RELATED TERMS: Posthuman; Postmodernism; Poststructuralism; Structuralism; Theoretical Practice What is the state and status of theory in the 2020s? For example, could it be argued that one can speak of a cycle, a story cycle, a twisted tale from which there is no escape, one that traces the turns and returns within an intergenerational inheritanceContinue reading “Theory [Snippets 11]”
Author Archives: aparsons474
Worldlessness #2: Worldlessness and Design
The text discusses the significance of contemporary design practices, particularly focusing on world-building as a vital approach for shaping societal values and ideologies. It explores the interplay between design, modernity, and worldlessness, proposing a shift from traditional world-making to envisioning worldlessness without apocalyptic implications, challenging designers to rethink their creative responsibilities.
Worldlessness #1
RELATED TERMS: World; World-as-Milieu; World-Building; Worldlessness #2: Worldlessness and Design A Possible Phenomenology of the Anonymous, the Invisible, the Im-material and the Im-mediate It was noted in The Paradox of the Anonymous that Dan Hancox (2025) projectively and retrojectively ascribes to Walter Benjamin a wish or a command for us, “to sift through the rubble,Continue reading “Worldlessness #1”
Econarratology
RELATED TERMS: Narratology The question underlying this post is the issue of what an adequate narratology would be for the practice of the design of narrative environments, an approach to designing that emphasises the (necessary) inter-relationships among people, narratives and environments. In this context, the potential value of econarratology can be seen in three respects. Firstly,Continue reading “Econarratology”
Burnout Society
RELATED TERMS: Disciplinary Societies and Societies of Control The question underlying this post is whether design practices are carried along by the shift proposed by Byung-Chul Han (2015), the impetus coming from elsewhere, or are they highly active proponents and drivers of the change, providing the materials for depressive evaluations of oneself, compulsive inattentiveness orContinue reading “Burnout Society”
Technology, Process Knowledge, Temporality and Design
RELATED TERMS: Hypomnesis, Hypermnesis and Anamnesis; Methodology and Method; Practice Dan Wang (2025: 71) distinguishes among three meanings of technology. The first is technologies as tools, for example, the pots, pans, knives, ovens and so on required to prepare a meal. Second, technologies can operate as explicit means of instruction, for example, the recipes, blueprintsContinue reading “Technology, Process Knowledge, Temporality and Design”
Governance, Politics and Design
RELATED TERMS: Politics and the Political That forms of governance are ‘designed’ is often acknowledged only in passing. For example, the trend towards authoritarianism in the politics of the USA is recognised by some to have accelerated under Trump rather than to have begun with him. To argue that US authoritarianism began with Trump, AbdelrahmanContinue reading “Governance, Politics and Design”
World as Geoeconomics and Geopolitics [Snippets 10]
RELATED TERMS: World; World-Building; Design, the Buddhisms, Geo-Politics and Geo-Economics The context for design practices in the 2020s, the macro framing ‘world’ or the macro framing narrative environment in which they operate, might be described as a period in which the existing world order is in transition. Many of the practices and verities of neoliberalContinue reading “World as Geoeconomics and Geopolitics [Snippets 10]”
(The) Common (World)
RELATED TERMS: (The) Everyday and Design; World; Worldlessness USE FOR: Shared World; World in Common You-I interconnectedness and Being-with The initial discursive sources for the recognition of the common, as the shared world, the only world that there is, are firstly Beata Stawarska’s dialogical phenomenology, which establishes the ontological primacy of the the You-I relationContinue reading “(The) Common (World)”
Design, the Buddhisms, Geo-Politics and Geo-Economics
RELATED TERMS: Mono No Aware and Ma; Sabi and Wabi-Sabi; World as Geoeconomics and Geopolitics [Snippets 10] Preamble In a post on David Lynch’s film set design in relation to the design of narrative environments (Narrative Environments – Lynchian Set Design), the significance of Tibet, meditation and yoga in Twin Peaks was seen to exhibit signsContinue reading “Design, the Buddhisms, Geo-Politics and Geo-Economics”
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