Dear Victor,
I will second.
You pose a good question. I am with you. My "business" is in
sociocultural aspects of design and I focus on products, on the
interaction between the sociocultural and the artifact.
However, I see the things a bit differently. I don't see that much
talk even on the process of design. What astonishes me is that we
talk more on political issues, empowerment, and the like. I am
astonished that the list members hook more readily on these issues
rather than discussing the social trajectory of design products and
the core of the design process.
So, I will rephrase your question in a more extreme way: Why the list
members respond and participate more readily in threads with
political nature, than in threads on the sociocultural nature of
design products, as well as the nature of the design processes? Why
every time we start talking about design, we end talking about
politics? Is that the Post-Modern turn again? Subversion,
empowerment, deflection, etc. Is this the spirit of the time or the
way a limited number of individuals pursue their empowerment?
Best,
Lubomir
At 01:08 PM 8/3/2007, Victor Margolin wrote:
>Dear colleagues:
>I have a question for the list. Why is so much research attention
>given to the process of design and so little to its results - the
>products that are the outcomes of designing, their value and social
>consequences. It seems to me that one result of design research
>should be to serve as a critical lens for evaluating the results of
>designing. Of course, research into sustainable products is a
>promising direction but there are so many more things that are
>designed about which we don't know much. What about the way that new
>digital products like cell phones and ipods are changing
>socialization values. What about the changing ideas about the design
>of public space.We seem to leave all those and other questions
>related to the social consequences of designing to other disciplines.
>--
>Victor Margolin
>Professor Emeritus of Design History
>Department of Art History
>University of Illinois at Chicago
>935 W. Harrison St.
>Chicago, IL 60607-7039
>Tel. 1-312-583-0608
>Fax 1-312-413-2460
>website: www.uic.edu/~victor
|