dear mp ranjan,
thanks for making the ulm journals available. they are of course half a decade old.
by the way, I was not only studying in ulm (http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/138 ), horst rittel was my advisor. he was the one who introduced me to information theory, systems theory, cybernetics, game theory, planning theory and more. I visited him in berkelay and we stayed in touch.
for terry it may be useful to know that rittel was a mathematician before he came to ulm to teach information theory after max bense had left. he did not celebrate mathematics or insist that designers should know mathematics. he introduced mathematical ideas that broadened the horizon of designers, enabled them to conceptualize and justify choices within spaces of possibilities they would have to create, made designers aware of the cybernetic/systemic properties of the society in which they were practicing, and argued that design involves strategic planning in the face of objectives by competing actors (a la game theory).
I was an engineer before I came to ulm and bored with the mathematization of engineering design. I wrote my thesis on what became the semantic turn of human-centered design. rittel was initially skeptical but when he moved to Berkeley, he fully embraced it in his theory of planning tested in urban development. his definition of wicked problems did not mention stakeholders but does not make sense without them.
wherever he went, rittel was not promoting his expertise as a mathematician. he had the uncanny ability to cut through the ongoing verbiage to get to the bottom of what was going on in his environment and managed to expand existing conceptions beyond what was heretofore imaginable. I think he would agree that the use of mathematics is confining. the ability to juggle multiple conceptual structures is what can expand existing horizons. I don't like the currently fashionable talk of "design thinking" for suggesting some kind of attitude that designers should have. to me, expanding existing horizons is what design education might well embrace as its goal.
klaus
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ranjan MP
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 11:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Request 'Son of Rittel Think'
Dear Terry
I am not at all surprised by the advanced understanding of design and the nature of the design problems since he was in a very interesting place during the late 50s, The HfG Ulm, in Germany, as a member of the faculty there. Klaus Krippendorff was a student then and the other faculty were in my view giants of design understanding and in particular in design education and practice, far ahead on many other schools of thought. This is captured in the 21 Journals published between October 1958 and February
1968 which helped change the world of design education in a way that Bauhaus could not do. The visiting faculty at Ulm included Bruce Archer, Charles and Ray Eames, besides the core faculty of Tomas Maldonado, Gui Bonsiepe, Herbert Ohl, Abraham Moles and Hans Gugelot to name only a few stalwarts of the time.
Thank you Nigan for sharing the papers.
I case anyone is interested in the Ulm Journals, Ulm 1 to Ulm 21, the set can be downloaded from my Academia.edu web archive under the Look Back Look Forward conference proceedings CD ROM that is available there.
<https://independent.academia.edu/RanjanMP/CD-ROM-Publications>
With warm regards
M P Ranjan
from my iBook at home
13 May 2014 at 9.10 pm IST
-------------------------------------------------------------
*Prof M P Ranjan*
*Design Thinker and author of blog - www.Designforindia.com
<http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/>*
E8 Faculty Housing
National Institute of Design
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Ahmedabad 380 007 India
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email: ranjanmp@g <[log in to unmask]>mail.com
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education blog: <http://www.design-concepts-and-concerns.blogspot.com>
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On 13 May 2014 06:46, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Nigan,
>
> Many thanks. This is a gem.
>
> I hadn't realised there was this original paper on 'RittleThink' of
> which the other paper is the son of.
>
> It's interesting to see how many ideas considered new to designers and
> design researchers now were seen a normal and everyday design theory
> by Rittel in 1971. I'm thinking particularly of the idea of seeing
> design as finding the best solution in solution space, and thus seeing
> design activity primarily as one of choosing.
>
> Best regards and thanks again,
>
> Terry
>
> ---
> Dr Terence Love
> PhD(UWA), BA(Hons) Engin. PGCEd, FDRS, AMIMechE, MISI
>
> Honorary Fellow
> IEED, Management School
> Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
> ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
>
> Director,
> Love Services Pty Ltd
> PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
> Western Australia 6030
> Tel: +61 (0)4 3497 5848
> Fax:+61 (0)8 9305 7629
> [log in to unmask]
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask]
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nigan Bayazit
> Sent: Monday, 12 May 2014 8:34 PM
> To: phd-design
> Subject: Fwd: Request 'Son of Rittel Think'
>
> Dear Terence,
>
> I found the following paper by Rittel. I will try to find out "Son of
> 'RittelThink''
>
> Best,
> Prof. Dr. Nigan Bayazit
> (Emeritus)
>
>
> 2014-05-08 18:26 GMT+03:00 Terence Love <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> >
> > Please, does anyone have a copy of ' Son of Rittel Think' that they
> > can make available?.
> >
> > Rittel, H. W. J. 1972b, 'Son of 'RittelThink'', The DMG 5th
> > Anniversary
> > Report: DMG Occasional Paper No. 1, The Design Methods Group, n. p., pp.
> > 5-10.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Terry
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> >
> > Dr Terence Love
> >
> > PhD(UWA), BA(Hons) Engin. PGCEd, FDRS, AMIMechE, MISI
> >
> > Director,
> >
> > Love Services Pty Ltd
> >
> > PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks
> >
> > Western Australia 6030
> >
> > Tel: +61 (0)4 3497 5848
> >
> > Fax:+61 (0)8 9305 7629
> >
> > <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
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