Dear friends,
Perhaps the difference between agency and intention is being blurred in what has been said about the insights that ANT can bring to thinking about design.
Post-humanist approaches to thinking about agency challenge the assumption that human agency is independent of non-human agencies. The approach to understanding action and change that is forwarded within ANT is one that treats human and non-human actors as symmetrical (ie equally significant). Non-human actors not only have agency, but also act on us. Our intentions (among other things) are shaped by the agency of non-humans.
Tony Fry’s conception of ‘ontological design’ similarly recognises the agency of non-human (and, specifically, designed) things. He emphasises that designed things have an agency in excess of the agency we intend them to have. The unforseen ways in which the designed things that we bring into the world re-shape that world, need to be recognised as being at least as significant (probably more significant) than the foreseen and intended ways in which they re-shape the world.
Fry and Latour belong to slightly different intellectual traditions, but both are heirs to the critique of the Cartesian distinction between subject and object. This critique, which is central to Heidegger's work, underpins the diverse conversations of continental philosophy during the second half of the 20th century.
Personally, I find these insights to be of enormous importance in relation to thinking about design.
Best regards, Susan
Susan Stewart B.Arch, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Design
School of Design, Faculty of DAB
University of Technology Sydney
________________________________________
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of jeremy hunsinger [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 10:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Activity Theory and ANT and computers are capable of design?
Let's remember Latour's insight here that the worst thing about ANT is its name because it is not about actors, networks, or theory.... you can google the direct quote. but it certainly it isn't a theory, it is a methodological perspective. it certainly isn't a design theory either. It is purely a perspective about the requirements for investigating a complex world.
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jeremy hunsinger
Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
Virginia Tech
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