RELATED TERMS: Dasein; Technology, Writing, Design; Libidinal Economy – Part 1; Before-After-Thought In James Joyce’s terms, thrownness, or living in the wake, is expressed as, “from the night we are and feel and fade with to the yesterselves we tread to turnupon” (FW473. I0-11, quoted by Heath,1984). Design Projection In relation to the potential of designContinue reading “Design, Entwurf, Entwerfen”
Author Archives: aparsons474
Design and the Question of Technology
RELATED TERMS: Iconic Designs and Iconic Designers; Design (as) Art (as) Philosophy Design differs from art, as discussed in Iconic Designs and Iconic Designers and Design (as) Art (as) Philosophy (pending posting), even though the boundaries between them are no longer strict and admit a certain hybridity. Design also differs from technology, although it bearsContinue reading “Design and the Question of Technology”
Design and Theory: Total Design, Total Theory
RELATED TERMS: Gesamtkunstwerk To say that design defines humanity is not quite the same as saying ‘Dasein is design’. In a material culture approach, humanity is shaped by its objects. As many of those objects are designed, it might be argued that humanity is shaped by its designs. However, many of those objects-as-designs, are themselvesContinue reading “Design and Theory: Total Design, Total Theory”
Entanglement
RELATED TERMS: Actantiality; Agonism and Design; Incompletion “I prefer to think of myself as being inside a tangled knot; tangled knots fascinate me. It’s necessary to recount the tangle of existence, both as it concerns individual lives and the life of generations. Searching to unravel things is useful, but literature is made out of tangles.”Continue reading “Entanglement”
Design, Narratives, Futures
RELATED TERMS: Design, Narratives, Pasts Henry Mance (2021) mentions two conflicting narratives by means of which we may project our possible futures: the continuation of an historical trend providing material and socio-political improvements; and the difficulties ahead suggested by the evidence of climate science and by ongoing geopolitical tensions. Narratives are one way to manageContinue reading “Design, Narratives, Futures”
Walking
RELATED TERMS: Actantiality; Derive; Enaction Paradigm – Cognitive Science “Only thoughts which come from walking have any value.” (Nietzsche, 1998: 9) Nietzsche, in the above epithet, is arguing against the over-valuation of a sedentary life, as does, in another context, Arendt argue against the valuing of the contemplative life over and above the active life.Continue reading “Walking”
Techne
RELATED TERMS: David Roochnik (2007: xi) states that techne, variously translated as skill, art, craft, expertise, profession, science, knowledge, technical knowledge, is not only a crucial term in the Platonic dialogues but has also been crucial in the development of Western culture itself. We currently use descendants of the term to discuss the technologies withContinue reading “Techne”
Decision and Design
RELATED TERMS: ‘Every decision you make is a design decision’ Jean-Luc Nancy, in critically rearticulating the political philosophy of Carl Schmitt, that is, Schmitt’s conception of the theologicopolitical, argues that, in terms of “becoming-secular”, the necessity of decision … is the impossibility of assigning a Subject of law and the State that would not beContinue reading “Decision and Design”
Digital Network Technologies
RELATED TERMS: Metaverse Ben Thompson, a technology commentator, suggests that there have been three epochs in the evolution of the networked world in which we currently live (Naughton, 2021). Each is defined by its core technology and ‘killer app’. The first epoch was that of the personal computer (PC), beginning in August 1981. Its coreContinue reading “Digital Network Technologies”
Epic Theatre – Brecht
RELATED TERMS: Alienation effect (Verfremdungseffekt); Antagonist; Audience; Avant-Garde Movements; Defamiliarisation; Design of Narrative Environments; Historical Materialism – Marxism; Protagonist; Theatre; Theatre of Cruelty – Artaud; Tragic theatre – Aristotle Theatrical devices may be of great value when considering the impacts, or rather the actantiality, of designs, whatever their character. In this context, it is wellContinue reading “Epic Theatre – Brecht”
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