Design Social | Technology . Activism . Anti-Social

Peter Hasdell,Gerhard Bruyns

doi:10.31182/cubic.2018.1.000

Abstract

The emergence of social media and the networked society, as exemplified by The Internet of Things (IoT) (Ashton 1999), generates enormous potential that repositions design as a means to synthesise emerging social complexities into new constellations. One of the ways design in this context becomes reconfigured is as the dynamic interconnections of people, practices, and artefacts. The propinquity of this lineage leads to relational rather than objectified forms of design. Such approaches tend to be process-driven rather than outcome-based, and activate design’s potential within both knowledge generation and knowledge transfer processes. This in itself can be understood as “information” or as designbefore- design and design-after-design that provides pathways for innovation in the development of new processes, systems, networked, and relational outcomes (Deforge and Cullars 1990).

Highlights

The emergence of social media and the networked society, as exemplified by The Internet of Things (IoT) (Ashton, 1999), generates enormous potential that repositions design as a means to synthesise emerging social complexities into new constellations
Changes in social systems evolve the ways design develops towards these forms of knowledge, utilising collaborative processes, cross-disciplinary practices (Sanders & Stappers, 2008), and new technologies of the social as a means to interlink these domains
The contextualisation, codification, and definitions that emerge from this emerging praxis, where design disciplines and the social form new praxis, constitutes the effective merger of both aspects as Design Social