Critical design

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Critical design uses design fiction and speculative design proposals to challenge assumptions and conceptions about the role objects play in everyday life. Critical design plays a similar role to product design, but does not emphasize an object's commercial purpose or physical utility. It is mainly used to share a critical perspective or inspire debate, [1] while increasing awareness of social, cultural, or ethical issues in the eyes of the public. Critical design was popularized by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby through their firm, Dunne & Raby.

Contents

Critical design can make aspects of the future physically present to provoke a reaction. [2] "Critical design is critical thought translated into materiality. It is about thinking through design rather than through words and using the language and structure of design to engage people." [3] It may be conflated with the critical theory or the Frankfurt School, but it is not related.

Definition

A critical design object challenges an audience's preconceptions, provoking new ways of thinking about the object, its use, and the surrounding culture. Its adverse is affirmative design: design that reinforces the status quo. For a project to succeed in critical design, the viewer must be mentally engaged and willing to think beyond the expected and ordinary. Humor is important, but satire is not the goal.

Many practitioners of critical design have never heard of the term itself, and/or would describe their work differently. Referring to it as critical design simply garners more attention to it, and emphasizes that design has applications beyond problem solving.

It is more of an attitude than a style or movement; a position rather than a method. Critical design builds on this attitude by creatively critiquing concepts and ideologies using fabricated artifacts to embody commentaries around everything from consumer culture to the #MeToo Movement. Regardless of its processes, critical design is often discussed as a unique approach in Design Research, perhaps because of its focus on critiquing widely held social, cultural, and technical beliefs. The process of designing such an object, as well as the presentation and narrative around the object itself, allows for reflection on existing cultural values, morals, and practices. In making such an object, critical designers frequently employ classic design processes—research, user experience, iteration—while working to conceptualize scenarios intended to highlight social, cultural, or political paradigms. [4] Design as societal critique is not a new idea.

History

Italian Radical Design of the 1960s and 70s was highly critical of prevailing social values and design ideologies.

The term "critical design" was first used in Anthony Dunne's book Hertzian Tales (1999) [5] and further developed in Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects (2001). [6]

According to Sanders, critical design probes an "ambiguous stimuli that designers send to people who then respond to them, providing insights for the design process." [7] Uta Brandes identifies critical design as a discrete Design Research method [8] and Bowen integrates it into human-centered design activities as a useful tool for stakeholders to critically think about possible futures. [9]

FABRICA, a communication research center owned by Italian fashion giant Benetton Group, has been actively involved in producing provocative imagery and critical design projects. FABRICA's Visual Communication department, led by Omar Vulpinari, actively participates in critiquing social, political and environmental issues through global awareness campaigns for international magazines and organizations like UN-WHO. Several young artists who have produced critical design projects at FABRICA in recent years are Erik Ravello (Cuba), Yianni Hill (Australia), Marian Grabmayer (Austria), Priya Khatri (India), Andy Rementer (United States), and An Namyoung (South Korea).

Function

To attribute to design practice, critical design broadens the vision in design from traditional practice. It is no longer limited to highlighting the physical function in product design, though this causes some ambiguities in the discussion of critical design's function as it maintains in design area. Matt Malpass addresses Larry Ligo's classification of five different types of function: Structural articulation, Physical function, Psychological function, Social function, as well as Cultural-existential function [10] in his article, with a further discussion of how Modernism leaves a narrower understanding of physical utility when we think about function, [11] which leads to the ambiguity in critical design's function. As critical design focuses on present social, cultural, and ethical implications of design objects and practice, [1] it mostly emphasizes on social and cultural impact from its function.

In addition, critical design objects have a lot of potential to contribute to testing ideas during the process of the development of new technology. As Dunne and Raby express their concerns about always lacking communication between the specialists and the general public to form a two-way discussion of new technology. It always limits to one-way flow from specialists to the public. [12] Critical design provides a stage to give scenarios, completes the dialog between specialists and the general public and helps to collect feedback from the public for further refinements before the idea is going too far for any changes.

Critical play

Researcher Mary Flanagan wrote Critical Play:Radical Game Design in 2009, [13] the same year that Lindsay Grace started the Critical Gameplay project. Grace's Critical Gameplay project is an internationally exhibited collection of video games that apply critical design. The games provoke questions about the way games are designed and played. The Critical Gameplay Game, Wait, was awarded the Games for Change hall of fame award for being one of the 5 most important games for social impact since 2003. The work has been shown at Electronic Language International Festival, Games, Learning & Society Conference, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems among other notable events.

Critiques

As critical design has gained mainstream exposure, the discipline has been itself criticized by some for dramatizing so-called 'dystopian scenarios,' which may, in fact, be reflective of real-life conditions in some places in the world. Some see critical design as rooted in the fears of a wealthy, urban, western population and failing to engage with existing social problems. As an example, a project titled Republic of Salivation, by designers Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta, featured as part of MoMA's Design and Violence series, portrays a society plagued by overpopulation and food scarcity which is reliant on heavily modified, government-provided, nutrient blocks. [14] Certain media responses to the work, point to the "presumed naivety of the project," which presents a scenario that "might be dystopian to some, but in some other parts of the world it has been the reality for decades." [15]

Critical acclaim

In recognition of their formalization of the field, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby were presented with the inaugural MIT Media Lab Award in June 2015 with director Joichi Ito pointing out that "[Dunne and Raby's] pioneering approach to critical design and its intersection with science, technology, art, and the humanities has changed the landscape of design education and practice worldwide." [16]

Distinctions with Conceptual art

Conceptual art practice has a very similar role as critical design since both of them are sharing critical perspectives to the public and being commentators to issues, the public may get confused to understand these two different fields. However, Matt Malpass points out that the critical designer still applies the skills from the training and practice as designer but re-orientates these skills from a focus on practical ends to a focus on design work that functions symbolically, culturally, existentially, and discursively. [11] Critical design objects are made precisely based on the design principles and carefully follow the design and design research process. Also, critical design objects always stay close to people's everyday life. They tend to be tested on real people and get feedback for further developments. Conceptual art usually associates with gallery spaces and mostly tends to apply the artistic media in the process.

See also

Related Research Articles

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A design is a concept of or proposal for an object, a process, or a system. Design refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, though it is sometimes used to refer to the nature of something - its design. The verb to design expresses the process of developing a design. In some cases, the direct construction of an object without an explicit prior plan may also be considered to be a design. A design is expected to have a purpose within a certain context, usually has to satisfy certain goals and constraints, and to take into account aesthetic, functional, economic, environmental or socio-political considerations. Typical examples of designs include architectural and engineering drawings, circuit diagrams, sewing patterns and less tangible artefacts such as business process models.

Participatory design is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all stakeholders in the design process to help ensure the result meets their needs and is usable. Participatory design is an approach which is focused on processes and procedures of design and is not a design style. The term is used in a variety of fields e.g. software design, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, product design, sustainability, graphic design, planning, and health services development as a way of creating environments that are more responsive and appropriate to their inhabitants' and users' cultural, emotional, spiritual and practical needs. It is also one approach to placemaking.

<i>Bricolage</i> Creation of an artwork from a diverse range of things that happen to be available

In the arts, bricolage is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work constructed using mixed media.

Design methods are procedures, techniques, aids, or tools for designing. They offer a number of different kinds of activities that a designer might use within an overall design process. Conventional procedures of design, such as drawing, can be regarded as design methods, but since the 1950s new procedures have been developed that are more usually grouped together under the name of "design methods". What design methods have in common is that they "are attempts to make public the hitherto private thinking of designers; to externalise the design process".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Suchman</span> British sociologist

Lucy Suchman is Professor Emerita of Anthropology of Science and Technology in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University, in the United Kingdom, also known for her work at Xerox PARC in the 1980s and 90s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Flanagan</span>

Mary Flanagan is an American artist, author, educator, and designer. She pioneered the field of game research with her ideas on critical play and has written several books. She is the founding director of the research laboratory and design studio Tiltfactor Lab and the CEO of the board game company Resonym. Flanagan's work as an artist has been shown around the world and won the Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica in 2018.

Dunne & Raby is a London-based design studio established 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martí Guixé</span> Spanish designer

Martí Guixé is a Spanish designer living in Barcelona and Berlin. He graduated in interior design from Elisava in Barcelona in 1985 and enrolled in an industrial design study program in Scuola Politecnica di Design di Milano in 1986. In 2001, as a statement against the limited scope of the traditional designer and to open new possibilities for the industry Guixé started an ex-designer movement, defining himself by the same name.

Immanent critique is a method of analyzing culture that identifies contradictions in society's rules and systems. Most importantly, it juxtaposes the ideals articulated by society against the inadequate realization of those ideals in society's institutions.

<i>Objectified</i> 2009 American film

Objectified is a feature-length documentary film examining the role of everyday non-living objects and the people who design them, in our daily lives. The film is directed by Gary Hustwit. Objectified premiered at the South By Southwest Festival on March 14, 2009.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sascha Pohflepp</span> German artist (1978–2019)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Critical making</span>

Critical making refers to the hands-on productive activities that link digital technologies to society. It was invented to bridge the gap between creative, physical, and conceptual exploration. The purpose of critical making resides in the learning extracted from the process of making rather than the experience derived from the finished output. The term "critical making" was popularized by Matt Ratto, an associate professor at the University of Toronto. Ratto describes one of the main goals of critical making as a way "to use material forms of engagement with technologies to supplement and extend critical reflection and, in doing so, to reconnect our lived experiences with technologies to social and conceptual critique." "Critical making", as defined by practitioners like Matt Ratto and Stephen Hockema, "is an elision of two typically disconnected modes of engagement in the world — "critical thinking," often considered as abstract, explicit, linguistically based, internal and cognitively individualistic; and "making," typically understood as tacit, embodied, external, and community-oriented."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiona Raby</span>

Fiona Raby is a British artist and University Professor of Design and Social Inquiry at The New School. She served as professor of Industrial Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She was also a member of the research and teaching staff at the Royal College of Art (RCA) from 1994 to 2015. She left to focus on her partnership with Dunne & Raby. Her work, in collaboration with partner Anthony Dunne, is part of the Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) permanent collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joep van Lieshout</span> Dutch artist and sculptor

Joep van Lieshout, is a Dutch artist and sculptor born in Ravenstein, Netherlands, and founder of Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL).

Design fiction is a design practice aiming at exploring and criticising possible futures by creating speculative, and often provocative, scenarios narrated through designed artifacts. It is a way to facilitate and foster debates, as explained by futurist Scott Smith: "... design fiction as a communication and social object creates interactions and dialogues around futures that were missing before. It helps make it real enough for people that you can have a meaningful conversation with".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Dunne</span> Designer and academic

Anthony Dunne is a critical designer, educator and founder of the art group Dunne and Raby. He runs the studio with his long term partner and collaborator Fiona Raby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Design studies</span> Academic field

Design studies can refer to any design-oriented studies but is more formally an academic discipline or field of study that pursues, through both theoretical and practical modes of inquiry, a critical understanding of design practice and its effects in society.

Cathrine Maclennan Kramer is a Norwegian artist, designer and curator.

Speculative design is a design practice that is concerned with future design proposals of a critical nature. The term "speculative design" was popularised by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby as a subsidiary of critical design. The aim is not to present commercially-driven design proposals but to design proposals that identify and debate crucial issues that might happen in the future. Speculative design is concerned with future consequences and implications of the relationship between science, technology, and humans. It problematizes this relation by proposing provocative future design scenarios where technology and design implications are accentuated. These provocative design proposals are meant to trigger the debate about future challenges. Speculative design proposals might seem subversive and irreverent in nature as they are meant to initiate discussions not to be market products.

References

  1. 1 2 Malpass, Matt (2013). "Between Wit and Reason: Defining Associative, Speculative, and Critical Design in Practice". Design and Culture. 5:3, 333–356.
  2. ↑ Tonkinwise, Cameron (1 December 2014). "How We Intend to Future: Review of Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming". Design Philosophy Papers. 12 (2): 169–187. doi:10.2752/144871314X14159818597676. S2CID   143531152.
  3. ↑ Dunne, Anthony; Raby, Fiona (6 December 2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-01984-2 . Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  4. ↑ "MoMA - Talk to Me".
  5. ↑ Dunne, Anthonny (1999). Hertzian tales : electronic products, aesthetic experience and critical design. London: Royal College of Art computer related design research studio. p. 117. ISBN   978-1-874175-27-8.
  6. ↑ Raby, Fiona (2001). Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. Basel: Birkhäuser. ISBN   978-3-7643-6566-0.
  7. ↑ Sanders, Elizabeth B.-N. (September 2006). "Design Research in 2006". Design Research Quarterly. 1 (1): 1–8. ISSN   0142-694X.
  8. ↑ Brandes, Uta (2009). Designtheorie und Designforschung (in German). Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink. ISBN   978-3-7705-4664-0.
  9. ↑ "Crazy ideas or creative probes?: presenting critical artefacts to stakeholders to develop innovative product ideas". Proceedings of EAD07: Dancing with Disorder: Design, Discourse and Disaster. April 2007.
  10. ↑ Ligo, Larry (1984). The Concept of Function in Twentieth-Century Architectural Criticism. MI: UMI Research Press. ISBN   9780835715423.
  11. 1 2 Malpass, Matt (Spring 2015). "Criticism and Function in Critical Design Practice" (PDF). Design Issues. 31 (2): 59–71. doi:10.1162/DESI_a_00322. S2CID   57571804.
  12. ↑ "Towards a Critical Design". Dunne & Raby. 2013.
  13. ↑ Flanagan, Mary (2009). Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-06268-8.
  14. ↑ "Republic of Salivation (Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta)". 19 December 2013.
  15. ↑ luizaprado (4 February 2014). "Questioning the "critical" in Speculative & Critical Design: A rant on the blind privilege that permeates most Speculative Design projects".
  16. ↑ Lab, MIT Media (16 July 2015). "Introducing the Media Lab Award".
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