staging systems to feel round the corners of transition design
DESCRIPTION
The challenges our societies face, such as climate change, require radical innovation (Proactionary Principle [Fuller]). But the complexity of our societies also demand that we be more attentive to the consequences of those innovations (Precautionary Principle). The challenges we face are, after all, the result of previously unanticipated consequences. It is by definition not possible to anticipate ‘black swans,’ but we should perhaps expect more than to cultivate an anti-fragility that merely awaits shocks [Talib]. How then to develop rich senses of the consequences of innovations designed to respond to phenomena like climate change? We call this capacity ‘seeing around corners,’ since the aim is not merely to build a system model that can predict an end state, but instead to sense what is possible and likely once at the position of that end-state. An analogy would be the ability to forsee texting-while-driving whilst designing the user experience of a cell phone. Theoretically, the point would be that designers have privileged access to niche temporarily materialized potential futures, as such they need to be equipped to not only make effective decisions about quality of life, but also be aware of the moral and ethical consequences of instantiating these futures in the wider world. As an aside, we are interested in ‘feeling around corners’ in reaction to an increasing tendency in commercial systems design to give up on larger-scale forethought and instead trust in Lean Emergence. We wish to preserve the Situatedness that comes from these ways of working (that is a corrective to temptations to ‘See like a State’ Planning), but nevertheless see the need for more forceful directedness, especially when negotiating societal challenges requiring strong, voluntary actions.TRANSCRIPT
Staging Systems to Feel Round the Corners of Transition Design
Joshua Bloom PhD Candidate
Carnegie Mellon University !
Cameron Tonkinwise Director of Design Studies
Carnegie Mellon University
Designing is taking decisions based on too little information
-Joep Frens
Design is making sense of systems (in futures)
Design is making sense of things (to others) !
- Krippendorff
!Malafouris, Lambros; Renfrew, Colin (2013-07-12). How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement
If designers think in terms of ‘form’ at all it is in relation to static object(ives).
-Terry Irwin
-Terry Irwin
@cyetain
Pragmatic and Epistemic Action
DAVID KIRSH AND PAUL MAGLIO 94
Goals
Designers have privileged access to niche temporarily materialized potential futures, as
such they need to be equipped to not only make effective decisions about quality of life,
but also be aware of the moral and ethical consequences of instantiating these futures in
the wider world. !
Understanding Of Embodied Future Practices !
This is what we mean by Feeling Around Corners
Ideal Future Forecasting
CurrentState
IdealFutureState
Gap
A B1
B2
Choice/Options
Backcasting
Now Next
Inertia (forces)
A1
B
A2Á
Gap
Scenario Planning
A
B1
B2
B3
Wide
Scanning
AÁ
B1
B2
B3
Now Next
Already Now Next
Dispositional (constructive)
Dispositional (physics)
Always Already Now
Undesigned
Transition
Now Next
Transition
Transitional
Now Next
Not Yet
Past Present Future
How do I make sense of
the world so that I can act
in it?
How do I make sense of the
actions I have taken in the
world?
What would make sense in
the world created by my
actions?
Posthoc Rationalization Mindfulness/Dispostionality
Retrospective Coherence Sense Making Prospective Coherence
Feeling Around Corners
Coherence
Always Already Now Next Not Yet
Dispositional Prospective
Retrospective Coherence
How do I make sense of Now based in the past
Prospective Coherence
What will I need to make sense of in a future?
Catastrophic
Safe
Observable Unseen Unknowable
Waste
Around
Corners
Proactionary
Make it
and See
Precautionary
Make it Safe
then SeeR
isk
/O
utc
om
es
Black Swans
What would it look like, feel like if this intervention was going well?
!(how would we amplify that?)
What would it look like, feel like if this intervention was going bad?
!(how would we dampen that?)
What would it look like, feel like if this intervention was failing?
!(how would we recover from that?)
Thank You
Joshua Bloom [email protected]
@cyetain PhD Candidate
Carnegie Mellon University !
Cameron Tonkinwise Director of Design Studies
Carnegie Mellon University