to address diverse need, as they emerge from it. Rather than the old
authoritarian models that impose solutions from the top down, without understanding
localised context.
Writing on these accelerationist proposals, economist Paul Mason speculates about
economic futures after the linearity of capitalism has faded. Possible futures in a postcapitalist global economy. Mason refers to postcapitalism as an emergent process that will
become-necessary and find its form from within the current modes of production:
technology has created a new route out, which the remnants of the old left and all
other forces influenced by it have either to embrace or die. Capitalism, it turns out,
will not be abolished by forced-march techniques. It will be abolished by creating
something more dynamic that exists, at first, almost unseen within the old (capitalist)
system, but which will break through, reshaping the economy around new values and
behaviours. I call this postcapitalism. (Mason 2015)
Mason suggests that signs of new modes of production are already emerging, using
approaches and techniques that have existed alongside capitalism throughout history. He
proposes that these familiar modes of manufacture and exchange might yet offer solutions
to the approaching problems of rising population, market instability, and job losses through
automation. Masons model of recuperative postcapitalism operates in a horizontal plane
similar to the polychronic treatment of materials that have been cast to one side in the linier
rush for modernity.
Almost unnoticed, in the niches and hollows of the market system, whole swaths of
economic life are beginning to move to a different rhythm. Parallel currencies, time
banks, cooperatives and self-managed spaces have proliferated, barely noticed by the
economics profession, and often as a direct result of the shattering of the old
(capitalist) structures in the post-2008 crisis. (Mason 2015)
One such example of the contemporary recuperation of older forms of making is Distributed
production, a theme in Ezio Manzinis book When Everyone Designs, which considers the
democratising of digital knowledge and skills. Manzini identifies key relationships between
multiple social crises, social innovation and models of a sustainable society; all informed by
emerging design tactics such as design for innovation in projects such as Riace a welcoming
village. Here a depopulated village in Italy has welcomed Syrian migrants and in the process,
reopened local schools, shops, craft businesses, reinstated regular refuse collection and
restored public parks. (Manzini 2015 a). Manzini differentiates between the diffuse design
done by everyone at a local level and expert designers who have been trained. Manzini
comments that Experts are needed to assist and enable the solving of localised
requirements through linking global special interest groups. Forming a distributed
2806
globalization (Manzini 2015 p23). They do this through connecting historically embedded
local knowledge that can be brought to bare on the design issue. The role of the specialist
designer here appears to be operating as a polychronic connector and communicator in a
democratic horizontal field of production.
The media activist Franco Berardi, in his book AND draws attention to the concern that the
hyper capitalist accelerationist model is inherently toxic. He criticises Acceleration for
impoverishing experience saying wehave become stressed to the point of exhaustion. The
speed and volume of information on the internet superhighway is beginning to outstrip
human neurological capabilities the cause of many of the current anxieties and psychological
problems experienced by the generations that are digital natives. He observes that Beyond
a certain limit, the experience of acceleration leads to a contraction of the time available for
conscious elaboration and thus to a loss of sensibility which also has ethical
consequences. (Berardi 2015 p44) The faster you travel in a straight line, the less you see
around you and the less time you have to assess options effectively. In contrast an aerial
overview slows down the speed of travel, but allows comparisons to be made across a bigger
landscape of options. An aerial view offers the opportunity for a more informed and
qualitative assessment of a wider range of material properties, manufacturing techniques
and social innovation opportunities. This is due to a far grater critical distance. It is important
then for the sound mental health and functioning of society, as well as the future of
manufacturing and social innovation that a more polychronic perspective is adopted.
References
Adamson G, (2013) The Invention of Craft V&A publications UK.
Bennett J, Connolly W, (2012) The Crumpled Handkerchief in Herzogenrath B, (2012) ed Time and
History in Deleuze and Serres UK Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
Berardi F, (2011) After The Future ed Gary Genosko & Nicholas Thoburn, trans Arianna Bove
USA AK Press
(2015) AND Phenomenology of the end Semiotext(E) Foreign Agent Series CA USA
Borges J L, (2000) Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writing UK Penguin Classics; New Ed
edition
Bridle J, (2012) http://www.riglondon.com/blog/2011/05/06/the-new-aesthetic/ (accessed 1.5.13)
Bridle J, (2013) http://booktwo.org/notebook/new- aesthetic-politics/ (accessed 20.2.14)
Bryant L, (2011) The Democracy of Objects USA Open Humanities Press
Clayton K, (2012) Time Folded and Crumpled: Time, History, Self-Organization and the Methodology
of Michel Serres, in Herzogenrath B, (2012) ed Time and History in Deleuze and Serres UK
Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
Chan P (2010) A Time Apart ed Klaus Biesenbach Greater New York pub MOMA PS1
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1980), A Thousand Plateaus Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press.
Dunne A, Raby F, (2013) Speculative Everything UK MIT Press
Edgerton D, (2008) The Shock of the Old Profile Books London
Ferguson N, (2012) Civilization: The Six Killer Apps of Western Power Penguin; First edition UK pi.
2807
Jane Norris
Green J, (2011) Going beyond hierarchy - and why it is important Presentation delivered at the
Danish Design Centres Conference Challenge society. Denmark. You Tube recorded.
Groom A, (2013) ed Time Documents of Contemporary Art co-pub UK Whitechapel Gallery, MIT.
Harris J, (1994) Private Lives Public Spirit: Britton 1870 1914 Harmansworth Penguin Books.
Harrod T, (2015) The Real Thing Hyphen Press London
Herzogenrath B, (2012) ed Time and History in Deleuze and Serres UK Bloomsbury Academic
Publishing.
Holland E, (2011) Non-Linear Historical Materialism; Or, What is Revolutionary in Deleuze and
Guattaris Philosophy of History? in Herzogenrath B, (2012) ed Time and History in Deleuze and
Serres UK Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
Keevil B, (20160 Chair in Environmental Healthcare at Southampton University:
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/weareconnected/story/copper-takes-on-superbugs/ (accessed 17.3.16)
Latour B (1993) We Have Never Been Modern trans Catherine Porter UK pub Cambridge University
Press.
Lvi-Strauss C, (1966) The Savage Mind Chicago: University of Chicago Press USA
Luhmann (1996) Modern Society Shocked by its Risks Social Sciences Research Centre Occasional
paper 17 Department of Sociology University of Hong Kong
Manzini E, (2015) The Long Journey a talk at Central Saint Martins on 11th November.
(2015) Design, When Everybody Designs an introduction to design for social innovation trans by
Rachel Coed MIT publishers USA
Mason P, (2015) The End of capitalism Has Begun in The Guardian online, Economics Friday 17th July
2015.
Morton T, (2014) Here Comes Everything: The Promise of Object-Oriented Ontology [forthcoming in
Qui Parle]
Serres M, (1995 ) Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time: Michel Serres Interviewed by Bruno
Latour USA Studies in Literature & Science pub
Serres M, (1997) Science and Humanities: The Case of Turner UK SubStance vol 26,
Scott J, (2014) Are these Englands last traditional craftsmen and women? BBC programme
(accessed 18.7.14)
Steyerl H (2011) Free Fall e-flux journal
Williams A, Srnicek N, (2013) ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics in Critical Legal
Thinking Law & the Political
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http://thecharnelhouse.org/2012/08/10/memories-of- the-future/ (accessed 20.2.14)
About the Author:
Dr Jane Norris Adjunct Associate Professor at the American
University at Richmond. Currently undertaking a post doctoral PEP in
Critical Writing at the RCA. Writes opinion pieces for Fiera. Writing up
Making Polychronic Objects as a book.
Previously, Program Leader for the BA in 3D Design Craft at Havering
College for ten years.
2808
Responsibility in design: applying the philosophy of

Gilbert Simondon
Sander Mulder
a Eindhoven University of Technology
*s.s.mulder@tue.nl
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.266
Abstract: The notion of technical mentality and transductive reasoning described by

the French philosopher Gilbert Simondon is applied on a concrete design case in
order to investigate responsibility and design. The design case relates to the
development of a portable artificial kidney. The historic invention of the artificial
kidney is woven into the philosophy of Simondon in order to mobilize his work. For
designers, the risk of reduction is at stake when applying the technical mentality to
domains beyond the technical such as the psycho-social. This risk can be avoided by
transductive reasoning, i.e. reasoning by means of analogy, but this is not sufficient
as additional research is needed on responsibility and taking action. Correlating
machines remains a human responsibility. Designers cannot hide behind the borders
of their task or project when it comes to responsibility. Suggestions for further
research are shared a.o. on aesthetics, ways of reasoning in design and design
education.
Keywords: Responsibility, Gilbert Simondon, Design, Transduction, Way of Reasoning
Introduction
As a professional in the field of design I have been working on a design case where I had the
opportunity to combine commercial work with a more inquisitive stance as a researcher.
While working for a client on an issue with sound coming from a medical device, I realized
that the reasoning I used to come to an advice for the client was hampered. What I
suggested felt contradictory to the routines we thought would benefit the patients relation
with the machine.
After consulting team members from our design team and having raised the issue with the
client, I still was dissatisfied. This paper is a search for how we can think responsibility of

Sander Mulder
designers. Responsibility is not well thought of in terms of methodology or approaches.1 The

approach is not so much the search for a new method, but rather raise informed questions
about responsibility and design from a philosophy rejecting the whole idea of general
methods or principles. How do a specific kind of mentality and a way of reasoning relate to
the responsibility of designers?
Why try to apply the philosophy of Simondon on design?

The contribution of this paper lies in the application of the philosophy of the late French
philosopher Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989). His philosophy has had a strong influence in
other (scientific) fields and has been applied in performative arts a.o.2
This paper also aims for finding a voice how to move away from a tradition of moral
reflection during design work or moral reflection after design work has been finished.
Simondon is ethical in his approach right from the beginning and so is the application of his
philosophy.3 Technical objects, nature and the human race should be investigated in the
same manner with a specific kind of attention.
His philosophy gains renewed attention, but, as of yet, is hardly used to rethink design
approaches. Trying to bring his philosophy into operation within design practice is not an
easy task. His work has hardly been translated from French into English making it difficult for
me, let alone that Simondon rejects any overarching method or principle in his philosophy
making it difficult to work towards a design method.
The paper called Technical Mentality has been translated into English recently (Simondon,
2009b). His paper serves as a crystallization point in my attempt to apply the philosophy of
Simondon and let informed questions emerge regarding responsibility and design at the end
of this paper. Before we immerse ourselves in the philosophy of Simondon, some
approaches towards responsibility and design are shared. Then the design case is introduced
including some moral reflections. Having raised the research question in that reflection, the
philosophy of Simondon is mobilized by means of a historic invention. As Simondon is using
the successive development of technical objects, it makes sense to use a historical case.
After being informed by aspects of his philosophy, I will come back to the design case again
where I try to apply his philosophy. This leads to implications about the responsibility of
designers and their way of reasoning.
I will conclude that the application of the philosophy of Simondon to the question of
responsibility of designers is worthwhile and requires further research.
I took this bold opinion from the recently established Delft Design for Values (DD4V) Institute website
http://www.design4values.org ("Design for Values | Methodology for Design for Values," 2016).
2 Gilbert Simondon has been picked up mostly by way of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Implications and
resonations are shared recently from the fields of philosophy, gender studies, new media and culture studies, sociology (cf.
De Boever, Murray, Roffe, & Woodward, 2012). In performative arts Erin Manning works with the philosophy of Simondon
(cf. Manning, 2013). In the field of technology management and economics e.g. Alexander Styhre is rethinking
entrepreneurship elaborating on transduction (Styhre, 2008, 2010).
3 The author thanks Tom Coggins for bringing this point to the fore.
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Responsibility in design: applying the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon
A limitation of this paper is that it focuses on a way of reasoning, or a mentality in terms of

Simondon. Taking this mentality into account is necessary to research the responsibility of
designers, but it is not sufficient. Actions that designers take are an inherent part of their
responsibility and this aspect will be covered in future research of the author.
Gilbert Simondons philosophical project has something to contribute to our understanding
of design and responsibility. His philosophical project is ethical right from the beginning.1 We
cannot make grand generalisations to understand the world. We should approach the world
as processes and our knowledge is not advanced enough yet to understand how we can
relate to technical objects. Furthermore technical objects develop in order to have an equal
relation with man in the end, rather than one being servant and the other being master
(Combes, 2013, p. 60). Below, a more detailed discussion is shared aiming to convey what
technical objects are in the philosophy of Simondon and how we can relate to them.
His philosophy has a very distinct vocabulary e.g. using concepts from thermodynamics,
using own punctuation, and relying on French conjugation. Given the lack of integral
translation, Ill explain a number of notions in more detail to clarify how I take his
philosophy. But first, let us look into responsibility and design from an approach as a
reflective practitioner.
Responsibility in design: examples of contemporary approaches

Understanding design practice from within & the issue of responsibility
As a response to Herbert Simons positivist perspective on design, Donald Schn introduced
a constructivist perspective in order to describe the practice of design from within (Schn,
1983, 1984). The issue of responsibility was left to reflective practitioners themselves, either
as individuals or institutionalized in companies, engineering societies or design schools.2 3
A number of approaches have been developed since and they could be categorized under
the term early engagement where professionals try to include and engage those affected
by a new development, either in science or more applied as an innovation (Doorn,
Schuurbiers, van de Poel, & Gorman, 2013). The approaches Doorn et al. collected have a
normative element and aim at encouraging ethical reflection. The normative element is a
future goal to work towards to that is better than the existing situation: e.g. better
technology in a better society (Doorn et al., 2013, p. 9). An inherent element of these
approaches is to anticipate future events and take them into account in decision making and
strategies for action (Doorn et al., 2013, p. 246).
Van Doorn et al. consider the approach Value Based Design (VBD) as being part of an early
engagement approach. The Delft University of Technology recently established an institute
called Design for Values that wants to explore VBD further. The founders indicate the
1
The author thanks Tom Coggins for bringing this point to the fore.
The author wants to thank Kees Dorst for clarifying this.
3 A.o. Findeli rethinks design education taking responsibility into account (Findeli, 2001).
2
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Sander Mulder
reason why they established the institute: for basic values, such as responsibility, there are
hardly any dedicated design methods or tools (Design for Values Institute, 2016). 1 A first
handbook has been published (Van den Hoven, Vermaas, & Van de Poel, 2015).
Based on a very limited overview, there are indications that theres room for research on
responsibility and design.
From constructivism to inventivism

It is likely that there hardly are methods in the realm of design and responsibility. Design
practice is now explained from two philosophical paradigms: positivism and
constructivism (cf. Dorst, 1997) and methods aiming for design and responsibility should
work out in both paradigms. The duality that comes along is hard to resolve.
Simondons philosophical project contributed not so much by adding a third paradigm or by
replacing the two existing paradigms, but rather by trying to reconcile paradigms. Brian
Massumi describes the shift Simondon made as one from constructivism towards
inventivism (De Boever et al., 2012).2
Before unpacking inventivism, I will start in Schns tradition of the reflective practitioner
raising some research questions within a real design case. Then I will introduce Simondon
and mobilize his philosophy by means of a historic invention. Then well get more informed
back to the design case again to finalize with implications and conclusions.
Design case: Portable Artificial Kidney

Background
The design case below revolves around the early engagement of those affected by a new
and innovative medical device. At the time we started I had no methodology selected
deliberately except an implicit notion of early involvement. I will now introduce the case.
The Dutch Kidney Foundation (DKF) is a Netherlands based non-profit organisation aiming
for a higher quality of life for people with lethal kidney failure. The foundation collaborates
with strategic development partners by means of a social enterprise called NeoKidney.
NeoKidney was founded by the DKF and aims to introduce an innovative medical product
into the market in a few years from now: the Portable Artificial Kidney (PAK). 3 The PAK will
be developed in close collaboration with two medical device development companies. It will
be designed to enable patients to do blood purification (by dialysis) at home without direct
supervision of a health care professional. This gives patients more freedom and flexibility
and increases their life quality.
1
See http://www.design4values.org including an extensive list of publications on this approach.

Massumi continues: a move that seeks to think the natural processes involved in any and all constructions (De Boever,
Murray, & Roffe, 2009)
3 NeoKidney commissioned our assignment. NeoKidney is a development company founded by the Dutch Kidney
Foundation. NeoKidney is also a social enterprise, initially funded by the Dutch Kidney Foundation. NeoKidney holds the
intellectual property rights on new invention. After the PAK is licensed to a third party that will introduce the PAK in the
market, profits will be reinvested in development activities (revolving fund).
2
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The management team of NeoKidney realized early 2015 that they were coping with a
number of medical, technical and regulatory hurdles, but that the people in need of the PAK
were so far underrepresented in the innovation process. The management team decided to
commission a small team of professionals to explore the demands and wishes of future users
of the PAK, derive functional requirements for the machine and convey advice for future
steps in the development process in appropriate ways.1 The assignment was finalized in
February 2016 and presently an additional assignment is being negotiated.
Together with three professionals I became part of a team that worked on the questions
that were ultimately issued by the Dutch Kidney Foundation. We collaborated from the
Netherlands based design agency Design Innovation Group. The team conducted contextual
interviews, took pictures and filmed at some points in situ, made audio recordings and
introduced a dummy to discuss the size and shape of the PAK. Based on the contextual
interviews, the team synthesized future scenarios envisioning future use. We have
discussed those scenarios with people involved e.g. patients, their partners, health care
professionals, our client (Dutch Kidney Foundation), NeoKidney and the collaborating
partner responsible for the systems engineering and prototyping.
Soon after the start I identified opportunities for research as an external PhD-candidate.
After sharing a research interest, and coming to an informed consent with NeoKidney, the
author worked on this assignment from a research perspective in addition to a commercial
advisory perspective.
Design Case: the sound of the portable artificial kidney2

Contemporary artificial kidney equipment is large and needs permanent connections to
electricity and water lines in order to function properly as a renal therapy. There are many
innovations related to the development of the portable artificial kidney, but in the light of
this paper it suffices to mention that NeoKidney aims for miniaturization of the machine and
aims for the implementation of advanced algorithms to regulate hard- and software. A
person needs to regulate the machine during therapy varying from turning it on, adjusting
parameters like the duration of the dialysis and so forth. In a domestic context the person in
need of treatment also has to respond to deviations from a normal dialysis session. Alarms
may go off and ideally there is a partner present or an alarm centre monitors remotely, as
some exceptional situations can be life-threatening. The PAK can be used at different times
e.g. during a daytime treatment or during the night while sleeping.
While conducting interviews our team of four professionals saw a wide variety of how
people organized their relation with their current dialysis machine. Some people were
1
How to convey the advice was left open at the start of the assignment. Examples mentioned in the proposal were e.g. a
short film or a report. Ultimately the team chose for a report, a poster and interactive presentations with a lot of room for
discussion a.o. with the governance structure of NeoKidney including the commissioning management team, the personnel
of the involved organisations, patients in need of renal therapy, their partners and care professionals like nurse
practitioners and nephrologists.
2 Besides sound the design case covered a lot of other topics, thirteen at least. These will not be shared here for reasons of
confidentiality and briefness.
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Sander Mulder
connected to the machine and seemed to ignore it until an alarm would go off. Others were,
both during day- and night-time, peripherally aware of the machines status, for instance
because they knew by heart the sequence of sounds made by bloodpumps, valves, etcetera.
During a daytime dialysis session one person indicated that he deliberately adjusted the preprogrammed settings depending on how he perceived his own condition and the connection
to his vascular system.
Reflection on the design case & exemplifying the research question

NeoKidney is planning for a machine that runs through a continuously varying scheme during
a therapy session. From a medical point of view this facilitates optimal treatment. As a
design team we anticipated that unpredictable changes in sound conflict with how people
want to organize their relation with the machine. A machine that hums and buzzes in a
predictable and rhythmic way is perceived as a machine that is functioning properly. Any
deviation is then associated with an exception, even peripherally being aware e.g. when
performing another task and or when at sleep.
At present a requirement was stated to lower the sound to a certain level of decibels, yet
with a varying scheme leading to continuously varying sounds. We discussed our concern
that people may not be able to get used to the sound of the machine in case it would vary
continuously. The NeoKidney management team was positively surprised. They had not
considered the varying sound scheme from that perspective. Given the notion that the PAK
will produce sounds from mechanical parts like a pump, we conveyed in our advice that the
machine should make sounds with constant intervals and run through a standardized
scheme.
Our reasoning about this issue was largely based on a surprise resulting from a careful
examination of the current usage of artificial kidneys. As of yet, we did not test a machine
with varying schemes to verify whether people would actually not get used to it during
treatment. Obviously, we could advice our client to conduct studies in this realm. We could
also advice to aim for a trajectory to diminish sound until one would not hear the machine at
all.
The question is whether we can reason in a different way about the sound of the machine
and tied to that, in what ways might we think responsibility of designers? How we can
reason in a more responsible way as designers?
These questions have been raised from a constructivist perspective. The philosophy of
Simondon is now introduced by unpacking two lines of thought. Inventivism in the next
section and transduction in the section thereafter. A historical case will be interwoven to
mobilize the philosophy of Simondon. After these theoretical sections, I will go back to the
design case of the artificial kidney being more informed and coming from a different
philosophical tradition than constructivism (or positivism).
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Unpacking inventivism Part 1: Technical mentality

Introduction
To introduce the philosophy of Simondon a historic event will be interwoven with theory:
the invention of the artificial kidney and the application in a working prototype. The
invention took place between 1943 and 1945 in the Netherlands by the Dutch inventors
Kolff and Berk.
This invention is illustrative as it serves to further understand the portable artificial kidney of
the design case. The invention will also carry a vocabulary that resembles the one that
Simondon uses as both deal with thermodynamics.1 This paragraph is based on Drukkers
historical overview (Drukker, 1989).
People who suffer from kidney failure experience the problems that come with nourishment
within a few days: the removal of toxics and water from their blood and tissue hampers.2
Kidney failure leads to lethal levels of toxics in the body and the retaining of excess fluids in
bodily tissue. An artificial kidney is able to remove toxics from the blood and extract excess
water. In addition medicine is required.
To help patients who suffer from kidney failure, Kolff improved existing ideas about dialysis
and artificial kidneys. In 1943 he built a first prototype of an artificial kidney together with
Berk, leading to a working treatment and the first human survivor after therapy in 1945.
Kolffs invention made it possible for a part of the blood cycle to be filtered outside the
body. An important part of his invention was the use of a semi-permeable membrane made
of cellophane for sausages, which he obtained from a local butcher. The membrane allowed
toxics to pass. By means of osmosis a difference in concentration the toxics diffuse into
a saline solution on the other side of the membrane.
Kolff tested the speed of the osmotic process by filling sausages with water and a
concentration of urea and rocked them immersed in salted water. Later on he repeated
comparable setups by filling the sausages with blood and urea. He needed to enlarge the
surface of the membrane, so Kolff wound up the tubular cellophane on a drum while the
lower half was immersed in a bath of dialysate. By copying a rotating coupling from a Ford
automobile water pump Kolff was able to connect the bloodline from the body to the
rotating drum. Berk suggested to place the drum horizontally thereby making it possible to
propel the blood along the cellophane tubing by rotation of the drum, eliminating the use of
a bloodpump. (Drukker, 1989), see Figure 1.
Artificial kidneys make use of thermodynamics a.o. and this is vocabulary that is important in the philosophy of Simondon.
Terms like meta-stability for instance are shared in both fields.
2 As Simondon phrased it the nourishment of the living poses problems (Combes, 2013, p. 28; Read, 2015).
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Sander Mulder
Figure 1 : Willem Kolff and his invention: the artificial kidney, artist impression. Image still from
whiteboard animation, 1m41s. 2014, Nierstichting.
I will introduce now the philosophy of Simondon and weave it together with the invention of
the artificial kidney including the application of the invention. The paper called Technical
Mentality is used to gain traction. I will start with two postulates that Simondon conveys in
his paper.
Two postulates of technical mentality

The invention of the artificial kidney illustrates Simondons notion that there exists a
technical mentality, and that this mentality is developing, and therefore incomplete and at
risk of being prematurely considered as monstrous and unbalanced (Simondon, 2009b).
Simondons philosophical project is to repair this risk by closely investigating it. Technical
mentality has two conditions or postulates:
1. The subsets are relatively detachable from the whole of which they are part. (Simondon,
2009b). With this first condition Simondon means that the technical object can be repaired
and that at the moment of its very construction, the technical object is conceived as
something that may need control, repair, and maintenance, through testing, and
modification, or, if necessary, a complete change of one or several of the subsets that
compose it (Simondon, 2009b, emphasis removed).
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This kind of mentality can be observed in the invention of the artificial kidney by Kolff and
Berk. The tubular membrane is approached as a subset that was taken from the butcher and
it was tested extensively in isolation, then it was wound up and modified in such a way that
it could connect to the rotating coupling.
The second condition or postulate of the technical mentality is: 2. if one wants to
understand a being completely, one must study it by considering it in its entelechy, and not
in its inactivity or its static state (Simondon, 2009b).1 Simondon further explains that most
inventions tend towards fewer subsets by reducing the number of primitive elements to a
minimum, which is at the same time an optimum. Simondons point here is that with many
inventions, by thinking about them or drawing them on paper, we suppose the conditions
of their functioning realized (Simondon, 2009b, emphasis removed). A leap is made, not so
much while thinking or putting an idea on paper, but rather when assembling the invention.
As Massumi explains, at the moment when two or more sets of potentials click together
into one system it has achieved a certain operational autonomy [] to continue functioning
independently without the intervention of an outside operator to run or repair it.
(Simondon, 2009b). A threshold has been crossed and this led Massumi to coin that the
designer is a helpmate to emergence. (De Boever et al., 2009).
The second postulate of the technical mentality can be seen in the invention of the artificial
kidney as well. Kolff supposed that the tubular membrane from the butcher would work in a
dynamic setting with blood flowing through it. Only when he tested it, the tubular sausage
skin realized its potential as both a membrane and hose reducing the number of subsets
(else he would have needed a hose and a membrane). The same technical mentality can be
seen in Berks invention by suggesting that the tubular membrane could serve as a pump by
tilting it. Berk supposed it and reduced the amount of subsets in his thought (leaving out a
blood pump), but only when clicking together of the tilted hose, the dialysate and the
rotating drum were the potentials realized.
Simondon points out the potential of industrial production: It is the standardization of the
subsets, the industrial possibility of the production of separate pieces that are all alike that
allows for the creation of networks. (Simondon, 2009b). Simondon sketches an ideal type of
network in the form of a laboratory that brings together information and energy. As
explained by Jean-Hugues Barthlmy, what Simondon means is that in the end the machine
made within the factory and leaving the door converges by means of knowledge
towards a machine that is as unique as a living being (Simondon, 2009b). Muriel Combes
quotes Simondons secondary thesis: the establishment of a new relation to machines,
which would no longer consist only in serving them or commanding them. Above and
beyond the role as assistant to or commander of machines, the human can be coupled with
the machine as equal to equal, as a being that participates in its regulation (MEOT, 119120) (Combes, 2013, p. 70).
1 The notion of entelechy in Simondons philosophy is hard to convey briefly. It suffices here to take it as the realization of
potential (Oxford Dictionary).
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Sander Mulder
Technical mentality in domains that have to do with affect

The technical mentality has been used in many other domains besides the mere physical by
means of analogical interpretation. Technical mentality allows that kind of transfer. E.g.
the balancing between predator and prey is seen as a regulation problem (Simondon,
2009b). Simondon addresses here one of the main risks of technology, that of the reduction
of society to a machine of a particular type (Simondon, 2009b). It is the risk of reducing
any crisiseven social crisesto a problem of regulation, and presenting as the only ideal,
homeostasis, that is, stable equilibrium of attendant forces. (Simondon, 2009b).
Simondon indicates that the technical mentality is problematic in those domains that have
to do with affect, e.g. psycho-sociology, activity and so on. When inventors like Kolff and
Berk crossed the aforementioned threshold while the clicking together of subsets, they
were working apart from the social field of the usage of products (Combes, 2013, p. 60).
That moment was value free or a neutral field as Simondon phrases it (Simondon,
2009b) as this clicking was required for the invention to become autonomous. We do not
have enough knowledge at present to make such advanced technical objects that they allow
for every person in daily use a similar kind of value free moment or inventivism.
Simondon saw design as an external layer [] which materializes human values and
fashions on top of a functional internal layer (Simondon, 2009b). The internal layer cannot
be altered without performance changes, the external layer can. The external layer disturbs
the functioning of the internal layer.
Unpacking inventivism Part 2: Transduction

Lets focus now more closely on Simondons notion of information before elaborating on his
approach, transduction, as a fundamental way of reasoning, that could work out in design
labour and that deals with the aforementioned risk of reduction.
Information & transduction

Information in the philosophy of Simondon is far removed from the idea of transmission
which implies a sender and receiver. He sees information first as an ordering process within
a metastable milieu. This is an amorphous milieu rich in energy but lacking structure
(Simondon, 2009b, fn12). As Pascal Chabot phrases it, this milieu is not yet ordered, it can
undergo the passage from a metastable system to a stable system (Chabot, 2013, p. 85).
Information is seen by Simondon as an operation of taking on form (Simondon, 2009a). He
uses an analogy from physics to explain this notion of information. In a metastable solution,
after a shock (an information-event) or the insertion of a spec of dust, the ordering process
starts, as an emerging crystal that serves as a 'platform for further ordering. In this analogy,
coming from physics, only a crystal grows irreversibly. Technical objects are different with
respect to information. They could also suspend or delay information or maintaining or
continuing the process of formation, so that the ensemble remains information, as in the
case of life. (Combes, 2013, p. 5). So technical objects and the living are different because
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rather than being formed once, they are information. They are continuous, variable
processes of matter-taking-form (Mackenzie, 2002, p. 50).
The on-going structuring operation propagating on the limit of a metastable milieu and an
ordered structure is called transduction in the philosophy of Simondon. Transduction
operates in physics (e.g. the formation of a crystal), and in biology (e.g. an ant moving away
from its existing colony to start a new one, being information and structuring the milieu at
the location where it starts a new colony).
In psycho-sociology transduction brings a new problem to the fore: how can we know about
these operations as we are at the same time an on-going process and a result of this
process? Our knowledge of relations is itself a kind of relation between thought and
existence, and this commonality frames Simondons approach. (Hayward & Geoghegan,
2012). In the philosophy of Simondon, transductive reasoning deals with the problem of
thinkability of relations.
Ways of reasoning, transduction versus abduction

Transductive reasoning could be seen as an argument by analogy, so a single process is
similar to another single process (MacNeill, 2009). Simondon further developed transduction
as a method of proceeding through analogies and this analogical method turns out to be
constructive (Combes, 2013, p. 12, emphasis in original). As Jason Read paraphrases
Combes:
Simondons method of progressing is neither inductive, drawing from discrete
phenomena to formulate general principles, nor deductive, proceeding from a general
principle to specific cases, but transductive as it focuses on the operation, and the
transformation of the operations, that individuate thinking and being. (Read, 2015)
Simondon makes use of analogies as a stepping-stone from one domain to another, e.g.
from physics to biology and from biology to the socio-psychic. He chose physics as a
founding analogy as it has a capacity for constituting the concrete from the abstract, for
producing a concrete on which one may act (Combes, 2013).1 The aforementioned crystal is
an example that Simondon uses from physics towards biology and the socio-psychic in a
constructive way.
It is common to introduce abduction as the form of reasoning that is needed in design
practice to account for new knowledge. Peirce explained abduction as creating new rules to
explain new observations (MacNeill, 2009). A comparison of both forms of reasoning
requires a different paper. I conclude for now that Simondons notion of information
together with the structuring in a domain that was not yet ordered can account for the
emergence of new knowledge as well. He reserves a role for operations within materiality in
his notion of information.
Combes refers here to Simondons use of a physical paradigm as his first analogy building further upon and his use of
physics as it has for some time shown its capacity for progressively transforming theory into hypotheses and then into
almost directly tangible realities (IG, 256; IL, 554) (Combes, 2013, p. 13)
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Sander Mulder
Application: Going more informed back to the design case

Now that I am more informed and may be able to come back to the design case from
another philosophical approach, what should we do now with the sound of the portable
artificial kidney?
We could try to make it as silent as possible, since sound has no technical function in the
artificial kidney. As our client is aiming to miniaturize the machine, heat dissipation may
form an issue (as this is a common problem when making things smaller).1 Sound could be
seen as losing energy, so reducing sound may be seen as supporting the solidarity of the
subsets.
If we make it silent, the machine still needs to generate alarms. But isnt there a quality in
the artificial kidney making sounds as a reminder that it is still working fine for someones
health? Should we have the person experiment with the sound level that suits his or her
need? As of now we think of constant intervals and running a standardized schedule, but
arent we heading towards the pitfall of reductionism with a sequence of sounds that is too
regular? An advanced machine would not make constant sounds, but respond in a sensitive
way, subtly varying according to the changing condition of the person in need of therapy.2 If
we want that kind of sound, we need to work on the sensing ability of the portable artificial
kidney as it is now limited to vital signs like blood pressure, coagulation of blood, measuring
levels of a few toxics and keeping track of the amount of extracted excess fluid.
Since I, as a member of the design team, am a transducer, together with the client and the
target group, we decide with which other machines the PAK will communicate. We are
responsible what correlations the machine will have with other machines. As transducers,
we could correlate the PAK with a remote monitoring system combined with a skilled nurse
practitioner to assist when in doubt or when a new alarm goes off.
How can we proceed in our studio with reasoning by means of analogies? While working on
more insights about the machine, we have come up with some analogies, but we have not
dived into this really.
Implications and future research

Having coming back to the design case, we can now derive some implications.
If we accept that technical mentality is present, then responsibility of designers would be to
avoid the risk of reductionism in their work and to investigate it. Analogical reasoning is one
approach that tries to avoid reductionism, thus addressing responsibility and design.
Simondon sees here a task for philosophers to bring this method of investigating the world
further. So, designers and philosophers could further investigate and develop transductive
reasoning as a method of proceeding and constructing through analogies and try to bridge
1
A miniaturized machine is better suited to sense according to Simondon, but this line of thought is not further discussed
here.
2 In line with Simondons thinking the anthropologist Tim Ingold wrote on the difference between rhythmic and
metronomic oscillation in relation to machines and human perception (Ingold, 2011).
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that method towards design cases. Transduction is suggested as a way of reasoning while
designing along or instead of abduction. Can this be done at all?
Designers are used to working with analogies, but should they start, like Simondon does,
always in the physical domain and then move towards biology and the socio-psychic? Or can
designers move back-and-forth? Can we proceed at all with transduction as a way of
constructive reasoning in design?
Machines are not that advanced yet that they link themselves to other machines without
human interference. Muriel Combes phrases it as follows: It is as living beings that humans
are declared responsible for technical beings basically because we have a past and we are
able to modify the forms of problems to be resolved [] Thus we might say that the
human plays the role of transducer between machines (Combes, 2013, p. 60). Until our
knowledge is that elaborate that we built machines that can act as transducers and correlate
other machines, designers, together with other stakeholders, are responsible for the linking
together of machines.
Thinking technological progress in terms of evolution, as can be observed in Simondons
technical mentality, does not go without debate. Besides Simondon being normative from
the beginning in his approach of the world, his normative stance towards progress and
equality of man and machine must be investigated further. This paper did not elaborate on
Simondons notion of (immanent) ethics. 1 This could be a line for further investigation.
This paper did not build on Simondons aesthetics. This may be an interesting line for further
elaboration as he sees unifying qualities in aesthetics and it seems relevant for design.
The work of Muriel Combes may serve as a first step to explore the actions of designers as
she investigates the significance of labor.2 Why the labor of design exists in the first place is
explained by Simondon as well when he discusses the historic separation of energy and
information. Together with Simondons demarcation of invention versus application, this is a
line of investigation as well.
Simondon argues that materiality takes over and becomes autonomous while inventing or
producing a technical object. A threshold is crossed during the moment of invention and
that moment is value free according to Simondon. As designers we do not cross such a
threshold, we work with a functional core, a nucleus that is already invented in the past.
Designers work on performance of that nucleus and relate it to affect. The division between
a functional core and an external layer in the philosophy of Simondon seems problematic in
researching design practice. Yet, the field of design thinking may need to take materiality
more into account.
Simondons ethics is immanent. Immanent ethics could be phrased like The fundamental question of ethics is not What
must I do? (which is the question of morality) but rather What can I do, what am I capable of doing (which is the proper
question of an ethics without morality). [] (cf. O'Donnell, 2001)
2 Combes underscores the political implications of Simondons philosophy. Taken from the Preface written by Thomas
Lamarre, who translated a.o. some of Combes work (Combes, 2013, p. xiv).
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Sander Mulder
In design education we should address and further develop responsibility, work with
attention to dive into the machine and, as Simondon would like to do us: liberate machines.1
Conclusion
Can we reason in a different and more responsible way as designers? The philosophy of
Simondon, and especially his notion of technical mentality and transductive or analogical
reasoning shed new light on these questions.
A responsibility of designers is to avoid reductionism in their thinking.
Within a design project you make many decisions on parts, but you cannot hide behind the
borders of your task or project.2
Designers cannot ignore that people will regulate machines themselves, but you are
responsible for correlating machines together with other people.
The approach of this paper, diving into a design case and raising more informed questions by
means of philosophy, is on the verge of being a reflective method itself within the
constructivist tradition. That must be rethought as well.
Acknowledgements:
I want to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.
I want to thank my supervisor Kees Dorst for his patience and guidance. I want to thank
everywone who read earlier versions of this paper: Dirk Snelders, Danille Arets, Tom
Coggins, Jelle van Dijk, Sander van der Zwan (student), Sander Hermsen, Thomas Koet,
Ehsan Baha and Annemieke Lamme for carefully reading and discussing earlier drafts of
this paper. Thanks to Pieter Vermaas and Lambrt Royakkers for informal talks on the
subject matter.
I would like to thank our clients John Stooker and Jasper Boomker for their assignment,
but moreover their trust that my curiosity would actually lead to something. Last but not
least I thank the team I was part of. Their strategic and empathic approach in the
assignment allowed room for the emergence of the paper above. So thank you Lianne
Polinder, Nathalie Waser and Marieke Rietbergen from the Netherlands based design
agency Design Innovation Group.
This research was conducted as part of an external PhD trajectory. No direct funding is
associated to this study.
References
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[u.a.]: Bloomsbury.
Combes, M. (2013). Gilbert Simondon and the philosophy of the transindividual: The MIT
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1
2
The notion of the education of attention was inspired by Tim Ingolds work (Ingold, 2001).
I want to acknowledge Kees Dorst for suggesting this conclusion.
2822
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Ingold, T. (2001). From the Transmission of Representations to the Education of Attention. In
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Ingold, T. (2011). Being Alive. London/New York: Routledge.
Institute, D. f. V. (2016). Methodology for Design for Values.
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MacNeill, A. (2009). TIDAC: Identity, Analogy, and Logical Argument in Science. Retrieved
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Styhre, A. (2008). Transduction and entrepreneurship: A biophilosophical image of the

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About the Author:

Sander Mulder has been working between 1998-2003 in two Dutch
companies as a consultant for innovation and growth. Since 2003 he
works from his own company Yppah. He combines his
entrepreneurship with teaching at the Eindhoven University of
Technology (since 2004) and Delft University of Technology (since
2015). He started an external PhD trajectory in 2012 at the
Eindhoven University of Technology
2824
Space as a Becoming: Fresh Water Expo Pavilion as a

Creative Practice for an Architecture to Come
Emine Grgl
Istanbul Technical University
gorgule@itu.edu.tr
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.267
Abstract: In relation to the affective introduction of the post-structuralist paradigm

particularly the Deleuzeian discourse to the agenda of architectural theory and
praxis, as well as the rising influence of digitalization and its immense penetration
into even everyday life, the last decade of the 20th Century addressed to a critical
threshold in the successive transformation process of the spatiality in its long-term
run. So, by interacting with the Deleuzeian Philosophy and their notions like lines of
forces, folding, becoming, smooth space, territory, spatium, this article aims to reveal
the relevance of these notions in architectural discourse, as well as discusses the
shifting perspectives of design thought and the creative practice, where architectural
embodiment becomes a multitude of intensities and an open-ended production.
Furthermore, this paper argues the applicability of Deleuzeian thoughts within the
architectural design and the notion of space as a becoming, by opening up the
Fresh Water Pavilion of NOX Architecture into question in terms of unfolding the
essences of a transformable-evolvable architectural spatiality.
Keywords: space as a becoming; Deleuze; augmented space; Fresh Water Pavilion
Introduction
The penetration of the post-structuralist paradigm particularly the Deleuzeian discourse to
the agenda of architectural theory and praxis after the late-80s, paved the way to an
essential transformation that architecture had been longing for change for some decades of
time. So, bifurcating its way from the Deconstructivist unorthodox language, and heading
straight to the unknown/unexplored plateaus that are yet to come; the architecture of the
late 20th Century has initiated the path of transition to explore the never-ending limits of
the architectural becoming -the multitude that gathers all the multiplicity of diverse
intensities of thought, embodiment, extension, spatio-temporalities etc.- through

Emine Grgl
hybridizing itself with the contemporary technology and material advancements, where the
fine borders between the actual and the virtual, the real and the possible may start to blur
into one another.
Similar to the Post-War Era of the late 50s, where again the technological advancements
and their immense questioning affect to the architectural realm played the major role in the
transformation of that epoch; the late-20th Centurys technological advancements has
shifted the turn into higher level this time, where the thought and the tool have redefined
the materiality (leading the discourse into new materiality recently) and the existence
(departing from the ontological parallelism of flat-ontologies of post-, in- and non-humans),
so that we have faced with the ontological shift, where this initially-minor but then quite
affective turn of becoming in contemporary discourse has need to be addressed.
So, with the increasing influence of digitalization and its immense penetration even into
everyday life, the last decade of the 20th Century addressed to a critical threshold in the
successive transformation process of the spatiality in its long-term run. The advanced digital
technologies of ubiquitous computing and generative design, as well as the invention of
smart materials in late 90s (particularly the nano-technological materials that emerged as
the programmable matters with their ability to evolve continuously) have all provoked the
fluid characteristics of spatiality, and strengthen the transformative capacities of the
architectural space through the emergence of computer-augmented territories. Additionally,
as becoming body extensions, the advent of novel apparatuses further enhanced the
integration of the corporal and incorporeal bodies with the spatio-temporal multiplicities,
where the hyper-dimensionality of the space has been triggered to its outmost range, in
relation to the soft and smart technologically augmented immanent milieu (Spuybroek,
1997).
Thus, like Spuybroek points out as the haptonomist presence of the body merges itself with
these diverse bodily extensions on one hand; On the other hand, as the rising influence of
nomadic view of the world further stimulates the unboundedness and endless fluidity of
space (Spuybroek, 1997), so that the spatiality becomes a landscape of successive
transformations, a topology of emergence or a plane of becoming, which is merely defined
by lines of forces, and occurs as an alive territory rather than a limited space of predefined
boarders. Therefore this evolvable territory, which is affectable, and being affected by the
lines of forces -inner and outer forces-, emerges as an animated existence, an interactive
organism.
Doubtlessly, like Deleuze and Guattari discuss, this novel spatiality emerges as a smooth,
transformable space of affection that comes into being under the influence of inner and
outer forces acting upon it. They define this space as ....a space of contact, of small tactile or
manual actions of contact, rather than a visual space like Euclid's striated space. (Deleuze
and Guattari, 1987, p. 409). Like they also mentioned; being as the space of smallest
difference, homogeneity would no longer exist, but only the linking of the proximate points
are essential in the formation of the paths (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 409).
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Space as a Becoming: Fresh Water Expo Pavilion as a Creative Practice for an Architecture to Come
On the other hand, the penetration of more sophisticated devices of ubiquitous computing
into the space in general terms have further influenced the generation of these novel
spatialities, which depend on more complex synchronized experiences involving multi-modal
(push and pull) interaction, so that spatial embodiment could perform endless possibilities of
events through maintaining the ever-imagined correlations between the virtual and the
actual. Therefore, un-akin to the passive synthesis of virtual procedures, the novel spatiality
emerges from open-ended active synthesis of augmented interactive procedures of both the
virtual and the actual.
So, like Burry mentions, with its pre- and post- becomings (Burry, 2001), this ever-evolving
spatiality could also be described in relation to the notion of metastability, and appears as a
delicate balance between forces from within and forces from without that both are
sculpturing the flow of information that defines the temporal-spatiality (Oosterhuis, 2011,
p. 105). Since, these force fields appear as the sources of the information flow (Oosterhuis,
2011, p. 104) or lines of forces, the novel architectural embodiment becomes a vectoral
body that could be stretched in a particular direction or expandable into further territories
(Oosterhuis, 2011, pp. 98-99). Thus, in the contemporary realm, the ...design process [could
be] perceived as a transaction... where/through which the architectural embodiment
becomes a transaction milieu facilitating transaction between the users and their
immediate environment (Oosterhuis, 2011, p. 140).
In this regard, Fresh Water Pavilion project of NOX Architecture by Lars Spuybroek has been
asserted as the critical step in terms of addressing the initial phase of augmented space and
the affect of ubiquitous computing in the emergence of spatial becomings. On the other
hand, methodologically the design story and the physical formation process of the pavilion
have been dismantled to frame the milieu of the discussion. Pursuing this initial step, critical
readings of this innovative work have been performed through a Deleuzeian perspective as
well as interacting with his notions of machinic assemblages and smooth space, in order to
map and to debate the transfiguring perception of architectural space from a static
enclosure into an evolvable spatiality of becoming under the multi-modal interaction.
Constructing the Water Pavilion

Fresh Water Pavilion was designed within the framework of the water pavilion project,
which was commissioned by the Ministry of Water Management and Delta Expo in year
1993, by being as a private-public partnership and constructed in Zeeland in the Netherlands
in 1997 (Spuybroek, 1997). The initiation was split into two design teams, so that Lars
Spuybroek and NOX Architecture was responsible of building the fresh water pavilion Figure
1, while at the same time, again another Dutch architect-Kas Oosterhuis was responsible of
building the sea water half of this water pavilion project (Spuybroek, 1997).
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Emine Grgl
Figure 1 The Fresh Water Pavilion, NOX Architecture, 1997.
Like Spiller mentions that Spuybroeks work focuses more on the interrelationship between
real and virtual space and the phenomenology of simply being in and alive in the world
(Spiller, 2006, p. 54). Spiller defines the pavilion as a synthesis of materiality and
immateriality, and also highlights that the categories of real vs virtual, as well as material vs.
immaterial are not opposing categories nor metaphysical disagreements of the design
ideology, but in fact they are electroliquid aggregations, enforcing each other, as in twopart adhesive and keenly proposing metastability to induce animation. throughout the
pavilion (Spiller, 2006, p. 54). Spiller further acknowledges that the interior environment of
the pavilion that Spuybroek has generated was a liquid unity that successfully merges
hardware, software and wetware all together, and the design of the interactive
installation was based on the metastable aggregation of architecture and information.
(Spiller, 2006, p. 56).
In addition to these, Spuybroek also mentions that without detaching the architecture from
the exhibition and form information, the pavilion was designed as a medium, where the
material form [was] directly related to the movement of the visitor (Spuybroek, 1997).
Therefore, basically the connection of behaviour of human beings [the visitors] to the
behaviour of the building system was the driving concept of the pavilion design (Spuybroek,
1997). Thus, creating an affectional space, or in Deleuzeian terms the smooth space, which is
under the various influences of inner and exterior stimuli, has been the key strategy in the
configuration of the architectural space, together with the idea of constitution of a temporal
territory for multi-modal interaction that leads into transitive subject-object relations.
Besides, like Spuybroek points out that the pavilion space not only juxtaposed the
movements of the visitors and the animated form of the pavilion, but also blended the
ingredients of the various spatio-temporal multiplicities of this heterogeneous space such as;
the corporal and incorporeal existences of movements of visitors, or the water, as well as
the interactive electronic installation that creates the movement of light, sound and
projections, that were activated by actions of the visitors. Figure 2 (Spuybroek, 1997).
2828
Figure 2 The Fresh Water Pavilion, plan, NOX Architecture, 1997.
Visitors entered to the pavilion through a hydraulically operating three dimensional door,
which was opening meanly of a few degrees from its pivot, letting them to confront with the
frozen entrance corridor-the glacier tunnel Figure 3 (Spuybroek, 1997). Since the existence
of the water was the main theme of the design of the architectural space, it was also
configured to aggregate gradually within the space, reciprocally as the visitor cascades from
outside to inner space, where it further appeared through little wells and springs and mist
coming from the ground within the space (Spuybroek, 1997). After the entrance tunnel and
the emerging water elements; visitors experience a rain-bowl, where they saw the sky, the
formation of the clouds and atmospheric becomings of rain etc. in a time-lapse, and
experience the falling rain through the haptic processes (Spuybroek, 1997). In addition to all,
a crystal clear water well of 120 tones of water was also located to create hallucinatory,
sensorial feeling of vertigo, which was manipulated by the projectors and the gas-releasing
mechanisms that were placed under the water, while serving to strengthen the sense of
instability and the major concept of waters environmental closed cycle at the same time
Figure 4 (Spuybroek, 1997).
Figure 3 The Fresh Water Pavilion, glacier tunnel, NOX Architecture, 1997.
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Emine Grgl
Figure 4 The Fresh Water Pavilion, interior atmosphere, NOX Architecture, 1997.
On the other hand, as mentioned above, a ...very complex interactive installation,

combining different electronic systems of sound, light and projections.... was designed and
configured to ....extend the concept of deformation related to action. (Spuybroek, 1997).
Moreover, as the building tries to liquidize people-[the visitor] become water..., this
interactive installation further opened up the program and function to the instability and
dynamism (Spuybroek, 1997). Spuybroek also acknowledges that the interior space of the
pavilion was consisted of continuous surfaces and were covered with different sensing
devices like; light sensors-WAVE, touch sensors-RIPPLE and pulling sensors-BLOB Figure 5
(Spuybroek, 1997). He explains that every group of sensor operated in three levels of
interaction. In the first level they operated in the level of topological deformation of a
project wireframe grid in real-time (Spuybroek, 1997). On the second level they operated in
the real-time interaction with the visitors acts and reacts within milliseconds by changing
the ...overall lighting in the interior space and the sound, and on the third level the three of
them operated on the same moment (Spuybroek, 1997). Although, the design of the pavilion
addressed a great innovation in conceptualization, yet the system was built up with wetcable technology, where the audio-visual devices were connected through a cable way, that
runs through out the building (Spuybroek, 1997).
Figure 5 The Fresh Water Pavilion, sensor structures, NOX Architecture, 1997.
2830
Thus, the Fresh Water Pavilion emerges as one of the preliminary examples of the
architecture of variation, which has been developed under the initial systems of interactive
processes that were mechanically triggered and hydraulically operating mechanisms. They
merely constitute the literal transformation of the architectural space with their capacities
to be affected (De Landa, 2009). By all means there is no longer a single definition of
spatiality might be possible, nor a spatiality might exist without the experiencer, but a
transitive spatiality of subject-object has emerged.
Multi-modal interaction and machinic assemblages

The augmented spatial becoming of the pavilion is an interactive environment that works
with impulse and reaction oriented systems of sound, light and mechanical systems affecting
the form. Similar to Oosterhuiss definition, the major intention in the design is the art of
building bi-directional relationships in real-time (Oosterhuis, 2011, pp. 120-121). So, un-akin
to the passive synthesis of virtual relations or responsive spatialities; novel spatial relations
that have emerged with these contemporary technologies, provide a two-fold interaction a
bi-directional dialogue. They transform the spatio-temporal becoming into a proactive
existence, where the received information has been processed and send back in a slightly
adjusted or differentiated form (Oosterhuis, 2011, p. 114).
As Oosterhuis further mentions, this is totally a transitive process that transforms each actor
within the dialogue, where the two-way communication changes the involving parties
after having sent back their response (Oosterhuis, 2011, p. 114). Meanwhile, it could be
also discussed that, since the notion of space, and consequently both the context of
architectural space and knowledge of architecture have been altered into evolving
spatialities of bi-directional dialogue, as well as the transaction and data-flow; then the
novel role of the architect also shifts somehow into a programmer -rather than a creator.
Associating with the notion of mutual subjectivity once again, the architect briefly introduces
the preliminary correlations and network structure of the potential relations by defining the
possible parameters. Furthermore, s/he configures the space as a virtual embodiment of all
spatial relations, which might be actualized through the processes of never-ending or
unpredictable events.
So, in the light of augmented mediators the spatio-temporal becoming emerges in the
multiple assemblages of the bodies: the architectural embodiment of the pavilion space, the
corporal presence of the visitor, the incorporeal existences of the motion as well as light,
sound and tactile experience. Yet, the spatial becoming majorly occurs through the machinic
assemblages of the bodies without organs. Like Deleuze and Guattari define the
characteristics of the BwO as a spatium, which could be also perceived as intense as an egg
(Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 169). BwO is a non-stratified, unformed, intense matter,
matrix of intensity (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 169). It is production of the real as an
intensive magnitude, that starts from the level of zero (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 169).
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Emine Grgl
In their discussion on BwO, Deleuze and Guattari refer Spinozas book of Ethics as the great
book of the BwO (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 170), in terms of the problem of unity and
uninterrupted continuum of BwO in relation to plane of consistency (Deleuze and Guattari,
1987, p. 170-171), where the desire-all the process of production emerges immanent within
the system itself (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, pp. 170-171) as well as the influence of the
exterior agencies. In addition to this, they also emphasize that BwO is not the enemy of the
organs, but the organism, any dominant and hierarchized organization, a dictating totality,
or over-ruling system (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, pp. 175-176). It is a disarticulation of an
organism, while opening the body to various connections of matter and energy flows of
different intensities (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 178).
Besides, BwO exists in the strata, swinging between the surfaces that stratify it, and the
plane that sets it free (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 178). Deleuze and Guattari explains
that by existing in the plane of consistency through constructing its little machine of
assemblage, BwO reveals itself as a connection of desires, conjugation of flows and
continuum of intensities (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 178). BwO is not a fragmented body
or organs without body. It is a milieu of experimentation or a creative involution and
intensive spatium (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 181-182). It is a map of comparative
densities and intensities as well as all the variations (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 182)
BwO is a distribution of intensive principles of organs with their positive indefinite articles,
within a collective or multiplicity, inside an assemblage, and operating according to machinic
connections. (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 182). So that the body becomes multiple,
whose function or meaning no longer depends on an interior truth or identity, but on the
particular assemblages it forms with other bodies. (Malins, 2004); just in the case of the
Fresh Water Pavilion, where the transitive subjectivity (Bourrioud, 1998, p. 23) transforms
the pavilion space into an objectile and further into an extension.
So, the BwO is a multiple body that is open to connect with all rhizomatic multiplicities
(other corporal and incorporeal multiplicities and intensities) through the process of
machinic assemblages. And obviously this is exactly the moment when the transitive body
becomes the nexus of variable connections, which is multiplicity, and that is not a form,
but a complex relation between differential speeds, between slowing and acceleration of
particles in Spinozian terms (Healy, 2006, p. 128)
Spatial transformability and emergence of smooth space

The sun had not yet risen. The sea was indistinguishable from the sky, except that the
sea was slightly creased as if a cloth had wrinkles in it. Gradually as the sky whitened a
darkness lay on the horizon dividing the sea from the sky and the grey cloth became
barred with tick strokes moving one after another, beneath the surface following each
other, pursuing each other perpetually. (Woolf, 1931, p. 639)
As it has been discussed earlier, the fundamental idea of the pavilion derives from the
principle of interactivity, where the architectural space becomes constantly re-configurable
in terms of functional, environmental and conditional re-configurability of the physical space
2832
(Oosterhuis, 2011, p. 8). Since this new spatiality is based on invasion of digital technologies
such as parametric design, generative components, file-to-factory production, the process of
mass customization and embedded intelligent agents (Oosterhuis, 2011, p. 13), the spatial
components could instantly change their mutual positions, where the floors can become
protoDECKs, wall can become interactive walls, and building bodies can become Muscle
Bodies (Oosterhuis, 2011, p. 137).
Indisputably this evolvability and transformability of the space could not be projected apart
from the notion of the smooth space. Deleuze and Guattari defines the smooth space as a
heterogeneous spatiality that is consisted of non-metric multiplicities (Deleuze and Guattari,
1987, p. 477), a nomos a continuous variation and development of form (Deleuze and
Guattari, 1987, p. 478) Using the example of felt, contrary to a fabric, they define the
smooth space as a model of entanglement rather than intertwining. So while distributing a
continuous variation, this felt wise structure of smooth space is infinite, as well as open and
unlimited in every direction, so that it could be constructible in every direction, without
possessing a centre, top or end (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, pp. 476-477).
In addition to these they also assert the smooth space as a directional space, which is
constructed by local changes of direction, where the line becomes the vector or the
direction of this change (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 478). It is an amorphous and
unformed space of affections; a space of haptic perceptions, where materials resemble the
acting forces (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 528). Thus, smooth space is a space of
distances, which is also occupied by intensities of diverse tactile qualities, such as sounds,
senses etc (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 533); so that the division of this distances
concludes in the change of the nature each time (p. 533). Briefly the smooth space is
consisted of multiplicities that are non-metric, qualitative, acentered, rhizomatic, flat and
directional (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 534). It is a transforming and transmutating
system, which is continuously evolving. It is a Spatium, a body without organs (Deleuze and
Guattari, 1987, p. 528). Besides, contrary to Cartesian algebraic geometrical pre-defined
space, smooth spaces operates in a relational system through amorphous accumulation of
vicinities or situations of determinations (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, pp. 534-535).
In the light of smooth spatial relations, the contemporary ontology of space emerges as a
multiplicity, a differentiation while maintaining a continuity. (Krissel, 2004). This is a
process of becoming, that is no longer a unity of predefined systems or a crystallized
structure, but a continuous evolving mechanism of folding and unfolding processes of
enliven territorial temporalities that beget under the influence of various affections.
As it is known, in relation to their concept of smooth space, Deleuze further introduces the
concept of fold, which has been extensively used in the earlier phases of evolvable spaces of
generative architecture. He discusses the concept of folding in relation to degree of
development and difference, un-akin to a metric dimensional change (Deleuze, 1988, p.
10). Besides, he further explains that fold is not the contrary of unfolding, neither does the
tension-release or contraction-dilation mechanisms (Deleuze, 1988, p. 8). However, folding
and unfolding are intertwined processes of enveloping, developing, involution-evolution
2833
Emine Grgl
(Deleuze, 1986, p. 8). Deleuze states that; to unfold is to increase, to grow; whereas to fold
is to diminish, to reduce, to withdraw into the recesses of a world. Yet a simple metric
change could not ...account for the difference between the organic and the inorganic, the
machine and its motive force (Krissel, 2004). It would be inadequate to resemble that
movement does not simply transverse from one greater or smaller part to another, but from
fold to fold (Krissel, 2004). When a part of a machine is still a machine, the smaller unit is not
the same as the whole. (Deleuze, 1986, p. 8). Like Krissel points out, the process of foldingunfolding encompasses a continuously differentiating entirety where evidently the whole
does not occurs as a matter of separate folded parts, but the whole has also been
complicated with the many parts (Krissel, 2004).
Moreover, Deleuze mentions that these processes of folding and unfolding occurs
independent of scale (Krissel, 2004), where they become merely a general topology of
thought (Deleuze, 1986); so that the inside space is topologically in contact with the
outside space... (as the out-side to inside) and ...brings the two into confrontation at the
limit of the living present (Deleuze, 1986) Therefore, the process of folding and unfolding is
a ...flow from outside to inside... and vice versa, ...across different scales and independent
of distance, where neither is fixed but rather in a constant exchange... (Krissel, 2004). As a
result, due to this constant exchange; an architectural embodiment is no longer one space
and one site, but many spaces folded into many sites; a folding of space into other spaces;
a multiplicity where everything is always read and re-read but we never see it in its entirety
where this reading of space becomes the reading of variable intensities of movement
(Krissel, 2004).
Indisputably, the configuration of the architectural space, emerges through unpredictability
of the becoming, where as Krissel also points out ...new and unanticipated possibilities
(between folded, enfolding and yet to be unfolded) occur without predetermined outcomes
(Krissel, 2004). Thus, within this foldable topological space, or similar to the earlier definition
of the topology of becoming/plane of becoming, where connections acquire vitality, with
emerging possible interactions implying multiple fluid thresholds.; and the folds become
the events themselves. (Krissel, 2004).
Fresh Water Pavilion as a becoming and the architecture to come

one can actually feel that one is living inside evolution. One feels the progress of
evolution by observing the evolving products. (Oosterhuis, 2011, p. 146).
Evidently, the major impulse of the post-structuralist paradigm of fluid and dynamic
envisioning of the spatial relations have emerged with the indispensable texts of Deleuzeian
interpretations that have broken the surface and make the transformation of the discourse
and praxis visible particularly with the AD accomplishment of its special issue Folding in
Architecture around 1993. By advocating the concepts of fluidity, viscosity and resolvability
of spatiality, the transformative capacities of architectural existence through its
heterogeneous embodiment has been asserted as the essence of the contemporary
2834
architectural space of the late 90s. This has been pursued with the initiations and
realizations of literally animated architectural embodiments, which further emerged as the
machinic assemblage of organless bodies, and comes into being through heterogeneous
synthesis of plug-ins and prosthesis. They emerge as affectable topologies of becoming,
which could be both acting-performing and being acted on.
As it has been limitedly discussed within this representation, but immensely has been
discussed even beyond architecture, through resonating almost every field of production for
decades; the transformative capacities of the spatial becoming, the emergence of smooth
space and dissolving properties of striated space, abolition of the Cartesian spatiality,
processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization of the spatio-temporal multiplicities
and the engagement of corporal and incorporeal bodies through the process of machinic
assemblages have been the essential points in revealing the evident presence of Fresh
Water Pavilion project as a becoming. Besides, apart from being diminishing the complex
spatial relations, however with an intention of briefly depicting the accompanying concepts
and architectural interventions in terms of discussing the architectural space of Fresh Water
Pavilion case as a becoming can be summarized like the diagram below Figure 6.
Figure 6 Concept-pairs diagram for the Fresh Water Pavilion Project (Grgl, 2013).
When, getting ahead of the ubiquitous computing and their inclusion into the space, the
progressive trans-material based experiments, related to biological models of the recent
decade, evidently call the emergence of a novel generation of architectural embodiment
that could produce its prospect tissues that might further pleat it into its other
embodiments, from which each being in its turn to unfold its own parts at the right time
(Deleuze, 1988). With its self-organizing capacities, and its encapsulated vital impetus, this
autopoetic emergence resembles no longer an augmented embodiment, but a differentiated
one, which folds, unfolds and refolds itself to its prospect becomings of its species.
As a result, departing from the mechanical modes to topological models and recently to the
biological models, and in the light of contemporary paradigm we could state that, the space
emerges as a dynamic system where infinite product possibilities, processes and virtuality
could unfold across a diverse architectural landscape with no definable beginning or end;
rather, an evolving continuum. (Krissel, 2004).
2835
Emine Grgl
References
Bourriaud, N. (2002). Relational Aesthetics. Les Presses du Rel. org.: (1998). Esthtique
Relationnelle.
Burry, M. (2001). Beyond Animation. In M. Burry (Ed.), Animation in Architecture, Architectural
Design Special Issue. London: AD Publications.
De Landa, M. (2009). Material Evolvability and Variability. In L. Spuybroek (Ed.) Research & Design
The Architecture of Variation (pp. 10-17). London: Thames & Hudson.
Deleuze, G. (2006). Foucault. London & New York: Continuum Books. org.: (1986) Foucault.
Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. (2004). Thousand Plateaus. London & New York: Continuum Books. org.:
(1987) Mille Plateaux-Capitalisme et Schizophrnie.
Grgl, E. (2013). Space As A Becoming: A Discussion On Transfiguring Ontology Of Space Ad
Emergence Of Spatial Mediators. ITU Graduate School of Science, Engineering and Technology, un
published Ph.D. thesis.
Healy, P. (2006). The Stoical Body. In D. Hauptmann (Ed.), The Body in Architecture (pp. 115-129).
Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
bilen, E. (2012). Body, Interaction Architecture. In Betonart, Beton, Mimarlk ve Tasarm (No: 35, pp.
38-43). Istanbul.
Krissel, M. (2004). Gilles Deleuze: The Architecture of Space and the Fold. Digitalprocess. Retrieved
April 1, 2011, from http://digitalprocess.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/gillesdeleuze_fold.pdf.
Kwinter, S. (2001). Architectures of Time: Towards a Theory of Event in Modernist Culture.
Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.
Malins, P. (2004), Machinic Assemblages: Deleuze, Guattari and an Ethico-Aesthetics of Drug Use. NY
Amherst: Trivium Publications. Retrieved from http://www.janushead.org/7-1/malins.pdf.
Oosterhuis, K. (2011). Towards a New Kind of Building: Tag, Make, Move Evolve. Rotterdam: NAI
Publications.
Spiller, N. (2006). Visionary Architecture: Blueprints of the Modern Imagination (pp. 54-57). New
York: Thames & Hudson.
Spuybroek L. (1997). Motor Geometry. In Arch+ 138. V2 Organisation (Ed), Rotterdam:
TechnoMorphica.
Woolf, V. (2007), The Waves (org. 1931). In H.Trayler (Ed.) The Selected Works of Virginia Woolf (pp.
639-779). London: Wordsworth Editions.
About the Author:

Associate Professor Dr. Emine Grgl is an associate professor and
vice-chair in Istanbul Technical University-School of Architecture and
viting professor in Auburn University Alabama. She has received her
B.Sc. (1999), M.Sc. (2002) and Ph.D. (2013) degrees from ITU on
Architecture and Architectural Theory and Criticism.
2836
The Foam: a Possible Model for the Motion Graphic

Design
Anamaria Galeottia* and Clice Mazzillib
a
Anhembi Morumbi University

University of So Paulo
* argaleotti@me.com
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.276
b
Abstract: This paper discusses the elements of motion graphic design language as a
complex system of visual, verbal and sonorous signs, which are simultaneously
transmitted and correlated in time and space. Born out of the cinema, the motion
graphic design was improved by the television and thereafter the informatics,
incorporating the elements of the graphic design. As the technologies of preproduction, production and post-production progressed in the field, a more complex
digital audio-visual design could be conceived, enabling an experiment such as the
Audio-Visual Foam Model the main object of this research to be done. It consists
of an immersive and interactive 3D installation where one can experience how these
fragile and hybrid elements of language interact between themselves, just like foam
bubbles. Entitled Passion and Violence, the experiment clearly demonstrates the
role played by the motion graphic designer and suggests a contemporary
methodology for working with this audio-visual design.
Keywords: audio-visual design; multimedia interface; motion graphic design; audio-visual
semiotics
Introduction
In cinema, television and Internet, the still image that is photography earns a sonorous state,
as there are dialogues, music and noises added to it. The image that was once static is now
fluid, and because of that new meanings and relations can be established, connecting with
the viewers: que, manipulada, emociona mentes hbridas, consubstanciadas em redes de
conhecimento, de sentimentos e redes de memrias1 (Santaella, 2007, p.194). This
[] when manipulated, it [the image] touches hybrid minds, consubstantiated in knowledge, feeling and memory
networks. (Authors translation).

touching image (Aumont, 2005) uses the typical language of the audio-visual field, that is,
a language originated from constant interchanges and intersections between images and
sounds.
Another aspect of the image in the audio-visual field is the movement it gains. Deleuze
(2005) uses the expression time-image to describe it, understanding it implies a complex,
stratified time, in which we move simultaneously in various plans (present, past(s) and
future(s)). This happens not just because we get our memories and expectancies to arise,
but also because the cinema and even the audio-visual as a whole , insisting on the length
of events, makes us actually feel the time passing itself (Machado, 2009).
Taking the same approach, Walter Murch (2004) believes there are two dimensions of the
passage of time in the audio-visual field: the horizontal one and the vertical one. In the
horizontal dimension, the visual and sonorous events follow each other in a linear, analogue
way. In the vertical one, on the other hand, they happen at the same time, in layers.
Combined, these two dimensions form various networks, intersecting the linear and the
non-linear occurrences to form a liquid and hybrid language.
Nowadays, thanks to a collaborative work and the constant development of new software
and equipment, the interaction between these audio-visual elements can be explored in
infinite ways. The technology invites the user to experiment new possibilities of content
creation that are, at times, more real than the actual reality.
Figure 1 The Foam Model at M.I.D.E.N (Michigan Immersive Digital Experience Nexus University of
Michigan).
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The Foam: a Possible Model for the Motion Graphic Design
Therefore, assuming that the digital audio-visual design is composed of hybrid elements of
language (verbal, visual and sonorous ones) that can be arranged in unlimited ways, it is only
natural to say that the outcomes of these relations are mutant ones. Any kind of
modification in these arrangements will be unique, but also unpredictable, as it generates
new possibilities of interaction between the elements. This condition creates a rich, fragile
and multifocal structure similar to that of a foam, in which every single bubble can appear or
disappear at random. Because of the volatility and the complexity it suggests, the foam was
thus chosen to be the model of study of this research, in which the elements of the audiovisual language correspond to the foams bubbles.
This model the Audio-Visual Foam Model, as it was called is based both on Peter
Sloterdijks Spheres Theory (2009) and Lucia Santaellas studies on semiotics of language
(2005). It was developed in 2014 during a Sandwich Doctorate scholarship at the Stamps
School of Arts and Design University of Michigan and takes the form of an immersive 3D
installation.
The Hybrid Language Foam

The hybridity of languages (Santaella, 2005, p.24) that form the audio-visual design make
it as volatile and mutant as the world of the living. If, at first, they lose the stability and
firmness provided by the flat media, the graphic elements can now interact with movement,
sounds and other invisible elements such as the narrative, the montage and the
metaphors, creating new kinds of content. Using the foams bubbles analogy, it is as if the
old bubbles incorporated the new ones, thus growing and increasing their life expectancy 1.
The audio-visual design elements work pretty much the same way, as they act
simultaneously and dont have a central cell (referring to Peter Sloterdijks2 (2009) line of
thought).
A Common Axis3 between Matrices

This project never aimed to establish a precise parallel between the audio-visual design and
the Foam Model, but to suggest a possible comparison of these two systems. If we assume
there is simplicity of complexity (Deleuze, 1995), any parallel made with the audio-visual
design a rhizomatic and pivotal structure can be considered relevant and plausible.
1
Foam is constantly changing its structure in order to better allocate its cells and provide them stability. Inside these
chaotic structures, the new bubbles pop inside the old and bigger bubbles, which grow in volume and are then capable to
live longer (Sloterdijk, 2009, pg.43). The video Zero Gravity Water Bubbles (available at <https://goo.gl/CcDd1K>)
illustrates this mutant condition.
2 According to the German philosopher, the world isnt structured in a mono-spherical way, but in a multi-spherical one.
This requires a new vocabulary for the contemporary discourses, one that expresses the volatile relations of the liquid and
unpredictable substances that constitute our lives. Sloterdijks theory is useful here because it helps us understand the
overlap of languages that takes place in the audio-visual design. That is, a set of languages that, without losing their
identities, are related in a complex but at the same time fragile way just like the bubbles. And it is precisely this fragility
that grants beauty and delicacy to the whole set. Sloterdijkss ideas on this particular issue can be found in the last volume
of the trilogy Spheres Volume III: Foam).
3 When three bubbles get in contact, an angle of 120 is formed between their sides, defining what we call a Plateau
border or Plateau Chanel (according to Plateaus laws).
2839
In terms of semiotics, when a sound is added to an image, it acquires a new meaning in its
firstness level and, after that, in its secondness level. A vivid red combined with a sharp,
piercing sound abandons its material character (firstness) to be associated with blood and a
pointed metal (secondness). In a third stage, it might insinuate the sharp cut of a blade
(thirdness).
Video 1 The Movie Seven, from Steven Spielberg, is a good example of the interaction between
visual and sonorous elements. Link to the movies opening credits: <https://goo.gl/yv4isY>.
Taking that to the foams structure, whenever a bubble gets in touch with another bubble,
new and irregular dimensions arise, carrying within them a great set of perspectives.
Nonetheless, even if this union generates a more complex system, one cannot forget its
individual parts each of the bubbles or, in our case, the various elements of the audiovisual language , for they are indispensable to understand the structure as a whole.
Figure 2 The foams structure (retrieved from <http://goo.gl/BpM1A7>).
2840
Furthermore, even if each of these elements lose their original shape, it is also true that this
new condition a fragmented and mutant one, just like Mandelbrots fractals (1997)
creates a new significance. Therefore, we should not lament the fragmentation brought by
the digital technologies, as it provides a new set of interpretations to the audio-visual
design.
All in all, since this research doesnt justify itself in a mere theoretical, contemplative way,
we can now focus on how the Foam Model was actually conceived and put to test,
investigating its creative process1. The whole experiment intended to bring forth an
aesthetic experience by deconstructing and then reconstructing the relations between the
foam structure and the audio-visual design languages. The process of meta-design (Moraes,
2010) has been an important method during this pursuit, in which every stage was
characterized by a great set of questions, just like Bairon suggests:
[] no mundo das espumas o perguntar define o pensar. Perguntar significa suspender
todos os prs e contras.2 (Bairon, 2010, p.21).
There is no linear method that can accompany the act of asking, because asking presupposes
a knowledge that is not known (Hillis, 1999 apud Bairon, 2010).
The Foam Model: An Audio-Visual Design Installation

As presented before, the basis for the experimental project was the Audio-Visual Design
Foam Model, which assumed, in the end, the form of a 3D installation.
This installation was designed to take place in a Virtual Reality (VR) space commonly known
as CAVE3, where a computer is constantly generating tri-dimensional and stereoscopic
images and monitoring the users geographical position in space.
The experiment was developed in 9 months during an International Doctorate Program with
a CAPES/Fullbright Scholarship at the Stamps School of Arts and Design University of
Michigan. It was conceived as part of the Doctoral Thesis defended in December 2014 at the
School of Architecture and Urbanism of University of So Paulo, which goes by the name of
The Foam: a Possible Model for the Elements of the Audio-Visual Design Language and its
Relations.
During the DRS2016 presentation, a Mobile Virtual Reality Headset (http://www.beenoculus.com/en) will be available for
the participants to experiment the immersive and interactive 3D installation.
2 [] in the foam world, the asking defines the thinking. Asking means suspending all the pros and cons. (Authors
translation).
3 The name CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) is actually property of the University of Illinois, who, in 1991,
conceived this VR space in its Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). In the case of University of Michigan, their VR space
is known as M.I.D.E.N (Michigan Immersive Experience Nexus).
2841
Figures 3-4
Laboratory where the experiment was developed (left) and cube-shaped room (right)
where the stereoscopic images were projected.
The Concept behind the Foam Model

In her book Matrizes da linguagem e pensamento [Matrices of Language and Thought], Lucia
Santaella (2005) categorizes language in three matrices: the sonorous one, the visual one
and the verbal one, each of them represented by a specific axis. For the sonorous matrix, a
syntax axis; for the visual matrix, a form axis; and for the verbal matrix, a discourse axis.
These three matrices and their respective axes are what support the Audio-Visual Design
Foam Model. They served as the main guides for the whole creative process and execution
of the experiment, helping to build, analyse and improve the Model in a dynamic way. At
each stage the system was rethought aiming a better balance between the three matrices.
As a consequence, the installation could get consistent in itself.
Taking that into consideration, in order to build this experiment, a very particular set of
pictures and sounds was selected, all of them directly related to what Brazil was getting
through during the 2014 Fifa World Cup. There was an overall suffering permeating our
passionate country, a suffering brought by violence in different forms and levels. What this
set of images and sounds does is gather these emotions in a narrative, transmitting how the
various Brazils regions/cultures were dealing with the issue like a liquid that keeps all the
bubbles of a foam united. In this great mass, all the facts, speeches, pictures, songs and
textures are thus translated into poetry, innocence and passion.
That being said, we now present the six stages A, B, C, D, E and F in which the experiment
was developed.
Stage A: Planning
The first ideas on how to structure the Foam Model included dividing it in three axes (the
three matrices of language), which would all be connected by the bubbles forming the Foam.
2842
Figures 5-8
First conceptual sketches of the Foam Model showing its structure and the bubbles
layout around axes.
Given the primordial state of the sonorous language which is under the firstness domain ,
the entrance to the installation would be done by the sonorous axis, whose surfaces
wouldnt have any images. The first bubble would be 100% opaque and filled with noises,
while the other bubbles would be 50% opaque and carry instrumental sounds and voices
2843
(this way, bubbles in distant layers could be seen). The next set of bubbles would be
translucent (more instrumental sounds and noises), followed by a bubble carrying sounds of
voices and surrounded by other bubbles filled with written poems and voices reading them
out loud.
As for the visual axis, three bubbles filled each with a primary colour of light (the RGB
system) would grant unity to the set. Connected to them would be images of both urban
and rural scenes, which, by their turn, would be linked to two other groups of bubbles: one
with people expressing themselves without gesturing and another one with people dancing
(therefore using gests). In another bubble, still connected to the visual axis, there would be
images of nature (as a way to explore the many visual textures).
Finally, for the verbal axis, the bubbles would either be filled with some kind of speech
poetry and dialogues, for example or with typographic images such as written texts and
concrete poetry.
By building the model this way, the goal was to generate a transparency between its
elements (the sounds and the images, whether formal or textual) as the user navigated
through the Foam, establishing himself new relations, textures and layers of significance.
This navigation would be the one to bring formal coherence to the Model, since this was not
a traditional audio-visual work. After all, these elements movement, rhythm, passage of
time etc. are basic elements of the audio-visual language.
Break Time: Reflections and Meta-project

This first proposal soon revealed many inconsistencies and technical limitations. In the first
place, the idea of an entrance wasnt interesting at all to the experiment purposes. If the
goal was to grant flexibility and diversification to everyone exploring the installation, an
opaque entrance bubble wouldnt let this happen, blocking the view of the many different
layers the one thing that would keep the users navigating through the Foam and help them
build a narrative.
Therefore, aiming for a more coherent system, a structural decision was taken regarding the
Foam. From then on, the bubbles would be built using the dodecahedrons form, in which
every face would be filled with images, rather, plain and translucent photographic
references (the bubbles film) through which the viewers eyes could navigate freely. By
doing so, a great set of visual readings could take place simultaneously, in layers, so as to
generate new scenarios. That is to say, the same materials would be able to produce many
different outcomes. Furthermore, it would be easier for the users to explore and find their
way through the Foam, since the different colour, texture and sound layers would arouse
their interest. Choosing where to go and how long to stay in each sound, they would
command their own immersive experience, taking care of the movement element as well.
2844
Figure 9 Development of the first dodecahedron-shaped bubbles using the software 3DMax.
Another decision was to explore each of the three language axis in nine sub-modalities, thus
demonstrating the potential relations and arrangements between sounds, visual forms and
verbal discourses.
As for the passage of time, adding music to the experiment solved the issue, while the
spectator took care of the movement using an Oculus Rift.
Figures 10-11
Lateral and perspective views of the foams structure in Stage A. Each chromatic set
would be treated according to its respective axis (verbal, visual or sonorous). The
bubbles sizes refer to their purity level.
2845
Figure 12 Lateral view of the Model in its final stage (image taken with Autodesk3DMax).
Video 2 Test video done via 3DMax. Available at https://youtu.be/J9mcRmjoM5c.
2846
Stage B: Dialogues and Experimentations

Once the Foams structure and the guiding concepts were defined, it was time to develop
the elements that would figure in the Model. One of them was the narrative.
Just like the general audio-visual works, the audio-visual design requires a common thread,
something that grants it coherency. In other words, besides sonorous and visual solutions,
the Foam Model needed a script. As mentioned earlier, the chosen theme for this narrative
was Football in Brazil: Passion and Violence, referring to what the country was
experiencing moments before and during FIFAs 2014 World Cup: a general anxiety mixed
with acts of violence towards many football team supporters and popular manifestations
against the event. By selecting this theme, not only the experiments concept would be
defined but a metaphoric scenario would also be achieved, representing Brazils atmosphere
in that particular moment.
Figure 13 Maps application on the three bubbles sets in attempt to translate the three language
axes and develop the narrative.
Accordingly, in the search for reference images1 and sounds, the following themes were
used:
Football;
The Brazilian people;
Colours;
Urban and rural scenarios;
Nature;
Written language;
Photographers and journalists authorized the use of their images for academic purposes. Christopher Pillitz, an
Argentinian photographer settled in England, also let some of the pictures presented in his most recent book, Brazil: The
Beautiful Game, be used in the experiment.
2847
Music;
Noises;
Oral language;
Contrasts;
Textures;
Besides each and every form of violence and passion.
Figures 14-20
Samples of the reference images used to build the experiment.
2848
Another important aspect at this point was solving the three primary colours
representation, both in theoretical and practical terms. Assuming they are the basic colours
forming each and every image, how would we represent them as individual concepts, as
unique bubbles that had nothing to do with the images contained in them? Moreover, if
the idea was having a mutant scenario defined by the users point of view, where a certain
filter could completely modify the projects visual quality, the colour bubbles would need
to be revisited.
Figures 21-23
Figures 24-25
Preliminary studies on the foams structure using the reference images and the
coloured bubbles.
Studies on the Models proportions and scale.
Stage C: Selections
Since we are constantly interpreting and signifying the visual world around us, every image
carries within it aspects of the verbal matrix. This condition enables new descriptions,
relations, narratives and analysis to be created. As a consequence, the images chosen for
the Model were, already in their pure state, screaming, shouting ideas. There was no silence
in them at all, no blank space. And the sounds werent even added yet! What we had by
2849
then was a pretty disturbing, inefficient syntax. There was too much violence for so few
passion.
Figures 26-28
Editing process of a Christopher Pillitzs photo (discolouring, crop, graphic synthesis

and saturation of red).
Figure 29 Sketches for the visual, verbal and sonorous composition of each set.
2850
Stage D: Revaluations
O metaprojeto, enquanto metodologia da complexidade, pode ser considerado o
projeto do projeto, ou melhor, o design do design.1 (Moraes, 2010, p.25).
As time passed by, the intimacy with all those elements grew, and so did the perception of
what each images essence was and how they interacted between them. It was getting
clearer how to assign a significance to that great set of visual and sonorous forms.
Figures 30-31
In the first sketches, the bubbles sets were conceived in a linear narrative, an idea
that was soon abandoned in order to give the users freedom to move.
After analysing and revisiting the initial proposals for the Audio-Visual Foam Model, the
results were finally translated into new experimentations, setting the beginning of Stage D.
It was necessary to achieve a synthesis of the concepts and elements forming the Model,
turning it into a coherent system. In the audio-visual works, this is usually done by the
montage, an element at first invisible to the viewers, but crucial to the works execution.
Comparing it to the foams structure, this would be equivalent to the liquid permeating
every inch of the foam and keeping all the bubbles together, even if hidden behind them.
This is precisely what makes the audio-visual design a complex process, since we dont
actually see or hear what is being created, that is, the tensions inherent to the audiovisual work. After all, there is no narrative without conflict (Santaella, 2005).
1
The meta-project, as a methodology for the complexity, can be defined as a project of the project itself, rather, a design
of the own design. (Authors translation).
2851
Taking that into account, a possible solution for the Model was to create a one and big
background bubble that settled the experiments physical limits, helping the users to
navigate through the installation. Other ideas also came to mind concerning this matter,
such as a coloured bubble belt forming a continuous background or a bubble of big
proportions covered by a single 360-image.
Figures 32-37
First sketches of the foams edges (above). The colours blue (azul) and grey
(cinza) were chosen as a reference to the sky and the citys concrete, suggesting a
dichotomy between nature and city. Below, reference images for the blue and
grey edges and photomontages applied to the bubbles structure.
2852
In addition to that, another strategy was adopted for building the Models structure: every
set of three bubbles would now have the three language axis represented in it.
Regarding the sonorous aspect, the issue was always considered having in mind its
importance to the audio-visual work. According to Michel Chion (2008), because of their
expressive and informative character, the sound adds value to the images. Sometimes,
when these two elements are successfully connected, the sound even seems to go
unnoticed, as if it had always been there. Referring Chion, that sound merely duplicates a
meaning which in reality it brings about, either all on its own or by discrepancies between it
and the image. (Chion, 1994, p.5).
To select which kind of sounds would figure in the Model (common and natural noises,
Foley-like sounds1, dialogues and music), three parameters were used: the syntax of random
events (the act of feeling in itself, in which the sounds can keep our interiors moving and
establish counterpoints between joyful and melancholic tunes); the syntax of sonorous body
(in which voices, instruments and sonorous textures cause different reactions in our bodies,
as if the sound penetrated our interiors through the diaphragm); and the syntax of
conventional music (a delight for the more sensitive ears).
In step with the new proposal for the Models structure, the idea was to have a specific
sound representative three of them, in total: one for music (type 1), another for noises
(type 2) and one more for speech/dialogues (type 3) at every set of three bubbles. By this
arrangement, equivalent sounds wouldnt touch or get overlapped.
In the first sketch, 27 different sounds were conceived. Assuming, though, there would be a
total of nine sets of three bubbles each and that each of these bubbles would represent one
of the three language axes (sonorous, visual and verbal), this would cause a disproportion in
the whole system. In other words, the higher number of sonorous representatives would
get mixed.
Therefore, the scheme was rebuilt in order to achieve a total of nine sounds (from three
base sounds2), as shown in Table 1.
Figures 38-39
1
2
Studies for the nine groups of sounds (left) and their respective locations/relations
(right).
Jack Foley was known to create sound effects while watching movies excerpts in an absolutely silent recording studio.
Human voice, music and sound effects.
2853
Table 1 Scheme for the Models sounds considering the three bubbles sets previously conceived.
Sound/
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Music
Noises
Voices
Figures 40-41
On the left, sketch of the sonorous sets basic structure (already considering the new
number of sounds). The letters refer to the sound connecting three bubbles together.
On the right, sketches of each sounds range zone in every set of three bubbles.
At this point, aiming a synthetic system, the criteria for editing the visual and sonorous
elements included their inner strength, emotion, rhythm and plot, using the minimal to
express their maximum. The sonorous axis then revealed itself to be a central part in this
process, helping to maintain each sets unity.
The primary colours, in their turn, placed between the bubbles, would take the role of the
Plateau channels, also called Plateau borders in the Foam, demonstrating how they
could function as a language in the audio-visual field. Depending on where the user was, he
would see the images through different colour filters, once the three colours of light would
be mixed.
In the end, this would also determine the experiments physical limits, helping the users to
know where the course and therefore the installation ended. At first, conceived as
2854
segments of curves, the colour bubbles werent doing their job efficiently. Now, as whole
bubbles, they could define an enclosed space for the Model.
Figures 42-44
Sketch and rendered images of the RGB colours working as Plateaus Channels in the
Foam Model.
2855
Figure 45 Rendered image of the RGB bubbles functioning as border lines for the experiment (the
other bubbles are inside them).
Figure 46 Sketch of the RGB bubbles.
Stage E: Post-production
Referring back to section 3.2, it wasnt interesting for the experiments purposes to have a
fixed entrance. To solve this matter, a sonorous arrangement was settled: at every three
bubbles set, its sound representative would be located in a specific coordinate, which would
indicate whether the user was close to it or not. The sound would be played in a looping,
varying its intensity according to where the person was placed: if close, the volume would be
louder; if distant, the sound would get lower, eventually vanishing. Only one music would
be located in the centre of the installation, playing the whole time. It would hardly be heard
when overlapped by the other sounds, but it would be clearly audible when alone. As such,
this one music would integrate all the bubbles the audio-visual design elements
together, reinforcing the passage of time.
2856
Figure 47 The colours vary depending on the angle the users position themselves.
Finally, for the Stage F, the final results will now be presented.
Stage F: The Final Stage

At each three bubbles set, the first thing to be seen is a synthesis scheme with every image
and sound used (and its respective authors and fonts). The tables below summarize these
schemes, presenting the three reference images (A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3 etc.) used to build
the bubbles in each set and which sound accompanied them (A.S, B.S, C.S etc.).
Table 2 Set A Images and Sounds
Image/Sound
Author
A1. Christ the
Redeemer
A.S. Roda de Samba
clemmesen/image ID 883680
www.freeimage.com
A2. BOPE in
action
Urbano Holanda, image ID 883680

www.freeimage.com
A3. Rocinha
(favela)
Christopher Pillitz
Reinhard Meissner (recording)

http://freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/164344
2857
Table 3 Set B Images and Sounds

Image/Sound
Author
B1.
Copacabana
Beach
Victor Santos/image ID 965702

www.freeimage.com
B2. Rio de
Janeiros
pavements
Cricava Technologies
www.freeimage.com
B3. Close-up
of BOPE
Christopher Pillitz
B.S. Sounds of the sea and the beach
PGSilva (recording)
http://freesound.org/people/pgonsilva/sounds/182113
Table 4 Set C Images and Sounds

Image/Sound
Author
C1. Police/young
people
www.anonymousbr4sil.net
C2. Avenues
asphalt
Joao Trevisan/image ID 1117091

www.freeimage.com
C3.
Police/journalist
C.S. Tu vai sentar quando eu mandar
Rodrigo Paica/RCPI/Folhapress
www.folha.uol.coom.br
Mc K9/Dj Edy
https://soundcloud.com/nanyeloisa22/sets/dj-edy
Table 5 Set D Images and Sounds

Image/Sound
Author
2858
D1. Supporters fighting
JAFP Photo/Heuler Andrey

http://on.rt.com/q3h6p1
D2. Poster Nosso

patriotismo vai alm de
futebol
Santini Iskra
http://noticias.terra.com.br
D3. Police/supporters
Gazeta Press
http://espn.uol.com.br/noticia/362766
D.S. Supporters in a stadium
Danilo Horio
http://tinyurl.com/o4mxepb
Table 6 Set E Images and Sounds

Image/Sound
Author
E1. Poster
Tem tanta
coisa errada
que nem cabe
em um
cartaz
NETFLU/Paulo Brito
www.netflu.com.brw
E2. Street
football
Christopher Pillitz
E3. A street of
blood
E.S. Children in the water
ARG/Crop and Drawing

Table 7 Set F Images and Sounds

Image/Sound
Author
2859
F1. Sunset
Marina Avila/image ID 1430035

www.freeimages.com/profile/donzeladef
F2. Poster Tem

tanta coisa
errada que nem
cabe em um
cartaz
NETFLU/Paulo Brito
www.netflu.com.brw
F3. Ball with no

children
Authors intervention/Mask applied to a picture
F.S. Sounds of randomness (SP)
RFAche (recording)
http://freesound.org/people/rfhache/sounds/96037
Table 8 Set G Images and Sounds

Image/Sound
Author
G1. Waterlily
Felipe Daniel Reis/image ID 1211326

www.freeimages.com/photo/1211326
G2. Football in
the mud
Christopher Pillitz
G3.
Metafavela
Christopher Pillitz
G.S. Forest sounds

Table 9 Set H Images and Sounds

Image/Sound
Author
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H1. Bahia bracelet
Julio Babin/image ID 571361

www.freeimages.com/photo/571361
H2. Me de santo
Christopher Pillitz
H3. Flag
Christopher Pillitz
H.S. Paz, Carnaval, FutebolInsolao do Corao
Agatha Vitria (composition)

Marcella Galeotti (cover)
https://goo.gl/WOHEua
The installation course happens as follows:

Christ the Redeemer looks down and embraces a favela (slum) that dances innocently in a
Roda de Samba (people gathered in a circle to play music). A Special Police Operation
Battalion (BOPE, in Portuguese) suddenly appears to protect the society, and we then
jump to a beach full of people enjoying life (in a carefree way). While Que bonito plays
in the background, we take a close look at a policeman attacking a journalist, who ends up in
many newspapers front pages (poor him!). We can even hear the official voices ordering
the overheated young people to sit down (Sit down! Sit down! Sit down!). The angels
then speak to us, and their colourful manners hold our attention. A sad one says everything
will be fine and gives us his blessing. We continue our course feeling our souls lighter (but in
fact what we really want is to stay there forever). But then the children rolling in the water
make us feel deeply ashamed, watching that street full of blood and silent posters. We then
enter a violent and cruel uproar shrouded in the supporters drum beats and it scares us.
Knocked down, we leave it just to find ourselves looking in the eyes of proud and simple
boys, whose faces demonstrate a miserable happiness. We then hear a water lily telling its
love story to a group of boys playing football our countrys flag watches them and to
supporters fighting policemen in a grandstand. Exhausted, we end up in the streets, where
distant sounds tell us that nothing ever stops. Fireworks invade our ears and we say
goodbye to that scenario, at the same time wishing to cry and to be back to it.
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Video 3 Young people inside the 3D installation. Available at https://youtu.be/SROMp9R1Ulc
Video 4 Inside the 3D Installation Passion and Violence. Available at

https://youtu.be/w3KVqLAfq3g
2862
Immersion registers
2863
Figures 48-57
Photographic images taken during the Audio-Visual Foam Model Installation.
Figure 58 Video recorded during the open show of the Audio-Visual Foam Model Installation. It
contains all the interviews that were made with the users on the occasion (available at:
<https://vimeo.com/passionandviolence/passionandviolence>).
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Final Considerations
Passion and Violence could be the name of every motion graphic designers creative
process in the 21st century, since these two words summarize what is going on in the present
and future times: the simplicity of the complexity.
The brainstorming process works pretty much like the immersive experience in the 3D
Model Installation, where the foam is constantly dealing with filled and empty spaces. If
there is something that holds our interest, we detain ourselves in that specific spot. If, on
the other hand, something else draws our attention, we go after it even if it defies our
comfort zone. In any case, we never actually abandon the experiences we just left. We
keep in touch with them in a passionate state instead, and this dynamic attitude helps us
keep our thoughts connected in our minds. Just like the transparent bubbles and their tridimensional overlaps, we, too, navigate through transparent layers of events, combining
memories, music and other peoples voices, for example, to form a complex and hybrid
narrative a complex and hybrid language, that is. And so we immerse in a design of
relations.
Hopefully, this experimental project will be able to help other audio-visual designers from
the present (and possibly the future), who are constantly dealing with violent creative
processes that transform and rip apart barriers. Among the alternation between past and
present, between new ideas and old statements, passion must be the one to overcome
violence.
[] the sounds are really beautiful and beautifully layered [] the transparency of
imagery brought it to the complexity of the narrative [] for me it was really amazing
go through different sounds and there is something about imagery and the
transparency of the bubbles that works very beautifully with the immersive
experience. The imagery is not flat as just a photograph, [] it is not an experience as
just photograph but now it is actually something vibrant and came to life
(Multimedia artist Natasa Prljevics declaration after experiencing the 3D Foam Model
Installation).
Life. This is what a designer offers to a spectator using the elements of motion graphic
(audio-visual) design language.
References
Book references
Aumont, J. (2004). O olho interminvel [cinema e pintura]. So Paulo: Cosac Naify.
Aumont, J. (2009). A Imagem. Lisbon: Edies Texto-Grafia.
Barthes, R. (2008). A cmara clara. Lisbon: Edies 70.
Bettetini, G. (1996). Laudiovisivo: dal cinema ai nuovi media. Milan: Bompiani, p. 32.
Chion, M. (2011). A audioviso. Som e Imagem no cinema. Lisbon: Edies Texto&Grafia.
Chion, M. (1999). The voice in cinema. New York: Columbia University Press.
Chion, M. (1994). Audio-vision. Sound on screen. New York: Columbia University Press.
2865
Deleuze, G. (2005). A imagem-tempo. So Paulo: Ed. Brasiliense.

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1995). Mil plats: capitalismo e esquizofrenia. So Paulo: Ed. 34.
Hollis, R. (2000). Design grfico, uma histria concisa. So Paulo: Martins Fontes.
Ivanov, V. V. (2009). Dos dirios de Serguei Eisenstein e outros ensaios. So Paulo: EDUSP.
Lupton, E., & Philips, J. C. (2008). Novos fundamentos do design. So Paulo: Cosac Naify.
Machado, R. (2009). Deleuze, a arte e a filosofia. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.
Maturana, H. (w/d). Las Organizaciones en la Era del Conocimiento. Available at:
<http://autopoiesis.cl/antecedentes.htm>. (Accessed 7 Oct. 2014).
Metz, C. (1977). A significao no cinema. So Paulo: Editora Perspectiva.
Moraes, D. de. (1997). Limites do design. So Paulo: Studio Nobel.
Moraes, D. de. (2010). Metaprojeto: o design do design. So Paulo: Blucher.
Morin, E. (2000). A inteligncia da complexidade. So Paulo: Peirpolis.
Morin, E. (2007). Introduo ao pensamento complexo. Porto Alegre: Sulina.
Murch, W. (2004). Num piscar de olhos. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editora.
Obrist, Hans U. (2010). Uma breve histria da curadoria. So Paulo: BEI Comunicao.
Parente, A. (2004). Tramas da rede: novas dimenses filosficas, estticas e polticas da
comunicao. Porto Alegre: Sulina.
Santaella, L., & Noth, W. (1998). Imagem: cognio, semitica, mdia. So Paulo: Iluminuras.
Santaella, L. (2007). Linguagens lquidas na era da mobilidade. So Paulo: Paulus.
Santaella, L. (2005). Matrizes da linguagem e pensamento sonora, verbal, visual: aplicaes na
hipermdia. So Paulo: Iluminuras, FAPESP.
Sloterdijk, P. (2009). Esferas Vol. III: Espumas. Madrid: Siruela.
Todorov, T. (1970). As estruturas narrativas. So Paulo: Perspectiva.
Weis, E., & Belton, J. (Ed.). (1985). Film sound: theory and practice. Nova York: Columbia University
Press.
5.2 Magazine and Newspaper References

Bairon, S. (June/Aug. 2010). A comunicao nas esferas, a experincia esttica e a hipermdia. Revista
da Universidade de So Paulo (n. 86). So Paulo: USP.
Branigan, E. (1976). The Articulation of Color in a Filmic System. Wide Angle (v. 1, n. 3).
Machado, A. (1993). Fotografia em Mutao. Jornal Nicolau (n. 1). Retrieved from
www.uel.br/pos/.../wp.../downs-uteis-fotografia-em-mutacao.pdf (Accesed 10 May 2011).
Moran, J. M. (2011). Influncia dos meios de comunicao no conhecimento. Revista Cincia da
Informao (v. 23, n. 2). Retrieved from
http://revista.ibict.br/index.php/ciinf/article/viewArticle/1186 (Accessed 4 April 2011).
Murch, W. Dense Clarity Clears clarity. Transom Review (vol. 5/issue 1). Retrieved from
http://goo.gl/Hkh2dC (Accessed 8 May 2014).
Pontes, R., & Niemeyer, L. (2010). Matrizes de Linguagem e Pensamento como Anlise da Identidade
Televisiva. Revista Triades Transversalidade, Design, Linguagens (vol. 1). Retrieved from
http://goo.gl/UfDRwB (Accessed 7 July 2014).
Rossi, D. C. (2007). O Audiovisual Digital como Design de Relaes. Retrieved from
www.cibersociedad.net/recursos/art_div.php? id=228 (Accessed 3 March 2011).
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Salles, F. S. (2008). A Trilha Sonora no cinema. Retrieved from www.scoretrack.net/trilhas.html

(Accessed 11 Nov. 2011).
Schincariol, Z. (2006). Design Grfico e design em movimento: tipografia e expresso. VII Congresso
Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Design. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/hiwRr5
(Accessed 10 Apr. 2011).
Silva, W. O., & Sousa, M. C. S. McLuhan, Deleuze e a linguagem do cinema: a imagem. Retrieved from
www.bocc.ubi.pt/pag/bocc-mcluhan-deleuze-oliveira.pdf. (Accessed 1 Jun. 2011).
Wade, N. J. (1994). Hermann Von Helmholtz (1821-1944). Perception (v. 23), 981-9.
5.3 Movie References

Kopelson, A. (Producer), & Fincher, D. (Director). (1998). Seven [Motion Picture]. Los Angeles: New
Line Cinema.
5.4 Image References

<http://goo.gl/akhgd2> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<www.folha.uol.com.br> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<www.freeimages.com/photo/654835> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://http://goo.gl/YkYgG1> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://goo.gl/dxJPnL> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/logjam)>. (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://goo.gl/CKYOgK> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://goo.gl/TRjTx1> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://www.henripousseur.net/bio.php> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http:// www.freeimages.com> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0100-40422010000900028> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://espn.uol.com.br/noticia/362766> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://filmsound.org/foley/jackfoley.htm> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://freesound.org/people/pgonsilva/sounds/182113> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/13725> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://freesound.org/people/rfhache/sounds/96037> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://goo.gl/7Hgg9L> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://goo.gl/CKYOgK> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://goo.gl/TRjTx1> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://noticias.terra.com.br> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://noticias.terra.com.br> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://on.rt.com/q3h6p1> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://tinyurl.com/o4mxepb> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://www.ccba.com.br/asp/cultura_texto.asp?idtexto=371> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1211326> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
2867
<http://www.freeimages.com/photo/571361> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).

<http://www.freeimages.com/profile/donzeladef> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://www.netflu.com.br> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<https://soundcloud.com/nanyeloisa22/sets/dj-edy> (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
<http://goo.gl/dxJPnL>. (Accesed 8 Nov. 2015).
About the Authors:

Anamaria Galeotti Professor, researcher and Undergraduate
Coordinator for the Graphic Design Department at the School of Arts,
Architecture, Design and Fashion of Anhembi Morumbi University
(SP, Brazil). Her interests are Language, Audio Visual Design, and
Design as Interactive Experiences, Experimental and Creative
Processes.
Clice Mazzilli Associate Professor, researcher and PhD advisor at the
School of Architecture and Urbanism of University of So Paulo.
Coordinates the Editorial Production Laboratory and has experience
in the following subjects: Visual Design, Experimental and Creative
Processes, Playful and Interactive Spaces.
2868
Experience A Central Concept in Design and its

Roots in the History of Science
Johannes Uhlmann, Christian Wlfel* and Jens Krzywinski
Technische Universitt Dresden
*christian.woelfel@tu-dresden.de
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.365
Abstract: This paper traces the roots of theories on experience and experiencing in
the history of science of the 19th and 20th century. From the concepts of Wilhelm
Dilthey (18331911) and others, a phenomenological model of experiencing has been
derived for industrial design around 1990, which is to be published internationally for
the first time in this paper. From a current view, this model does not provide new
opportunities on designing or evaluating user experience. However, it can be used to
bridge theories and findings from the late 19th and early 20th century with current
models of user experience, which are more comprehensive and can be used beyond
the description of experiencing. These models also offer methods for designing,
evaluating and even quantitatively measuring user experience, or have a stronger
focus on emotions.
Keywords: product experience; experiencing; history of science
Introduction
Since about the year 2000, there is a notable increase of considering experience and
experiencing being core issues in design (see Bargas-Avila & Horbaek, 2011 for a review).
Accordingly, design itself is being referred to the concept of experience as one of its bases.
What design actually is, can then be explained from this reference. The question that arises
is whether the choice of the term experience as a central one for design is a temporary
phenomenon, or whether the term is truly suitable to provide the field with a conceptual
foundation that is epistemologically valid and empirically verifiable. In the still short history
of design as an institutionalized discipline, the conjunctures of basic terminologies and
underlying concepts followed the rules of the market in recurring characteristic cycles, as
concisely described by Jonas (1994).

Already in the 1980s, experience has been cautiously introduced as a core concept in the
academic engagement with industrial design (e. g. Uhlmann 1986). After the Millennium, the
concepts of user experience (UX) became more prominent in research as well as in practice
of design. Today, there is a broad agreement on experiencing being a fundament of design,
thus being part of many design curricula (see Jordan 2000, McCarthy & Wright 2004, Desmet
& Hekkert 2002, Desmet 2003, Hassenzahl 2004, Thring & Mahlke 2007, Roto et al. 2011,
Wlfel & Thoring 2014).
As it is the case for design research in general, there is also a special notion of experience in
the German academic and design practice. The German translation for experience, both as
the verb erleben and the noun Erlebnis, has a notable etymological background. Its root
refers to the word Leben (to live or life). Erleben and Erlebnis are considered untranslatable
into other languages, leading them to become loanwords for other languages in their heyday
at the beginning of the 19th century (cf. Gadamer 1960/1991, Pongratz 1967). At the end of
the 19th century both terms made their way into the world of science, and until the 1930s
they were a central focus of academic work in several fields.
In German everyday culture and language, the term experience, in the sense of its German
equivalents erleben and Erlebnis, is used to designate particular, mostly sensual events that
stand out from the undifferentiated happenings in everyday life. It is used as a synonym for
feelings. The term has become a value-based one as the zeitgeist caused its clear and rigid
meaning to transform into an amoeba-like notion, which is flexibly usable according to
demand and capable of a diversity of meaning (cf. Bischof 2008:38).
Equally noteworthy as the etymology of erleben is its current standing in academia. If
referred to scientifically outside the design domain, erleben or experience, will most likely be
associated with the discipline of psychology as the science of human experience and
behaviour. Anyone outside the field of psychology will likely expect to find an ample amount
of information on this topic in the field's current literature. However, one might be
disappointed. According to Sichler (1998), the meaning of the term is hardly taken into
account today by the discipline itself, ...in spite of it being a basic concept of psychology.
He argues:
...currently, academic psychology does not concern itself either conceptually or
empirically with the human experience. ... Neither today's basic theoretical discussion
nor the current prominent research or inquiry reflects an understanding of this
problem. (Sichler 1998: 68).
In contrast, prior to the middle of the 20th century, the use of the term of experience or
erleben was flourishing. Researching relevant literature from this period, a third noticeable
feature occurs: the academic preoccupation with erleben or experience has essentially been
a German concern. This aspect may limit the scope of research, but does not truly facilitate
finding a comprehensive overview of research to date and the scope still remains unclear.
Figure 1 depicts a rough historical timeline of academic preoccupation with the concept of
erleben.
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Experience A Central Concept in Design and its Roots in the History of Science
The Trowel an example for product experience

Prior to further detailing of historical research on experience, one example of product
experience from the literature is referred to. The chosen example for product experience
relevant to design is the trowel by Gert Selle (1997):
From a time when I had to earn my money as a labourer in construction I remember
that quarrels would sometimes arise for seemingly petty reasons. If, in the morning or
after the break, someone had by mistake picked up the tools of another a shovel or a
trowel , they would raise their voices, even fists. The reason became apparent to me
when I realized what that meant: your own tools. A mason needs his trowel and no
other. The handling of a tool of the same type, with a hardly distinguishable or even
identical form, is not at all the same. Apart from the unconscious, emotional
attachment to a tool that was long-tried in the use of one's own hand there are
physical distinctions which are to be respected: the grip of the fist around the smoothworn handle of the trowel, the unmistakable notch in the wood, the hardened rest of
cement on the crank. And then there is the peculiarly ground edge on the metal,
shaped by the countless individual movements of smoothing layers of plaster. The
weight of the heavy, wet material in need of been being tossed exactly at the right
spot requires a well-balanced tool which is suited to allow for that single unerring
tilted hurl by the wrist. With another trowel that is as if one had to change tennis
racks in the middle of a match. A mason knows immediately whether he is holding his
own or another man's tool in his hand. (Selle 1997)
The terms experience and behaviour in the definition of psychology are polar and
complementary terms at their extremes. Superior to them is consciousness which includes
the unconscious. There are transitions between conscious and unconscious processes,
wherein the unconscious captures activities that exist in reality, but are not attended by
consciousness (Stdtler 2003: 1132f.).
At the centre of consciousness between the pair of polar opposites experience and
behaviour, stands the ego with its integral parts of the unconscious's super-ego and id. The
ego is the centre of experience and behaviour (Scharfetter 1991: 61), or the core of
consciousness, which everything refers to. The terms ego-proximity and ego-distance are to
designate the distance of contents of consciousness to the core of consciousness. Relations,
as described in the example with the trowel, can be deciphered for an analysis of experience
through intentionality. The term intentionality refers to the basic characteristic of
consciousness to always relate to something. In doing so, it is entirely irrelevant for
consciousness whether this reference point is an outer or an inner object (Brentano 1874).
With regards to content, the intentional relationship between Gert Selle and his trowel is
differentiated and rich in the variety of its references. All single intentional events as well as
the intentional relation altogether, hold a considerable positive significance for his ego, from
which the meaning of these events for this ego is derived. The term ego-proximity is meant
to describe the distinctive evaluative aspect of intentional events, which in the given
example carries a positive connotation. Any event with ego-proximity is experienced as a
direct involvement and with a certainty that cannot be doubted.
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From an analytical outside perspective, there are nineteen intentional events in the
description of the trowel experience that are characteristic for direct (pathic) involvement.
One can imagine Gert Selle before he took up his job at the construction site. At that time he
naturally knew that construction sites, trowels and much more existed but he was not yet
personally implicated. All of these held a status of ego-distance. It was experience outside
myself. The number of comparable intentional events to the trowel would be zero. If this
example could be generalized, then the criteria for successful design would be the highest
possible ego-proximity, and ego-proximity would be the categorical imperative of design.
Objects with a status of ego-proximity are integrated into the total individual intentional
multiplicity of relations that a person is capable of. With great ego-proximity the object
becomes an essential part of the person. The objective of ego-proximity in design makes the
personality the reference point or system for customer-oriented and experience-centred
design.
A timeline of engagement with experience

in the history of science
The timeline in figure 1 reveals that experience, or Erleben, appears only once, namely as
psychology of experience (Erlebenspsychologie). This name sums up four trends in
psychology between 1890 and the 1930s. All of them have contributed significant research
on the subject of experience, but in the designations of their respective approaches, the
term experience does not even appear. It is also likely that psychology of experience did not
exist as such, but was instead used by Pongratz (1967) in order to summarize various
psychological schools that had emerged at the time.
Those fields with academic relevance to experience are depicted on the timeline. It can be
noticed that psychology of experience only had a limited historical duration. In other fields
the term experience remained in use. Outside the field of psychology, phenomenology and
psychiatry and psychopathology are to be named. Within the field of psychology, it is
psychology of emotions with its concepts, which researches emotions in relationship to the
entirety of consciousness for example in the cognitive theories of emotions. A further
example within psychology is the development in modern neurosciences since the 1980s. At
the time it was recognized that emotions and feelings had been scientifically neglected, so
that the period was occasionally referred to as emotional revolution (Drner & Studel 1990,
cf. Stdtler 2003). In neurosciences, this interest was fueled by the possibilities of modern
medical imaging, and from then on the number of popular scientific publications on the
subject, particularly on the relationship between the emotions and the brain, has constantly
increased. One of the influent authors is the American neurologist and neurobiologist
Antonio R. Damasio (1994, 1999). His books contains a neurobiological theory of experience
which is classified, however, under the general terms of emotions and feelings: here he
deals with experience as a subject, but it is not labeled as such. Taking into account the older
literature on experience, one will be surprised not to find major findings in today's scientific
mainstream compared to earlier research. Each of these trends, the ones illustrated on the
2872
timeline being just examples, as well as the psychology of experience, emerged around 1890
(figure 1).
Figure 1 selected concepts of experience in a timeline of history of science
In the psychological schools of experience (including those shown in figure 1 but also others)
before 1950, experience, as in the German word Erleben, was a basic term with a singular
and non-exchangeable significance, used to make sense of life, the world and humans,
including oneself. Looking at the timeline, it becomes clear that not everything that is about
experience is labeled as such, and it has to be added that, not everything labeled as
experience actually refers to experience in that sense. The later statement applies in
particular to the colloquial use of the word in present everyday culture, as has been pointed
out above.
Irrespective of different fields, there existed a common basic understanding about the
phenomena of consciousness and experience during that period. Consciousness was
understood as the collective designation for sensing, perceiving, imagining, thinking,
memory, feelings, motivation etc., thereby including physical processes that one can
become aware of in one's mind. Experience refers to the fact that one can become aware of
this totality of consciousness only through self-reflection, because it can be accessed in its
entirety only by the individual human possessing that consciousness. The one factor or
unifying principle which reveals that experience really is the subject matter, though it may
not be labeled as such, is holism. The term holism (Ganzheit), along with Gestalt, first
appeared in psychology around 1900, and both terms were to some extent used
2873
synonymously (Pongratz 1967: 286, 301). Holism, the full breadth of consciousness, in that it
contains all capacity for human consciousness, including the unconscious and physical
processes, and the fact that experience is characterized by its direct and implicit
involvement, thus only accessible to the experiencing person, are the most important
attributes in the common understanding of the concept of experience.
It was Wilhelm Dilthey who first coined a valid conceptual formulation for experience as a
process (erleben) and as an event (das Erlebnis). Even after one hundred years his approach
still remains viable. He first formulated an elaborate philosophical and psychological concept
for a scientific theory of experience, one that is based on an empirical foundation and free
from any theoretical presuppositions and transcendental positing (CW I, VI). Dilthey
established the human sciences as an experiential science of cognitive perception and thus
also became the founder of an epistemology of the humanities (Schischkoff 1991: 142). For
him, a psychology of experience is correlated to this purpose and is the empirical
foundational discipline for such an epistemology. Dilthey's empirical maxim is to strive to
understand life out of itself (CW V: 4). His superior principle is holism, which he viewed in
relationship to experience more decisively than any other predecessor of the later gestalt
psychology or holistic psychology (Ganzheitspsychologie, Pongratz 1967: 260).
From the year 1883 stems a very concise definition of experience by Dilthey himself that
sums up his approach while giving it concise expression. Dilthey defined: Experience is
consciousness as it is here for me (Dilthey 1883/1982, cf. Riedel 1978: 72). For him,
experience is the personal encounter with life of the individual human in his or her
respective society and in the historical context by means of his or her own consciousness
from the inside out. Experience is life, one's own life as well as that of others and of the
world at large from the inner perspective.
Next to holism, temporality is a second defining category for life and experience in Dilthey's
approach. This life contains temporality as its first categorical determinant which is
foundational to all others. (CW VII: 192). According to Dilthey, experience is a process (a
stream of events, a happening, a procedure) and not a static seizable event. The temporal
character of this process can be demonstrated through a self-experiment by applying a
mechanical process model, which makes it differ in complexity compared to the real
experiencing. One may imagine the concepts of past, present and future with the intention
to determine with the results of this experiment just what the past, present and future are.
You can start with the present that may be imagined as now. Try as you might, you will not
be able to grasp the contents of either one of these three concepts. If you think that you
caught the present, it is already gone and has become future, and likewise with the past,
before one has been able to seize it, it has become the present, etc.
Already this simple experiment, despite its simplification compared to reality, hints at
fundamental differences between physical time and experienced, inner time. Common to
both is the observable process effect, which, however, in the real and non-simulated
experiencing emerges in a different manner. In the real experience, the parts are not
causally connected but, just as in fiction writing, they are connected through content via
2874
events. The time which separates and binds them is not measured by clocks but by that
which happens (CW VI: 221).
The process of experience or experiencing occurs in two structural types: as a structure of
succession and structure of simultaneity (Pongratz 1967: 261). The structure of succession
describes experience as a continually passing process. The structure of simultaneity refers to
everything that happens simultaneously in any given moment of this process. It is like a
cross-section through the structure of succession. Dilthey himself called the structure of
simultaneity a state of consciousness, status conscientiae (CW V: 201ff.). In varying
proportions it contains will, cognition (thinking) and emotions. In figure 2 this structural
correlation is depicted by the interpenetration of the two structural types.
The relationship between the structure of succession and the structure of simultaneity and
their parts is established through contents. Unlike in the self-experiment they are not
formally and causally connected with each other but are connected by a common meaning
of these parts to the whole of greater units of experience and the course of life. Meaning is
an evaluation method which selects, bundles and combines parts according to their
significance in any moment of life in reference to the entirety of the life course. The
essential factor of life is the now as a part of the present in the sequence of past-presentfuture of which it is the center. The now rests upon on the past and is oriented towards the
future. The material that it uses from the past depends on its evaluation in the moment in
reference to the whole of the life course. What has been experienced can lie far in the past
or be very close. The extent to which the now reaches into the future depends on the
meaning of the anticipated goal in the context of greater units of experience and the overall
life course.
Figure 2 simplified scheme of the theoretical framework of Dilthey
Dilthey defined the experience as the smallest unit of the process of experiencing. It is the
smallest unit which possesses a coherent meaning within the course of life. Its structural
2875
setup is the same as the one of the process of experiencing a structural parallelism that
also holds for any action as a unit of activity as described by Hacker in his modern theory of
action regulation (1986, 2005).
The permanent effectiveness of both structures takes place unnoticed in the background of
the conscious experiencing and acting for example, as a kind of primal experience. This
primal experience may be imagined by comparing the dreamless state of deep sleep or that
of unconsciousness with a pain-free waking state. In both instances we are alive, but we are
only conscious of it in the waking state. Compared to the other two states, in the latter we
will be able to at least make out a sort of background noise in the interiority of the mind.
This is where experience begins.
Some attributes of the primal experience are
its non-conceptual quality in the sense that it has not yet been conceptually
processed or is not conceptual at all,
its irrevocability and incorrigibility. Thoughts can be revoked and revised,
experiencing and the experienced cannot,
its capacity to accumulate,
its passive and unquestionable character. One is under the impression that it
came into being and exists without one's own efforts or somehow comes from
the outside. Moreover, it gives the sense that what one experiences is in itself
true. Doubt of this being so is only possible through reflection, when one no
longer abides in that state of primal experience,
the certainty that one has experienced it him- or herself
its fugitiveness, frailness and vulnerability (corruptibility in Dilthey's terms,
CW VIII: 79, 140, CW VII: 229, 325).
In the primal experience, it is not details which are captured but greater units of meaning.
Heidegger gave the well-known example of the lectern according to which, upon entering an
auditorium one conceives the lectern not by the number of its brown wood panels, its
geometric or other features but as a whole unit of meaning as the lecturing desk in this
auditorium.
Notable for the primal experience is that within it the subject-object separation of one's
normal and habitual perception seems to disappear; suddenly it does not exist any longer. In
the intentional state of greatest ego-proximity (as in the trowel example) the object
seemingly dissolves in the ego or merges with it.
The primal experience is immediately disrupted by the reflection of consciousness on itself,
which is the reason why it cannot be accessed at the time of its occurrence by the
experiencer him- or herself, as is the case with experiencing in general. Experience that is
describable in speech and written is always based on remembered and reflected experience.
What is called primal experience here should not be confused with the unconscious, for its
characteristic is that it is accessible to the state of conscious being (or consciousness) since
its capacity for consciousness is an inherent attribute.
2876
All these characteristics taken together reveal that experience is an inner, highly private and
intimate matter. The form of communication of this inner to the outer is the expression.
Leibniz provided a conceptual definition that remains relevant even until today describing an
expression as the ways and means with which the soul conveys what is happening within it
(Schischkoff 1991: 52). Through the performance of expressions, the human is able to assure
him- or herself of his or her own individual existence. The expression also is the interface via
which experience becomes communicable. Expression can mean many different things
facial expression, gestures, body language or odor, a scientific work, a technical construct,
art, and so forth. For the reader of this article, the expression of experience in the design
object will be of interest.
With the triad of experience expression understanding, Dilthey developed a basic model
for a general theory of understanding (hermeneutics, from the Greek word hermeneutik:
the art of interpretation). This methodology is for him the counterpart to the methodology
of explaining in the natural sciences. In the natural sciences the focus is to reveal
relationships in the form of laws regarding mechanical, causal and deterministic structures
so as to control and predict them. Dilthey's hermeneutic interest lies particularly in literature
and poetry. Also, in general it would seem written text and natural language as the means of
expression are of high scientific interest not just in the field of hermeneutics.
The relationship between experience and expression is immediate because their
characteristics are identical. What is revealed outwardly of the experience is expression. The
expression is the medium by which experience shows itself outwardly. The expression makes
the participating in the experience of the other or others possible. Dilthey formulated
markedly: Understanding is the re-finding of the I in the you; ... (CW VII: 191). His
perception scheme for this is: Only what the mind has created, it will understand. (CW VII:
148).
During the last years of his life Dilthey began, though never completed, the attempt to
delineate a typology of worldviews based on his concept of experience and on the
methodological triad of his hermeneutic approach. According to his conception, world views
are the result of effort that became historically effective in striving to combine the three
fundamental forces of world-relation cognition, will and emotionality into a coherent
interpretation of reality as a whole. It is in this context that the question of experience as a
stable, lasting and fashion-independent basic term in the design appears. Several reasons
may account for the cessation of the psychology of experience which is shown as the freestanding white block in the lower middle of the timeline. Later on, the psychology of
experience was labeled as typically German and stigmatized as a philosophical, speculative,
subjectivistic and ultimately unscientific psychology (Pongratz 1967: 255).
From 1913 onwards, psychology of experience was accompanied by behaviorism, which had
emerged in the United States. The school of behaviorism was historically the most important
school of psychology and dominated academic psychology worldwide up until the cognitive
revolution in the 1960s (Stdtler 2003: 115). Behaviorism was the attempt to explain the
human as well as the animal by biological mechanisms that can be observed, registered and
2877
measured from an outside perspective. In its first and most radical phase, consciousness was
not taken into account at all. Also other familiar concepts such as perceiving, imagining,
thinking, wanting and feeling had to be dropped (Pongratz 1967: 312). Two trends in
psychology with comparable goals, one being the so called psychology of consciousness
(Bewusstseinspsychologie), which historically preceded psychology of experience, and the
other being behaviorism, form a temporal frame around the psychology of experience.
Psychology of consciousness was the first scientific psychology as such. With its emergence,
psychology liberated itself from philosophy to become a discipline of its own. Psychology of
consciousness arose from 1850 onwards in Germany following the standards of the
successful sciences, with physics being its vanguard. Its research aimed at discovering causal
laws of nature in the psyche through experiment, as had been done in physics with
inanimate nature.
Conclusively, it is altogether likely that the psychology of experience became the victim of
ideological prejudice and the temporal framing of positivist and rationalist trends in science.
The term experience and its structure

Measured by the citation rate in the course of history since the 17th century, the most
popular approach to verify experience as a basic term has been the method of doubt
employed by mathematician and philosopher Ren Descartes (1637). Descartes asked
himself what it is that he can know to be true, since he is able to doubt everything. He finds
that everything can be doubted, the world as perceived by the senses, even god but he
cannot doubt that it is he himself who doubts. What he is left with is cogito ergo sum (I
think, therefore I am), a conclusion which he arrives at by having applied his capacity for
thinking according to the laws of logic and by drawing on his entire knowledge base. But the
Cartesian cogito ergo sum may also be interpreted as I have consciousness, or I have a soul,
therefore I am (cf. Eckhard 2010: 36, Husserl 1985: 147f.). The cogito ergo sum of Descartes
includes any I perceive, I remember, I fantasize, I reason, I feel, want, will. The I or self that
all these properties refer to or that lives inside them in various ways: active, suffering,
spontaneous, receptive or otherwise behaving (cf. Husserl 1985:1 48), is the content of
cogito ergo sum.
When applying the core characteristics of experience, including in particular the structure of
simultaneity and the attributes of the primal experience, an interpretation of the cogito ergo
sum as I experience, therefore I am is entirely plausible. Interpreted in the sense of
experience, the cogito ergo sum is given a much wider scope of meaning and becomes
inclusive of the faculty of cognition as in I think, as well as the will and the emotions. The
various interpretations of Descartes cogito... were apparently caused by the then current
interests in the prevailing socio-historical environment. In the context of Kant's
epistemology which has a strong influence well into the present, as well as the
accomplishments in mathematics and natural sciences since the 17th and 18th century, the
reading of cogito as thinking would be the correct one at the time.
2878
Karl Jaspers (18831969) called the certainty regarding experience that Descartes found
basic knowledge. This is the knowledge which ... is the prerequisite for all other
knowledge, and it ... is also called a priori. As such, it is the universal a priori of
consciousness per se , it is the historical a priori of the present humanness in its world as
it has passed down in tradition, [with each individual human being] as a unique gestalt, as
an incarnation of the general, gaining its meaning and weight not through the general but
from the infinite This. (Jaspers 1913/1948: 275). This general a priori from Jaspers, this
fundamental knowing regarding the nature of one's own existence, was described by the
mathematician and philosopher Edmund Husserl (18591938) in his phenomenology as an
essential attribute of the human species (Husserl 1985). With this distinction, Husserl carries
on Descartes' approach but also considerably transcends him methodologically. In the
movement of existentialism in the 20th century (with Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus
being some of its proponents for example) this a priori was the fundamental certainty from
where all philosophising started.
A Structural model of experience

From the above it may be concluded that experience is the comprising designation for the
common, daily, significant as well as insignificant, mostly private, unforeseen processes of
consciousness that unceasingly occur within our minds as an unbroken stream of content.
Experience is the world, as perceived in the interior of one's mind, including the perceiver
himself. Experience is the most comprehensive term for everything we perceive in our
minds.
However, experience is a very wide-ranging concept which comprises the entire being of the
human with his or her capacity for consciousness. What has been discussed so far with
regards to the primary features of the concept of experience emphasises this statement. For
daily use, for example in design practice, a readily applicable, universal, stable and lasting
conception of experience is sensible and necessary in order to determine whether that
which is labelled as experience is truly about experience.
Based on what has been presented so far, Dilthey's structure of simultaneity seems to be a
possibility. It describes the makeup and composition of experience in their entirety
according to the characteristics or elements that constitute it, i.e. the thinking, perceiving,
wanting and feeling at a given moment in time. It this, that Dilthey called a state of
consciousness or status conscientiae. In the language of engineering, this model describes
the structural makeup of experience at that particular moment.
2879
Figure 3 a compass model of experience for navigating through experience
Because of its function for navigation and finding out whether that which is labelled as
experience is truly about experience, this structural model may serve as a compass model
of experience (figure 3).
The structural model has been derived from the classical theories of capacity in the Western
world which comprise age-old experiences and reflections of humanity on its existence
(Eisler 1904, Stdtler 2003, et al.). Here, the model is referenced to Dilthey and will
subsequently be outlined in further detail in its historic context.
The theories of capacity start from the fact, that as of old, humans have contemplated
whether and how their psychic abilities, or in modern terms, cognitive capacities, can be
structured and classified. In Eisler's philosophical encyclopedia (1904) more than one
hundred authors in Western culture are mentioned in this category since the time of the
Pythagoreans. The most prominent classification for modern times is the one by Johann
Nikolaus Tetens (17361807). From him stems the trichotomy of psychic abilities, later
called forces of consciousness, as will (conation or volition), reason (cognition) and feeling
(emotion) (Tetens 1777), which remains valid in psychology up until today. Tetens'
trichotomy was adopted by Kant in his Critiques (Kant 1790).
Before and still during the time of Tetens and Kant, it was assumed that will, reason and
feeling were separate autonomous activities because they were not deducible according to
the principle of sufficient reason. Therefore Kant was able to prioritize reason, whereas he
compared the effects of emotions with diseases. The view of will, reason and emotion as
autonomous activities was overcome at the end of the 19th century. Early experiments in
gestalt psychology, among others, already showed that it was not possible to reconcile this
assumption with the results of the experiments. What they revealed was that no process of
2880
consciousness consists of pure thought or conception, or pure will or pure emotion alone.
Rather it became obvious that will, reason and emotion are dispositions within one and the
same process of consciousness which also includes the unconscious (Stern 1911/1994). In
this process either one psychic factor will outweigh the others. Hence it is always to be kept
in mind that reason, will and emotion should be treated as separate functions only for
analytical or didactic purposes. If the compass-model is applied to the reductionist definition
of experience as it is used in contemporary everyday language and culture, one will end up
with an outcome as shown in figure 5. This exaggerated scenario suggests that reason was
almost amputated from experience.
Figure 5 the model applied to contemporary common understanding of experience

deprived of cognition part
Figure 6 the concept of experience reduced to intellect as practice in functionalism at the time.
2881
Applying the compass model to the doctrine of functionalism, the use of experience, in its
widened definition, would lead to a scenario as depicted in figure 6. Unaware of the fact that
experience in its wholeness effects consciousness at all times, whether one wishes it to or
not, concept and design objectives were directed towards a mere cognitive perception. It
was assumed that design had to be as rational and objectively justifiable as is technology.
Efficacy of emotions was denied except for basic reactions of the sense organs to external
stimuli. Again somewhat exaggerated, figure 6 aims at showing how experience was
understood in the context of functionalism at the time.
In the compass-model in figure 3, instead of reason, will and emotion, their modern day
designations, cognition, conation or volition and emotion are used. The modern term
cognition comprises the entirety of non-emotional and non-volitional functions of the
psyche. It thus refers to those processes that are active in the formulation of understanding
and knowledge, particularly to perception, imagination, thinking, comprehension and
reasoning (Stdtler 2003: 544). The terms conation and volition describe psychic functions
connected to the will. They stand for directed psychic activities, for aspirations, drive and, in
general, for desire (Dorsch 2004: 4987). Emotion is the summarising designation for changes
in the psycho-physiological state induced by outer and inner stimuli and/or cognitive
processes (Frhlich 2002: 148).
The functional feedback relationship between the various parts of the compass-model,
indicated by the reversible arrows in figure 3, may be imagined in such a way that cognitions
embody knowledge material as well as its related processes, which are connected with the
two other parts in a regulatory relationship. The cognitive processes analyse, break down
and singularize. Conation provides the impetus and is the directing faculty for goals and their
variable handling according to circumstances. The emotions are located between them as
evaluative entities, and they have the task to integrate the actions of the person via a
multitude of moderator signals. By means of mechanisms of evaluation and adjustment the
emotions assure the integrity of action which otherwise may be lost as a result of
singularising (Drner & Studel 1990).
Discussion
The aim of this paper was to bridge the historical findings of academic research on
experience with the current debate on product experience and user experience. Especially
before 1945, the English language was not as predominant in academia as it is today. Hence,
the differentiation between the verb erleben and the noun Erlebnis became more attention
then and may enhance current research. Since there were (and are) different academic
disciplines being engaged with the concept of experience using different terminology, there
are theories and findings that are worth being considered relevant for design. Although
Freud's concept of ego, super-ego and id are discussed controversially (if not disproved as
non-scientific), the aspects of the conscious and the unconscious (cf. tacit and implicit
knowledge) are still an issue in current psychological research and may be linked to design
research as well.
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In this paper, a phenomenological model of user experience has been presented, which was
derived especially from the Work of Dilthey in the early 20th century. This model can be used
to understand and describe product experience in a contemporary sense. It does not provide
any assistance for designing or evaluating particular user experiences. However, due to its
similarities with other current models of user experience, it links these to comprehensive
theories in the history of sciences, which engaged with the concept of experience between
the middle of the 19th and the middle of the 20th century.
Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank Martina Dietrich, who helped to
translate parts of this paper from German language.
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About the Authors:
Johannes Uhlmann was trained as an industrial designer at the
Weiensee Academy of Art Berlin. He holds a PhD and habilitation in
design from Technische Universitt Dresden, Germany, where he was
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full professor in industrial design engineering between 1992 and

2007.
Christian Wlfel, PhD is a trained industrial designer, researcher and
lecturer at Technische Universitt Dresden, Germany. His research
interests include, among others, product experience in professional
domains. His own design practice focuses on industrial goods and
medical devices.
Jens Krzywinski, PhD is junior professor in industrial design
engineering at Technische Universitt Dresden, Germany. Based on
the users experiencing as well as needs of all stakeholders,
enterprise and market he conducts research and development of
products, systems and services for professional scenarios of
tomorrow and beyond.
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SECTION 18
EMBODIED MAKING AND LEARNING
Introduction: Embodied Making and Learning

Marte S. Gulliksena*, Camilla Grothb, Maarit Mkelc and Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainenb
a
University College of Southeast Norway

Helsinki University, Finland
c
Aalto University, Finland
*marte.gulliksen@hit.no
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.605
b
Theory on the embodied mind has evolved rapidly in the past decade, influencing research
on cognition in all strands of science. Also the field of Design has started to investigate the
implications of understanding the Mind as fundamentally dependent on the embodied
interaction with our environment for development. Design- and craft researchers have for
long consulted theories close to phenomenology in the search to understand the implicit
and experiential knowledge that emerges in the act of making.
Theories on Tacit Knowledge (Polanyi, 1958, 1966), Affordances (Gibson, 1986; Norman,
1988) and Knowing-in-action (Schn, 1983) may all be directly linked to the theory on the
embodied mind (Damasio, 1999; Johnson, 2007, Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999; No, 2004,
2009; Thompson, 2010; Varela, Thompson, & Rosch, 1991). Although there are different
strands, the general theory on the embodied mind may be summed up to the following four
E:s - The mind is Embodied, thus we are situated and our understandings are Embedded. Our
mind is Enacted through the body. We offload meaning on external objects, thus our mind is
Extended (Damasio, 1999; Johnson, 2007).
For design research, this theoretical framework opens up issues of practice for theoretical
pondering. If all knowing is facilitated by the body and emerges in interaction with the
environment, making with materials appear as a fundamental way of gaining knowledge. As
making is contributing to intrapersonal sense making and development it may be used as a
platform also for interpersonal sense making and communication in education as well as in
the design practice.
In this thematic session papers explore the phenomenon of embodied making and the
conditions for it within the wide spectrum of design processes, and how embodied making
contribute to learning during the design process. Papers presented in this additional theme
considers the basic conditions and consequences of being a body in the world, experiencing
Marte S. Gulliksen, Camilla Groth, Maarit Mkel and Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen.
and learning through working in materials. The term design processes is used in a broad
sense: the focus is on the act of making, and the maker could thus be everyone engaged in
creative processes making objects in a material.
Understanding making processes and cognitive processes as embodied, has consequences
for our understanding of learning and knowledge, supporting previous research drawing on
an epistemological stand of knowledge as activity (Dewey, 1958; Eisner, 2002; Molander,
2015; Schn, 1983). Such accounts can now be referred to as embodied learning (Juelskjr,
Moser, & Schilhab, 2008). An embodied learning perspective highlights the link between the
bodys activity and cognitive development in learning, expanding the traditional view of
learning as an abstract, mental process (Bengtsson, 2013; Engelsrud, 2006; Moser, 2014).
This has the potential to contribute to the debate in the present global educational situation,
where engagement in making processes is not readily aligned to international tests,
standardization, or educational accountability (Bamford, 2006).
The thematic session provides both an incitement and a platform for presenting and
discussing various aspects of embodied making and learning. The papers presented in this
track discuss core issues of embodied making and learning through various theoretical and
methodological means.
The first presentation, The role of sensory experiences and emotion in craft practice by
Camilla Groth, links sensory experiences with emotion and sense making in craft practice.
Drawing on new knowledge on embodied cognition that upgrades the importance of
emotions in risk assessment and decision making process, she presents a practice-led study
in clay throwing. Groths analysis of how emotions and experience guided her risk
assessment, decision making and problem solving expand current knowledge of the role of
emotions and sensory experiences in the embodied making processes in craft practice.
In our second presentation, Learning what it means to learn: first-hand experience in the
process of material transformations, By Biljana Fredriksen we dive into the sense making
process of children and learn how their embodied material exploration aids in new
understandings. The paper present specific examples of three year old childrens first-hand
experiences in material transformation, and discusses how these experiences relate to their
learning. Fredriksen proposes that even adult learn through such experiences, and that it
even could be an arena for learning how to learn.
After these two introductory presentations we will hear about two research projects that
combine design research with neuroscience. Traditionally the mind has been studied
separately from the body, but as a new understanding about the embodied mind has
emerged there is a need to research the embodied mind in action. The first of these two
presentations, Why making mattersdeveloping an interdisciplinary research project on
how embodied making may contribute to learning by Marte S. Gulliksen, envisions a new
project development that would be truly interdisciplinary. Knowledge from the rapidly
developing neurosciences shows promise to generate insight that could be useful for
confirming and expanding current knowledge on how embodied making contribute to
2890
learning. Gulliksen has taken on the challenge to write about relevant neurobiological
knowledge from a woodcarver and craft teacher perspective through a series of articles. In
her paper, she presents this strategy and the aims for such a project development, tentative
ideas for future interdisciplinary studies that has been put forth in the series of articles and
the methodological framework for the project: an integrative applied research approach.
The next paper presents a project combining the study of mind and body in design and craft
practice, the Handling Mind project. The results of this three year project are presented by
Marianne Leinikka, in the session on Physiological measurements of drawing and forming
activities. In the Handling Mind project, psychophysiological experiments were designed and
conducted to study the relationship between making and feeling, handling creative
situations and the embodied mind. Through a careful design comprising visual and material
design in three different tasks, the studys findings present new knowledge expanding
current knowledge on embodied activities.
In the following three presentations the theme of embodied making are further expanding
the topic from other perspectives. In her presentation Constructing, deconstructing and
reconstructing knowledge through making Anna Louise Piper bridges the gap between
implicit and explicit knowledge. The paper presents a practice-led study of the development
of composite woven garments, and uses this study to demonstrate how process object
analysis advance creative practice, in particular in regards to the transition from hand
production to digital production. Pipers paper is in the form of a 'visual essay' to bridge the
gap between implicit and explicit knowledge.
The situatedness of a practice put demands on the design process to be embedded in real
world situations and to consider the lived experiences of the users. The following
presentation; Experience Labs: co-creating health and care innovations using design tools
and artefacts by Tara French, Gemma Teal, and Sneha Raman, presents the project
Experience Labs. Experience labs are an approach developed to facilitate meetings
between those receiving and delivering healthcare. The labs are means of co-creating new
solutions by shared insights from participants from both ends of the health care, to engage
in the design process and experience new concepts. This paper brings in a new perspective
on embodied making through design for healthcare.
5. References
Bamford, A. (2006). The Wow Factor: Global Research Compendium on the Impact of the Arts in
Education. Mnster: Waxmann.
Bengtsson, J. (2013). Embodied experience in educational practice and research. Studies in
Philosophy and Education, 32(1), 3953.
Damasio, A. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness.
New York. Hartcourt
Dewey, J. (1958). Art as Experience. New York: Capricorn.
Eisner, E. W. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press.
Engelsrud, G. (2006). Hva er kropp? [What is body?]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
2891
Marte S. Gulliksen, Camilla Groth, Maarit Mkel and Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen.
Fredriksen, B. (2016). Learning what it means to learn: first-hand experience in the process of
material transformations. Paper presented at the DRS2016, Brighton.
French, T., Teal, G., & Raman, S. (2016). Experience Labs: co-creating health and care innovations
using design tools and artefacts Paper presented at the DRS2016, Brighton.
Groth, C. (2016). The role of sensory experiences and emotion in craft practice Paper presented at
the DRS2016, Brighton.
Gulliksen, M. S. (2016). Why making mattersdeveloping an interdisciplinary research project on
how embodied making may contribute to learning Paper presented at the DRS2016, Brighton.
Gibson, J. J. (1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. New York: Psychology Press.
Johnson, M. (2007), The meaning of the body. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Juelskjr, M., Moser, T., & Schilhab, T. (2008). Learning Bodies. arhus: Aarhus University Press.
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to
western thought. New York: Basic Books
Leinikka, M., Huotilainen, M., Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P., Groth, C., Rankanen, M., & Mkel, M.
(2016). Physiological measurements of drawing and forming activities. Paper presented at the
DRS2016, Brighton.
Molander, B. (2015). The Practice of Knowing and Knowing in Practices. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Moser, T. (2014). Lring og kropp. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk
No, A. (2004). Action in Perception. Cambridge: The MIT press.
No, A. (2009). Out of our heads. New York: Hill and Wang.
Norman, D. A. (1988). The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books, New York.
Piper, A. L. (2016). Constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing knowledge through making
Paper presented at the DRS2016, Brighton.
Polanyi, M (1958). Personal Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Polanyi, M. (1966). The tacit dimension. New York, NY: Doubleday.
Schn, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic
Books.
Thompson, E. (2010). Mind in Life: Biology, phenomenology and the sciences of mind. London:
Harvard university press.
Urquhart, L. W. R., & Wodehouse, A. (2016). Form as an abstraction of mechanism Paper presented
at the DRS2016, Brighton.
Varela, F.J. & Thompson, E. & Rosch, E. (1991). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive science and human
experience. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
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About the Authors:

Marte S. Gulliksen Professor of Culture Education, Culture
Production and Aesthetical Practice at University College of
Southeast Norway. She is leader of the Universitys Embodied Making
and Learning research group and a member of the Human Ingenuity
Research Group, Western University.
Camilla Groth Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Design. Her
main interests lie in haptic experiences and embodied cognition in
design practice.
Maarit Mkel Associate Professor of Practice-Led Design Research.
Mkel also works as an artist at the junction of ceramics and fine
art. Her main interest is the creative process.
Pirita Seitamaa Hakkarainen Professor of Craft Studies. Her main
interest is to analyse expertise in design, the nature of the design
process and the role of external representations such as drawings.
2893
The role of sensory experiences and emotions in

craft practice
Camilla Groth
Aalto University.
camilla.groth@aalto.fi
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.337
Abstract: Emotions have traditionally been overlooked in the practice of scientific

research. In the field of design and craft research, too, personal feelings and
emotions have been considered as interfering with the rigour and validation of the
research. However, as a result of findings in neuroscience, a new understanding has
emerged, providing emotions a central role in risk assessment and decision making
processes. This has implications also for how we understand craft practice. In this
practice-led research, a craft practitioner analysed five video-recordings of herself
while throwing clay blindfolded. The researcher-practitioner specifically studied
critical incidents in the throwing process and made a detailed analysis of how felt
experiences and emotions guided her in her risk assessment, decision making and
problem solving processes during the throwing sessions. The research suggests that
sensory experiences and emotions moderate and guide the making process and are
thus important factors in craft practice.
Keywords: Craft-practice, critical incidents, emotions, decision making
Introduction
Emotions and feelings have traditionally been overlooked in science (Damasio 1994; 1999;
Niedderer & Townsend 2014) and thought of as interfering with logical thinking and an
objective stance (Damasio 1999, p. 39). In the field of Design, too, it has been said that
general accounts on experiential feelings are less interesting than the meaning of that
experience, that is, the content (Biggs 2004, pp. 3-4). However, research work on the theory
of somatic markers by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio (1994) in particular indicates that
feelings, which arise in the body of the subject, are important in decision making processes
(pp. 173-175). This aspect is also interesting from a design- and craft research perspective,
as there are now several examples of research where emotions and feelings are elaborated
on as contributors to knowledge in the field (Groth, Mkel & Seitamaa-Hakkarainen 2015;
Camilla Groth
Niedderer & Townsend 2014; Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Laamanen, Viitala & Mkel 2013;
Mkel & Latva-Somppi 2011 etc).
Although it is natural to talk about emotions in an art context, and emotions are generally
accepted in craft practice, the connection of emotions to the felt experience of a material
are less elaborated on in design research. In user-experience tests and in co-design contexts,
the felt feel and associations of the feeling of a product are considered important and well
researched. However, in research on design and craft practice, the subjective sensory
experiences of the maker are not recognised as important contributors to generalizable
knowledge. Connecting emotions to decision making and problem solving in design and craft
practice is perhaps elaborated on in general speech, in a studio setting, but not well
documented in research. However, due to the relatively new possibilities for craftsmen to
conduct research on their own practice in a systematic way, new knowledge now has an
opportunity to emerge.
This present research investigates the role of emotions in the risk assessment and decision
making process in clay throwing practice. The research questions were: 1) What are the
emotions that arise from the tactual sensory experiences of a throwing event, especially
during critical incidents? 2) How do these emotions, affect: A Risk assessment? B Decision
making? C Problem solving? It is an analysis of the critical incidents (Flanagan 1954)
occurring during five clay-throwing sessions, recorded during an earlier case study (Groth et
al 2015).
The original case study was conducted in order to research the ways in which a crafts person
thinks through her hands in other words, aspects of embodied cognition in craft practice.
The research design included blindfolding as a means to enhance the tactile aspects of the
throwing experience. The idea for enhancing the tactile aspects and the whole research
context is grounded in the authors basic doctoral research on tactile and embodied
knowledge in crafts, and the related previous study on deafblind makers ways of making
sense through their enhanced tactile sensitivity (Groth, Mkel & Seitamaa-Hakkarainen
2013). This research is situated within a larger research project called Handling Mind, funded
by the Academy of Finland, which aims to link together art- and craft research and
neuroscience, focusing on the socio-emotional, embodied and brain-functional aspects of
making with hands.
Methodologically, the study uses traditional methods for researching practice in design, such
as activity sampling (Muukkonen, Hakkarainen, Inkinen, Lonka, & Salmela-Aro 2008),
thinking aloud and protocol analysis (Ericsson & Simon 1993) and critical incidents (Flanagan
1954), coupled with less traditional and more experimental methods such as blindfolding.
The use of video analysis software helped in studying the rapid progress of the throwing
sessions and the thinking aloud accounts given by the researcher-practitioner during the
events. By detecting the situations where emotions surfaced the critical incidents
emotions connected to the felt experience of the material during the events were coded and
analysed in connection to risk assessment, decision making and problem solving. This
research aims at exposing a fragment of this process and is seeking general aspects that
2896
The role of sensory experiences and emotions in craft practice
could be applied to craft processes in a wider context. In the following, some theoretical
starting points are first discussed and the general research setting and methods described.
The data analysis is then discussed in greater detail, and, finally, the results are presented.
Embodied cognition and somatic markers

In design and craft practice, a great portion of knowledge making happens in the contact
between body and material. In order to research this space, we need a theoretical frame
that includes the body as a provider of information in this context. Phenomenology and
embodied cognition theory introduce the body as a contributor to knowledge making.
According to embodied cognition theory, we are a psychophysical whole, and all our
knowing is reflected in and by our sensory experiences (Merleau Ponty 2013; Lakoff &
Johnson 2003; 1999; Johnson 1987).
The philosophical strand of neuroscience that has embraced this idea is called Enactivism
(Varela, Thompson & Rosch 1991). Enactivism applies the embodiment theory and explains
that a person learns in action and accumulates knowledge through her embodied
experiences with her surrounding environment (Varela et. al 1991; No 2009). This also
means that without our body we cannot have any experiences; thus, the body is integral in
all knowing (Johnson 1987; Varela et. al 1991; No 2009; Lakoff & Johnson 2003).
Emotions are enacted through the body, in, for example, facial gestures and body positions.
Emotions are also felt in the body as cognitive neuroscientists Nummenmaa, Glerean, Hari,
Hietanen (2014) have displayed in their seminal research on where in the body we feel
different emotions. According to neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, emotions also arise in the
body (1994, 1999). Feelings and emotions might be confused of being the same, but they are
rather related and causal: emotions leads to feelings (Damasio 1999, pp. 31 & 36). Damasio
is a researcher often referred to in embodied cognition theory as he also speaks for the
embodied mind. He and his wife Hanna Damasio showed that decision making is connected
to emotions in their article on Phineas Gage (Damasio, Grabowski, Frank, Galaburda,
Damasio 1994).
Phineas was hit by a metal rod, which injured his front lobe, and could not make decisions
after his injury. Damasio et al. (ibid) made a reconstruction of Phineas injury and through
research on subjects with similar injuries today, found that emotions were affected or even
absent in these subjects, subsequently their ability to make even simple choices were
complicated (ibid. pp. 44-45). This fact gave reason to believe that emotions are crucial in
decision making processes and gave us a new understanding of the role of emotions within
rational thought (Damasio 1999, p. 41). One of Damasios central claims is also that bodily
experiences generate emotions (gut feelings) that guide us in intuitive decision making,
especially when the problem is closely related to our personal or social space (Damasio
1994, p. 169). Damasio calls this the Theory of Somatic Markers (ibid, p. 165) and he
explains it as follows:
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In short, somatic markers are a special instance of feelings generated from secondary
emotions. Those emotions and feelings have been connected, by learning, to predict
future outcomes of certain scenarios. When a negative somatic marker is juxtaposed to
a particular future outcome the combination functions as an alarm bell. When a
positive somatic marker is juxtaposed instead, it becomes a beacon of incentive.
(Damasio 1994, p. 174, italics in the original)
Somatic markers ( Soma means body in Greek language) are important in the study at hand,
because it seems that those experiences that are felt in the body of the maker are closely
connected with the emotions that guide the maker in her risk assessment and decision
making process and thus help her solve problems in her practice. This is not to claim that
sensory experience and emotions are the same, but that they are closely linked and affect
each other. Previously such knowledge, related to subjective bodily or sensory experiences
and emotions during craft practice, has been out of the scope of research in the crafts.
Recently, due to the inclusion of art schools in the academic realm, craft practitioners
themselves have also had the opportunity to research the tactile and tacit aspects of their
profession in a practice-led setting. Some examples are Almevik, Jarefjll, Samuelsson (2013)
a research group who researched the tacit knowledge of craftsmen in the 1970s through
enacting their actions in a documentary video. Erin OConnor (2007) made an autoethnographic study on glass blowing by starting her apprenticeship in a glass blowing studio
and reflecting on her experiences learning the craft. A practice-led self-study research
setting (Pedgley 2007; Ellis & Bochner 2000; Pinnegar & Hamilton 2009) provides valuable
new insights into what matters in craft, including emotions, sensory experiences and
experiential knowledge.
Methods
This research analyses data collected during my practice-led, self-study research event
performed in my studio as a researcher-practitioner. Over the course of five days, I threw
12-24 kg of clay, each day, on my potters wheel, blindfolded. This was done in order to test
the augmentation of my tactile sensibility and ability to control the clay throwing process
entirely without eyesight, as visual input distracts awareness of tactile experiences (Gallace
2012). To further enhance the challenge of the task, and thus to highlight the expertise and
amount of embodied knowledge needed to master the task, the clay chosen was specifically
difficult to handle and the amount of clay was unusually large. I used a multi-method for
collecting data during the event, including video-recordings with thinking aloud accounts,
diary notes and a contextual activity sampling system (Cass Q), as described in a previous
article (Groth et. al, 2015).
In the act of observing and reflecting on an activity, whether it is another persons or ones
own, there are more and less important events mixed over time. It may be challenging to
pay proper attention to the relevant issues: the incidents that change the situation or the
course of the event. These events are called critical incidents, and the technique for studying
critical incidents in human experience was developed by John C. Flanagan (1954). The
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technique consists of ways to identify incidents that have either a positive or a negative
effect on the experience or on the outcome of an event. In the research at hand, the focus is
placed on critical incidents that were producing a negative effect, as in the specific process
of throwing the positive effects go quite unnoticed and do not create a researchable event
as described above.
The Interact video analysis software was used and it allowed for the critical incidents to be
indicated, and connected to the risk assessment and decision making activities. The video
material from the five-day throwing event, 10h of 5 x 2h sessions of throwing clay was used.
The part of the process where the clay was centred on the throwing board was omitted, due
to there being no critical incidents detected, leaving only 5 x 1h sessions to analyse. From
these videos, the critical incidents were separated and categorised into severity grades of 13.
Data analysis
When analysing the videos, it became clear that the critical incidents had different
severities. Some were less severe, and the problems were solved easily, while others were of
a more serious kind. The incidents were also either expected or unexpected, some started
abruptly and some developed over time. The critical incidents were coded as following;
Slow or Quick.
Unexpected or Expected.
Severity 1, 2 or 3.
The tactile experiences that were found in the analysis of the critical incidents were to do
with the density of the clay material, that is, how hard or soft it was, and the wetness of the
surface, that is, the stickiness of the clay at different times during the throwing process.
Further, the position of the clay on the wheel, whether centred or not, was a clear factor in
the critical incidents that would affect emotions in a negative or positive way. When it came
to emotions, the most central involved confidence, stress levels or spirits. The activities of
risk assessment, decision making and problem solving were known to play a part in the
throwing process from the previous study of the same case (Groth et. al 2015).
The analysis process was helped by the frequent thinking aloud accounts. Emotions were
also re-lived through the tactual memory that I had in connection to the events and
knowledge of similar events in the past. Stress was physically experienced during the
analysis process, and I went through the emotions of the events multiple times during the
analysis process while tagging the codes to the video clip.
Video and spoken accounts have been analysed simultaneously as they affected the coding
during the video-analysis, but spoken accounts or thinking aloud accounts have also been
noted separately. The thinking aloud accounts were useful especially in the analysis of
decision making, risk assessment and problem solving activities. They naturally occurred at
different intensities and simultaneously throughout the whole process, but in the analysis
conscious effort was made to separate them into order of intensity. The thinking aloud
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Camilla Groth
accounts helped in differentiating which activity was noted as the strongest of the three at
any specific moment. These verbal accounts also spelt out what the immediate problems
were and gave suggestions on dealing with them. The codes used in the analysis process
were thus as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: List of classes and codes used in analysis of video data.
All codes were provided with a code key that included a description for when the code
would be applied. Also the coding of the video material was aided by the thinking aloud
accounts that verbally described emotions and events as well as exclamations when things
were either not working out as expected or when a problem had been solved. In the
examples below, the types of critical incidents and some notes and quotes are displayed.
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Examples of critical incidents on day one, two and five.

Day 1, 12 kg
Incident nr 2) Starting at 00:32:06, lasting for 1:12 min.
A slow starting, unexpected, severity level 2 critical incident.
Notes: The clay is too wet and soft to handle, it has gone soft while being centred and should
have been harder to begin with. The pot is moving too quickly from side to side in an
uncontrolled manner while being thrown and the clay is already losing its plasticity, giving
me only a short time to work it. I stabilise the clay shape into a cylinder and solve the
immediate risk of it collapsing but conditions are not good.
Quote at 00:33:54 This is the point where I have to start working quickly, because the
water, which I have to add quite a lot now, will make the clay so soft that I soon cannot
work with it anymore. So, this is the critical moment I would say.
Incident nr 4) Starting at 00:33:56 lasting for 2:50 min.

A slow starting, expected, severity level 3 critical incident.
Notes: The clay is now so soft and un-plastic that it cannot adjust to my pushing at all.
Quote at 00:34:45 The next actions will determine whether it is going to fail or succeed,
because its already quite an ugly pot.
Figure 1: Screen shot, day one, collapsing clay wall.
Notes: One side of the clay pot stretches out (see Figure 1) due to the centrifugal power
from the spinning wheel, and I turn down the speed to be more in control, but it is too late.
The clay starts tilting down on one side, the piece is lost and the process is interrupted.
Day two 12 kg
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Incident nr 5) Starting at 01:19:52, lasting for 5 min.

A quick starting, expected, severity level 3 critical incident
Notes: Learning from yesterdays mistake of using too soft clay, I had wedged todays clay on
a plasterboard to make it dryer and harder. Now this clay is much stiffer to work with and
considerable pressure has to be applied to the clay to be able to move it. This affected the
throwing board, making it loosen its grip from the actual wheel head and the whole board
and clay piece became un-centred (Figure 2). I managed to push the board back into place
and to press down on the whole piece to try to fasten the board again. Although this
incident happened quickly it was expected as the clay that keeps the board attached to the
wheel head has been drying overnight and the weight of the clay is very heavy.
Figure 2: Screen shot, day two, feeling the condition of the clay.
Day five 24 kg
Incident nr 18) Starting at 00:16:36, lasting for 1:10 min
A quick starting, unexpected, severity level 3 critical incident.
Notes: The board is not very well stuck on the throwing wheel, and the area of the thrown
piece goes outside the area of the wheel head, so when throwing on the edge of the wheel
the board tilted heavily, making the whole board and 24 kg of clay jump. Luckily, it did not
move far out of place, and I solved the problem by pressing the clay down and avoiding
pressing from the sides.
Quote at 00:16:43 That was so scary. The board almost tilted. The clay is now a little
bit un-centred, but That was a major critical point. I definitively should be more
aware of pressing from above at the same time as moving the clay sideways, otherwise
that will happen again.
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Incident nr 20) Starting at 00:37:06, lasting for 1.20 min

Notes: The edge of the pot was becoming uneven due to the slightly un-centred position of
the clay, but, more importantly, the edge was also becoming a bit too thin. I wanted to keep
the edge thick so that the rim of the pot would not get a weak look. To solve this problem, I
needed to cut off the edge, because pushing it further down just made it more uneven, it
being un-centred. Looking for the needle with which I could cut it took a while, but cutting
the rim was easy (Figure 3) and did not create any further problems.
Figure 3: Screen shot, day five, cutting the rim of the clay pot.
Incident nr 23) Starting at 00:57:21, lasting for 1:16 min

Notes: The clay is too soft to be thrown anymore (Figure 4). The wall of the pot is starting to
sway from side to side, and the centrifugal force can easily bring the pot down if I continue
to touch the clay. I make a last widening of the base to adjust the shape of the pot so that it
becomes more cylinder-like.
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Camilla Groth
Figure 4: Screen shot, day five, making decisions.
Quote at 00:58:33 I think thats all I dare to do.
Results
The throwing process usually consists of the agenda of throwing a pot that includes the
different stages from centring the clay, making a hole in the top of the clay, widening the
form and shaping the base and then throwing the sides of the pot upwards. Critical incidents
of differing severity occur within this process, and if these incidents are not too severe they
may be dealt with and solved so that the process may continue until the next critical incident
occurs. Some critical incidents are severe enough to affect the conditions of the process over
the long term, even though the immediate problem is solved, thus making the following
process prone to more frequent critical incidents.
The average critical incident during the measured period of five days, was slow, expected
and rate 1. It was coupled by a relaxed and confident state of mind and problems were being
solved in good (high) spirits. The clay was mostly soft and wet, and the clay was almost
centred. It was only in the more severe critical incidents, of rate 2 or 3, where stress
emerged and confidence was lost. My reflection is that the 1 or 2 level critical incidents are
critical enough to affect a novices process, perhaps even to terminate it. The more severe
level 3 incident may threaten the success of the throwing process of even a more advanced
thrower.
The general rule was that if the critical incident started quickly, it was also unexpected, and
if it started slowly it was expected. Only one case was slow starting but unexpected, and that
was when the clay was too wet on the first day, and it had gone soft while being centred as
it should have been harder to begin with. Similarly, only in one case did the critical incident
start quickly but remain expected, and that was when the board came loose, and the whole
piece became un-centred. A quote from that incident: I kind of expected this.
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Out of the 23 detected critical incidents:
14 were expected
9 were un-expected
14 were slow
9 were quick
15 were severity class 1
In this table below (Table 2), the progress and coding of a level 3 critical incident is shown
from beginning (left) to the end (right), displaying both the tactile experiences and emotions
together with related actions. Stress, un-confidence and low spirits go hand in hand with risk
assessment, followed by decision making and the attempt to solve the problem. In this
incident, the problem is solved and spirits are recovered.
Table 2: Visualisation of concurrence of tactual feel, emotions and problem solving activities during a
critical incident, day 5, incident 2.
In this table 3, another level 3 critical incident is presented. However, this particular incident
is so disruptive that the making process is stopped.
Table 3: Visualisation of concurrence of tactual feel, emotions and problem solving activities during a
critical incident, day 5, incident 7.
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Camilla Groth
Discussion
Generally, the felt experiences, emotions and activities followed a pattern: stress was almost
always connected with low spirits and un-confidence, and these were present during the
start of the critical incidents, especially so in the unexpected incidents and to a greater
degree as the severity of the incident was higher, that is severity 2 or 3. In some of the
expected and less severe incidents, the problems were solved without stress and in
confidence and high spirits.
At the beginning of an incident, risk assessment was coupled with either decision making
and / or problem solving. As the incident proceeded, more of problem solving and
occasional risk assessment occurred. Risk assessment was generally combined with stress
and un-confidence, but problem solving also appeared together with confidence and high
spirits. During risk assessment, a slowing down of activities was observed. After a period of
risk assessment, the decision making and problem solving face generally took over in a more
active manner. Risk assessment continued occurring simultaneously with the problem
solving process; the author reflects over this as a way to ensure that the decisions and
problem solving strategies were still accurate and appropriate for the situation.
Generally, it was found that when the clay is centred, of a hard to semi-hard density and the
surface is wet, conditions are optimal and small incidents are not experienced as severe.
When conditions are the reverse, the activation of stress is closer at hand as a high risk of reoccurring critical incidents was expected. Previous critical incidents also work as a
background reminder in a form of enhanced readiness and vigilance to avoid new incidents
and to respect the conditions and the material. One example is this quote: The tilting of the
board really made me much more focused, and much more careful. Which reminded me of
having to respect the conditions and the materials more.
Low spirits were accompanying risk assessment and problem solving but could be
understood to reflect the serious intent that I had to solve the problem, and reflect the
worry and stress that was experienced until the problem was solved. Although negative
emotions, they helped me to concentrate and to make a proper effort in order to solve the
problem and to avoid further risks. A quote from day four runs as follows: I just have to be
really careful and not make any mistakes.
It is not surprising that we use the same word feeling for both tactile sensations and
emotions as they are very closely linked. The way something feels (tactile) affects the way
we feel (emotional). This is an important aspect in the field of design and craft, and sensitive
practitioners use this aspect in their careful selection of materials (Groth & Mkel 2014).
We have many shared notions of the feel of materials that are triggered as mental images
even when only mentioned in speech, such as velvet, skin or wet clay.
We may even feel the expected sensation in our bodies as we imagine what those materials
feel like, because we have embodied this knowledge through previous experiences of these
materials. Similarly, the feel of the material as it is actually touched give us both the tactile
feel and emotion, and thus also the understanding of what this material has to offer us. For
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an experienced ceramist, the density of a bit of clay immediately gives an idea of what its
possible uses are, together with an either positive or negative background feeling
simultaneously. If the clay is too hard it is not good, it cannot be easily handed and needs to
be soaked. If the clay is too wet it is also not good and it needs to be dried until workable. A
perfectly smooth and dense bit of clay gives a good forecast for any project, and it is
therefore experienced with positive emotions. This kind of notion may be linked to the
theory of somatic markers and it was found that strong emotions connected to the
possibilities of the material were experienced throughout the whole throwing process.
Emotions in the making

When conditions turned bad in the critical incidents, negative emotions and stress emerged,
prompting actions to put things right again. The author here makes a connection to the
theory that emotions are important in risk assessment as they help survival (Damasio 1999,
p. 42). According to Damasio, feelings and emotions guide us in order to make us choose
wisely, in life (ibid.). On a larger scale, this is a life-saving ability that we have as humans, and
something we also share with other organisms. In craft, it is not that serious, but in a similar
way emotions are adjusted to the threat of losing a piece that one has invested time and
effort in. Survival in this context is to be able to continue the process and the success of the
piece that is being manufactured. A quote from day five gives an example of this:
So, it seems like Im a bit braver now than before. Maybe I have lost respect for what I
am doing. I should maybe take it easy and concentrate more, otherwise I will start
making mistakes. I dont want to lose this piece now after centring it for I dont know
how long. It would be such a waste.
Quite often claims of fear emerged in the spoken accounts. The actual fear emotion was not
coded in this analysis as it was considered to be included in the stress and notions of low
confidence and perhaps too strong in expression. However, the words Im afraid or that
was scary appeared frequently especially when an incident was sudden and severe.
Further, the balance of being brave and careful was elaborated on frequently in the spoken
accounts, as exemplified in an account from day five: Its difficult to be somewhere in
between brave and careful. But that just what its about. Brave can all of a sudden be too
brave, and careful needs to be not too scared.
Conclusion
This research at hand has explored the role of emotions connected to tactual experiences
and how they affect decision making and problem solving during a craft practice. The
research was made possible by the practice-led self-study research setting, which opened up
the experiential knowledge and possible expertise of the researcher-practitioner. Traditional
methods coupled with more experimental ones provided new insights into the clay-throwing
process, which, despite its long history, has been researched relatively little in depth. The
results reveal that especially during critical incidents, emotions guide the practitioner in risk
assessment and consequently aid the practitioner in the decision making and problem
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Camilla Groth
solving processes. The inclusion of emotions and subjective and bodily sensory experiences
are thus highlighted as informants in the knowledge making process.
In short, the emotions that became the points for analysis were to do with confidence,
spiritedness and stress levels. These emotions affected A) Risk assessment in the way senses
were alerted and caution was implemented when encountering a critical incident. Fear,
during un-confidence and stress, was found useful in the way it facilitated the problem
solving and decision making process through a heightened vigilance and when successfully
managing the situation, enabled a continuation of the making process. Emotions also
affected B) Decision making in the way the gut feeling grounded in previous experiences
gave intuitive reflections on how to act in this particular instance. Making the accurate
(successful) decisions felt good. Finally, emotions affected C) problem solving by the slowing
down of actions in order to give time for the proper movements needed for the particular
situation. The actions for solving problems were grounded in previous experiences of similar
events and their successful implementation in a new situation felt good.
As a result of this research, the author claims that emotions are important in risk assessment
and decision making, and consequently also in problem solving in a making process. It is
proposed that sensory experiences and emotions be given a new status when it comes to
contributing to knowledge in design and craft research. The emotions involved in craft
practice are not always as pleasant as often assumed. The challenge of mastering a
complicated process can include fear of failure, stress, and disappointment as much as
pleasure and satisfaction. The study of how the body, sensory experiences and the emotions
that arise from a making situation affect the practice, is new in craft research. The theory of
somatic markers is a useful reference in this field as it supports the idea that emotions are
valid informants. Through the inclusion of design and craft practitioners in the academic
arena, there is an opportunity to access this aspect through the use of self-study or practiceled enquiry. It would be interesting to see a comparative study in a separate domain of
making.
Acknowledgements: A more elaborate version of this contribution has been published
in Journal of Research Practice, under the name Emotions in Risk Assessment and
Decision Making Processes During Craft Practice, 11 (2) Article M5, 2015. This research is
part of the Handling Mind research project, funded by the Academy of Finland (project
number 266125).
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About the Author:

Camilla Groth is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Design.
She was trained as a potters apprentice for 3 years before
conducting a Ba in ceramics and glass at the Aalto University and Ma
at the Royal College of Art. Her main interests lie in haptic
experiences and embodied cognition in design practice.
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Learning to learn: What can be learned from firsthand experience with materials?
Biljana.C.Fredriksen@hbv.no
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.103
Abstract: A child cannot be taught how to walk it has to sense the balance of its
body, the smoothness of the floor, the strength of its muscles, and respond
appropriately. The author argues that the process of learning depends on embodied
functions and subjective experiences of the one who is learning. This paper discusses
the first-hand perspective in the process of material transformation. During such a
process, the acting person has to be attentive and make innumerable adaptive
choices. Examples from a doctoral study focusing on young children (3 year olds),
illustrate how the childrens first-person experiences related to their learning. The
author proposes that similar processes take place at all ages and that experience of
learning through material transformation is an arena for learning how to learn. The
paper initiates discussion about interactive relationships between the senses,
attention, emotional engagement, responsibility, mastery, self-confidence and
learning during material transformations.
Keywords: Experiential learning, first-hand perspective, materials transformation
Introduction and methods

The purpose of the paper
In the present time in human history, when we regard our modern societies as well
developed and superior to human life in past centuries, our brains genetic character has not
changed for ten thousand years (Mithen 1996). Our genes remain deeply grounded in our
much older evolutionary past (Tunstad 2015). Evolutionary psychology posits the existence
of innate interests, capacities, tastes and other universal features that have been, and still
are, essential for human life (Dutton 2003). Competence to make sense of experience is one
such feature essential for survival. Similar to other animals, we have biological, embodied

predispositions to learn through interactions with our physical and social environments
(Gibson 1979). However, specific anatomic and physiological characteristics of the human
body have made it possible to develop particular forms of reasoning (Egan 1997, Moser
2010); walking on two legs liberated hands and made material transformations possible, and
in the next turn, the challenges that hands were exposed to, invoked development of the
brain. Handcrafting has had, and still has an essential role in cognition.
Cognition is embodied (Parsons 2007). Our movements and actions are in multiple ways
connected to our brain activities (Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia 2008). Handling of an object or
material activates many different functions in the brain (Damasio and Lie 2002). Behind any
simple action, as for instance picking up a cup of coffee,
lies a complex intertwining of sensations (), motivational connections, body
arrangements, and motor performance, not to speak of postural adjustments () and
the role played by the learning process and the know-how we have acquired in
identifying, localizing, reaching for, and grasping objects in general (Rizzolatti and
Sinigaglia 2008, p 2).
Engaging with different forms of actions, movement and experiences, disregarding how
small they are, the actions contributes to the building of an individuals repertoires of
sensations; the same repertoire is essential for recognition of actions of others (Rizzolatti
and Sinigaglia 2008). Consequently, our embodied actions are both connected to our brain
activities, but also decisive in directing the ways we function socially and emotionally.
Biological, social, individual and cultural sides are intertwined we are cultural by nature
(Rogoff 2003) and our learning depends on both social and biological factors.
I present cultural context, dazed by luxury of modern living and a narrow-focused view on
human evolution, we often assume physical activities with tools and materials to be
unnecessary. In a rush for theoretical knowledge 1 some educational systems dont value
childrens crafting activities. Few parents want their children to deal with old-fashioned
manual labour when they get older. However, the main objective of engaging with art and
craft in pre-schools and primary schools is not to prepare children to become a crafts person
or an artist (which of course they can become), but to provide them with experiences that
challenge their attention, choices of action, ability to solve problems and to help them
develop creativity, ability to take initiative and responsibility. This paper intends to show
how activities involving material explorations have the capacity to engage children in
multiple ways. The complex processes are impossible to grasp and comprehend directly or
describe in a single paper. Many questions will remain unanswered in this paper, but the
paper will hopefully initiate curiosity about the complexity of the process of
learning/meaning construction.
Building on a qualitative study of educational settings with young children, I will present
examples that show how simple actions of material manipulations can contribute to
I use quotes here because in my view theory and knowledge are deeply rooted in embodied functions.
2912
Learning to learn: What can be learned from first-hand experience with materials?
personal growth and awareness of what it means to learn. The paper suggests that it is
specifically the self-initiated action that is a source of and a driving force behind learning 1.
Methods
As a visual arts teacher on programmes for teacher education in Southeast Norway, one of
my responsibilities is to facilitate students learning through processes of making, in such a
way that they are capable of facilitating learning for young children. During the years, I have
conducted research projects with young and adult students targeting the same theme:
experiential learning through explorations of unstructured materials2.
My doctoral study Negotiating Grasp addressed the research question: How do young
children (3-5) make meaning during their play with three-dimensional materials? The
methods applied in the study fit into arts-based education research methodology (Barone
and Eisner 2006, Bresler 1994, Bresler 2006a, Eisner 1991). The data was collected while I
interacted with children during visual art activities as an A/R/T-ographer (Irwin 2004, Irwin
and Chalmers 2007) where roles of an artist, teacher and researcher merge. Nine
educational contexts (cases) were filmed and analysed.
Table 1 Overview of the cases
Childrens age: years,
months, days
1
2
Materials
Video
length
Case 1:
Boy, Emil 3,4,25
Woodwork Boy, Morten 3,9,3
Branches, planks, string,

tape
52 minutes
23 seconds
Case 2:
Pink
textiles
Girl, Eva 3,4,17

Girl, Marit 3,4,19
35 different types of
textiles, in shades of pink
58 minutes
23 seconds
Case 3:
Clay play
Boy, Helge 3,1,3

Boy, Tom 3,0,18
12 kg of soft clay
61 minutes
31 seconds
Case 4:
Clay and
yarn
Boy, Brede 4,5,8

Girl, Pia 5,5,23
Two similar installations,

one made of clay, the other
made of cotton yarn in the
same color, shape and
texture
57 minutes
Case 5:
Boy, Even 4,11,2
White yarn Boy, Markus 5,6,22
11 yarn balls of the same

size, different textures,
softness, small, yarn
thickness etc., and a
circular knitting machine
59 minutes
15 seconds
Case 6:
Cardboard
boxes
78 cardboard boxes of
different sizes and shapes
43 minutes
20 seconds
Boy, Thomas 5,5,8

Boy, William 5,4,9
Learning is here understood as individual (yet social) meaning negotiation/construction.

Like wood, sand, clay etc.
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Case 7:
White
sand
Girl, Line 3,10,3

Boy, Are 3,10,12
White clay-like sand and

normal sandpit-sand
50 minutes
40 seconds
Case 8:
Boy, Alexander 5,5,11
Building
Boy, Terje 5,2,16
with Wood
Large number of plank

pieces in geometric shapes
60 minutes
4 seconds
Case 9:
Blue wool
Brushed wool in 7 shades

of blue
43 minutes
15 seconds
Girl, Stine 4,6,11

Girl, Pia 5,6,27
The close contact with two children at a time during the unfolding contexts, as well as
detailed analysis of the films, uncovered the complex processes of the childrens
experiencing and expressing. The data were first analysed using cross-case methods (Stake
2006), with the help of software NVivo9, and later analysed contextually in-depth. The
specific interactionist approach, where a researcher seeks to understand a certain
phenomenon on the basis of their own experience (Jrvinen and Mik-Meyer 2005) made it
possible to grasp the processes from the inside and understand the childrens embodied
competences and biological urge to explore, find out, solve problems, welcome challenges
and learn by doing. Empathetic engagement, shared activities and common experiences
allowed a kind of mutual absorption (Bresler 2006b) between the participants (myself and
the children) and led to new insights.
The study was interdisciplinary and epistemologically grounded in social constructivism,
which is a position where individual and social influences on learning are equally
acknowledged (Freeman and Mathison 2009). The influence of materials advocacies was
also considered as central. The study uncovered highly contextual and individual nature of
the childrens learning processes. At the same time, it revealed embodied capacities that
were similar among the childrens learning processes.
When an adult deals with materials, tools or techniques one is familiar with, many
movements and actions, which seem obvious to them and therefore pass unnoticed. While
much of the knowledge developed in an adults process of making often remains tacit
(Niedderer 2013), young children show how their learning processes unfolded during
material manipulations. Even though they were not able to express verbally, the children
expressed their thoughts in other significant ways. Unlike most adults, the children were not
restricted by assumptions and expectations, and they were not embarrassed to share their
discoveries - thus much of what they experienced were discoveries that surprised them and
led to visibly excited expressions. The children did not act out of habit, but explored the
materials with open minds. They did not constrain their expressions, on contrary, their vivid
expressions mirrored their experiences and uncovered processes usually invisible, supressed
or unconscious in studies with adults.
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Theory
The theoretical framework of John Dewey has a central role in this paper. However, the
framework is extended and up-dated with more contemporary research literature.
Combining different theoretical views can become complicated, but was necessary to
interpret this study in a holistic manner.
We humans are biologically designed to be sensitive to nuanced qualities of objects and
materials that surround us (Eisner 2002) and we know the world through our bodies
(Shusterman 2008). Dewey described the process of transforming materials in the hands as
intertwined with the process where internal transformation takes place on the side of
inner materials, images, observations, memories and emotions (Dewey 2005 [1934], p 77).
He emphasises the close relations between physical actions and mental processes. The
environments we inhabit provide us with sources of experience as well as potential for
action (Sanders 1999); when we act we acquire experiences through our sensory-motor
systems and our sensations influence our thinking and doing.
Transforming material with the hands engages mostly the visual and touch senses. The sense
of tough is our most subjective sense (Stenslie 2010). Activities of grasping, holding or
touching cannot be performed without the engagement of this tacit sense. Also muscles,
joints, tendons and other parts of the body are activated inside the person who is
performing the activity so that s/he can experience somatic sensations1. Such sensations are
only accessible from a first-person perspective. The first-person perspective allows
meaningful dialogues between the person and his/her environment (Stelter 2008).
All humans have an inner need to act upon their own environments (Merleau-Ponty 1962) young children express these needs openly. Through diverse activities they acquire and
accumulate experiences in their bodies. In the next instance, their possibilities to think and
make decisions depend on the repertoire of their accumulated experiences (Dewey 2009
[1909]). Personal understandings emerge from negotiations between present and past
experiences; meanings are negotiated in a specific context. The concept of meaning
negotiation can simply be translated into the concept learning, but not the form of
learning that is a linear process of knowledge transmission between teacher and learner.
The concept of negotiation refers to an ongoing process of constant attentiveness toward
the inner and outer affordances and challenges. A person simultaneously investigates the
momentary affordances and challenges and makes choices about how to act. Thus,
negotiation of meaning can be seen as non-linear, fluid, improvisational process of
developing understanding.
During my study with young children, their negotiations of meaning often resulted in
sudden, imaginative ideas accompanied by expressions of joy. Such expressions marked the
childrens micro-discoveries (Fredriksen 2011). Eisner (2002) referred to micro-discoveries
as small surprises during a process of art making, where the surprise itself was the reward
and motivation for the work done. As I see it, micro-discoveries are signs of personal
1
Shusterman (2008) speaks of somaesthetics.
2915
discoveries through reconstruction of past and present experiences. Such discoveries can be
small, but nevertheless important for the children, who come to understand something on
their own. It is exactly the act of becoming aware of relation between own insights and own
efforts that is essential; this awareness is a cornerstone of learning how to learn.
Analysis and discussion

A few examples
The children in my study were lifting the materials they were presented with, pressing them,
cutting, tearing and carrying out many other explorative activities with them. They were
becoming familiar with what could be done with the materials and getting new ideas about
what the materials could be used for. I observed how the children used physical force and
experienced the materials resistance to their actions. I could not know what they sensed or
felt, but if something did not go as expected, they expressed their surprise verbally or asked
me for help. Otherwise, they did not say much and I had to observe their actions attentively.
It was mostly the straining of their muscles, the way of breathing and their body language
that indicated their physical efforts and intentions.
Other signs that some kind of negotiation with the materials was taking place were the
childrens expressions at the moments of achieving what they intended. These moments
were often sudden and joyful; a child would start laughing, shouting out or would get an
instant outburst of self-confidence: Look what I can do!, I can do it! or I am so clever!
Soon after they had solved the problem for the first time, they would start showing me and
their peers how things should be done suddenly they had become experts. The sudden
growth of self-confidence indicated that some kind of new understanding had been
achieved. The experience of gaining new understanding functioned as motivation for further
searching for meaning.
Young children are capable of reading body language and empathically engaging with the
experience of other people while watching them (Stern 1998). Childrens observations of
experiences of others are valuable second-hand experiences, however, second-hand
experiences do not lead to self-confidence in the same way as first-hand experiences do. In
my study, the childrens expressions of self-confidence were usually connected to their
physical mastering something they had had the chance to experience through their own
negotiating with materials. Here is an example:
I was showing Helge and Tom (case 3) how clay can be cut with a piece of thin string. I held a
piece of string between my hands and I started to draw the string down on a large piece of
clay. The string disappeared into the clay, slowly cutting its way through. The boys were so
attentive that they were holding their breath. At the moment a slice of clay fell on the table
in front of Helge, he started to breath and released a short laugh. I also laughed and Helge
made a specific movement with his hands: he lifted both hands up in front of his chest and
2916
opened them quickly, at the same time as he exhaled and looked at his hands. Then he
looked at me and laughed again.
Helge seemed surprised at how easy it was to slice the clay. The hand movement he made
was difficult to describe; I believe it was supposed to imitate the movement of the clay slice.
His hands said: Just like that! Helges experience of the clay slicing was visual, but also
multisensory, because he could hear the thudding sound of the moist clay falling on the
table in front of him and he could sense the fresh earthy smell.
The boys were suspicious: Could a string cut clay? They had experienced that the clay was
heavy, while the string was thin and appeared weak. From my body language they could
read patience and determination to cut; I was performing the activity extra slowly and with
concentration in order to gain the boys attention. Even though the exact activity of cutting
with string was unfamiliar to them, their past experiences from similar situations made it
possible to empathetically connect with my physical struggles1. In this sense, their past firsthand experiences were essential for understanding of their present second-hand experience
of watching me cut the clay.
Through observation of my activity with string and clay, Helge became familiarised with the
clay-cutting techniques, however, when he later conducted the cutting himself, more of his
senses were engaged. His first-hand experience also involved his tactile sense and using his
muscles. He now had to coordinate his muscles in the process of pulling between his arms,
and at the same time, control his fingers which were holding the string. It was only when he
was treating the material with his own hands that he could experience the materials
resistance, since it is only the direct, embodied interaction with a material that can initiate
thinking through the material (Dewey 2005 [1934]). Thoughts are influenced by somatic
conditioning and muscular contractions (Shusterman 1999). Coordination of own body
movements from the position of an actor is therefore a significant cognitive achievement.
Helges efforts can be compared to the example of lifting of a cup of coffee used by Rizzolatti
and Sinigaglia (2008) to explain complex brain activities that accompany apparently simple
physical actions.
Another three year old boy called Morten (case 1), experienced cutting piece of wood with a
saw. Although he had never done this before (but had seen other people and me using a
saw), he was convinced that he could cut a piece of wood without any help. I did not try to
interfere by helping him. I only held the branch steady with my foot on top of a larger log.
While Morten was holding the saw with both his hands, he could experience using his
muscles. He had to explore the right position of his body in order to counter the woods
structure that challenged the movements of his saw. Once he managed a good sawing
rhythm, I told him: Oh, Morten, you have really learned how to cut with a saw! He gave
me a big smile and replied, Yes!, and continued cutting.
Soon he showed me: I managed to cut here, he pointed to one of the marks he had made
in the wood. While Morten was becoming competent, he was also becoming more self1
Helge earlier suggested that we should call his mother when he sensed that I was struggling.
2917
confident. His growing competence and self-confidence were highly significant in the way he
treated the material and the tool, in the way he spoke and moved his body, and in the way
he later instructed me how to hold the piece of wood he was sawing.
Working with materials requires physical strength, both the grip of the hands and of the
whole body. When Morten used the saw he had to coordinate a large number of muscles
and embodied functions; how hard to press the saw against the wood, how firmly to hold
the handle and so on. Through a range of different resistances, he was learning about his
body, the wood and the tool, and could experience how the body-mind1 functioned as a
whole. He was gaining understanding that his own action, his own efforts, persistence and
choice led to his success. He was learning how to be director of his own process of learning.
How to saw straight2 and what is appropriately soft (Illum and Johansson 2009) are
apparently simple research questions, but indeed very complex. Mastering diverse motor
challenges demands many small decisions in orchestration of muscles, body position,
applying strength, breath and so on according to the tool and in relation to the materials
specific qualities. Physical efforts and deep attention need to be invested in such
orchestration, and when the efforts and attention lead to mastery, they are rewarded by
growth of self-confidence. It is through facing something challenging that we can feel the joy
of succeeding. In my study, different types of resistance motivated the children to fight
and even search for challenges. They were looking for problems that needed to be solved
particularly just after they had experienced some kind of micro-discovery, mastery or
success. A feeling of mastery from one successful first-hand-experience motivated further
activities, explorations and making. The newly-acquired self-confidence led to further
curiosity and motivation to negotiate meanings.
Meeting a resistance, and not avoiding it, leads to development of thought (Eisner 2002).
Visual art education includes a wide range of activities and materials that offer diverse forms
of resistance. The process of working with challenging problems, against materials
resistance, engages students emotionally. Suitable amounts of personal struggles are
essential for negotiation of meaning and for personal growth that is transferable to other
areas of life.
The significance of first-hand experience

Experience is a medium of education, but it does not come automatically: it requires an
attentive and constructive mind, as well as a slowing down of perception in order to be able
to be truly attentive (Eisner 2002). The young children in my research did not rush to
produce something, but concentrated on performing tasks such as cutting clay and wood.
They had all the time they needed. The challenges they were exposed to motivated them to
(maybe also scared them into) sharpening their senses and dwelling on relations between
their actions and the ongoing material transformation. Exploration of a material: calls into
1
2
This concept was constructed by Dewey (1925) since a word that integrates body and mind does not exist in English.
Jenny Frohagen in Sweden conducted a study with this title.
2918
play alertness of the senses and acuteness of observation; () it requires ingenuity and
invention in planning; it makes necessary concentrated attention and personal responsibility
in execution (Dewey 1956, p 128). The experience of crafting in natural materials is not just
important for developing skills, but also for the development of commitment, patience, love
for nature, good morals and a sense of active citizenship (MacEachren 2004).
First-hand experience with activities of crafting or with purposeless material transformation
provide a valuable arena for learning to learn, because such activities teach that one has to
invest effort in order to transform something even in transforming ones own
understanding. When the children were more attentive to nuances in the materials qualities
and to their own senses and actions they could learn faster and more safely (without hurting
themselves). When they were attentive to what they were doing, they could become aware
of the ongoing process of refining their own aesthetic attention. Eisner (2002) says that the
process of refinement of perception leads to differentiation that in the next turn enables
construction of diverse concepts. Furthermore, concept differentiation leads to a sharpening
of the ability to notice details and discover possibilities imbedded in materials qualities. This
is true for both younger and older craft-makers. There are many similarities between Helge
and Mortens attention and refinement of perception and some of my most dedicated
teaching students.
When my international students on the course Outdoor Education and Experiential Learning
were building tree houses, many of them had never used a saw or a hammer before. One of
our discussions considered their contradictory experiences of bending nails1. Working in
three groups on quite different house designs, two of the groups experienced that long nails
bended frequently, while the third group had a similar problem, but exclusively with short
nails. The differences between the groups indicated that the quality of the nails could not be
the only variable. The students discussed whether this would change if they used different
types of wood or hammers. Was the way one held a nail significant? They discussed the
angle of hammer and the way of hitting the head of the nails. They made suggestions and
tested out new ways first-hand. They realised that the height of the houses was the most
significant actually it was the way their bodies related to the house, hammer and nail. The
process of the students refinement of senses can be compared to Helge and Mortens,
however in the case of the challenge with the nails the process was shared, verbalised and
made explicit through group discussions. The students also described their learning through
crafting in reflection assignments. One of the students, Zack, described his experience of
splitting a large oak with an axe and a hammer, while crafting of a replica of a Viking boat:
Each of us made our own micro-discoveries and adjusted accordingly. The weight of
the hammer, how best to hold it, how hard to swing it and how to swing it in order to
hit the axe, were all examples of how each of us adjusted for such individual factors as
physical strength and hand-to-eye coordination.
This event has been described on my blog page http://sculpturingwords.blogspot.no
2919
Both the young and adult students have shown that their first-hand experiences with
materials provided them with possibilities to learn through experience and contribute to
understanding of their own body in relation to the world. The first-hand experiences
provided possibilities for mastery and increased self-confidence.
Another student, Carolina, wrote the following:
I think that exploring different materials helps you to get to know your body better
and even yourself, because you have to learn to be patient and you become more
sensitive to all the feelings you experienced while doing the activity. Furthermore,
using natural materials makes you feel closer to the environment and this creates a
deeper respect for it.
First-hand experience of crafting helps us understand that creating demands time and effort.
It teaches us to respect both human labour and natural materials. Through the process we
learn that we need to engage our own responsibility in order to initiate and carry out actions
and choices. We get to experience what it means to learn and that our efforts, struggles and
endurance are preconditions for any kind of change or growth. Finally, first-hand activities
with material transformations make mastery possible, and it is the positive feeling of
mastery that provides us with courage to face present and future challenges in order to find
solutions for apparently impossible problems.
Challenges for the future

Learning has for long time been assumed as the brains business, something disconnected
from the actions of the rest of the body. Powerless against the neo-liberalist trends,
evolutionarily inherited features necessary for individual construction of meaning, for
instance inner will to act (Merleau-Ponty 1962), are exposed to the process of epigenetic
changes which is the process where genes attune to the circumstances in outside world,
sometimes within the same generation (Tunstad 2015). I fear that depriving individuals of
physical experience with hand-crafting threatens embodied functions (including certain
brain functions) that have been necessary for survival for millennia.
Developments in digital technology make many aspects of life easier, however easy living
numbs our senses and the will to act. It also deprives us of direct contact with materials,
since physical hardship seems unnecessary. Todays youth seldom employ physical efforts to
solve practical problems, and they miss out on opportunities for learning how to learn from
first-hand perspective. They can pretend to move stones and build houses in digital games,
but real straining with physical objects and materials cannot be completely replaced by
digital images, in the same manner as images of food cannot satisfy hunger.
Following Eisners (2002) suggestion that education should learn from the arts, I recommend
adequately challenging crafting activities for every child or adult, who wants or needs to
become aware of his or her own abilities to learn. As Carolina suggested, first-hand
experiences with natural materials are especially valuable in order to appreciate, care for
2920
and respect the natural environment. This in turn is an urgent need with our present
ecological challenges.
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About the Author:

Associate Professor Biljana C. Fredriksen has taught visual art at
teacher education since 1998, mainly at early childhood teacher
education. Her recent work relates to educational methods toward
students environmental awareness, sustainability and responsibility
in learning and teaching.
2923
Why making mattersdeveloping an

interdisciplinary research project on how embodied
making may contribute to learning
Marte S. Gulliksen
marte.gulliksen@hit.no
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.193
Abstract: This paper presents an ongoing project to develop a future study of

embodied making, particularly when carving green wood. Making activities such as
woodcarving have been studied using phenomenological, experiential, observational,
analytical, and reflective methodologies, among others. These studies have
documented many aspects of embodied making and its consequences for the person,
product, and process. Neuroscientific methods have recently generated knowledge
on the anatomical and functional aspects of embodied making. The project is built on
the assumption that it is possible to develop an interdisciplinary study combining
these different methods, with the potential to confirm and expand current
knowledge on both the phenomenon of embodied making itself and learning in and
through such making. The project aims to provide a coherent description of some
relevant neurobiological knowledge as a starting point for developing an
interdisciplinary research project on how embodied making may contribute to
learning.
Keywords: embodied making; learning; interdisciplinarity; neuroscience
Introduction
Embodied making
The carver making wooden objects initiates and experiences a making process (Michl &
Dunin-Woyseth, 2001), in which a material is given a new form and/or function. This process
is embodied (Rosch, Thompson, & Varela, 1991), in the sense that the physiological, bodily
process and the abstract, cognitive process are intertwined and are not separable from each
other.
Marte S. Gulliksen
Slowly, warmth spreads from within my bodyhands soar, clutching the iron as
shapes evolve. I fight the wood in the first phases; the gouge is pressed down and
wriggled forward, resulting in notches left to be smoothed by a knife. This part of the
work feels like an exhausting negotiation between two wills. The wood and I have to
compromise. I introduce my original idea about figure and shape like a persuasion with
gouge and club.
The wood needs a long period of intense persuasion to accept my ideas, and my ideas
need time to adjust to the wood. But when the shapes are found at last, the knife
follows the directions of the fibers. When they meetthe fibers and the knifethey
unite like rivers connect, gliding down through shallow valleys. (Gulliksen, 1997, pp.
6465, my translation)
This description of a making process in wood was written during a previous study (Gulliksen,
1997, 2001). Through stringent analysis, supplemented by these poetic descriptions, I sought
to understand the complexity of the making process.
The study was situated within the design and craft education research tradition, which
encompasses a variety of theoretical perspectives on making processes: phenomenologys
positioning of the body as vehicle for being in the world (Merleau-Ponty, 1962; Streeck,
Goodwin, & LeBaron, 2011); the philosophy of Bergson (Bergson, 1988; sterberg, 1995);
and socially and culturally contingent perspectives like Bourdieus descriptions of habitus
(Bourdieu, 1984; Bourdieu & Johnson, 1993). In that previous study, I described the activity
of making as a negotiation between the maker, understood as the embodied unity of mind
and body (Bresler, 2004; Rosch et al., 1991; Varela, Vermersch, & Depraz, 2003) and the
material, understood as the unity of form and matter (Gulliksen, 1997, p. 41; Karlsen, 1994).
In particular, I was curious about how sensory-motor and cognitive experiences seemed to
melt together. I described situations where I was aware of the different elements
separatelytools, material and bodyand other situations where the focus was on the
totality and the connections between the materials possibilities, the appearing shapes, the
tools and myself (Gulliksen, 2001, p. 4).
Drawing on Merleau-Pontys phenomenology of perception (1962), I could understand these
experiences as having a conscious and a preconscious mode, where the body interacts with
the environment and integrates it in its own. We not only experience what the material is
and what we are doing in the current situation but shape the phenomenon itself through
our intentions: It is a perceptual field opening to the human body (Gulliksen, 2001, pp. 4
5). This description aligns with other accounts; see for example OConnors descriptions of
learning to blow glass (2005) or Groths descriptions of throwing clay (2015; 2013). These
descriptions of the intense internal focus of making processes, their immense joy, and the
urge to overcome resistance match others found in the research literature, narratives, and
personal accounts (see for example Crawford, 2009; Dahl & Dahl, 2015; Fredriksen, 2011;
Ingold, 2013; Osborne, 2014).
Although I did not use the concept at the time, the reported study employed an embodied
cognition perspective (see Rosch et al., 1991, pp. 172173). For further accounts of
embodied cognition, see for example Shapiro (2014) and Streeck et al. (2011).
2926
Why making matters how embodied making may contribute to learning
Embodied learning
My point of entry into embodied making is as a teacher and a learner. If we understand
making processes and cognitive processes as embodied, this has consequences for our
understanding of learning and knowledge. Building on epistemological foundations of
knowledge as activity (Molander, 2015; Schn, 1983), the link between activity, experience,
reflection, communication, and learning in making processes has intrigued researchers in
craft and design education for decades (Dewey, 1958; Eisner, 2002). In craft and design
education, learning in embodied making has been studied from several perspectives (e.g.,
Fauske, 2013; Fure, 1994; Halvorsen, 2007; Melbye, 2008; Nielsen, 2007). Such accounts can
now be referred to as embodied learning (Juelskjr, Moser, & Schilhab, 2008).
While many have considered thinking as a cognitive process and have therefore viewed
learning as an abstract process, this perspective on learning highlights the link between the
bodys activity and cognitive development. Today, we are experiencing a turn in the
understanding of what learning is, in which the body has become central to learning
processes (Bengtsson, 2013; Engelsrud, 2006; Moser, 2014), encompassing both individual
biological aspects and the social, cultural and historical environment of the learning situation
(Latta & Buck, 2008; Moser, 2014, p. 254).
In the present global educational situation, engagement in making processes in schools is a
challenging topic, as it does not readily align with international tests, standardization, or
educational accountability. Woodcarving is a rare activity in the twenty-first century. Studies
indicate that carving, like the aesthetical subjects in general, is regarded as a pleasant but
not very important subject in schools (Bamford, 2006). Few people today carve in their
everyday life, and introducing sharp tools into childrens education is regarded by some as
dangerous and something to be avoided. There is, then, an urgent need to understand the
role of embodied making in learning and to develop communicable knowledge about it.
Further, such a perspective on learning invites reconsideration of the role of practicalaesthetical subjects in schools and in society, as it encompasses the possibility that
embodied learning in making processes can have an impact on other subjects and domains
of learning (Moser, 2014, p. 266).
Neuroscientific knowledge on embodied making and learning

The study of embodied making and learning has benefited in recent decades from
knowledge in the rapidly developing neurosciences. Research in these fields has provided
important evidence that there is indeed a neural basis of embodiment. In explaining the
physiological, biological, and cognitive aspects of these processes, the neurosciences have,
to a great extent, confirmed the theories developed by phenomenologists, pedagogues, and
philosophers throughout the centuries (see for example Chamberlain et al., 2014; Goguen &
Myin, 2000; Juelskjr et al., 2008; Varela et al., 2003; Zaidel, 2005).
Interdisciplinary research initiatives have also been crossing traditional borders to advance
the study of embodied making, for example in the ongoing research of the Empirica research
group in Helsinki (Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, 2015; Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Huotilainen, Mkel,
2927
Marte S. Gulliksen
Groth, & Hakkarainen, 2014; Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Laamanen, Viitala, & Mkel, 2013).
Such initiatives advance our understanding of the anatomical, biological, and functional
bases of designers and artists experiences, beyond the phenomenological descriptions of
the last century. Similar interdisciplinary perspectives can be found in other fields of study,
especially with regard to complex human behaviors, development, and experiences (Ansari
& De Smedt, 2012; De Smedt et al., 2011; Simons & Klopack, 2015). As such, neuroscientific
and interdisciplinary research has also informed embodied learning and teaching (Downey,
2010; Gallagher, 2005; Juelskjr et al., 2008).
Reviewing this research, it becomes apparent that much of the neuroscientific knowledge
nuance and expand previous findings. It even carries a promise to confirm that some
pedagogical values and methods may be better suited than others for learning through
embodied making (Moser, 2014, p. 263). There have been few such interdisciplinary
initiatives to date, and many areas remain to be addressed. For example, there are as yet
few studies of the role of embodied making and learning in childrens school learning, or of
the possibility of transferring skills learning from one domain to another requiring similarly
nimble and skilled hands. In particular, I have still to identify any such study focusing on
woodcarving.
Aim and limitations

In this paper, I present an ongoing project to develop a foundation for future
interdisciplinary research on the embodied making and learning of carving wooden objects,
combining neurobiological, phenomenological, and educational knowledge.
From a viewpoint within the making professions, I look to neuroscientific research, and in
particular to neurobiology, for ways to integrate my own practical and theoretical
knowledge with neurobiological knowledge. On completion, this project will ideally have
generated a knowledge base for the development of hypotheses for future interdisciplinary
research.
This project is built on the assumption that research of this kind would have the potential to
generate new insights into embodied making and learning, supporting and/or expanding our
understanding of a) the phenomenon embodied making itself, b) the learning that goes on in
and through it, and c) the possible transfer of learning in embodied making to other domains.
That ambitious assumption will be further refined throughout this development project. The
present paper describes the overall structure of this development project and some key
findings from related work.
Revisiting my previous knowledge of embodied making and learning within a new theoretical
and methodological framework brings with it an attitude of uncertainty and an openness to
the possibility that some of those previous studies may have been overly optimistic in their
conclusions about why making matters, and were perhaps misconstrued in support of prior
beliefs and expectations (Gulliksen, 2012; Kagan, 1992; Kahan, 2013; Kahneman, 2002).
2928
I have chosen to explore embodied making through carving in wood for several reasons,
foremost of which is that woodcarving is my personal specialization and passion.
Woodcarving is also traditionally an important part of many cultures, sharing many
similarities with making processes in other materials. It may, however, be assumed that the
knowledge derived is not necessarily confined to woodcarving.
I am currently Professor of Culture Education, Culture Production, and Aesthetic Practice at
University College of Southeast Norway. I have researched craft and design education for
almost twenty years while following developments in the neurosciences through seminars
and courses. I am therefore no neuroscientist, and there is an obvious danger in discussing
neuroscience without full scholarly knowledge, as noted by De Smedt et al. (2011), Goswami
(2006), and participants at the Minds on Minds Symposium on Education and Neuroscience
at Western (2014), all of whom emphasize the risk of nonscientists tending to make overly
strong claims on the basis of a weak understanding of concepts. Concerns have also been
raised that neuroscience content or terms are used purely to put a new, modern gloss on
some very old ideas from 1970s psychology (Wall, 2014). For that reason, this project aims
only to bring together in a coherent way current neurobiological descriptions of prior
findings about what the woodcarver does and experiences, with a view to identifying key
points and tentative ideas for a possible future research study.
Method
Interdisciplinarity and integrative applied research
In the future project, the chosen approach will be interdisciplinary at its core, in the sense of
research that involves experts from various disciplines and stakeholders from relevant
practice areas working on a common problem (Bammer, 2013, p. 8). It may even be seen as
transdisciplinary, transcending disciplinary boundaries. In bringing together persons from
both disciplines and professions (and even laypeople) requires that experts are willing and
able to give up sovereignty over knowledge to facilitate the generation of new insight and
knowledge by collaboration, and the capacity to consider the know-how of professionals and
lay-people on equal terms (Dunin-Woyseth, 2010, p. 65).
Such an approach builds on a platform that has been called Mode 2 or new production of
knowledge (Gibbons, Limogens, Schwartzmann, Scott, & Trow, 1994; Gibbons & Scott,
2001; Nilsson & Dunin-Woyseth, 2011). This type of knowledge production entails a new
perspective on the nature of knowledge, as well as its context, organization, rewards, and
quality control. This ongoing project of developing a platform for a new interdisciplinary
research study may not necessarily take on all these challenges itself but shares the same
point of departure: The problem of identifying what to study does not begin from within a
particular disciplinary body of knowledge but is organized around a particular application
(Gibbons et al., 1994, p. 3) or a particular perceived occurrence: the phenomenon of
embodied making in green wood. For instance, it does not seek to describe being a
practitioner of woodcarving either from a phenomenological or a neurobiological point of
2929
Marte S. Gulliksen
view but circles the occurrence to bring together knowledge from both disciplines from the
outset of being a practitioner of woodcarving. The future project will then be done in such a
new type of knowledge production or as integrative applied research (Bammer, 2013, pp.
89).
There are several obvious challenges with such an ambition, particularly regarding
methodological soundness and quality control. From my prior experience as a woodcarver
and culture education researcher, I hope to acquire enough competence to bring together
current neurobiological descriptions of the woodcarvers actions and experiences. As such, I
may be seen to simultaneously assume the different roles of lay-person in the
neurobiological field and professional in the field of craft education (Dunin-Woyseth,
2010, p. 65). This ongoing project involves an applied form of quality control, linked to social
accountability and reflexivity, in order to systematically explore the key findings with various
stakeholders and experts in related fields.
Approach
I have approached these issues along two paths. First, I have reviewed my own previous
research (Gulliksen, 1997, 2000, 2001), taken classes and attended seminars (Mason, 2015;
Western, 2014), studied textbooks (e.g., Mason, 2011; Purves et al., 2012), and conducted
structured searches and literature reviews of published scientific articles on neurobiology,
neuroscience, educational neuroscience, and related areas. On that basis, I have written
several papers and articles, each with a particular scope, making it possible to address
smaller aspects of the phenomenon incrementally.
I have also practiced woodcarving myself (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Wooden bowl inspired by the form of a cerebellar Purkinje cell. Aspen wood (35 x 7 x 3 cm).
On the other path, I have aimed to engage a larger area within craft and design research and
craft and design educational research in critically assessing and discussing this developing
project at conferences and seminars and in research groups.
2930
Results
This section presents key points and tentative ideas for possible future research hypotheses
developed in and through the papers and articles. These key points are necessarily
somewhat speculative in nature, as their function is to initiate a discussion rather than to
present answers; caution is therefore advised both in reading and interpreting them.
In each paper, the key points represent knowledge supporting and/or expanding our
understanding of three topics: a) the phenomenon of embodied making itself, in particular as
linked to prior research findings about the woodcarvers intense experiences and internal
focus in the making process; how making processes have a conscious and a preconscious
mode; the description of sensory-motor and cognitive experiences as melting together in
embodied making processes; and the overcoming of resistance in the negotiation between
maker and material; b) the learning that goes on in and through embodied making, in
particular as linked to memory and learning in the combined efforts of the bodys physical
and cognitive activity; and (to some extent) c) the possible transfer of learning in embodied
making to other domains.
Role of the cerebellum in woodcarving

The first paper focused on the cerebellum and its role in monitoring, relaying, and adjusting
motor output and sensory input when engaged in woodcarving (Gulliksen, 2015). The article
introduced the anatomy of neurons and neural communication, describing the neurons that
transmit sensory input to and within the central nervous system, emphasizing the difference
between sensation and perception. The neurons that transmit motor output to the
peripheral nervous system and the basics of neuroplasticity (both synaptic and cell plasticity)
were also described.
The paper highlighted functional neural circuits and the central pattern generator (CPG)
the notion that single circuits of neurons interlinking can generate multiple movements
without our conscious choice of action. As part of this CPG, the cerebellum monitors sensory
input and modulates motor output, taking care, for example, of our hand/eye coordination,
gait, and other voluntary and semi-voluntary movement. This function is sustained by
processing of information from both peripheral and central nervous system. As it receives
much more information than it sends out (a ratio of 40:1), the cerebellum plays a key role in
the flexible and adaptable movement required in woodcarving and is therefore likely to be
relevant for expanding our understanding of such activities.
The paper presented three tentative ideas for further exploration. The first of these relates
to the overflow of information into the cerebellum, which may be relevant in understanding
the woodcarvers experience of intensity and internal focus. When engaging in hard manual
work (as woodcarving is), a lot of information travels through the nervous system, and the
cerebellum constantly monitors every small detail as the nervous system is processing a
wide range of information about what is going on in the world and possible actions.
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Marte S. Gulliksen
A second idea is that only some of the information processed in the nervous system is
perceived; a person does not need to be aware of something to react to it. Sensory input
and motor output is monitored and controlled by the cerebellum, guided only by our ideas
about the desired shape and possible forms the material offers. This keeps much of the
information away from the cerebral cortex. In this context, carving wood might perhaps be
explained as cerebellar-controlled and monitored action, informed by general guidelines
originating in intentions and thoughts in the forebrain that are sent and filtered by the
cerebellum. This description would seem to support prior phenomenological descriptions of
a preconscious state of mind of the carver (Gulliksen, 1997; Merleau-Ponty, 1962), a
negotiation between maker and material (Gulliksen, 1997, 2001) in this preconscious state,
and an understanding of learning processes as negotiations (Fredriksen, 2011).
Third, the aware or conscious self, and in particular self-reflection a result of processes
situated in the pre-frontal cortex - is not a necessary partner in this activity. Rather, as most
people have experienced, deliberately thinking about an activity, such as how we walk,
makes that activity more difficult. This knowledge may confirm and expand our
understanding of the makers experience of being tightly interwoven with the material.
Role of the hippocampus in working memory and long-term memory storage

and retrieval
The second article focused on the role of the hippocampus in the working memory and longterm memory storage and retrieval when engaged in embodied making (Gulliksen,
forthcoming-a). The article also provided an introduction to neurons, neural communication,
and neural circuits, as well as the neural basis of cognition and awareness. In particular, it
looked at the relatively small amount of information that comes into a persons awareness,
how our preconceptions influence our perceptions, and how perception is a form of
interpretation. To that extent, it addresses some of the same key points as the first paper.
The neural basis of immediate memory, working memory, and variations of long-term
memory was outlined, along with information about how working memory is stored as longterm memory. The paper centered on the role of the hippocampus in storing and
recollecting declarative episodic memory. While semantic memories, such as facts and
numbers, are recollected directly from their long-term storage in the cerebral cortex,
episodic memories are remembered through the hippocampusthe same area of the brain
that stores and re-stores memories. This means that each time an episodic memory is
remembered, it is re-remembered and re-stored and could therefore be subject to change
due to the new here-and-now experience.
Several interesting studies of memory and learning have documented physiological changes
(i.e., neuroplasticity) in the hippocampus. This experience-dependent neuroplasticity is a
crucial function in our ability to learn. As defined by neurobiologists, learning is the process
by which new information is acquired by the nervous system and is observable through
changes in behavior (Purves et al., 2012, p. 695). Well known examples of neuroplasticity in
the hippocampus are reported in studies of musicians (Elbert, Pantev, Wienbruch,
2932
Rockstrosh, & Taub, 1995) and taxi drivers (Maguire et al., 2000). Of particular relevance to
the case of the woodcarver is a study of manual therapists (Mueller, Winkelmann, Krause, &
Grunwald, 2014), in which more experienced therapists demonstrated more accurate haptic
perception (active touch) than inexperienced participants.
Several tentative ideas were advanced for further exploration, emphasizing three key points.
First, declarative episodic memories are always complex and may be linked with implicit
motor and emotional memories, suggesting a neural basis for the woodcarvers ability to
recall and relive making experiences in great detail, and perhaps even explaining why such
memories are cherished and vivid.
Second, the neural circuit in the hippocampus that retrieves, stores, and re-stores memories
may provide another key to understanding how the woodcarvers sensory-motor and
cognitive experiences melt together in the negotiations between maker and material.
When the woodcarver spends much time carving, negotiating with the raw materials and
herself, the continuous circuit of retrieving and re-storing memories runs in parallel with the
overload of sensory input and motor output of the cerebellum. This may also serve to
expand current descriptions of the making experience as intense, in that it can be
understood as a continuous circuit rather than as an independent event or an independent
experiencethat is, as an experience of being here and now combined with memories of
previous experiences and future projections.
Third, based on knowledge of experience-dependent plasticity, it is possible to hypothesize
that the woodcarvers hippocampus changes slightly in response to this activity. For
example, one might expect experienced carvers to have more accurate haptic perception
than those who are less experienced.
Role of the thalamus in directed attention in sensory experiences

The third article focused on the neural circuits involved in directed attention, and in
particular on the role of thalamus (Gulliksen, forthcoming-b). In both of the other papers,
the topic of attention was touched upon. In this third article, a series of photographs served
as a case study of directed attention. Although photography is not woodcarving, they both
relies on sensory attention. The visual sense is important for the woodcarver, and while
other sense modalities are as important, the neural circuits for sense reception and
attention are the same for all sensory inputs other than olfaction.
In the neural pathway between sensing and perception, the thalamus plays a key role. In
translating signals from sensory receptors into a language understood by the cerebral
cortex, the thalamus may pump up the volume to draw conscious attention to something.
The cortex sends information to the thalamus about what it should expect to sense, which
the thalamus in turn forwards to the sense receptors. This is the mushroom-hunt effect,
where trained directed attention makes it possible to quickly identify a mushroom among
the yellow leaves. In the article, this knowledge is used to discuss the difference between
being attentive to something and being attentive to something as something.
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Marte S. Gulliksen
As tentative ideas for further exploration, one might study how the skilled eye or skilled
hand of the woodcarver is developed, and expected differences in sensory awareness
between novices and experts. Previous research provides several examples of such sensory
expertise; see, for example, Groth (2015) or OConnors account of her awareness of glass
making toolsnot as objects of attention but rather as instruments of attention (2005, p.
188). This again relates to the negotiations between maker and material in my previous
study, and to the preconscious and conscious modes in the making process, where the body
interacts with the environment and integrates it in its own (Merleau-Ponty, 1962)
Conclusion
These three papers targeted neurobiological topics that are of relevance in understanding
embodied making, from the viewpoint of an experienced woodcarver and researcher on
craft and design education. In different ways, they explore some basic conditions and
consequences of being a body in the world, experiencing and learning through working with
materials. As such, they present knowledge that supports and/or expands prior knowledge.
The three topics informed the presentation of results. Here, I will begin by drawing some
tentative conclusions on the third topicthe possible transfer of the learning in embodied
making to other domains. Clearly, while these short papers have not explored this topic in
any depth, they all describe ongoing neurobiological functions of the body that are part of
being alive. Because activities like woodcarving are similar to other making activities in other
materials, and to many other activities as well, it seems likely that the experiencing and
learning that occurs though woodcarving changes the anatomical structure of our nervous
system probably influences our abilities in other domains as well. This lends weight to the
idea of a possible transfer of learning from one domain to another; what this means,
however, is as yet unknown.
The first of the three topicsthe phenomenon of embodied making itselfwas described in
the previous phenomenological studies as a perceptual field opening up to the body
(Gulliksen, 2001, pp. 45); as intense experiences; as sensory-motor and cognitive
experiences melting together in an internal focus; and as a negotiation between maker and
material in conscious and preconscious modes. These ideas could be supported and
expanded by the description of the overflow of information in the cerebellum, and of the
cerebellums role in monitoring and adjusting the motor output, enabling us to take
deliberate actions without any necessary involvement of the conscious self. Likewise, the
descriptions of the experience of being-here, linking together past, present, and future,
could possibly expand and support the description of how memory is relived when
remembered.
The second of the three topicsthe learning that goes on in and through embodied
makingwas also discussed in all three papers. The experienced carvers attention and the
possible role of the thalamus supports prior knowledge on expertise (e.g., Chamberlain et
al., 2014; Dreyfus, Dreyfus, & Athanasiou, 1986); the sensory-motor skills experienced
2934
through cerebellar learning may also be informative. In particular, the link between memory
and learning as a result of the combined efforts of the bodys physical and cognitive activity
is interesting in relation to the hippocampus role in retrieving, storing, and re-storing
episodic declarative memories. Knowledge about this neural circuit supports and even
expands our understanding of the salience of evocative and sensory-laden memories for
experiencing and learning when carving. In particular, the neurobiological consequences of
prolonged activity, which are linked to the activity-dependent plasticity of the hippocampus,
expand current phenomenological and educational knowledge on skill learning.
One obvious problem with the key points and tentative ideas presented here is that, for now
at least, they remain speculative. Another problem with a project such as this is its narrow
focus on specific parts of the interwoven nervous system. For example, it does not address
the role of the basal ganglia in choosing which action to take, along with many other more or
less influential systems and neurons that may be active in the woodcarvers experience.
The way forward

The themes identified in the papers above indicate possible directions for future studies of
the short- and long-term consequences of making activities, using an integrative applied
research approach (Bammer, 2013). Although the development project is still at an early
stage, several possible directions can be seen for such a future study. For example, it seems
possible to develop hypotheses to explore a number of questions: whether the haptic
perceptions of experienced carvers are more accurate than those of the inexperienced, as in
the case of manual therapists (Mueller et al., 2014); which types of carving cause what types
of change (and whether there is any actual difference); and how long an activity must last if
it is to make an impact. It might even be relevant to develop hypotheses concerning possible
changes in the thalamic attention of experienced versus inexperienced carvers, or changes
caused by learning to carve or actively carving over a period of time. It would also seem
relevant to develop hypotheses about the possible implications of these neurobiological
changes for a persons abilitieswhy it matters, and how making skills are learned.
Given the complexity of these topics, such studies would demand a targeted, integrated,
applied approach with innovative and stringent research designs (Bammer, 2013; Mason,
2011, pp. 2223). Any future study will also have to implement a range of quality controls,
inviting practitioners, researchers from relevant disciplines, and other key stakeholders to
lay the ground for social accountability and reflexivity. The knowledge generated from such
studies can be expected to contribute to further advancing the field of design and craft
education, and perhaps even to clarify its relevance in the twenty-first century.
More generally, it seems crucial to develop more knowledge of embodied making and how
skills are learned, given the global demand for skilled hands in occupations ranging from
electricians, plumbers, and carpenters to robotics constructors and machine operators.
Likewise, surgeons, veterinarians, researchers in advanced laboratories, and other highly
educated professionals need nimble and skilled hands. Although phrases such as active
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Marte S. Gulliksen
learning and experiential learning are widely used when discussing education, they seem
to have little impact on the choices of policymakers and school owners. If research on the
actual neurobiological changes in children and adults engaging in embodied making can
explain why making matters in developing these needed skillsand if so, howit may lead
to new approaches to learning, both inside and outside schools. In this way, understanding
the woodcarvers experience and the process of embodied making in green wood can help
to clarify for policymakers and other decision makers the importance of embodied making.
In discussing this project at the DRS conference, I hope to engage in fruitful discussion of
possible ways forward, and I am open to possible collaboration in a future project on why
making matters.
Acknowledgements: This study has received funding from Telemark University Colleges
fund for research project developments.
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About the Author:

Marte S. Gulliksen is Professor of Culture Education, Culture
Production and Aesthetical Practice at University College of
Southeast Norway. She is leader of the Universitys Embodied Making
and Learning research group and a member of the Human Ingenuity
Research Group, Western University.
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Physiological measurements of drawing and forming

activities
Marianne Leinikkaa, Minna Huotilainena,b, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainenb, Camilla Grothc* ,
Mimmu Rankanenc and Maarit Mkelc
a
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

University of Helsinki
c
Aalto University
*camilla.groth@aalto.fi
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.335
b
Abstract: The embodiment of tools and experiential knowledge of materials gained

over time lies at the heart of both design and craft practices. However, empirical
studies combining the study of mind and body in relation to design and craft practice
is in its infancy. In the Handling Mind project, we conducted psychophysiological
experiments in order to illuminate the relationships between making and feeling,
handling creative situations and the embodied mind in thirty participants, both
students and professionals representing expertise in various design fields, working
with visual (drawing) or material (forming clay) tasks of 1) copying, 2) creating novel
designs, or 3) freely improvising. Our findings highlight both the importance of the
embodiment with respect to the material and the different physiological states
observed in tasks differing in requirements related to following orders or creativity.
We conclude that the embodied activities are both supported and altered by bodily
and mental processes.
Keywords: Design research, Neuroscience, Forming, Drawing
Introduction
Research on design cognition can benefit from methods from cognitive neuroscience
(Seitamaa-Hakkarainen et al. 2014). There is extensive neuroscientific research related to
embodiment and motor activities, and these studies have analysed how motor processes are
connected to cognitive functions. In a previous article (Seitamaa-Hakkarainen et al. 2014),
we have described the possibilities and challenges of utilising neuroscientific research
methods when studying design and making processes. This present study addresses
relations between reproduction and innovation. In this paper, we report our results from the
Marianne Leinikka, Minna Huotilainen, Pirita Seitama-Hakkarainen, Camilla Groth , Mimmu

Rankanen and Maarit Mkel
psychophysiological experiments that analysed how designers handle different creative

situations and how materials affect their embodied processes. We are particularly interested
in how drawing and forming clay differ when carrying out tasks involving copying, creating
novel designs or free improvisation.
The present study relies on the multidisciplinary research project Handling Mind:
Embodiment, Creativity and Design, which is one of 12 projects in the Human Mind research
call given by the Academy of Finland. The project is conducted by a research consortium that
includes Aalto University, the University of Helsinki, and the Finnish Institute of Occupational
Health. This multidisciplinary research project aims to provide a bridge between the areas of
neuroscience, psychology, design and educational research that are concerned with
embodied activities, social creativity and the expanded nature of the human mind. Through
four interlinked study tracks, we examine how participation in creative activities associated
with crafts and design affects the participants socio-emotional experiences and the nature
of the associated embodied knowing, with a focus on the interaction between mind, body
and materials.
Designing and making are multimodal processes that require complex problem-solving
processes as well as hand, mind and eye co-ordination. They are based on the extensive use
of various embodied senses, tactual, and sensor-motoric operations. Studies indicate that
practitioners senses never operate on their own, but are always interrelated with one
another (Gallace & Spence 2008). Using a variety of neurophysiological and neuroimaging
methods, the neural mechanisms involved in perception or observation of motor activities
have been intensely studied for two decades (for a review, see Rizzolatti & Craighero 2004).
These studies have revealed activation of the sensor motor areas of the brain as a response
stimulus of seeing other people working (Borghia & Cimattic 2010) or seeing hand-held tools
(Witt et al. 2010). However, empirical studies that combine the study of mind and body in
relation to design and craft practice are still extremely rare. Including the measurement of
different physiological signals such as electrocardiogram, skin conductance, movement or
brain activations in experimental setups hold great promise for a deeper understanding of
these embodied actions.
Only recently, some neuroscientific studies have been published that analyse the effects of
drawing on alpha activity (Belkofer et al. 2014) and compare brain activity during drawing
and sculpting (Kurk et al. 2014). These studies used EEG to examine the brainwave frequency
patterns of participants engaging in art-making. In general, non-event-locked physiological
and brain activity is represented in patterns of specific activity related to cognitive processes
and in response to any stimuli present in the environment. Theta waves are shown to be
related to imaginative states and creative processes. Alpha waves are revealed in relaxed
and normal conscious awareness, and beta waves are expressed during active thought and
alert states. Gamma waves are correlated with cross-modal stimulus integration, synthesis,
and information-rich processing (Luck 2005).
A previous study by Kurk et al. (2014) revealed that both clay forming and drawing increased
gamma power in the right medial parietal lobe compared to general movement. Further,
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Physiological measurements of drawing and forming activities
clay forming decreased right medial frontal gamma power and elevated theta power. Also,
the study by Belkofer et al. (2014) indicated that alpha rhythm may play an important role in
drawing. In other words, drawing and forming clay appear to be information-rich activities
requiring simultaneous cognitive processing; however, drawing may provide a more relaxed
state.
The role of human creativity is a pivotal aspect in studies of designing. In the present study,
we were interested in creating an experimental setting suited both for psychophysiological
and neuroscientific measuring and with which we can compare how designers deal with
differently framed tasks. In addition to comparing distinct tasks, we focus especially on the
differences between the materials provided. Defining the role of the provided materials for
mental functions is clarified when we proceed to the next phase of our research setting and
conduct neuroscientific measurements. In the current paper, we focus only on the
psychophysiological measurements.
1.1 Embodied making

The mind has traditionally been researched separately from the body (Lakoff & Johnson
1999, 4). However, it has now become generally accepted that the mind is highly affected by
the actions and experiences of the body, and vice versa (Hari & Kujala 2009). Cognitive,
sensory motor, emotional and social aspects are all included when creating something new
with the hands.
The theory on embodied cognition (Merleau-Ponty 1962/2010; Varela et al. 1991; No 2004,
2009; Lakoff & Johnson 1999; Johnson 1987, 2007) includes the perceiving body in sense
making and claims that human cognition is dependent upon its interaction with its
environment, thus pointing at action and perception as keys in knowledge formation.
Furthermore, studies in neuroscience have revealed that not only is the body relevant in
making sense of the world, but it also affects our emotions and consequently our decisionmaking processes (Damasio 1994, 1999). Embodied cognition theory is also beginning to
change the way research paradigms are constructed in cognitive science, taking into account
the full organism-environment system and the situated and embodied nature of human
cognition (Hari & Kujala 2009, 1).
It has become relevant to address issues of the embodied mind in design studies, too, as
design action and design cognition become closely linked through enactive thinking (Varela
et al. 1991). Drawing as a thinking tool for designers has been rigorously studied (Goel 1995;
Seitamaa-Hakkarainen & Hakkarainen 2004; Cain 2010; Kantrowitz et al. 2011), and
particularly the field of interaction design and human computer interaction has taken on the
philosophical strand of embodied cognition (Dourish 2001; Hornecker & Buur 2006;
Hornecker 2005; Hk 2010; Trotto & Hummels 2013; Hummels & Van Dijk 2015). However,
relatively few have touched this issue within general design or craft research (for examples,
see Poulsen & Thorgensen 2010; Rompay & Ludden 2013; Patel 2008). In learning a craft
2943

skill, the embodiment of tools and methods and the experiential knowledge of materials
gained over time are pivotal and lies at the heart of both design and craft practices.
The aim of the present study was to research embodiment via measuring physiological
reactions during design processes while drawing and forming clay. By using heart rate
variability (HRV) derived signals during the entire experiment, we expected to track not only
the participants physiology, but also related mental states such as vigilance, attention span,
the stress experienced and state of flow. Heart rate variability parameters are good
indicators of the balance between the conscious central nervous system activities and the
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activations including the demands of
physical activity (Veltman & Gaillard 1998).
Increased mental stress leads to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and an
almost simultaneous withdrawal of the parasympathetic nervous system. Several time- and
frequency-domain parameters reflect these activities in detail (see Results). Previous studies
(Cinaz et al. 2010) have shown that several HRV parameters are good measures to track the
interaction between cognitive and physiological processes. The underlying hypothesis in
such studies is that the cardiac activity shows detailed reactions to any mental or physical
activity, consequently also during the creative process.
The hypothesis is linked to the controversial discourse around the theories proposing that
the way one thinks and feels is strongly influenced by feedback from the body. In our
research, we follow the study line by Dunn et al. (2010), who showed in their recent study
that cognitive-affective processing relates significantly to bodily responses. During the study,
they showed affective images and recorded the participants heart rate (HR) to measure
what their bodily response to the images was. In their study, Herbert et al. (2010) applied
the same method. As they point out, cardiac activity is closely related to emotional
experience and the sensitivity of cardiac signals can easily be measured.
The specific research question for our study is: How do drawing and forming clay differ in
tasks of copying, creating novel design or free improvisation with respect to different
timings in creating physical and mental stress, frustration, or flow? This is the first
experiment in which the effects of materials (especially important for the embodiment
experience) are combined with the effects of the mental requirements of different creative
tasks (copying, design, improvisation), and it lays a basis for future investigations in this field.
Methods
Thirty participants, both students and professionals, representing expertise in various design
fields participated in our study. They performed different drawing and clay forming tasks
while wearing portable sensors (Faros, Mega Electronics, Finland) capable of recording the
full electrocardiogram and accelerometers (Actigraph, GENEActiv, Finland) on their both
wrists for hand movement detection (see Figure 1). All the measurements were conducted
2944
over the period November 2014 to March 2015 at the Aalto University, School of Art, Design
and Architecture. The study had the ethical approval of the Institute of Behavioural Sciences
of the University of Helsinki.
The study was a 2x3x2 protocol with 2 different materials, 3 different tasks and 2 different
timings, see details below and in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Participant wearing the measurement devices: Faros cardiac signal recording on the chest
and Actigraph accelerometers on the wrists. Photo by Camilla Groth.
Figure 2. Experimental setting of the study. Panel A shows the timing of one task in the fast and slow
blocks, panel B shows the replications of tasks in the fast and slow blocks, and panel C
shows the composition of both whole blocks. Figure by Marianne Leinikka.
In the study, each of the three design tasks were approached by both drawing with a pen on
paper and by forming clay. The three design tasks in the experiments were 1) a copying task
2945

drawing a copy of a cup on paper or forming it from clay on the basis of a photograph of a
cup, 2) a design task creating a new design for a cup by either drawing or forming, and 3) a
free improvisation task a creative work on a self-chosen topic by drawing or forming clay
according to personal ideas or imagination.
The tasks of the study were executed with two different timing setups: fast and slow blocks,
meaning that participants had either a short or a longer time to perform the required tasks
during that particular block. Both fast and slow blocks were performed using both drawing
and clay forming modalities and comprised each of the three tasks: copying, designing and
improvising. Thus, each participant performed four blocks: fast and slow drawing blocks as
well as fast and slow clay-forming blocks.
The participants executed the tasks according to the timing and instructions presented on a
computer screen. Prior to actual drawing or forming clay task, the participants were first
shown a 5-second-long instruction on the upcoming task (i.e. Next task is ). Thereafter,
the participants had 5 seconds to look at a picture of the cup (see Figure 3) and 10 seconds
of an empty screen with a fixation cross to plan their work without moving. Finally, the
actual drawing or clay forming started. In the fast block, the time available for drawing or
forming was restricted to 45 seconds, whereas in the slow block, the time was 3 minutes.
Therefore, in the fast block, one task (copy, design or improvise) lasted 65 seconds in total
and in the slow block, 200 seconds, respectively. In all three tasks (copy, design and
improvise), the participants were shown a picture of a cup as a stimulus, even though in the
free improvisation task, the creative process was not limited in any way to the production of
a cup.
Figure 3. The cups presented as stimuli in the study. Photo by Marianne Leinikka. Cups made by
Camilla Groth.
In both the clay forming and drawing modalities, the fast block consisted of 30 separate
tasks following each other in a forced-paced manner. In order to have a sufficient duration
of physiological data, each task was repeated five times in a row, and these sets of five were
repeated twice. Therefore, each of the three different tasks was repeated ten times in the
fast block. In the slow block, there were 12 separate tasks, and each task was repeated
twice, thus yielding four presentation times for each of the three tasks. The order of each
block and each task was randomised across the participants to minimise the effects of
novelty (first blocks) and fatigue (towards the last blocks). At the beginning of the study, the
2946
participants had the opportunity to practise all three tasks, both drawing and forming clay,
and both timings. At the end of the study, each participant had made 84 pieces of design
(see Figures 4 and 5).
Figure 4: Newly made clay objects according to the mixed copying, designing and improvisation tasks.
Photo by Marianne Leinikka.
Figure 5: Shelves filling with clay objects, each of the 30 participants created 42 clay objects, resulting
in a total of 1260 clay objects. Photo by Camilla Groth.
The challenge involved in the designing of this experimental setting lies in combining a
design study with a study in which physiological signals are recorded. In traditional design
studies, the experimental protocols can be arranged according to the requirements of the
2947

design process, whereas when recording physiological signals, all kind of excess movements
or differences in timing are potential sources of noise for the data. Further, the fact that the
recommended minimum length for calculating frequency-domain HRV parameters from an
electrocardiogram is 5 minutes has to be taken into account (Task Force 1996). In order to
be able to compare the results from this study with our future EEG measurements, we
included a 10-second long planning window with a fixation cross in the research setting
between the task assignment and the actual execution of the design task. This will allow us
to determine the brain correlates of the mental process during the planning of different
tasks (copy, design, improvise) without the noise caused by the bodily movements during
the actual processes.
At the beginning of the experiment, the participants reported their own level of expertise in
drawing and clay forming on a scale of 0 to 100 and filled in the Profile of Mood
questionnaire (POMS) both at the beginning and at the end of the research. In addition to
the physiological recordings, the participants evaluated their subjective sleepiness using the
9-point questionnaire of the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (kerstedt 1990) also and the task
load experienced using NASA-TLX (Hart & Staveland 1988) assessment tool five times during
the research: at the beginning of the research day, and once after each of the prior
described blocks. The experimental setting was followed by a stimulated recall interview
during which the interviewer watched the video privately with each of the participants. The
participants had the opportunity to reflect and comment on their work by probing certain
feelings, inspirations, disturbances and pressures. The interviewer noted their emotional
comments as well as remarks related to the work itself. The stimulated recall session was
also video recorded for subsequent analysis. The results of the stimulated recall interviews
will be reported in detail in later publications.
Data analysis
The heart rate variability (HRV) analysis of the electrocardiogram signal was performed using
the Colibri software for R (version 3.2.2.; http://www.r-project.org/; R Core Team, 2015).
The data was analysed with a segment length of 300 s without using segment overlap.
Artefacts were detected using the modified method of Xu and Schuckers (Xu 2001) and
removed. From the HRV, the most common time-domain parameters, mean heart rate (HR),
standard deviation of RR intervals (SDNN), root mean square of the successive R-R
differences (RMSSD) and the portion of the successive, consecutive R-R differences which
differ by more than 50 ms (pNN50) were analysed. Further, we calculated in the frequencydomain the following parameters: the high frequency (HF) power, low frequency (LF) power,
their ratio LF/HF, and the power of a specific frequency band of 0.01-0.08, which was
recently shown to be more optimal for the analysis of electrocardiogram data in stress
studies (Henelius 2014). Below, we are reporting only the strongest effects observed in the
data.
2948
Results
Of the total of thirty participants, the data of one participant was omitted due to technical
difficulties. In addition, some of the data from two participants were omitted because of
poor quality. The age range of the remaining 29 participants was 23-55 years (mean 33.8; SD
8.6). Their self-reported level of drawing expertise on a scale of 0 to 100 was 83.2 (SD 21.9)
and for clay forming 59.0 (SD 35.7). The subjective sleepiness values (KSS-values) did not
change dramatically across the experiment (see Figure 6). The task load experienced (NASATLX values) during the course of the study, are presented in Figure 7, showing a clear rise in
mental effort and frustration across the experimental session. The general factors of POMS
mental states were not found to differ between the beginning and end of the experiment,
but the enthusiasm experienced decreased from 2.6 at the beginning of the experiment to
1.9 by the end of the experiment.
Figure 6. Karolinska sleepiness (KSS) values during the study. Scoring: 1 = extremely alert; 9 = very
sleepy, great effort to keep alert, fighting sleep.
2949

Figure 7. Task load experienced, NASA-TLX values during the study. A score of 100 represents high
Temporal, Physical, Mental, and general Effort, high Frustration, and good Performance.
2950
Figure 8. Mean HR, RMSSD and LF/HF ratio of the HRV signal with 95% confidence intervals presented
across all participants in the three design tasks (copy, design, improvisation) separately for
the fast and slow drawing and clay forming tasks.
When looking at the data from the mean HR values (see Figure 8, left column) across all
participants, we can observe effects that are indicative of mainly bodily efforts. The mean
HR, that is, the pulse in beats per minute across the 5-minute period, is a very sensitive
measure of any physical effort or even posture. A clear effect of the material can be
observed as a difference in physical activity according to the material: all tasks and all
timings in the clay forming show a higher mean HR than those in the drawing tasks. The
effect of the material (drawing vs. clay forming) is much stronger in the mean HR than any of
the other two factors (task: copying, design, improvise or timing: fast or slow). Nonetheless,
when separating the effects according to the fast and slow blocks, an interaction effect on
mean HR between the material and the timing is observed: The physical effort is more
pronounced in the fast blocks for the clay forming, but in the slow blocks in drawing. Indeed,
45 seconds to copy, design or improvise with clay seemed to be a very short time for the
participants compared to the 3 minutes in the slow set-up, making the physical effort higher
when the participants are trying to keep up with the required speed.
2951

The RMSSD of the cardiac signal measures the root mean square of the successive
differences of the R-R-intervals in a 5-minute window. More variation, in other words, higher
values of RMSSD, are indicative of a more relaxed mental state. In the RMSSD of the cardiac
signal, we can observe that in the fast drawing tasks, the RMSSD is on average 40, while in
the slow drawing and in the clay-forming tasks, it is around 35 (see Figure 8, middle panel).
This is indicative of less stress and frustration in the fast drawing tasks compared to all other
tasks, and especially in the design and improvisation tasks in fast drawing.
In the frequency-domain measures of the HRV signal, especially the LF/HF-ratio, the ratio
between the low and high frequency power in the cardiac signal, an estimate of the mental
efforts can be drawn. The low LF/HF-ratio indicating the highest amount of attentive effort
and smallest amount of free cognitive resources available was generally observed in the
slow tasks. Vice versa, the faster tasks seemed to yield higher values, even above 3.5, thus
indicating larger free cognitive resources. This was especially evident in the design tasks, but
even more strongly in the improvisation tasks for both materials (see Figure 8, right panel).
This finding was further supported by calculating the pNN50, which was the lowest for
copying, slightly higher for the design task and even higher for the improvisation task,
indicative of the smallest amount of free cognitive resources available in the copying task,
slightly more in the design task and the largest amount of free cognitive capacity available in
the improvisation task. This finding was supported by the interviews given by the
participants.
The above findings are evidence of differences between the two modalities, drawing and
clay forming, highlighting the higher physical effort required by the clay forming compared
to drawing especially in the fast setup, which is exceptionally demanding. Interestingly,
these effects are also observed when comparing the three tasks, copying, designing and
improvising. The relevance of these findings for design and embodiment research is
discussed below.
Discussion
Our research assessed the interaction between the modality (drawing and clay forming) and
the task (copy, design and improvise) as well as the two timing setups (fast and slow). We
have found evidence for a higher physical effort in the clay forming task compared to the
drawing task in general. We also found evidence of higher physical effort in the fast timing
setups compared to the slow timing setups. These two effects did not interact with the task,
in other words, the same phenomenon concerning material as well as timing was observed
across all three tasks.
The physiological parameters reflecting mental effort and cognitive resources are somewhat
in parallel with the physical effort higher effort in clay forming and especially fast clay
forming but also show interesting additional phenomena related to the task types. Most
interestingly, the greatest amount of free mental resources was observed in the design and
improvisation tasks in fast drawing compared to any other task. It may be concluded that
2952
free improvisation, especially involving drawing fast, improvised works, seems to be the
most effective way of freeing mental resources. Similar benefits were also observed in fast,
improvised working with clay. These effects when performing fast drawing tasks were also
mentioned by the participants in the interviews, and we wish to direct our future analysis
toward finding more detailed parallels between the physiological and interview data.
In addition, we are also very interested in the central nervous system activity during the
copying, design and improvising tasks. There are several phenomena that could be observed
as differences between these types of tasks and with respect to the modality (drawing or
clay forming). A previous study by Kurk et al. (2014) revealed that both clay forming and
drawing increased EEG gamma power in the right medial parietal lobe compared to general
movement, and, further, that clay forming decreased right medial frontal gamma power and
elevated theta power. In addition, the study by Belkofer et al. (2014) indicated that alpha
rhythm may play an important role in drawing. In our future EEG study with the same
paradigm, we are planning to investigate similar phenomena in our participants.
To conclude, we investigated the effects of material (drawing or clay forming) and task
(copying, design and improvisation) from the point of view of both physical and mental
processes. We found the physiological measurements reflecting physical effort to be highly
correlated with both the material and the timing of the work. Namely, more physical effort
was required by the clay forming tasks compared to the drawing tasks, and more physical
effort was required when the task was performed more rapidly. These physical efforts did
not have an interaction with the tasks; the physical effort was similar across copying,
designing and improvisation.
We also found that the mental effort, while being partially connected to the physical effort,
showed interesting and important specific effects. In detail, the mental stress levels were
lowest for the designing and especially for the free improvisation tasks, particularly for
drawing. These findings will receive more detailed accounts in the next phase of the
research, when we will analyse the stimulated recall interviews that were conducted after
each experiment. In addition, these interviews will provide us with information on how the
participants experienced the mentally and physically demanding research setting. The
preliminary results from the interviews reveal that even if the participants who were
professional designers felt the experiment to be demanding, they also felt it to be
interesting and possibly also capable of revealing something about their own manner of
approaching design tasks as well as their thinking patterns when starting a creative work.
Design is a human process that involves the whole mind-body connective system. Research
on both the mental and bodily components in synchrony, that is, physiological
measurements of the bodily functions combined with interviews and questionnaires of the
mental components, are the only means to fully understand the complexities of design
actions. These first results presented in this paper pave the way for further studies. The
paradigm is well suited for EEG investigations, and our future studies will bring more
detailed information on these tasks at the cortical level.
2953

Future studies should be directed towards separating physical embodied effects (such as
that of the material) in crossover designs from more mental embodiments (such as tasks
with differing amounts of creativity or mental stress or effort). We believe that the
measurement of physiological signals from cardiac effects to EEG can highlight the
differences between the physical and mental characteristics in an embodied task such as
drawing or clay forming according to specifications given concerning copying, designing new
objects, and free improvisation with the material.
Acknowledgements: this research is funded by the Academy of Finland, project
numbers: 265922 and 266125. We would also like to thank all the participants of the
study and the five students of the design department who acted as assistants during the
measurements: Heli Juuti, Petra Leino, Anni-Marja Kuula, Anna-Miia Suominen and
Eugenia Smirnova. Additionally we would like to acknowledge the two students from
Helsinki University who conducted all the interviews: Anna Lohko and Aino Melkas.
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About the Authors:

Marianne Leinikka M.Sc. (Eng.) Marianne Leinikkas expertise is
experimental work in physiological measurements, their
technologies, and the analysis of physiological and brain data.
Minna Huotilainen Research professor, focusing on work-related
neuroscience. Her interests include cognitive processes such as
perception, memory, attention and the cognitive effects of sleep,
work fatigue, attentive problems and embodied cognition.
Pirita Seitamaa Hakkarainen Professor of Craft Studies. Her main
interest is to analyse expertise in design, the nature of the design
process and the role of external representations such as drawings.
Camilla Groth Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Design. Her
main interests lie in haptic experiences and embodied cognition in
design practice.
2956
Mimmu Rankanen Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Art.

Rankanen is a qualified psychotherapist and art therapist, and her
research interests include therapeutic, cognitive, emotional,
embodied and material aspects of creative processes.
Maarit Mkel Associate Professor of Practice-Led Design
Research. Mkel also works as an artist at the junction of ceramics
and fine art. Her main interest is the creative process.
2957
Code, Decode, Recode: Constructing, deconstructing

and reconstructing knowledge through making
Anna Piper
Nottingham Trent University
anna.piper@ntu.ac.uk
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.415
Abstract: In craft practice, embodied knowledge is constructed (coded) through the

hands-on experience of making and application of technical rules, subsequently
deconstructed (decoded) through reflection and analysis, before being rebuilt
(recoded) to further develop practice and outcomes. In this paper practice-led PhD
research into the development composite woven garments is used to demonstrate
the vital role that process and object analysis play in the advancement of creative
practice and a successful transition from hand to digital production. Drawing parallels
between hand weaving and computer use, it explores how the digital thinking
inherent in weaving can facilitate a productive relationship with digital weaving
technologies. Presented as a visual essay this paper aims to bridge the gap between
implicit and explicit knowledge, using a predominantly visual method to maximise
the reach of the research, communicating implicit and explicit knowledge with equal
clarity and offering an alternative approach to the dissemination of practice-led
research.
Keywords: embodied knowledge; composite garments; hand weaving; digital production
Introduction
Constructing, Deconstructing and Reconstructing Knowledge
This paper builds upon Ulrich Lehmanns assertion that analysis of existing techne
(craftsmanship/making) can lead to innovations in practice and the creation of episteme
(knowing/true knowledge) (2012, p.151), and Lambros Malafouris Extended Mind Theory gaining knowledge of the mind by understanding the physical object (2013, p.9). In craft
practice, embodied knowledge is constructed (coded) through the hands-on experience of
making and application of technical rules, subsequently deconstructed (decoded) through
reflection and analysis, before being rebuilt and reconfigured (recoded) to further develop
Anna Piper
practice and outcomes (Lehmann, U, 2012; Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986; Polanyi, 1966). This is a
complex process where the brain, body and material (the internal and external) intertwine
(Malafouris, 2005), and the application of rules and tools provokes a cognitive process
where memory, experience and intuition converge (Ibid.), enabling creativity and innovation
to advance material outcomes.
I use my own craft practice and PhD research, into the development of a Composite
Garment Weaving system (CGW), to highlight the vital role that process and object analysis,
along with technical documentation, play in the advancement of creative practice and a
successful transition from hand to digital production. The CGW system is an innovative
method of garment production whereby garments are constructed and integrally shaped on
the loom. This involves adapting and challenging conventional fashion design and weaving
techniques to design and simultaneously construct textile and garment (Townsend, 2004).
My research explores the garment shaping capabilities of craft weaving techniques by
developing 3D woven garment prototypes produced on hand and digital Jacquard looms.
In describing the development of the Jacquard loom by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1801,
Braddock, Clarke and Harris state, The codification of the human weavers actions was
converted to binary form (2012, p.8), pattern data was transferred onto punched cards that
facilitated the lifting and lowering of the warp; an operation that is now controlled digitally.
The Jacquard loom, with its binary coding system and punched card mechanism, was the
forerunner of modern computing (Kopplin, 2002, online). By drawing parallels between the
embodied act of hand weaving and the disembodied (Philpott, 2012) experience of
computer use, I explore how the digital thinking inherent in weaving can facilitate a
productive relationship with digital weaving technologies.
Visual Communication of Practice-led Research - Rationale

we can know more than we can tell. (Polanyi, 1966, p.4)
Knowledge has been categorised as - learned explicit knowledge as articulated verbally or

textually (e.g. theory, rules, facts), and knowledge acquired through experience (e.g.
intuition, understanding, knowing) (Niedderer & Imani, 2008; Polanyi, 1966;). This
experiential knowledge derived through experience can be impossible to articulate and
therefore remains largely tacit (Niedderer & Townsend, 2014, p.633) embodied in the
craftsperson.
Verbal description, however detailed, can hardly capture
phenomenological perturbations of real activity. (Malafouris, 2005, p.59)
the
The growing body of practice-led craft-based research has highlighted the complexities of
communicating craft knowledge (particularly experiential knowledge) within the constraints
of the traditional academic written format (see for example Niedderer & Imani, 2008).
Barrett, amongst others suggests, there is a need for new ways of representing ideas and of
illuminating the world and domains of knowledge. (2007, online). Ann-Sophie Lehmann
asserts that the image is capable of mediating between the domains of implicit and explicit
2960
Code, Decode, Recode: Constructing, deconstruction and reconstructing knowledge through making
knowledge. (Lehmann, A, 2012, p.13), whilst Pedgley cautions that visual outputs, such as
sketches, prototypes and visualisations, rarely provide a clear account of design thinking
(Pedgley, 2002, p.466).
In response to this, I present my paper as a visual essay, using images to capture the
complexity and simultaneity of making (Lehmann, A, 2012, p.13) and knowing. Quotations,
captions and reflective journal excerpts are used to support the visual narrative, as well as
to guide the reader through the discussion. In doing so, I aim to bridge the gap between
implicit and explicit knowledge, using a predominantly visual method to maximise the reach
of my research, communicating implicit and explicit knowledge with equal clarity. My
intention is not to devalue or underestimate the importance of the written word or to
suggest that this method of visual communication can (or should) operate autonomously the textual narrative (the contextualisation above, and the positioning discussion below) is
vital to the understanding of the subsequent visual narrative. The visual essay simply
offers an alternative and flexible approach to the dissemination of practice-led research to
function alongside other forms of presentation.
Code, Decode, Recode: Positioning the discussion

This paper uses coding as a metaphor for the construction, deconstruction and
reconstruction of knowledge through making; reflecting the parallels drawn between
weaving practice and computer use, and the assimilation of hand and digital
production and processes in my practice.
The first section Coding begins by discussing the acquisition of experiential knowledge and
its relationship with explicit knowledge and the senses in the context of hand weaving. It
then explores the notion that the weaver is primed to think digitally by the experience of
hand weaving (Piper & Townsend, 2016, p.2). Decoding investigates the transfer and
translation of established fashion and knitwear processes for application to CGW, before
describing the vital role of analysis and technical records (and the deconstruction of
knowledge and techniques) in this process. Finally Recoding focuses on the reconfiguring of
decoded knowledge and understanding, as well as the integration of hand and digital
processes as a platform for innovation; explored through CGWs simultaneous construction
of fabric and garment and the integration of textile and fashion processes.
See Visual Essay (Appendix)

References
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Anna Piper
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Code, Decode, Recode: Constructing, deconstruction and reconstructing knowledge through making
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Schon, D, A. (1991). The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action, Ashgate
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design (synthesizing hand and digital methods), PhD Thesis, Nottingham Trent University.
About the Authors:

Anna Piper is a postgraduate researcher, textile designer and lecturer
at Nottingham Trent University. She is currently undertaking a
practice-led PhD into 3D and composite garment weaving,
integrating hand and digital weaving technologies.
2963
Experience Labs: co-creating health and care

innovations using design tools and artefacts
Tara French*, Gemma Teal and Sneha Raman
Glasgow School of Art
*t.french@gsa.ac.uk
DOI: 10.21606/drs.2016.458
Abstract: For healthcare innovations to be successful, the voices of those receiving or

delivering such innovations need to be heard much earlier in the design process. This
is not easy as there are likely to be multiple stakeholders involved, and their different
backgrounds make it difficult to challenge or evaluate potential innovation in the
early stage of development. This paper positions the Experience Lab as a means of
co-creating sustainable, innovative solutions to healthcare challenges. The
Experience Lab offers participants, both receiving and delivering healthcare, the
opportunity to engage in the design process, share insights, experience new concepts
and imagine new ways of responding to challenges. The material artefacts and
bespoke tools provide the conditions through which to create new meanings and
shared experiences. This paper presents the Experience Lab approach, artefacts and
tools, providing examples of these in context. The paper concludes with the need for
further research to understand the role of artefacts and tools in supporting detail
design and implementation beyond the Lab, and the potential of the Lab approach
for other contexts.
Keywords: participatory; healthcare; creativity; material artefacts
Introduction
In Scotland, one in four adults over 16 report some form of long term illness, health problem
or disability (Scottish Government, 2009). We face increased care needs due to our ageing
population, with a predicted rise of 38 per cent in the number of people who will be over 85
in the population by 2016, and a 144 per cent rise in the over 85s by 2031 (ibid). The
challenges of increasing demand and costs are compounded by decreasing budgets, which
are not predicted to climb back to their 2009-10 levels until 2025-26 (Christie, 2011).
The 2020 Vision set out by the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities states
that by the year 2020 everyone is able to live longer healthier lives at home, or in a homely

setting (Scottish Government, 2011). To enable this vision to become a reality there is a
need for the focus of healthcare to shift from one of treatment, to one of prevention,
anticipatory care and supported self-care, encouraging people to take increasing
responsibility and agency in their own health.
The Christie Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services (Christie, 2011, p.vi) called
for a significant transformation of public services to meet these challenges. It highlighted the
need for reform to empower individuals and communities receiving public services by
involving them in the design and delivery of the services they use, and the opportunity to
use the talents and assets within communities to support self-reliance and build resilience
(ibid, ix). The Scottish Governments Community Empowerment Action Plan (2009, p.8)
makes a commitment to support people and communities to have more power and
influence over what matters to them.
Lived experience of patients can often complement the expertise of healthcare professionals
and involving lay perspectives in health research can lead to a number of benefits for the
quality and impact of the research (Entwistle, Renfrew, Yearley, Forrester & Lamont, 1998,
p.463). Government and policy makers place greater emphasis on involving the public in
decision-making and therefore innovation in the health and social care sector is becoming
increasingly participatory (Scottish Government, 2009).
The key difference between participatory research approaches and conventional research
approaches lies primarily in terms of the alignment of power within the process (Cornwall
& Jewkes, 1995, p.1668). Various modes of participation exist including contractual,
consultative, collaborative, and collegiate (Biggs, cited in Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995). In
participatory approaches the researcher is no longer the person who conducts the research
on participants, but researches with participants, becoming a learner and facilitator
(Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995, p.1668).
In this paper, we position Experience Labs as a participatory approach through which to
harness the lived experience of participants in a creative environment to co-create
sustainable innovation in response to healthcare challenges. We describe our participatory
research approach and the design tools and bespoke artefacts used in the process. The tools
and artefacts are illustrated with examples, and their role in embodiment and learning is
discussed.
Participatory approaches to healthcare innovation

The voice of research participants needs to be heard much earlier in the design process, i.e.
prior to idea generation, in order to explore challenges and identify needs (Teal & French, in
press). Participatory design is based on the premise that involving participants in the design
of products and systems will achieve enhanced results in terms of efficiency and usability
(Bowen, 2010). Engaging with participants at the early stages also allows for a deeper
understanding of experience in order to identify unmet needs for ideation, and can lead to
positive benefits (Sanders & Stappers, 2008) and create user-driven solutions.
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Experience Labs: co-creating health and care innovations using design tools and artefacts
Pressure is increasing on healthcare services and digital technology is proposed as a

potential solution to overcome many of the challenges. Design is increasingly concerned
with the future experiences of people, communities and cultures, and increasing emphasis
is placed on the role of generative design tools to imagine these (ibid, p.10). Employing
participatory design is therefore important in developing innovation to ensure that the
products and services designed will meet the future needs of the people they are designed
for, i.e. those delivering and receiving healthcare services.
There is a growing recognition of the role of design in shaping future services in the health
and social care context. For example, the NHS has employed the use of design thinking
within health improvement and increased adoption of approaches such as user-centred
health design and evidence based co-design (Bowen et al., 2013; Robert et al., 2015). The
development of toolkits and the availability of online design tools have made design
processes more accessible to those who are not formally trained designers (Bevan, Robert,
Bate, Maher & Wells, 2007). While toolkits may support healthcare staff to involve patients
in ongoing service improvement, it is unclear whether these processes lead to
transformative and sustainable service innovation in response to the challenges facing our
public health and care services. These resources have also led to criticisms of a risk of
devaluing the role of designers within the process. Healthcare is a complex adaptive system,
and in addition to skills and expertise in developing new ideas, designers can provide a level
of objectivity that people who are part of the system may find difficult to achieve.
Research approach: Experience Labs

Experience Labs are a design-led approach to co-creating sustainable health and social care
innovations. The Labs are developed and led by a multidisciplinary team at the Institute of
Design Innovation, The Glasgow School of Art and are currently at the core of the Digital
Health and Care Institute (DHI), an innovation centre based in Scotland. We are exploring
the potential of our approach across a wide range of projects in health and social care in
order to share our knowledge and learning with the wider design community. We
hypothesise that our participatory approach can respond to the challenges faced in this
context through the space we create for collaboration; supporting participants towards
creating preferable futures (Dunne & Raby, 2013; McAra-McWilliam, 2014, p.25); through
designing bespoke tools and artefacts to support design methods and activities; the skills of
the team and the enlightened evaluation of the approach to share the knowledge and
learning.
Creating a space for creativity and collaboration

Experience Labs provide a safe space for creativity and collaboration among those who
participate. The Lab offers the opportunity for new communicative spaces and experiential
learning (Reason & Bradbury, 2013) leading to the development of collaborative
relationships. Experience Labs are an emergent process, similar to Participatory Action
Research (ibid), and as a result the environment needs to be flexible. Flexibility allows the
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research team to gain a rich understanding of participants experience, behaviours and

attitudes as participants explore and experience digital technologies. Questions posed in the
Lab are sometimes not fully developed. Developing the question is sometimes as valuable as
finding the answer. This is all part of a creative process, which encourages participants to
think broadly towards creating a preferable future. Flexibility is also an in built part of the
planning of a Lab given that it is a creative process, predominantly focused on engaging
participants to think creatively in terms of future experiences.
Experience Labs are designed to operate primarily at the collaborative mode of
participation, but can also cut across all modes of participation as the design process
evolves. In the Labs the academic, business and civic stakeholders, together with relevant
user groups assume the role of co-creators. Co-creation involves a broad range of activities
that are undertaken through the entire research and design process. This means involving
participants at an early stage in the process, as early as scoping and planning research; and
keeping them involved at the latter stages of the design process, allowing ideas to evolve
from a concept stage to developing prototypes in an iterative manner towards creating a
proof of concept.
While researchers, designers and the various stakeholders are experts in their respective
domains, the users are experts of their own experiences. The Labs value the collective
knowledge and shared motivations of all participants, and present outcomes that represent
the interests of everyone involved. Overall, the Labs aim to empower those involved to feel
a level ownership over what evolves as a result of the Lab process.
Experience Lab activities

Preparation and early stages of Experience Labs aim to gain an understanding of the lived
experience of users, in order to design bespoke activities, artefacts and tools to facilitate cocreation. Inclusion of end-users is considered as crucial to the success of the innovation
being explored to ensure that the concept developed meets their needs and preferences
(Kline & Rosenburg, 1986). Scoping activities might include ethnographic observations and
interviews in the users home or work environment. Visual and experiential mapping
activities are often used in the early stages of Experience Labs, aiming to explore the people,
places, products and services involved to create a shared picture of the users current
experiences.
Experience Lab activities largely involve observation, brainstorming and the embodiment
and testing of ideas as physical and experiential prototypes. Prototyping allows thinking and
ideas to evolve through physical making and creates a safe space for failure leading to faster
learning (Coughlan, Fulton & Canales, 2007). It also provides encouragement and permission
to explore new behaviours (ibid). This supports rapid cycles of making and trialling
experiential prototypes for new products, services or technology and extrapolation of future
experiences in the new context. Prototyping often begins with low fidelity models and
gradually leads to experimentation with a functional prototype as ideas are reviewed,
adapted and refined (Swann, 2002). This reflects the experimental nature of the Labs with
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the term laboratory representing the experimentation of new ideas and prototypes leading
to user-driven innovation.
Later stages of Experience Labs often use role play activities, and may involve testing
prototypes in realistic environments to understand how participants interact with the
prototypes and how it changes current working practices or experiences. Experience Lab
activities are recorded and footage is later analysed to gain deeper insights into how
participants engage with tools and with others. A videographer documents the experience of
taking part as a key outcome of the research activity to accompany a full report detailing
research findings and themes, user requirements and ideas, together with iterated
prototypes.
Design tools and bespoke artefacts

Experience Labs are experiential in that they allow and provide space for participants to
experience new products or services in order to critically reflect and give feedback. The role
of design within this process is to create both the environment and artefacts in order for
participants to be able to do this. Design tools and bespoke artefacts create a new reality
(Niedderer, 2013 p.6), which allows participants to experience a concept that is unknown to
them. In this way, there is no one method that fits all; each Lab is unique to the context,
participants and collaboration. The Labs use a range of generative tools including,
experience prototypes, scenario based tools, storyboards, and role-play. The tools can also
be used in the Lab to explore current, near future, and speculative future experience
(Sanders & Stappers, 2014) although it is a premise of the Labs to ensure that participants
are guided to consider preferable futures. These tools are typical to collaborative activities
facilitated by designers and can reveal underlying patterns (ibid), in addition to providing a
rich understanding of participant experience. Design tools encourage participants to share
their experiences and build on each others ideas. The tools help to open up the design
process to multiple stakeholders (Koskinen, Zimmerman, Binder, Redstrom & Wensveen,
2011). Many participants come to a Lab with feelings of apprehension and uncertainty, but
the tools and artefacts gently ease them into the process.
Material artefacts are created and made by designers within the Lab team to supplement
the tools and enable participants to gain a more realistic experience. Artefacts provide rich
insights into peoples everyday experience, act as a mediator and coordinator of information
and provide an understanding of important processes, protocols or conventions (Vyas,
Heylen, Nijholt & Van Der Veer, 2009, p.106). Artefacts can be used at different stages of the
Lab process to aid brainstorming and exploration of ideas, enhance interactions among
participants, enable the design of concepts, and collaborative prototyping. The artefacts are
crafted aesthetically but are not finished to a professional standard (Gaver, Dunne &
Pacenti, 1999) and enable participants to understand and imagine how a proposed idea may
work for them whilst having the flexibility or ambiguity (Gaver, Beaver & Benford, 2003) to
be changed or manipulated by participants throughout the process of the Lab. The artefacts
generate creative discussion amongst participants, the results of which are used to iterate
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the design. The artefacts and tools help to communicate experiential information to
participants, and through the process of engaging with the artefact through the tool during
the Lab, participants can begin to understand how the proposed innovation would cater to
their needs and fit with their everyday experience or practice (or not). Artefacts not only
enable the tangibility of a possible solution but they also provide the opportunity to share
ideas, reflect, envision and record (Vyas et al, 2009). Artefacts and tools can therefore be
used as both a data generation method and a form of analysis and evaluation of what occurs
during the Lab (Niedderer, 2013).
The artefacts facilitate communication within the Labs by providing a common language that
allows people to share and be listened to: overcoming barriers of discipline, hierarchy and
culture. They allow participants to communicate visually and directly with each other
(Martin & Hanington, 2012). The tools and artefacts, like the method, are open-ended. They
help to keep the discussion focussed and provide a common means of expression. However,
there is an additional level of interpretation and use that is involved in the creation of an
artefact. Each artefact is therefore unique. An artefact projects the thoughts, feelings, and
desires that are difficult to communicate through more conventional verbal means (ibid,
p.94) and the shared motivation of the group involved in its creation. They embody the new
knowledge that has been created through the collaborative process. The tangibility of
possible future innovations allows participants to begin to discuss and explore how the
concept could be embodied and implemented.
Role of the Lab team

Within the context of Experience Labs, the design process is opened up to include end users,
and the designers task is to ensure non-designers feel safe outside their comfort zone,
enabling creative conversations to happen. At this early stage there are many unknowns,
and the opportunity identified is likely to be difficult to articulate at the fuzzy front end
(Sanders & Stappers, 2008) of the development process. All this uncertainty can be
overwhelming to non-designers, and faced with the task of taking ideas forward, it can be
tempting to revert to inductive problem solving, and tried and tested approaches that offer
little scope for real innovation (Bate, Robert & Bevan, 2004).
In his ethnographic study of designers, Michlewski (2015, p.53) highlights the distinctive
design attitude of designers in positively embracing uncertainty and ambiguity in order to
take a creative leap" and innovate. In addition to this inherent attitude, designers ground
creative exploration with a generic design process that is open enough to support
emergence and ambiguity whilst ensuring timely decisions are made.
The Labs bring together stakeholders from a range of backgrounds. This may involve the
public, professionals, academics and businesses. It is therefore important for the designer to
ensure that the tools and artefacts employed are supportive of the collaborations. When
working with different stakeholders it is important to establish a common language and way
of understanding, often supported through the tools and artefacts, which can break down
barriers and provide a platform for communication. Within the Lab it is important that
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participants are made to feel comfortable and are encouraged to be collaborators engaging
in open dialogue (Maxwell, Woods & Prior, 2013). It is also important that the researchers
within the Labs have the ability to navigate roles (Maxwell et al. 2013) and alter these in
response to the Lab activity e.g. facilitate, observe or become an active participant.
The Lab team employ an asset-based approach to empower participants to be creative,
share their skills and experience, towards identifying opportunities for healthcare
innovation. Asset based approaches aim to promote health through the identification of
health assets such as skills, capacities, interests, and networks, which foster health and
wellbeing in individuals and communities. Participants are encouraged to become active
agents in the process, tackling the challenges as opportunities rather than focussing upon
problems and deficits (Foot & Hopkins, 2010; Morgan & Ziglio, 2007).
Evaluating the process

In addition to developing digital, service and social innovation for healthcare challenges, the
Experience Lab team document and research the design processes, methods and tools that
contribute to effective collaboration and user-centred design. Within one current strand of
inquiry we are exploring the role of artefacts within the Experience Lab to understand and
share the key attributes of effective tools to enable non-designers to meaningfully
participate in the design process.
Situating the tools and artefacts in context

Designing the tools and making material artefacts plays a vital part in documenting the
learning and helping to shape new and better questions, while at the same time embodying
the new knowledge created and future opportunities for design. Whether an object
functions as a tool or an artefact depends on the stage in the design process that it is being
used. Design tools offer some structure to facilitate the design process and hence tend to
possess a level of clarity and precision, while an artefact represents knowledge that does not
yet exist and has a level of abstraction or vagueness. Tools help to set a common goal and
offer a general direction for the co-creation process, and artefacts embody the outcomes
that represent the lived experiences, shared knowledge, recognised needs and desires and
mutually agreed opportunities. In order to illustrate the types of artefacts and tools that are
used within the Experience Lab, examples are situated within the context and purpose they
were designed.
Scenario-based design
An effective way of bringing concepts to life is through storytelling. Scenario-based design is
widely used within software development teams to make concepts concrete and allow
understanding of the activities that need to be supported, then allowing these activities to
drive the design (Carroll, 2000). Within Experience Labs scenario-based design is used to
illustrate a real life or mock scenario, which acts as a stimulus to generate discussion.
Scenario-based design or stories can also be a way to demonstrate proposed ideas, which
2971
may be unimaginable to participants (Muller, 2003). For example, a set of scenario cards
presented possible options for a new system to assist older adults to remain independent at
home (Figure 1). The illustrated scenarios brought options for system functionality to life
and enabled meaningful conversation with the intended end users to explore usefulness and
desirability. The concept is embodied through the stories, which are told through the
scenario card artefact (Sanders & Stappers, 2014). The learning that occurs through this
process is twofold. Through the sharing of the scenarios the research team are able to
understand which scenarios were most appropriate to take forward to the testing phase for
the system. For the participants, the scenario cards were able to make tangible the types of
scenarios the system would be able to assist with.
Figure 1 Participants reviewing and voting on scenario cards describing options for system
functionality (photo: Jeroen Blom).
Prototyping
In Experience Labs, participants are often introduced to low fidelity prototypes to test a
potential solution. Participants can be engaged both in testing the innovation, and in
designing the innovation collaboratively. When designing and creating prototypes with
participants we may use a variety of techniques or tools (Figure 2), including bespoke
templates, or off the shelf equipment (e.g. electronic components, model making kits, dolls
houses and toys).
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Figure 2 Materials for collaborative prototyping in the early stages of concept development (photo:
Jeroen Blom).
Both creating prototypes with participants and designing in advance as a provocation involve
a significant amount of collaborative Pre-Lab work and preparation. Innovation projects
often involve a series of Experience Labs in order to gain context, test the concept and
iteratively develop the prototype to the required level of resolution to enable
commercialisation and secure further funding for software development. Prototypes help
participants to think through doing and can be iterated to provide alternative ideas to be
trialled. Learning about the desired functionality, physical attributes and interactive qualities
of the concept explored and embodied in the prototype is obtained from studying the
prototype as an artefact alongside transcripts of conversations during the prototyping
activity and subsequent discussion.
Participatory bodystorming
Bodystorming (Oulasvirta, Kurvinen & Kankainen, 2003) or simply designing in context,
involves designers acting out technology scenarios and ideating products or interactions in
the place where they are intended to be used. Experience Labs use role-play and
bodystorming techniques to design and make prototypes with intended end users as
participants. One example of such an activity involved embedding a co-design session within
a role-play activity. Participants were first asked to enact a scenario of an ambulance
attendance using current working practice. The facilitator then asked them to role-play it
imagining they were using a new application to search for information to support them in
determining where to transport the patient and describing the content of each screen they
would access in order to find the necessary information; meanwhile a designer sketched the
screens on paper. The deck of hand-sketched sequential paper screens were then inserted
2973
into a simple plastic frame creating a mock tablet, and the scenario was acted out once more
using the low fidelity prototype (Figure 3). By breaking this user scenario down into
individual steps and screens the participants were able to move from a vague concept to a
well-defined prototype within one short session. It was possible to take this process a step
further by using a software application to take photographs of the screens and link these
together on a tablet. This made the application appear to work as intended (i.e. sketched
buttons linked to the correct next page) and this functional prototype was used in another
role-play activity to test whether the application met the needs of participants. The act of
making in this example involved the construction of meaning by participants through
enabling the participants to experience the way in which the concept could then be
implemented (Sanders & Stappers, 2014). Learning about the structure, content and
ordering of information, alongside requirements for navigation, interaction and system
functionality were embodied in the prototype.
Figure 3 Participants using the hand-drawn paper screens in a plastic frame during the participatory
bodystorming session (photo: Louise Mather).
Role-play
Designers often create realistic settings to allow participants to experience the prototype in
its intended environment and enable them to embody the experience, recognising how the
proposed system would work and identify in what ways it would meet their needs. Later in
the project described in 4.1, we were able to bring further resolution to the system by
building a wizard of oz prototype to enable participants to experience what the chosen
2974
scenarios would feel like in a realistic home environment, encouraging feedback and
drawing out requirements. Experience Prototyping enables first-hand appreciation of
existing or future conditions through active engagement with prototypes (Buchenau &
Fulton Suri, 2000); in this case through role-play based on our user scenarios. Participants
were asked to react to the prototype system and a touch-screen interface on a tablet. The
role-play scenario was largely the same for each participant although some aspects were
personalised based on our understanding of their daily activities. The role-play was recorded
using a specialist camera and viewed by the project partners in a control room set up.
Through undertaking the role-play, participants were able to experience and envision how
the concept would be implemented within the home environment. The tasks and actions
within the mock home environment allowed participants to further understand the concept
and their reactions to it (Vyas et al, 2009). The experience prototype enabled participants to
embody the experience, and learning was obtained from both their instinctive reactions to
the different system interactions and their reflections during group discussion following the
role-play.
Figure 4 Role-play using wizard of oz prototype recorded using specialist camera equipment (photo:
Sanne Ree Barthels).
Design fiction
Members of the research team enacted user scenarios for a new system to support people
living with dementia in a series of short films, which demonstrated possible options for
system functionality. This approach is termed design fiction and has been used effectively
in concept evaluation and development (Blythe, 2014). This approach can also be used as a
generative tool by deliberately building ambiguity into the filmed scenarios to invite the
participants to fill in the blanks and articulate what they understand has taken place. Briggs
et al (2012, p.534) term this approach Invisible Design and argue that this technique
creates a space for critical and creative dialogue during participatory concept
development. In this example, design fiction suspended disbelief by enabling participants to
2975
imagine what the proposed system could offer and allow them to give feedback and make
suggestions. Designers observed that despite the introduction of unfamiliar new technology
participants were able to understand what was being proposed and discuss options for
implementation. This discussion created learning around who the system should be targeted
at, and the desired split between functionality that should be delivered by the system and
functionality that should be delivered by a person prompted and facilitated by the system.
Assessing the tools and artefacts

The design tools and material artefacts used in the Experience Labs provide the participants
with a safe and creative way to engage in the design process. The tools and artefacts
illustrated in the examples demonstrate the ways in which concepts can be embodied and
ideas can be made tangible for participants. In addition, the tools and artefacts aid
communication within the Labs through both allowing participants to externalise thoughts
and feelings, and generate discussion. The examples also demonstrate the use of tools and
artefacts at various stages of the Experience Lab approach. Vyas et al (2009) propose that
material artefacts need to be assessed at three phases of design: exploration, at the early
stage of design; communication, at the collaborative stage of idea and concept
development; and use, where ideas are tested and evaluated with users.
Material artefacts used early in the Experience Labs, at the exploratory phase (e.g. 4.1)
enabled a deep understanding of participants experiences and everyday life. Visualisations
used at this stage acted as a vehicle to allow participants to interpret, express, discuss and
reflect their ideas (Sanders & Stappers, 2014), which allows the research team to take these
insights forward into the design of the tools and artefacts for later stages of the Lab.
Artefacts allow participants to consider challenges and turn these into opportunities for the
future.
Material artefacts used as forms of communication in the Lab (e.g. 4.2) allowed a two-way
form of communication. For the research team, the artefacts provided a way to convey
experiential information (Vyas et al, 2009) about the proposed idea to participants. For the
participants, the artefacts provided a way to externalise and communicate their thoughts
and reactions to the idea, allowing them to give feedback in a meaningful way.
Finally, material artefacts used later in the Experience Lab approach, when ideas are tested
with users (e.g. 4.3, 4.4), enabled participants to gain an understanding and experience using
the proposed idea in a realistic environment. This allowed the research team to gain
feedback on the idea in addition to providing information on key user requirements and
system functionality.
Conclusion
Experience Labs are a participatory approach to health and care innovation, involving
stakeholders from across academic, business and civic organisations as co-creators in the
process. Experience Labs use designers capabilities and tools to detangle the fuzzy front end
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of the development process to enable non-designers to feel comfortable exploring

intangible or ambiguous concepts for collaborative innovation.
The Labs involve designing a bespoke experience for participants using design tools and
material artefacts, providing a platform for user-driven innovation. Material artefacts used
within the Experience Lab embody the knowledge created from Labs but also build on our
internal research processes, contributing to our understanding of what this means for the
wider design research landscape. In the Labs we have completed to date, the benefits of
using artefacts are already emerging, however we do not yet know the full extent of the
possibilities of this approach.
Future research will involve exploration of the potential reusability and application of
artefacts and tools in other Labs and contexts, e.g. for projects in different areas, to explore
whether the tool or artefact can be used in other ways, by different people, or can be
altered in some way. We are also interested in the role of the artefact in much later stages
of the projects to determine the transferability of knowledge embodied in the artefact and
the potential of the artefact to become a tool in further exploration of the concept by
developers and during testing and implementation. This will allow us to evaluate the tools
and artefacts in greater detail and contribute to our body of knowledge. Finally, we aim to
build in opportunities in future Labs to gather specific feedback on the tools and artefacts to
explore whether participants experience other benefits than those intended.
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank our colleagues, project partners and
participants who have been involved in Experience Lab projects.
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cooperative design, Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and
technologies, p. 105-114. ACM.
About the Authors:

Tara French is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Design
Innovation, The Glasgow School of Art. Tara is a Primary Researcher
on the Experience Labs, tackling health and social care challenges
using Design Innovation approaches. Tara leads projects that are
centred on enhancing wellbeing and quality of life.
Gemma Teal is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Design
Innovation at The Glasgow School of Art, working in the area of
health and wellbeing. Her work focuses on opening up the design
process to meaningfully engage academic researchers from other
disciplines, industry partners, health professionals, people with
health conditions or members of the public.
Sneha Raman is a Research Associate at The Glasgow School of Art,
and works on developing and delivering the Experience Labs. Her
current research focuses on the role of spaces and artefacts in
enabling collaboration and creativity, and the quality of co-creation
by examining what makes some approaches more successful than
others.
2979
Index of Authors
Abdelmohsen, Sherif, 1969

Aftab, Mersha, 3181
Ahmadpour, Naseem, 1457
Ahmer, Arif, 593
Aish, Robert, 111
Alhonsuo, Mira, 3069
Alshawaf, Eman, 959
Andrietc, Ekaterina, 157
Annable, Louise, 303
Arvidsson, Anna-Karin, 1411
Arvola, Mattias, 1089
Atkin, Ross, 2391
Atkinson, Harriet, 2583
Atman, Cynthia J., 593
Bachman, Leonard, 295
Baek, Joon Sang, 3943
Bailey, Jocelyn, 3619
Bakir, Ramy, 1969
Barbosa, Janaina Teles, 4045
Bastian, Michelle, 2107
Bauer, Birgit S., 569
Baule, Giovanni, 1039, 1047
Baur, Ruedi, 1139
Beck, Jordan, 17
Benford, Steve, 3033
Berghman, Michal, 139, 277
Bingham, Guy, 2239
Bissett-Johnson, Katherine, 637
Bitterman, Noemi, 1433
Black, Alison, 2301
Blackler, Alethea, 2063, 3149, 3251
Blomqvist, Mikael, 1411
Bobroff, Julien, 555
Boehnert, Joanna, 2359
Boess, Stella, 625, 1573
Bofylatos, Spyros, 3449
Boggs, Charles, 513
Bohemia, Erik, 1699, 1881
Bonja, Susanne, 1411
Breki, Naz A.G.Z., 795
Borgford-Parnell, Jim, 593
Boyd Davis, Stephen, 2591
Boyko, Chris, 1677
Boztepe, Suzan, 1253
Braga, Mariana Fonseca, 1863
Brischke, Lars-Arvid, 3913
Broadley, Cara, 1737
Brooks, Judy, 539
Brown, Michael, 3033
Brul, meline, 1985
Burnett, Dan, 1609, 1625
Burns, Kathryn, 303
Bscher, Monika, 1123
Buur, Jacob, 1723

Cadavid, Ana, 179
Cain, Rebecca, 1271, 1433
Calvo, Mirian, 3591
Canina, Marita, 2075
Caratti, Elena, 1039, 1047
Carmen Bruno, 2075
Casais, Mafalda, 1553
Castanedo, Rebeca Torres, 2163
Catoir-Brisson, Marie-Julie, 2285
Celi, Manuela, 2015
Ceschin, Fabrizio, 3731, 3785
Chamberlain, Paul, 1499
Chamorro-Koc, Marianella, 1643
Champion, Katherine, 1737
Chan, Jeffrey, 3539
Chatzakis, Emmanouil, 1881
Cheng, Peiyao, 215
Chiapello, Laureline, 17
Chou, Wen-Huei, 3133
Christensen, Anders, 1757
Chueng-Nainby, Priscilla, 969
Chun, Min Hi, 1935
Ciastellardi, Matteo, 1111
Ciuccarelli, Paolo, 941
Claxton, Stella, 3815
Coddington, Alicen, 781
Connor, Andy M., 83
Cooney, Richard, 2201
Cooper, Rachel, 1677, 1699
Cooper, Tim, 1277, 3831
Corrigan-Doyle, Emily, 1529
Coskun, Aykut, 1357
Ct, Valrie, 3669
Coulton, Paul, 369, 1609, 3019
Craib, David, 385, 2325
Craig, Claire, 1499
Craig, Mark, 609
Cranny-Francis, Anne, 2985
Dallison, Delphine, 609
Danahay, Evan, 2533
Darzentas, Dimitrios, 3033
Darzentas, Jenny, 3449, 3771
Darzentas, Jenny S., 2307
Darzentas, John, 3771
Dawes, Cecilie, 3435
de Eyto, Adam, 2709
de Kerckhove, Derrick, 1111
de la Rosa, Juan, 2121
de Lille, Christine, 2423, 2563
De Moor, Eva, 3435
De Paoli, Giovanni, 853
de Ruijter, Laura, 1473
Index of Authors
De Smet, Annelies, 2759

DeEyto, Adam, 3573
Del Gaudio, Chiara, 2121
Deni, Michela, 2285
Derksen, Gerry, 2121
Desai, Shital, 3149
Deserti, Alessandro, 2015
Desmet, Pieter, 1553, 1589
Desmet, Pieter M. A., 1999
Dhadphale, Tejas, 2415
Dias, Julia, 2121
Djaelani, Robert, 3705
Dong, Hua, 3199, 3229, 3247, 3263, 3279
Dorst, Kees, 2493, 2667
Downing, Niamh, 3485
Downs, Simon, 321
Dunn, Nick, 1677
Durrant, Abigail C., 2181
Duste, Tessa, 1589
Dziobczenski, Paulo Roberto Nicoletti, 705
Earl, Christopher, 3687
Earl, Christopher F, 2519
Eckert, Claudia, 2519
Edwards, Liz, 3485
Eftekhari, Farzaneh, 1389
Elliott-Cirigottis, Gary, 609
Elzenbaumer, Bianca, 4005, 4015
Emili, Silvia, 3785
Erbug, Cigdem, 1357
Escobar-Tello, Carolina, 1433, 1529, 3961
Evans, Mark, 813, 2239
Evans, Martyn, 97
Fassi, Davide, 3407
Feast, Luke, 3569, 3635
Felsing, Ulrike, 1139
Fenko, Anna, 3467
Fennell, Jac, 1441
Ferronato, Priscilla, 2121
Fisher, Tom, 3479
Flintham, Martin, 3033
Forlano, Laura, 927
Frankel, Lois, 3103
Franz, Fabio, 4015
Fredriksen, Biljana C., 2911
Freimane, Aija, 1271
French, Tara, 2965, 3653
Fundneider, Thomas, 401
Gabrielse, Gorm, 1211
Gagnon, Caroline, 3669
Galeotti, Anamaria, 2837
Galluzzo, Laura, 3407
Gamman, Lorraine, 3479
Garde, Julia Anne, 2043
Gardin, Astury, 969
Gasparin, Marta, 881
Gaved, Mark, 609

Gaziulusoy, Idil, 3731
Gentes, Annie, 555
Germany, Jason O., 3085
Ghassan, Aysar, 471
Giaccardi, Elisa, 3553
Giang, Colin, 781
Gideonsen, Hanne, 3435
Godin, Danny, 355
Grgl, Emine, 2825
Goworek, Helen, 3831
Gradinar, Adrian, 1609
Graf, Laura K. M., 203
Graham, Alexander, 781
Grangaard, Sidse, 3393
Gray, Colin M., 2549
Graziano, Valeria, 4005
Green, William, 881
Gribbin, John, 3181
Gristwood, Simone, 2591
Groth, Camilla, 2889, 2895, 2941
Grover, Shruti, 2391
Gudiksen, Sune, 1757
Gudur, Raghavendra Reddy, 3251
Guit, Manon, 853
Gullick, David, 3019
Gulliksen, Marte S., 2889, 2925
Hadfield, Mark, 2709
Hkansson, Lena, 1411
Hall, Ashley, 2481
Hall, Peter A., 2625
Hands, David, 2445
Hanington, Bruce, 729
Harland, Robert, 385
Harrison, David, 3785
Haslem, Neal, 2201
Hasselqvist, Hanna, 3929
Haug, Anders, 1903, 3873
Hazzard, Adrian, 3033
Heaton, Lorna, 853
Heiltjes, Sanne, 3467
Hekkert, Paul, 139, 277
Henriksen, Pernille, 1757
Hermannsdttir, Hafds Sunna, 3435
Hermansen, Pablo, 895
Hermsen, Sander, 1323, 1375
Hernandez, Maria Gabriela, 2089
Hesselgren, Mia, 3929
Heylighen, Ann, 3199, 3229
Hill, Helen, 3831
Hofmeister, Tobias Barnes, 3847
Hogan, Trevor, 3005
Hornecker, Eva, 3005
Hough, Simge, 751
Hrinivich, Ellen, 3103
4081
Index of Authors
Huang, Tao, 2699

Hung, Chung-Wen, 3133
Huotilainen, Minna, 2941
Hutchings, Maggie, 2709
Hyltn-Cavallius, Sara, 1411
Hyysalo, Sampsa, 3889
Imbesi, Lorenzo, 2325
Ingram, Jack, 303
Ings, Welby, 483
Ivanka, Tania, 2201
James, Meredith, 719
Janssens, Nel, 2759
Jernegan, Elizabeth, 2121
Johnson, Michael Pierre, 1737
Johnson, Simon, 2391
Jones, Derek, 295
Jonkmans, Anna, 767
Joost, Gesche, 3913
Joutsela, Markus, 259
Jowers, Iestyn, 609
Jun, Gyuchan Thomas, 1809
Jylks, Titta, 3069
Kaland, Lennart, 835, 2563
Kantorovitch, Julia, 2463
Karlsson, Monica Lindh, 4029
Keirnan, Alen, 1457
Keitsch, Martina, 3847
Kelly, Veronika, 425
Kempenaar, Annet, 2271
Kenning, Gail, 1441
Kerridge, Tobie, 1025
Ketola, Anne, 1179
Kettley, Sarah, 1277, 2985, 3121
Kim, KwanMyung, 1919
Kim, Sojung, 3943
Kimbell, Lucy, 3605
Kirk, David S., 2181
Knutz, Eva, 1827
Kocsis, Anita, 781
Kokotovich, Vasilije, 2493
Komatsu, Tamami, 2015
Koskinen, Ilpo, 1013
Kotlarewski, Nathan, 2533
Koumoundourou, Myrto, 2307
Koutsabasis, Panayiotis, 2307
Kristensen, Tore, 1205, 1211
Krzywinski, Jens, 2869
Kuijer, Lenneke, 3553
Kuys, Blair, 1163, 2533
Kuzmina, Ksenija, 1809
Kymlinen, Tiina, 1627
Lahusen, Miriam, 3913
Laivamaa, Laura, 3069
Landwehr, Jan R., 145, 203
Langrish, John Z., 51
Lee, John, 969

Lee, Seong geun, 157
Leinikka, Marianne, 2941
Lenskjold, Tau U., 1827
Lewis, Huw, 3573
Liao, Cai-Ru, 3133
Liapis, Aggelos, 2463
Lim, Christopher Sze Chong, 3295
Lima, Verena, 3983
Linde, Per, 913
Lindley, Joseph, 369
Liu, Sylvia, 1205, 1237
Liu, Tsai Lu, 501, 1389
Lloyd, Peter, 3619, 3687
Lnne, Irene Alma, 1223
Loudon, David, 1515
Lu, Xiaobo, 3373
Lucas, Rachel, 3121
Ludden, Geke, 245, 1271, 1305, 1433, 1473
Lulham, Rohan, 1777
Ma, Xuezi, 3279
Macdonald, Alastair S., 1515
Macduff, Colin, 1515
Maciver, Fiona, 2463
Mackrill, Jamie, 1433
Mages, Michael Arnold, 3503
Maguire, Martin, 1809
Mahar, Doug, 3251
Maher, Carmel, 2709
Mkel, Maarit, 2889, 2941
Malins, Julian, 2463
Manohar, Arthi Kanchana, 3591
Marchand, Anne, 2653
Marenko, Betti, 2755
Margolin, Victor, 5
Markussen, Thomas, 1827
Marlen Dobler, Judith, 997
Marttila, Sanna, 4063
Mattila, Pauliina, 781
Mauri, Michele, 941
Maxwell, Deborah, 3485
Maya, Jorge, 179
Mayer, Stefan, 145
Mazzarella, Francesco, 3961
Mazzilli, Clice, 2837
McAra, Marianne, 3213
McGaw, Janet, 669
McGilp, Helen, 2519
Mcginley, Chris, 2391
McHattie, Lynn-Sayers, 1737
McLaren, Angharad, 3831
Mercer, Lisa, 2029
Messell, Tania, 2737
Meyer, Guilherme, 2121
Michura, Piotr, 2121
4082
Index of Authors
Micklethwaite, Paul, 2163

Mitchell, Cynthia, 2255
Mitchell, Val, 1809, 3961
Mok, Luisa Sze-man, 3889
Moncur, Wendy, 2181
Moreno, Mariale, 1809
Morris, Andrew, 1271
Mota, Joo Almeida, 4045
Moussatche, Helena, 513
Mugge, Ruth, 215, 1553
Mulder, Sander, 1375, 2809
Munro, Tasman, 2219
Murphy, Emma, 97
Murray, Lesley, 1123
Neira, Jos, 895
Nevay, Sara, 3295
Neven, Louis, 3553
Niedderer, Kristina, 1271
Nimkulrat, Nithikul, 3177
Ning, Weining, 3263
Noel, Lesley-Ann, 455, 501
Nordvall, Mathias, 1089
Norris, Jane, 2795
Cathin, Conall, 125
ORafferty, Simon, 3573
Oberlander, Jon, 2991
Olander, Sissel, 985
Oppenheimer, Maya Rae, 2583
Orzech, Kathryn, 2181
Ou, Li-Chen, 233
Oxborrow, Lynn, 3815, 3831
Ozcan, Elif, 1433
Ozkaramanli, Deger, 1999
Paepcke-Hjeltness, Verena, 2415
Page, Rowan, 1487
Pahk, Yoonee, 3943
Paiva, Isabel, 3165
Palmgren, Marianne, 653
Park, Sumin, 3181
Parker, Chris, 1809
Pasman, Gert, 1659
Person, Oscar, 705
Peschl, Markus F., 401
Petermans, Ann, 1433
Pillatt, Toby, 3485
Piper, Anna, 2959
Pisanty, Diego Trujillo, 2181
Piscicelli, Laura, 1305
Pizzichemi, Catherine, 513
Plowright, Philip, 295
Plowright, Philip D., 339
Pohlmeyer, Anna E., 1573
Poldma, Tiiu, 295
Pollastri, Serena, 1677
Popovic, Vesna, 2063, 3149, 3251, 3373
Porter, Samantha, 1809

Potter, Eden, 2379
Prince, Anne, 781
Prochner, Isabel, 2653
Prytherch, David, 1441
Pschetz, Larissa, 2107
Pui Ying Lo, Kathy, 1529
Quam, Andrea, 3861
Radtke, Rebekah, 685
Raman, Sneha, 2965
Rankanen, Mimmu, 2941
Ranscombe, Charlie, 637
Rashidi, Ingrid Halland, 2637
Reddy, Anuradha, 913
Redstrm, Johan, 4029
Reimer, Maria Hellstrm, 4045
Renes, Reint Jan, 1323, 1375
Renner, Michael, 1073
Renon, Anne-Lyse, 555
Renstrm, Sara, 1339
Reumont, Marie, 853
Revsbk, Line, 1723
Ricc, Dina, 1101
Richardson, Mark, 1487
Ritzmann, Susanne, 3913
Rive, Pete, 83
Rizzo, Francesca, 2015
Roberts, Maxwell J., 2341
Rochead, Alan, 609
Rodgers, Paul A., 2677
Rogel, Liat, 3407
Rontti, Simo, 3069
Rosenqvist, Tanja, 2255
Roto, Virpi, 259
Roy, Robin, 3755
Ruecker, Stan, 2121
Ruiz-Crdoba, Stefany, 179
Rytilahti, Piia, 3069
Sadkowska, Ania, 3521
Sadkowska, Anna, 3121
Sakurai, Tatiana, 3983
Salinas, Miguel, 1411
Salvia, Giuseppe, 2075
Sametinger, Florian, 3913
Santos, Maria Ceclia, 3983
Sarmiento, Ricardo Mejia, 1659
Scaletsky, Celso, 2121
Schaeffer, Jennie Andersson, 653
Schifferstein, Hendrik N.J., 3427
Scupelli, Peter, 539, 729
Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Pirita, 2889, 2941
Self, James, 157
Selvefors, Anneli, 1339
Shroyer, Kathryn E., 593
Sice, Petia, 1291
4083
Index of Authors
Sissons, Juliana, 3521

Siu, Kin Wai Michael, 1793
Skjerven, Astrid, 43
Skjold, Else, 1223
Smith, Madeline, 3591
Smith, Neil, 1881
Snelders, Dirk, 767
Sosa, Ricardo, 83
Southee, Darren, 813
Speed, Chris, 1123, 2107, 2991
Spencer, Nicholas, 1291
St John, Nicola, 3349
Sthl, Ola, 1191, 1411
Standaert, Achiel, 3329
Stappers, Pieter Jan, 1659, 3329
Stead, Michael, 3049
Steenson, Molly Wright, 31
Stergiadou, Zoi, 3449
Sterte, Marie, 1411
Stewart, Nifeli, 2201
Storvang, Pia, 1843
Strmberg, Helena, 1339
Sun, Qian, 1699, 1707
Sung, Kyungeun, 1277
Sustar, Helena, 3635
Svensn, Tobias, 1411
Taylor, Damon, 1123
Teal, Gemma, 2965, 3653
Tham, Mathilda, 1411
Thong, Christine, 781, 2533
Thurgood, Clementine, 1777
Tironi, Martn, 895
Tomkin, Douglas, 2611
Tovey, Michael, 419
Townsend, Katherine, 3521
Treadaway, Cathy, 1441
Trimingham, Rhoda, 3725
Trogal, Kim, 4005
Tromp, Nynke, 2141
Tsang, Kaman Ka Man, 1793
Tsay, Wan-Jen Jenny, 2423
Turns, Jennifer A., 593
Uhlmann, Johannes, 2869
Umney, Darren, 3687
Uri, Therese, 441
Urquhart, Lewis, 1951
Vnnen, Jenni, 3889
Vaeng, Ida C.N., 2341
Vaes, Kristof, 3329
Valentin, Frdric, 1985

Valtonen, Anna, 525
van den Berg-Weitzel, Lianne, 3467
van der Bijl-Brouwer, Mieke, 2141, 2147
Van der Linden, Valerie, 3199, 3229
van der Lugt, Remko, 1375
van Dijk, Jelle, 3313
Van Essen, Anita, 1323
van Grondelle, Elmer, 1589
van Onselen, Lenny, 767, 835
Van Rompay, Thomas J. L., 245
Van Steenwinkel, Iris, 3199
Vardouli, Theodora, 65
Verhoeven, Fenne, 3313
Vernooij, Annelijn, 835
Vial, Stphane, 2285
Victor, Ole, 1411
Voort, Mascha Cecile van der, 2043
Vuontisjrvi, Hanna-Riina, 3069
Vyas, Pratik, 1291
Walker, Sue, 2301
Wan, Susan, 1515
Warwick, Laura, 3705
Wasserman, Arnold, 539
Watkin, Thomas, 2285
Whitehead, Timothy, 2239
Wilkie, Alex, 873
Williams, Alex, 1699
Williams, Tim, 1643
Wodehouse, Andrew, 1951
Wlfel, Christian, 2721, 2869
Wlfel, Sylvia, 2721
Woodcock, Meghan, 513
Wurl, Julia, 767
Yee, Joyce S.R., 2677
Yilmaz, Seda, 2415
Ylirisku, Salu, 1723
York, Nicola, 813
You, Xinya, 2445
Young, Robert, 1291, 3181
Zahedi, Mithra, 853
Zamenopoulos, Theodore, 1123
Zhang, Wenwen, 1163
Zhao, Chao, 3373
Zhou, Ningchang, 2699
Zhou, Xinyue, 2121
Zi, BingXin, 969
Zingale, Salvatore, 1061
4084
Over fifty years the Design Research Society has been

fundamental to developing and supporting the field of Design
Research. In that time many influential and innovative
conferences have been held and the 50th Anniversary in
Brighton conference continues that tradition. The breadth and
depth of design research represented in these proceedings
is extremely impressive and shows, I think, not only how
important design research has become, but also the
considerable potential that it holds for the future.
- Professor Nigel Cross
PRESIDENT OF THE DRS
drs2016.org
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ISSN2 398-3132
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ISSN 2398-3132

2730 JUNE 2016

50th Anniversary Conference

Design + Research + Society

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Proceedings of DRS 2016 International Conference: FutureFocused Thinking

Design Research Society Secretariat

DRS Special Interest Groups

DRS International Conference Series

DRS 2016 Programme Committee

International Board of Reviewers

Federico Del Giorgio Solfa, National University of La Plata, Argentina

Michael Hohl, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Val Mitchell, Loughborough University, United Kingdom

Ricardo Sosa, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

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Jordan Beck, Laureline Chiapello

Molly Wright Steenson

Ricardo Sosa, Pete Rive and Andy M. Connor

Emma Murphy and Martyn Evans

Michal Berghman and Paul Hekkert

Stefan Mayer and Jan R. Landwehr

Seong geun Lee, James Self and Ekaterina Andrietc

Ana Cadavid, Stefany Ruiz-Crdoba and Jorge Maya

Laura K. M. Graf and Jan R. Landwehr

Peiyao Cheng and Ruth Mugge

Thomas J. L. Van Rompay and Geke D. S. Ludden

Markus Joutsela and Virpi Roto

Michal Berghman and Paul Hekkert

Derek Jones, Philip Plowright, Leonard Bachman and Tiiu Poldma

Kathryn Burns, Jack Ingram and Louise Annable

Paul Coulton, Joseph Lindley and Haider Ali Akmal

Graphicality: why is there not such a word? ........................................................................................................................................ 385

Robert Harland and David Craib

Markus F. Peschl and Thomas Fundneider

Lesley-Ann Noel and Tsai Lu Liu

Charles Boggs, Helena Moussatche, Catherine Pizzichemi and Meghan Woodcock

Peter Scupelli, Arnold Wasserman, and Judy Brooks

Annie Gentes, Anne-Lyse Renon and Julien Bobroff

Cynthia J. Atman, Arif Ahmer, Jennifer A. Turns and Jim Borgford-Parnell

Charlie Ranscombe and Katherine Bissett-Johnson

Jennie Andersson Schaeffer and Marianne Palmgren

Paulo Roberto Nicoletti Dziobczenskiand Oscar Person

Peter Scupelli and Bruce Hanington

Naz A.G.Z. Breki

Nicola York, Darren Southee and Mark Evans

Lennart Kaland, Annelijn Vernooij and Lenny van Onselen

Marta Gasparin and William Green

Martn Tironi, Pablo Hermansen and Jos Neira

Anuradha Reddy and Per Linde

Michele Mauri and Paolo Ciuccarelli

Priscilla Chueng-Nainby, John Lee, BingXin Zi and Astury Gardin

Judith Marlen Dobler

Giovanni Baule and Elena Caratti

Giovanni Baule and Elena Caratti

Mathias Nordvall and Mattias Arvola

Matteo Ciastellardi and Derrick de Kerckhove

Ruedi Baur and Ulrike Felsing

Blair Kuys and Wenwen Zhang

Tore Kristensen and Sylvia Liu