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Prototyping a Useless Design Practice: What, Why & How?
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This essay sets out to rectify the false dichotomy between the notions
of uselessness and usefulness in relation to design, in order to argue for a
useless design practice. The argument is structured into three main
parts.Part I opens with an introduction and goes on to frame design as a
hybrid discipline that has been characterized by usefulness since it was
born of the Industrial Revolution. The notion of useful design and its
continuingly intimate relationship with the neoliberalist growth economy is
subsequently unpacked through scrutinizing the basic demands for
quantification & acceleration, conflicting use and temporality with
special attention paid to the Anthropocene.Part II elucidates the ambiguous
relationship between the useless and the useful through the related
critical/conformist dichotomy present in Dunne & Raby’s A/B Manifesto as
well as through useless and useful design fictions. From here the unuseless
chindōgu by Kawakeni and the unfindable objects by Carelman together frame
the useless as a “useful overdrive.” Additionally they illustrate the
constant risk of assimilation, festishization and spectacle that disruptive
useless design artifacts face within the neoliberalist growth economy. In
the digital realm The Useless Web accentuate the post-ironic and absurd
qualities in useless design.Part III asks: what is useless design, why do we
need useless design and how could useless design exist? From five opening
propositions, useless design is positioned among related concepts such as
Redström’s “design after design” (2011), Hunt’s “tactical formlessness”
(2003), Tonkinwise’s “designing things that are not finished” (2005), and
Jones’ “pure design” (1984). Useless design is finally argued to find its
value from its ability to valuate and actively traverse the growing chasm
between the industrial and the post-industrial design paradigm.In essence
useless design is an invitation to make useful, here “useful” understood in
reappropriated terms, beyond its currently one dimensional, confined state.
On that note, the essay concludes by shifting its gaze from the abstract
insights gathered throughout the essay towards the concrete urgent task of
prototyping a useless design practice.
Title: Prototyping a Useless Design Practice: What, Why & How?
Description:
This essay sets out to rectify the false dichotomy between the notions
of uselessness and usefulness in relation to design, in order to argue for a
useless design practice.
The argument is structured into three main
parts.
Part I opens with an introduction and goes on to frame design as a
hybrid discipline that has been characterized by usefulness since it was
born of the Industrial Revolution.
The notion of useful design and its
continuingly intimate relationship with the neoliberalist growth economy is
subsequently unpacked through scrutinizing the basic demands for
quantification & acceleration, conflicting use and temporality with
special attention paid to the Anthropocene.
Part II elucidates the ambiguous
relationship between the useless and the useful through the related
critical/conformist dichotomy present in Dunne & Raby’s A/B Manifesto as
well as through useless and useful design fictions.
From here the unuseless
chindōgu by Kawakeni and the unfindable objects by Carelman together frame
the useless as a “useful overdrive.
” Additionally they illustrate the
constant risk of assimilation, festishization and spectacle that disruptive
useless design artifacts face within the neoliberalist growth economy.
In
the digital realm The Useless Web accentuate the post-ironic and absurd
qualities in useless design.
Part III asks: what is useless design, why do we
need useless design and how could useless design exist? From five opening
propositions, useless design is positioned among related concepts such as
Redström’s “design after design” (2011), Hunt’s “tactical formlessness”
(2003), Tonkinwise’s “designing things that are not finished” (2005), and
Jones’ “pure design” (1984).
Useless design is finally argued to find its
value from its ability to valuate and actively traverse the growing chasm
between the industrial and the post-industrial design paradigm.
In essence
useless design is an invitation to make useful, here “useful” understood in
reappropriated terms, beyond its currently one dimensional, confined state.
On that note, the essay concludes by shifting its gaze from the abstract
insights gathered throughout the essay towards the concrete urgent task of
prototyping a useless design practice.
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