RELATED TERMS: Enaction Paradigm – Cognitive Science; Sensorimotor System Sensory Systems A design may explicitly and deliberately address one or all of the human body’s sensory systems. It may also be the case that a design addresses more that one of these senses implicitly or unintentionally; or unintentionally prioritises or hierarchises one of the senseContinue reading “Somatosensory System”
Author Archives: aparsons474
Anglosphere
RELATED TERMS: The term Anglosphere has been used as part of an endeavour to redefine British identity in a post-Brexit world by some right-wing Eurosceptics. Although the word was introduced fairly recently by Neal Stephenson in his 1995 science fiction novel The Diamond Age, it plays upon older 19th century notions of Anglo-Saxon racial greatness.Continue reading “Anglosphere”
Metaverse
RELATED TERMS: “So Hiro’s not actually here at all. He’s in a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his goggles and pumping into his earphones. In the lingo, this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. Hiro spends a lot of time in the Metaverse. It beats the shit out of the U-Stor-It.”Continue reading “Metaverse”
Open Systems Theory
RELATED TERMS: Theoretical practice Open system theory was initially developed by Ludwig von Bertanlanffy in the 1950s. Although conceived in the context of biology, the theory is applicable in other disciplines. The theory defines systems as being “characterized by an assemblage or combination of parts whose relations make them interdependent” (Scott, 1992: 77). As oneContinue reading “Open Systems Theory”
Emergence
RELATED TERMS: Heterarchy; Open Systems Theory The concepts of complexity, emergence and relationality were introduced in 20th century science and philosophy as means of counteracting the effects of positivism and reductionism. They are crucial for understanding the operation of designed outputs as material, semiotic phenomena and therefore important to consider in conceptualisation and design processes.Continue reading “Emergence”
Ecology and Economy
RELATED TERMS: Human Ecosystem; Lifeworld – Lebenswelt – Umwelt; Systems Theory “The economist Kate Raworth believes she has a solution. It is possible, she argues, to design an economy that allows humans and the environment to thrive.” (O’Brien, 2023) The Greek word oikos, meaning whole house or household, lies at the root of both the notionsContinue reading “Ecology and Economy”
Dramatic Conflict
RELATED TERMS: Actantial model – Greimas; Agon; Agonism and avant-gardism; Antagonist; Focalisation; Protagonist; Telos and Teleology; Theatre and Drama Theory The dramatic conflict is the persistent tension, the driving force, from which the content of the story is gestated and produced. According to Robert McKee (1999: 210): “Nothing moves forward in a story except throughContinue reading “Dramatic Conflict”
Distribution of the Sensible – Ranciere
RELATED TERMS: Agonism and avant-gardism; Agonistic Politics – Mouffe; Apparatus – Dispositif; Arendt; Avant-garde movements; Dissensus – Ranciere; Politics and the Political A narrative environment could be conceived of as a ‘distribution of the sensible’; or, if it is a political act, a disruption of a ‘distribution of the sensible’. Ranciere’s phrase, partage du sensible, isContinue reading “Distribution of the Sensible – Ranciere”
Dissensus – Ranciere
RELATED TERMS: Agon; Agonism and avant-gardism; Avant-garde movements; Defamiliarisation; Design of Narrative Environments; Distribution of the sensible – Ranciere; Methodology and Method; Modernism and avant-garde art practice; Politics and the Political Some designed narrative environments may be said to constitute a form of dissensus or, “a dissensual re-configuration of the common experience of the sensible,”Continue reading “Dissensus – Ranciere”
Semiotic Square
RELATED TERMS: Actantial Model – Greimas; In Medias Res “How can one apply the semiotic square to the analysis of a non-Western and/or noncontemporary text, if the framework of meaning in which this text is usually read, for instance native American cosmologies, systematically disregards that principle of dialectic opposition on which the semiotic square is essentiallyContinue reading “Semiotic Square”
Incomplete ... 