Abstract
‘Design matters’ is interpreted in this exploratory article via a narrative pastiche that concerns recent developments in ubiquitous computing and their implications for emerging techno-material culture. The article has two research aims: 1) to connect discourses on ubicomp with ones on design fiction, and 2) to motivate design research to expand styles of playful, reflective and interpretative modes, and genres of research writing. A first person narrative perspective is located in bio-cultural contexts of design fiction future use, referring to WiFi, RFID and GPS technologies also of today. The narrative is a ‘tongue in cheek’ critique of hidden voices of particants to current and near-future ubiquitous technologies. The article is written as an abductive design narrative that intends to escape from often ‘paddocked’ research modes of writing about design. On offer is a playful , performative problematising mode of design research writing that is connected to to wider societal concerns, drawing rhetorically on post-structuralist ‘inventio’ in the humanities.
Keywords
Experimental writing; Design fiction; Performativity
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2011.022
Citation
Morrison, A.(2011) Reflections of a Wireless Ruminant., Nordes 2011 - Making Design Matter, 29 - 31 May, School of Art & Design, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2011.022
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Exploratory papers
Included in
Reflections of a Wireless Ruminant
‘Design matters’ is interpreted in this exploratory article via a narrative pastiche that concerns recent developments in ubiquitous computing and their implications for emerging techno-material culture. The article has two research aims: 1) to connect discourses on ubicomp with ones on design fiction, and 2) to motivate design research to expand styles of playful, reflective and interpretative modes, and genres of research writing. A first person narrative perspective is located in bio-cultural contexts of design fiction future use, referring to WiFi, RFID and GPS technologies also of today. The narrative is a ‘tongue in cheek’ critique of hidden voices of particants to current and near-future ubiquitous technologies. The article is written as an abductive design narrative that intends to escape from often ‘paddocked’ research modes of writing about design. On offer is a playful , performative problematising mode of design research writing that is connected to to wider societal concerns, drawing rhetorically on post-structuralist ‘inventio’ in the humanities.