A Didactical Framework to Experiment the Potential of Visual Languages in Engaging Social Complexity
Abstract
Development models often apply expert knowledge to social needs using a top-down approach, thus rendering these models insufficient in coping with the issues of a complex world. Effective changes in social systems arise from iterative and dialogic processes in which information and knowledge are exchanged between heterogeneous actors, building a common background that enables a shared hypothesis. The design approach involves the ability to select results from various disciplinary fields, activating a trans-disciplinary circulation of concepts. Designers should use their skills to facilitate the emergence of a system, rather than concentrating on finding solutions to specific and well-identified problems. The focus should be on developing tools that can be selfadaptive, continuously modifiable and improvable by utilizing the ongoing process of wicked problem transformation. Social complexity requires new processes fundamentally attuned to the social and conversational nature of decision-making and design work; these processes should enable an increasingly valuable interaction level and dialogue among the actors of a social system. And considering the Design discipline in respect to language, Communication Design could allow for the creation of visual and interactive languages relevant to the representations of Complex systems, thus creating shared visions within multiactor contexts. In this sense, communication design can facilitate dialogues within participatory actions, and verify the potential of communication artifacts in supporting and externalizing sustainable and self-adaptive learning processes. Therefore, the possibility of consciously facing social issues and orienting the behavior of complex social systems could benefit from the use of communicative tools and methodologies, thus supporting collective learning processes and building a common vision, shared by various stakeholders. Engaging complexity calls for visual languages.
Citation
Valsecchi, F., Ciuccarelli, P., Ricci, D., and Caviglia, G. (2010) A Didactical Framework to Experiment the Potential of Visual Languages in Engaging Social Complexity, in Durling, D., Bousbaci, R., Chen, L, Gauthier, P., Poldma, T., Roworth-Stokes, S. and Stolterman, E (eds.), Design and Complexity - DRS International Conference 2010, 7-9 July, Montreal, Canada. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2010/researchpapers/120
A Didactical Framework to Experiment the Potential of Visual Languages in Engaging Social Complexity
Development models often apply expert knowledge to social needs using a top-down approach, thus rendering these models insufficient in coping with the issues of a complex world. Effective changes in social systems arise from iterative and dialogic processes in which information and knowledge are exchanged between heterogeneous actors, building a common background that enables a shared hypothesis. The design approach involves the ability to select results from various disciplinary fields, activating a trans-disciplinary circulation of concepts. Designers should use their skills to facilitate the emergence of a system, rather than concentrating on finding solutions to specific and well-identified problems. The focus should be on developing tools that can be selfadaptive, continuously modifiable and improvable by utilizing the ongoing process of wicked problem transformation. Social complexity requires new processes fundamentally attuned to the social and conversational nature of decision-making and design work; these processes should enable an increasingly valuable interaction level and dialogue among the actors of a social system. And considering the Design discipline in respect to language, Communication Design could allow for the creation of visual and interactive languages relevant to the representations of Complex systems, thus creating shared visions within multiactor contexts. In this sense, communication design can facilitate dialogues within participatory actions, and verify the potential of communication artifacts in supporting and externalizing sustainable and self-adaptive learning processes. Therefore, the possibility of consciously facing social issues and orienting the behavior of complex social systems could benefit from the use of communicative tools and methodologies, thus supporting collective learning processes and building a common vision, shared by various stakeholders. Engaging complexity calls for visual languages.