Tom Fisher

Lorraine Gamman

Tricky Things responds to the burgeoning of scholarly interest in the cultural meanings of objects, by addressing the moral complexity of certain designed objects and systems. The volume brings together leading international designers, scholars and critics to explore some of the ways in which the practice of design and its outcomes can have a dark side, even when the intention is to design for the public good. Considering a range of designed objects and relationships, including guns, eyewear, assisted suicide kits, anti-rape devices, passports and prisons, the contributors offer a view of design as both progressive and problematic, able to propose new material and human relationships, yet also constrained by social norms and ideology. This contradictory, tricky quality of design is explored in the editors' introduction, which positions the objects, systems, services and 'things' discussed in the book in relation to the idea of the trickster that occurs in anthropological literature, as well as in classical thought, discussing design interventions that have positive and negative ethical consequences. These will include objects, both material and 'immaterial', systems with both local and global scope, and also different processes of designing. This important new volume brings a fresh perspective to the complex nature of 'things', and makes a truly original contribution to debates in design ethics, design philosophy and material culture.

The Ethics of Things

Tricky Design

Tricky Design responds to the burgeoning of scholarly interest in the cultural meanings of objects, by addressing the moral complexity of certain designed objects and systems. The volume brings together leading international designers, scholars and critics to explore some of the ways in which the practice of design and its outcomes can have a dark side, even when the intention is to design for the public good. Considering a range of designed objects and relationships, including guns, eyewear, assisted suicide kits, anti-rape devices, passports and prisons, the contributors offer a view of design as both progressive and problematic, able to propose new material and human relationships, yet also constrained by social norms and ideology. This contradictory, tricky quality of design is explored in the editors' introduction, which positions the objects, systems, services and 'things' discussed in the book in relation to the idea of the trickster that occurs in anthropological literature, as well as in classical thought, discussing design interventions that have positive and negative ethical consequences. These will include objects, both material and 'immaterial', systems with both local and global scope, and also different processes of designing. This important new volume brings a fresh perspective to the complex nature of 'things', and makes a truly original contribution to debates in design ethics, design philosophy and material culture.

Iryna Kuksa

The principle of personalisation appears in a range of current debates among design professionals, healthcare providers and educationalists about the implications of new technologies and approaches to consumer sovereignty for 'mass' provision. The potential of new technologies implies systems of provision that offer bespoke support to their users, tailoring services and experiences to suit individual needs. The assumption that individual choice automatically increases wellbeing has underlain the re-design of public services. Ubiquitous personalisation in screen-based environments gives individuals the sense that their personality is reflected back at them. Advances in Artificial Intelligence mean our personal intelligent agents have begun to acquire personality. Given its prevalence, it is appropriate to identify the scope of this phenomenon that is altering our relationship to the 'non-human' world. This book presents taxonomy of personalisation, and its potential consequences for the design profession as well as its ethical and political dimensions through a collection of essays from a range of academic perspectives. The thought-provoking introduction, conclusion and nine chapters present a well-balanced mixture of in-depth literature review and practical examples to deepen our understanding of the consequences of personalisation for our professional and personal lives. Collectively, this book points towards the implications of personalisation for design-led social innovation. This will be valuable reading for professionals in the design industry and health provision, as well as students of product design, fashion and sociology.

Design for Personalisation

Tracey L. Smith

A Manual for Public Speaking

Icebreaker

Stephen Vogel

Anthony Costello

Frank Russell

Dan Pitera

Craig L. Wilkins

Gilad Meron

Mia Scharphie

Raphael Sperry

Sheri Blake

Charles Bohl

Kathy Dorgan

Doug Kelbaugh

Stephen Luoni

Jana Cephas

Katie Swenson

Tom Dutton

Activist Architecture is an edited volume bringing together some of the most creative minds working in the world of community design and socially engaged practice. It asserts that community design centers and other socially engaged practices expand the influence built environmental professions have on culture and society. These practices work under the premise that designers should expand their clientele, where they work, and the types of projects they engage. This does not mean that design centers exclude people who typically build or hire an architect, urban designer, landscape architect, or planner. Design centers include more people, more programs, and more geographies in the process. They are advocates for people who are typically left out of design and place-making decisions. Design centers widen the undertaking beyond some people to include all (or more) people. While looking back over the past 50+ years, Activist Architecture positions the philosophy and practice of community design centers for today and tomorrow. The editors of Activist Architecture put together both a "why-to" and "how-to" guide for establishing and operating a community design center.

Philosophy and Practice of the Community Design Center

Activist Architecture

Janet Shipton

"Packaging is ephemeral - its purpose is to be 'wasted' once we've removed the product it contains. Whilst we are encouraged to 'reduce, re-use and recycle', Designing for Re-Use proposes that domestic re-use is the 'Cinderella' of this trinity, because it is under researched and little understood. The re-use of packaging could have a significant effect on the quantity of material that enters the waste stream and the energy and consequently carbon that is expended in its production - every re-used item is another item not purchased. The authors demonstrate that we do re-use - but usually despite, rather than because of, the actions of government and designers. The book shows that by understanding the ways in which actions of this sort fit with everyday life, opportunities may be identified to enhance the potential for re-use through packaging design. The authors itemize the factors that affect the re-use of packaging, and analyse the home as a system in which objects are processed. Some of these factors relate to the specifics of the design, including the type of materials used and the symbolism of the branding. Other factors are more obviously social, for instance the effects on re-use of different consumer orientations. The book provides practical guidance from a design perspective, in the context of real-life examples, to provide professionals with vital design recommendations and evaluate how a practice orientated approach to understanding consumers' behaviour is significant for moving towards sustainability through design."--Back cover.

The Life of Consumer Packaging

Designing for Re-use

Writing Not Writing is both a detailed analysis of four individual poets who left poetry behind and a theoretically provocative exploration of the political and ethical possibilities of silence, not-doing, and disavowal. Reading the silences of George Oppen, Carl Rakosi, and Bob Kaufman, the renunciation of Laura Riding, and other more contemporary instances and modes of poetic abnegation, Tom Fisher explores silence, refusal, and disavowal as political and ethical modes of response in a time of continuous crisis. Through a turn away from writing, these poets offer strategies of refusal and departure that leave anagrammatical hollows behind, activating the negational capacities of writing and aesthetics to disrupt the empire of sense, speech, and agency. "

Poetry, Crisis, and Responsibility

Writing Not Writing

Tom Fisher

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