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”
Category Archives: Theories
Visual Arts and Visual Media
RELATED TERMS: Mode and medium; The proper goal of sculpture and of all the visual arts, it might have been held at one time in the past, is the depiction of physical beauty. However, this universalistic horizon, as well as the horizon of critics and philosophers of the Enlightenment, are rendered problematic by the opacityContinue reading “Visual Arts and Visual Media”
Story (fabula) and Plot (sjuzet)
RELATED TERMS: In medias res; Genre; Tragic theatre – Aristotle; Defamiliarisation, Ostranenie or making strange; Narratology; Montage, Collage, Assemblage and Bricolage Design practices, it is argued, would do well to consider the notions of story, plot, chronology, de-chronologisation and teleology (end, goal or purpose), in the contexts of the narrative unfolding (intelligibility) and environmental navigationContinue reading “Story (fabula) and Plot (sjuzet)”
Speculative Realism
RELATED TERMS: New Materialism; Object-Oriented Ontology; Postanthropocentrism; Posthumanism; Poststructuralism The term speculative realism was coined by Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier and Iain Hamilton Grant as a title for a conference held at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2007. According to Avanessian and Malik (2016) speculative realists positioned themselves in distinction to both poststructuralismContinue reading “Speculative Realism”
Object-Oriented Ontology
RELATED TERMS: Actor-Network Theory; New Materialism; Ontological Designing; Postanthropocentrism; Posthuman; Posthumanism; Speculative Realism; As an inheritor of the line of thinking developed by actor-network theory, on the one hand, and phenomenology, on the other hand, object-oriented ontology (OOO) may be of interest to design practices in as far as it concerns the relationship between theContinue reading “Object-Oriented Ontology”
Narratology
RELATED TERMS: Actantial model – Greimas; Architecture; Reception Theory and Reader-Response Criticism; Story (fabula) and Plot (sjuzet or sjuzhet); Structuralism; Telos and Teleology “The study of narrative has become so popular that the French have honored it with a term – la narratologie. … Modern narratology combines two powerful intellectual trends: the Anglo-American inheritance ofContinue reading “Narratology”
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”
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”
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”
Technology
RELATED TERMS: Remembering: Mnemonics, Mnemotechne and Memory [Katie] Hafner: I’ve heard Bran [Ferren] say before that he thinks technology should be invisible. [Danny] Hillis: Good technology ceases to become technology. You don’t think of a pencil as technology, because it just does what it’s supposed to do. You don’t think of a book as technology, becauseContinue reading “Technology”
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