Abstract
In this paper, I will trace the ‘drift’ that has happened in my PhD project, ‘De-signing for Playful Democratic Frictions’. I argue that it has been driven primarily by the friction that emerged between the diverse components in my ‘research-assemblage’. The aim is not to resolve the friction, but rather to enhance and fol-low it as far as I can. I suggest that a playful attitude is helpful for lingering with this friction, and that such a stance can allow us to see things otherwise ob-scured by tales of historical necessity. This notion of drifting by friction may in-spire strategies for design research that allow us to question the ontologies of design, potentially generating small openings for different conceptions of design to emerge.
Keywords
play design; drifting; friction; ontology
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.749
Citation
Poulsen, M. (2024) Drifting by friction: Playing with ontologies of design, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.749
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Drifting by friction: Playing with ontologies of design
In this paper, I will trace the ‘drift’ that has happened in my PhD project, ‘De-signing for Playful Democratic Frictions’. I argue that it has been driven primarily by the friction that emerged between the diverse components in my ‘research-assemblage’. The aim is not to resolve the friction, but rather to enhance and fol-low it as far as I can. I suggest that a playful attitude is helpful for lingering with this friction, and that such a stance can allow us to see things otherwise ob-scured by tales of historical necessity. This notion of drifting by friction may in-spire strategies for design research that allow us to question the ontologies of design, potentially generating small openings for different conceptions of design to emerge.