Critical Design as a Resource: Adopting a Critical Mind-Set
Abstract
In this paper Critical design is regarded as a source of knowledge, which can benefit also other forms of design, if adopted by the designer as part of a critical mind-set. The focus is mainly on the enlightening potential of Critical design attitude, which allows to critically revise one's assumptions. The author's intention is to increase visibility of Critical design and to promote its inclusion into more traditional industrial design curricula both as a theory and practice. Author argues that studying existing Critical design projects can have emancipating effect on designers professional approach. Aspects of Critical design that are proposed as valuable include the awareness of ideological constructs and the capability to critically analyse them in order to avoid biased designs; understanding of the advancement of futures and the design's potential of steering it; principles of design fiction; and a deliberate use of design product as means of communication.
Keywords
critical design, ideology, futures, design fiction, aesthetics
Citation
Jakobsone, L.(2019) Critical Design as a Resource: Adopting a Critical Mind-Set, in Börekçi, N., Koçyıldırım, D., Korkut, F. and Jones, D. (eds.), Insider Knowledge, DRS Learn X Design Conference 2019, 9-12 July, Ankara, Turkey. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/learnxdesign/learnxdesign2019/researchpapers/19
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Critical Design as a Resource: Adopting a Critical Mind-Set
In this paper Critical design is regarded as a source of knowledge, which can benefit also other forms of design, if adopted by the designer as part of a critical mind-set. The focus is mainly on the enlightening potential of Critical design attitude, which allows to critically revise one's assumptions. The author's intention is to increase visibility of Critical design and to promote its inclusion into more traditional industrial design curricula both as a theory and practice. Author argues that studying existing Critical design projects can have emancipating effect on designers professional approach. Aspects of Critical design that are proposed as valuable include the awareness of ideological constructs and the capability to critically analyse them in order to avoid biased designs; understanding of the advancement of futures and the design's potential of steering it; principles of design fiction; and a deliberate use of design product as means of communication.