Discursive Design: Critical, Speculative, and Alternative Things

by Bruce M. Tharp, Stephanie M. Tharp

Overview

Exploring how design can be used for good—prompting self-reflection, igniting the imagination, and affecting positive social change.

Good design provides solutions to problems. It improves our buildings, medical equipment, clothing, and kitchen utensils, among other objects. But what if design could also improve societal problems by prompting positive ideological change? In this book, Bruce and Stephanie Tharp survey recent critical design practices and propose a new, more inclusive field of socially minded practice: discursive design. While many consider good design to be unobtrusive, intuitive, invisible, and undemanding intellectually, discursive design instead targets the intellect, prompting self-reflection and igniting the imagination. Discursive design (derived from “discourse”) expands the boundaries of how we can use design—how objects are, in effect, good(s) for thinking.

Discursive Design invites us to see objects in a new light, to understand more than their basic form and utility. Beyond the different foci of critical design, speculative design, design fiction, interrogative design, and adversarial design, Bruce and Stephanie Tharp establish a more comprehensive, unifying vision as well as innovative methods. They not only offer social criticism but also explore how objects can, for example, be used by counselors in therapy sessions, by town councils to facilitate a pre-vote discussions, by activists seeking engagement, and by institutions and industry to better understand the values, beliefs, and attitudes of those whom they serve. Discursive design sparks new ways of thinking, and it is only through new thinking that our sociocultural futures can change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262038980
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/12/2019
Series:	Design Thinking, Design Theory
Pages:	632
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bruce Tharp runs the Chicago-based design studio Materious, established in 2005, with Stephanie Tharp. They have done work for such companies as Ligne Roset, Möet-Hennessy, The Art Institute of Chicago, Crate & Barrel, and Kikkerland. He is Associate Professor in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.

Stephanie Tharp runs the Chicago-based design studio Materious, established in 2005, with Bruce Tharp. They have done work for such companies as Ligne Roset, Möet-Hennessy, The Art Institute of Chicago, Crate & Barrel, and Kikkerland. She is Associate Professor in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword viii

Acknowledgments xii

Part I Discursive Design: In Theory

Introduction

1 Why Write Such a Book? 5

2 Why Read Such a Book? 17

Background

3 So, What's Wrong with Design? 31

4 What Is the Four-Fields Framework? 43

5 What Can and Can't a Four-Field Approach Do? 57

Foundation

6 What is Discourse, Discoursing, and Discursive Design? 73

7 What Isn't Discursive Design? 83

8 How Do Discursive Objects Communicate-In Theory? 101

9 How Do Discursive Objects Communicate-In Practice? 111

10 What Are the Domains of Discursive Design? 121

Theorizing Practice

11 Intention: What's a Discursive Designer to Do? 135

12 Understanding: What's a Discursive Designer to Know? 153

13 Message: What's a Discursive Designer to Say? 165

14 Scenario: How Does a Discursive Designer Set the Stage for Discourse? 185

15 Artifact: What's a Discursive Designer to Make? 211

16 Audience: To Whom Does a Discursive Designer Speak? 235

17 Context: How Does a Discursive Designer Disseminate? 253

18 Interaction: How Does a Discursive Designer Connect? 269

19 Impact: What Effect Can a Discursive Designer Have? 285

Conclusion

20 What's Wrong with Discursive Design(ers) Today? 301

21 Where's Discursive Design Headed? 315

Part II Discursive Design: In Practice

Introduction

22 Introduction: In Practice 343

Discursive Designing: Nine Facets

23 Intention: In Practice 347

24 Understanding: In Practice 365

25 Message: In Practice 381

26 Scenario: In Practice 401

27 Artifact: In Practice 421

28 Audience: In Practice 441

29 Context: In Practice 455

30 Interaction: In Practice 473

31 Impact: In Practice 489

Case Studies

32 Case Study: Global Futures Lab 501

33 Case Study: (Im)possible Baby 519

34 Case Study: Umbrellas for the Civil but Discontent Man 531

Glossary 545

Interviewees and Interlocutors 557

Image Credits 561

Bibliography 581

Index 603

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Discursive design makes us think, talk, and question. This fascinating book offers designers both a theory and a tool for exploring what and how to communicate. I love this book!"

—Ellen Lupton, author of The Senses: Design Beyond Vision

"Discursive Design offers an important contribution toward understanding modes of design practice that function outside a commercial design paradigm. Through a compelling synthesis of literature, theory, and annotated design examples, Bruce and Stephanie Tharp introduce and negotiate a range of work conceived and actioned to leverage design's discursive agency. They do this with a critical lens that questions the impact and limitations of a discursive and critical practice. This book should be key reading for anyone working to understand the boundaries of orthodox design practice.”

—Matt Malpass, Programme Coordinator Product Ceramic and Industrial Design, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London; author of Critical Design in Context: History, Theory, and Practices

“At a time when design is becoming increasingly eclectic, expansive, and ambitious, Discursive Design makes a timely and constructive contribution to the debate about its future by charting the opportunities and challenges that designers will face as they engage with ever more complex and urgent social, political, and environmental issues."

—Alice Rawsthorn, author of Design as an Attitude

Editorial Reviews

A marvelously fascinating text.—AD&P—

From the Publisher