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”
Author Archives: aparsons474
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”
Environments – Art
RELATED TERMS: Installation Art; Happenings In an art practice context, environments are mixed-media constructions or assemblages usually designed for a specific place and for a temporary period of time. It is an alternative term for installation art. The term was first used by artist Allan Kaprow in 1958 to describe his own large-scale artworks whichContinue reading “Environments – Art”
Environmental Psychology
RELATED TERMS: Psychology One of the domains of psychology most relevant to design practices is environmental psychology, which is a relatively new branch of psychology. Its key objective is to improve the relationship between humankind and the environment using theory, research and practice. Among the major theories in environmental psychology are geographical determinism, which believesContinue reading “Environmental Psychology”
Environment
RELATED TERMS: Habitat; Niche; World Environment is the name given to the outcome of the active processes of environing, which create an immunological sphere, in Sloterdijk’s terms, and which thereby create a meaningful context for the actants who are engaged in creating, sustaining and changing it. Environment, in this sense, is close to the notions of habitatContinue reading “Environment”
Enlightenment
RELATED TERMS: Humanism; Post-Humanism; Posthuman Michel Foucault argues that the term humanism should not be confused with that of Enlightenment. The importance of grasping the notions of humanism and Enlightenment for design practices is that it bears directly upon how the human is understood in the design process and in relation to the created design,Continue reading “Enlightenment”
Inventivism and Constructivism
RELATED TERMS: Boever et al. (2012: x) suggest that intellectual currents in the humanities in recent decades have moved towards a context that is more receptive to the thought of Gilbert Simondon. This shift has been characterised by Brian Massumi as turning away from a prevailing acceptance of ‘constructivism’ towards what he calls ‘inventivism’. TheContinue reading “Inventivism and Constructivism”
Technology and Political Philosophy
RELATED TERMS: Apparatus – Dispositif Gilbert Simondon (2017: 231), in a text written in the 1950s but not translated into English until 2017, makes an interesting claim about the articulation of technologies and three major socio-political regimes of the 20th century. Each has incorporated, in a different way, a representation and a valorisation of integratedContinue reading “Technology and Political Philosophy”
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