JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN Archives

PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN  August 2012

PHD-DESIGN August 2012

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Activity Theory and ANT and computers are capable of design?

From:

Kari Kuutti <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 07:59:42 +0000

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (24 lines)

Terry wrote in his message dated on 14th Aug:

 This may lead to a non-anthropometric view
of design – similar to that intrinsically implied by design theories such as
Activity Theory and ANT in which computers are capable of design activity
and other forms of tool use alongside humans, other primates, elephants,
bears, dingoes, dolphins, octopi, wrass (fish), ants, and birds, especially
of the  Corvus family (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_use_by_animals
).

I must comment upon that. It is true that actor network theory  (ANT) grants agency to all kind of non-human things. One must remember, however, that ANT is also and maybe first of all a gauntlet that Bruno Latour as a renegade sociologist has thrown to the face of his more traditionally oriented colleagues,  who have abstracted materiality out from sociology and believe that "social" can be understood  by studying only texts distilled from social interactions between people. ANT shouts: "material world is there and it must be taken into account!"  but it is not necessarily an attempt to model the world in a balanced way, so to say. Inspirational  it is in its exaggregation, but care is needed before using it as a foundation --  for a design theory, for example.

On the contrary, Activity Theory (AT) is an attempt to model (small parts of) world in a "balanced way". It is not  a design theory either (yet -- we are working on it...:-)). And it is true that it is not anthropocentric in the individualistic, de-contextualized way, but it is still anthropocentric in an "activity-oriented" way: humans exercise agency, but they do that in social activities shaped by historically emerged cultural and material contexts, which have to be taken in the account, if we want to study the phenomenon.

One of the Latour examples is a speed bump, which has agency of its own according to ANT. For AT, a speed bump is the long hand of a traffic regulation activity: a human has made a decision to reduce speed at a point, and the activity has created an organ for that.

Computer programs are rather universal organs, crystallizations of human ideas and experience. Within activities, they are used by humans for the purposes of those activities. Human practices and use of various artifacts in them and development of new artifacts is what is interesting in design.

I agree with Terry that computers will find many more uses and both automatize  routines and help to do things that otherwise would be impossible; what we see now is just a beginning. But that process may have its twists and turns...

best regards,
--Kari Kuutti
Univ Oulu, Finland

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager