Dear Angelos et all,

I am sending you some references on ANT & Design:

Conceptual papers:

Yaneva, Albena (2009) “Making the Social Hold: Towards an Actor-Network Theory of Design”, Design and Culture, vol. 1(3): 273-288.

Akrich, Madeleine (1987) “Comment décrire les objets techniques ?”, In: Technique et culture, no 9, 1987-1, pp. 49-64.

Akrich, Madeleine 1992. “The De-scription of Technical Objects.” In W. Bijker and J. Law (eds), Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Dubuisson, S. & Hennion, A., “Le design industriel, entre création, technique et marché”, In Sociologie de l’art, N 8, 1995.
Callon, Michel. 1996. “Le travail de la conception en architecture”. Situations Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale 37: 25-35



The following BOOKS are illustration of how ANT can be used as an method of enquiry in Design:
Law, John (2002). Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience. (Durham: Duke University Press). 

Yaneva, Albena (2009) The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture, Oxford: Peter Lang AG, 227p.

Yaneva, Albena (2009) Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. An Ethnography of Design, Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 120p.

Houdart, Sophie and Chihiro Minato. 2009. Kuma Kengo. Essai de monographie décalée. Paris: Editions donner lieu.



Fielwork-based Articles:
Latour, B. (2000) “The Berlin Key or How to Do things with Words” in P.M. Graves-Brown (ed.) Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture, Routledge, London pp.10-21.

Houdart, Sophie. 2008. “Copying, Cutting and Pasting Social Spheres: Computer Designers’ Participation in Architectural Projects.” Science Studies, 21(1): 47–63.
Yaneva, Albena. 2005. “Scaling Up and Down: Extraction Trials in Architectural Design.” Social Studies of Science, 35(6): 867–94.

Yaneva, Albena. 2008. “How Buildings ‘Surprise’: the Renovation of the Alte Aula in Vienna.” Science Studies: An International Journal of Science and Technology, 21(1): 8–29.


With best regards,
Albena



On 3 Mar 2010, at 08:12, Angelos Psilopoulos wrote:

> Dear Albena,
>  
> Thanks so much for the references, I appreciate it a lot! Would you mind if I asked you your opinion on Michel Serres: should one (you) place him in the sphere of sociology, or might he be speaking about semantics? I personally would say the first, especially when  I'm considering Bruno Latour keeping in continuity with Seres' original ideas; however, a brief conversation I had with Jean Schneider made me question my original opinion: I'm quoting it right away
>  
> "Gesture as quasi-object... Serre's quasi-objet is, in my  
> >understanding, designating the status of the signifier, when the  
> >signifier is embedded in an artifact, and changes the meaning of that  
> >that is connected to it. I see it more as an addition to semiotics,  
> >rather than sociology (at least, as a french reader...). So I find it  
> >conceptually far from ANT."
> I personally would still stick with sociology, especially because of Albertsen & Bulent, "Artworks' Networks", in Theory, Culture & Society 21(3), who seem to discuss gesture within a sociological framework, although they do not address it directly: they'd go from Lyotard and the transcendance of the artwork, to Bourdieu where "everything is social", to Luhmann where "everything is communication", to Hennion and Latour who argue for Actants - the latter two appear as a succession from Mead, but especially Serres and his quasi-objets. I find Albertsen & Bulent especially interesting since Albertsen has dealt with gesture in the context of Wittgenstein and the undefined meaning in language games in "The Artwork in the Semiosphere of Gestures. Wittgenstein, gesture and secondary meaning." in Architecture, Language, critique around Paul Engelmann, Bakacsy, Munch, Sommer eds., Rodopi, Amsterdam - Atlanta GA, 2000, p.p. 67-104. My reading of the latter sees Wittgenstein introducing the notion of the experience of meaning, thus admiting a failure of analytic modes of communication to express the full spectrum of meaning.
>  
> I'm sure there's a lot in the references you sent me, but I'd appreciate it if you had a quick answer to my question. :-)
> Furthermore, how do you feel about my idea of introducing gesture as a quasi - objet in the context of architecture? It is important to distinguish architecture from art, and I've found very little reading so far regarding architecture - so if ANT works for me, your line of work seems extremely important! I'm attaching a small working paper I presented recently at CEPHAD 2010, Danish Design School, Copenhagen, which offers an overview of my line of thinking.
>  
> My warmest regards from Greece (it's +20C degrees here!)
> Angelos.
>  
>  
> Angelos Psilopoulos. Architect
> 
> I. Psilopoulos & Co Engineering Consultants,
> 
> Mavrommataion 29,
> 
> 104 34 Athens,
> 
> Greece.
> 
>  
> T +302108214216
> 
> T+F +302108213590
> 
> 
> 
> From: Albena Yaneva <[log in to unmask]>
> To: angpsi <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tue, March 2, 2010 3:28:25 PM
> Subject: Re: Design theories
> 
> Dear Angelos et all,
> 
> I am sending you some references on ANT & Design:
> 
> Conceptual papers:
> 
> Yaneva, Albena (2009) “Making the Social Hold: Towards an Actor-Network Theory of Design”, Design and Culture, vol. 1(3): 273-288.
> 
> Akrich, Madeleine (1987) “Comment décrire les objets techniques ?”, In: Technique et culture, no 9, 1987-1, pp. 49-64.
> 
> Akrich, Madeleine 1992. “The De-scription of Technical Objects.” In W. Bijker and J. Law (eds), Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
> 
> Dubuisson, S. & Hennion, A., “Le design industriel, entre création, technique et marché”, In Sociologie de l’art, N 8, 1995.
> Callon, Michel. 1996. “Le travail de la conception en architecture”. Situations Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale 37: 25-35.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The following BOOKS are illustration of how ANT can be used as an method of enquiry in Design:
> Law, John (2002). Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience. (Durham: Duke University Press). 
> 
> Yaneva, Albena (2009) The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture, Oxford: Peter Lang AG, 227p.
> 
> Yaneva, Albena (2009) Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. An Ethnography of Design, Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 120p.
> 
> Houdart, Sophie and Chihiro Minato. 2009. Kuma Kengo. Essai de monographie décalée. Paris: Editions donner lieu.
> 
> 
> 
> Fielwork-based Articles:
> Latour, B. (2000) “The Berlin Key or How to Do things with Words” in P.M. Graves-Brown (ed.) Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture, Routledge, London pp.10-21.
> 
> Houdart, Sophie. 2008. “Copying, Cutting and Pasting Social Spheres: Computer Designers’ Participation in Architectural Projects.” Science Studies, 21(1): 47–63.
> Yaneva, Albena. 2005. “Scaling Up and Down: Extraction Trials in Architectural Design.” Social Studies of Science, 35(6): 867–94.
> 
> Yaneva, Albena. 2008. “How Buildings ‘Surprise’: the Renovation of the Alte Aula in Vienna.” Science Studies: An International Journal of Science and Technology, 21(1): 8–29.
> 
> 
> With best regards,
> Albena
> 
> 
> 
> On 24 Feb 2010, at 10:22, angpsi wrote:
> 
>> Would you please suggest an article of key reference value f
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> Would you please suggest an article of key reference value for Actor - network Theory in Design Thinking and Strategies?
>> 
>> I am currently studying "gesture" as a quasi - object* for my PhD thesis and although I've found a number of approaches scattered around, so far my key reference appears to be Bruno Latour's Reassembling the Social; An Introduction to Actor - Network - Theory, Oxford University Press, NY, 2005.
>> 
>> *The key reference for the notion of the quasi object would be Michel Serres' The Parasite, Lawrence R. Schehr transl., University of Minessota Press, MN, 2007 (translated from the original french, Le Parasite, Grasset & Fasquelle, Paris, 1980).
>> 
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Angelos Psilopoulos,
>> Lecturer at TEI Ath, Department of Interior Design,
>> PhD Researcher, NTUA, School of Architecture, Greece
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Doris Kosminsky <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Tue, February 23, 2010 11:57:05 PM
>> Subject: Re: Design theories
>> 
>> Dear all, 
>> 
>> I want to thank you for all the great and generous answers. I feel
>> privileged for being part of this list. 
>> 
>> Thank you for the suggested texts and books. Specially Ken, who send me his
>> articles. Just a quickly look at them, and I found systematic ideas that
>> will be very useful in my course. Although many answers were important to
>> me, I'll just outline some of them that make me think.
>> 
>> Buerdek remembered me of Papaneck's wide comprehension of the field. For
>> better or worst, things has changed in the last decades. Changing from "all
>> is design" to "which design area", as Terry remarked. Nowadays, we have to
>> be more specific when talking about design. I agree with Terry point when he
>> calls the use of theory in design field over-simplistic and superficial. I
>> tend to think this can be the partially fault of the relativism that put all
>> themes in the same level.
>> 
>> Best wishes from Rio de Janeiro,
>> 
>> Doris Kosminsky
>> Professor - Escola de Belas Artes
>> Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> -- --
> Dr. Albena Yaneva, Lecturer in Architectural Studies
> PGR Co-ordinator for Architecture
> External Student Affairs Co-ordinator
> 
> Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC)
> School of Environment and Development (SED)
> Humanities Bridgeford Street
> University of Manchester, Oxford Road
> Manchester, M13 9PL
> Tel: 44 161 275 6900
> Fax: 44 161 275 6893
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Website: http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/architecture/staff/yaneva_albena.htm
> 
> New Books: 
> The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture, published by Peter Lang AG, Oxford, 2009.
> Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: An Ethnography of Design, published by 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2009.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> <CEPHAD 2010 Working paper for the Master class session Jan 26 - 29 2010.pdf>

		
-- --
Dr. Albena Yaneva, Lecturer in Architectural Studies
PGR Co-ordinator for Architecture
External Student Affairs Co-ordinator

Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC)
School of Environment and Development (SED)
Humanities Bridgeford Street
University of Manchester, Oxford Road
Manchester, M13 9PL
Tel: 44 161 275 6900
Fax: 44 161 275 6893
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/architecture/staff/yaneva_albena.htm

New Books: 
The Making of a Building: A Pragmatist Approach to Architecture, published by Peter Lang AG, Oxford, 2009.
Made by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture: An Ethnography of Design, published by 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2009.