#discursive design

Bruce Tharp is an Associate Professor in Art & Design at the Stamps School of Art and Design and is the co-author, with his wife Stephanie, of the new book, Discursive Design. Bruce originally studied mechanical engineering before getting an MID in Industrial Design and a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology. In this episode, Jarrett and Bruce talk about discursive design and what that means, the strange trajectory of his career, and bridging the gaps between research and materiality.

Critical design, speculative design and design fiction are methodological frameworks in which objects are seen as facilitators of conversations rather than goods to be bought or used.

This semester, I’ve been taking part in a Sustainable Design studio and learning a lot about system theory, upcycling, humanist sustainability and design for the other 90%, material selection for sustainable design, and a ton more.  It’s been pretty fantastic, and frankly it will be hard in coming internships and jobs to push from my mind the lessons I’m learning here, but its also been keeping me busy enough that I haven’t even had much time to talk about the projects I’ve been making!

In June, you could find me working on a 10/10/10 project, meaning I had to find an idea through interviews with at least 10 strangers in the Boston area, the materials I sourced had to come from a 10 mile radius of the city, and the final product could cost no more than $10 in materials.  My interviews (led with the very broad question of “What is your least favorite thing about living in Boston?”) led me to the conclusion that, by and large, the New England winter is locals’ least favorite thing about living here, and I decided to try and solve for that with my design.

Pictured are three of my initial prototypes.  The first was intended as a collection box for an item of the user’s choice as it was found on each day of a particular temperature, which could possibly lead to positive associations with bad weather.  The second was intended as a tactile object, almost like a fidget spinner in nature, where users would add or subtract tactile features from the piece based on the temperature range outside, again with the intent of giving the user a positive association with seemingly bad weather.  

“the city of Halab (Aleppo) in Syria has been at war for 4 years. Torn apart by 5 different forces fighting among each other, one of the oldest cities in the world is crushed into the dust. The table is a tribute to the citizens of Halab who died in the war, and for those who strive to live, with no solution on the horizon. The part of the city in the box is likened to a coffin, reflecting a situation of no hope.”

Tarazi Design Studio designed a table to reflect and to pay a tribute to innocents, victims of war. On their website you can find more products and experimentations.

All Rights Reserved to Tarazi Design Studio

Introduction to Speculative Design Practice

Ivica Mitrović

Discursive and Critical Design Practice

From the modernist perspective, design has been primarily regarded as a problem-solving practice, usually dealing with problems detected by other professions. In this sense, the mission of design is closely linked to the needs of the industry or, in a broader sense, the creation of a better living standard. From such modernist perspective, design is seen as a service activity that primarily addresses clients’ needs. However, as graphic designer and publicist Dejan Kršić points out, design has always been a signifying practice that generates, analyses, distributes, mediates and reproduces social meaning, especially nowadays, in the context of the new social, technological, media and economic conditions.

The relation between design and art (and other related disciplines) can be observed in several stages, i.e. from the high modernist synthesis of applied arts, visual arts and design in the 1950s, to the scientification of design throughout the 1960s and the emphasis on its rationality and the postmodernist position in which it is once again positioned at the centre of the interrelations of various disciplines, no longer through a complete synthesis, but, above all, through their interaction. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that an increasing number of designers take upon some new approaches to design. These “new designers” act on the borders of traditionally defined disciplines,removing the borders between them.

In their research, these new designers relate to diverse fields of science, primarily computer sciences and engineering, sociology, psychology, architecture, and, in the recent times, increasingly to biotechnology, all with the goal of critically reflecting on the development and role of technology in society. Designers re-think the role of technology in everyday life, without dealing with the applications of technology, but rather by considering its implications. Turning away from the com- mercial aspects of design with the focus on the demands of the market, they are now engaged with a broader social context. The new designers use design as a medium and focus on concepts and artefacts, and, rather than solving problems, ask questions and open issues to discussion.

The researcher and educator Ramia Mazé says there are three different approaches to critical design practice: the first sees designers reflecting on and critically questioning their own design practice; the second approach is based on a macro-perspective, re-thinking the design discipline as such; whereas in the third approach the design discourse is directed towards broader social and political phenomena. Mazé points out that these approaches are not mutually exclusive, as they most often intertwine and supplement each other in practice.

Historical references of critical design practice point to radical architecture of the 1960s, and partially to the critical practice of avant-garde and neo-avant-garde art. They are particularly inspired by the narrative quality and imaginary worlds of literature and film. Design and critical practice create more intense links in the interaction design, a specialized field of design that emerged in the early 1990s as a result of the accelerated development of digital technologies. The classical definition of interaction design describes it as a practice dealing with the ways in which people connect via the products and technologies they use, i.e. with the design of our everyday lives via digital artefacts. Today, it is most commonly associated with the design of digital products, applications or services.

In this context, through his own personal design practice, and later through the establishment of a novel educational approach as the Head of the Design Interactions Department at the Royal College of Art (rca) for many years, Anthony Dunne, in an approach he termed “critical design”, has dealt with the aesthetics of the use of new technologies in the context of electronic products. However, over the years, and in collaboration with Fiona Raby, he expanded the focus of his activities to the cultural, social and ethical implications of new technologies, and, most recently, onspeculations about broader social, economic and political issues. Alternative presents and speculative futures (Auger). Here and now: everyday life and real products available on the market. The higher the line, the more emergent the technology and the longer and less predictable the transit to everyday life. Speculative futures exist as projections of the lineage in future. The alternative reality presents a shift from the lineage at some point in the past to re-imagine our technological present.

Speculating through Design: a question instead of an answer

Speculative design is a critical design practice that comprises or is related to a series of similar practices known under the following names: critical design, design fiction, future design, anti-design, radical design, interrogative design, discursive design, adversarial design, futurescape, design art, transitional design etc. For instance, design fiction is a potential genre of speculative design practice, and “critical design”, as defined by Dunne, is a possible approach.

Speculative design is a discursive practice, based on critical thinking and dialogue, which questions the practice of design (and its modernist definition). However, the speculative design approach takes the critical practice one step further, towards imagination and visions of possible scenarios. Speculative design is also one of the most representative examples of the new interaction between various disciplines. It is therefore interesting to see how new designers view their practice: they call themselves trans-disciplinary, post-disciplinary or even post-designers, quite often even simply – designers. Sometimes they do not even declare to be acting from the design perspective at all.

By speculating, designers re-think alternative products, systems and worlds. Designer and teacher at the rca, James Auger, says that this design (i) moves away from the constraints of the commercial practice (steered by the market); (ii) uses fiction and speculates on future products, services, systems and worlds, thus reflectively examining the role and impact of new technologies on everyday life; (iii) and initiates dialogue between experts (scientists, engineers and designers) and users of new technologies (the audience).