Board of International Research in Design

This text might be rendered on a screen. It could appear on paper as well. I have written it using a computer. As you are reading this text, some thing is functioning as an interface. Although I do not know exactly what this thing is, I know for certain that there is some thing here, slipping your mind as you read this text. This knowledge and this slipping away is the subject of this book. This research project questioned the sustaining support of digital objects: it aimed to challenge the habitualisation towards digital devices, the forgetting of the physical interface that leads to the supposition of digital immateriality.

By handling computers as absurd things that escape language, the author sought to position himself among these strange and aloof digital entities and their effects.

Design beinhaltet immer, aus sich heraus, den Anstoß zur Theorie. Theorien wiederum sind regelmäßig Faktoren in einem dynamischen Feld der poetisch-praktischen Setzungen und Gegensetzungen, die einen Widerstreit von Objekten, Auffassungen, Szenarien ermöglichen. Design-Entwerfen ist also auch implizite Theoretisierung der Gestaltungsprozesse. Was kontrovers bleibt, muss stets neu artikuliert werden. Das Exemplarische situiert sich in der jeweiligen Zeit, aber die Folge der Präsenzen geht nicht auf in einem Drehbuch linearer Fortschritte. Die beiden Bände bieten Texte zur kulturgeschichtlichen, soziologischen, ästhetischen und theoretischen Begründung von Design – von den Kontroversen um Moderne vs. Postmoderne der 1980er-Jahre bis zu den medialen Ausweitungen und Neusituierungen der Kulturkämpfe in der Gegenwart.

Design is inextricably interwoven with all aspects of life and has even produced its own astonishing genre of research. Design research opens up new perspectives of interdisciplinary empiricism, joining with economics, sociology, technology, and philosophy to produce analyses and syntheses that get to the heart of daily life.

The twelve contributions from international authors that comprise this book vividly make this case. They cover the relationship between subject and object, animation, all forms of representation, design activism, and many other themes. This book is intended to inspire discussion. Its target reader is anyone seeking to expand their understanding of design, to fundamentally improve their praxis, and to more deeply appreciate life in all of its aspects.

Design affects all social contexts and is therefore intensively instrumentalized both by the politically powerful and their critics. Both functions of design, and their inevitable combination, are presented in this book in precise detail.

Authors from various countries present previously unknown and innovative examples of democratic activities conducted through design. This publication is therefore aimed not only at design professionals but also at the general public of all countries.

Die unbewusste Botschaft von Gestaltung

Unzählige Interaktionen mit Dingen prägen unseren Alltag: Schnürsenkel binden, Anrufe tätigen, Fahrradfahren – das Repertoire an Handlungs- und Orientierungswissen, das dabei tagtäglich nötig ist, lässt sich schwer in Worte fassen. Unbewusst nehmen wir wahr, welche Handlungsmöglichkeiten die Dinge bieten. Doch wie kann die wortlose Kommunikation zwischen Dingen und NutzerInnen gelingen?

Die Autorin zeigt, wie diese implizite Vermittlung designt wird und wodurch Menschen fähig sind, ihre Interaktionsmöglichkeiten wahrzunehmen, zu nutzen, und sie sogar mitzugestalten. Die Bedeutung dieser Ergebnisse sind für das Design, die Designforschung sowie wie für die Technik- und Wissenschaftsforschung von hoher Relevanz.

• Implizite Wissensformen, die im Interaktionsdesign eine unentbehrliche Rolle spielen
• Erstaunliches Wissensrepertoire in Alltagsinteraktionen
• Eine geschriebene Ausstellung als Form, die selbst im Text implizit Verborgenes sichtbar werden lässt

Stefanie Egger, The Invisible Lab, Graz

Wie wir Dinge gestalten, hat einen maßgeblichen Einfluss darauf, was oder wen wir als "normal" oder "normabweichend" empfinden. Design markiert somit die Grenzbereiche zwischen In- und Exklusion, indem es implizit Rollen- und Wertebilder konfiguriert und dabei gleichermaßen in den Herstellungs- und Deutungsprozess von Normalität involviert ist.

Wenn solche Normvorstellungen durch Design mitkonstruiert werden, bedeutet das im Umkehrschluss jedoch auch, dass sie sich durch Design dekonstruieren, also kritisch hinterfragen und verändern lassen: Design kann auch Gegenmodelle entwickeln.

In Inklusion als Entwurf deckt Tom Bieling auf zahlreichen Ebenen Verbindungen von Design und Inklusion auf und leitet daraus nicht nur neue Operationsbereiche für Designer ab, sondern liefert auch Anknüpfungspunkte für andere Praxis- und Wissensfelder.

Unsere Zukunft entscheidet sich in den Städten. Die gegenwärtige Urbanisierung ist nicht zukunftsfähig, weil sie auf einem Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftsmodell beruht, das seine eigenen Grundlagen zu zerstören droht. Unsere urbanen Lebensräume und die Art ihrer Gestaltung müssen und werden sich daher radikal ändern. Die Frage ist, ob by disaster or by design.

Da unser bisheriges Urban-Design-Verständnis für die heutige Krise mitverantwortlich ist, setzt ein change des Urbanen "by" design ein change "of urban" design voraus. Dieses Buch fragt nach Bedeutung und Aufgabe eines guten Urban Design und formuliert ein zeitgemäßes und zukunftsgewandtes Verständnis für die "Große Transformation".

In a state of ontological crisis, all boundaries have been ruptured between nature and culture, human and machine, and object and subject. We find ourselves exhaustively tackling the turmoil of our own designed circumstances, as we emerge to become extensions of the extensions that we built.

In this practice-based design theory project, the authors share their experiments in negotiating power with things, hacking mundane objects, and thus their own everyday lives, allowing themselves to be swayed and misled, disrupted and called into question.

The experiments delineate a mode of critical cultural inquiry where design and sociology collide to elicit critical perspectives on the ‘designer’ and the ‘designed’ as we act within an entangled politics of things.

The movement of designed objects is not just something purely functional but also triggers a wide range of sensations. A curtain swaying gently in the wind can cause the onlooker to feel easy and relaxed, as if it was he or she who is floating in the air. This imagined projection caused by the perception of moving objects is called "kinesthetic empathy".

In this study, which followed on from a dissertation at the School of Design Research in London, the author investigates the esthetics of movement by documenting his own design-based learning and research process in terms of "research through design", using the experimental cooperation with puppet players as an example. He thereby creates a framework that allows designers to observe the esthetics of objects in motion as a trigger of feelings.

Offene und kooperative Vorgänge von Gestaltung gelten zurecht als ein Garant für zukunftsfähige Erzeugnisse und Dienstleistungen. Welchen Beitrag leisten dabei Designer und Designerinnen?

Helge Oders Studie thematisiert die Akteure solch offener, kooperativer Prozesse, indem sie ihr sinnlich-ästhetisches Vermögen in den Blick nimmt. Sie versöhnt die lange als unvereinbar geltenden Pole der diversen disziplinären Kompetenzen des Entwerfens und des ganzheitlich-konzeptionellen Zugangs für die Gestaltung zukunftsfähiger kultureller Kontexte. Und sie beantwortet die zentrale Frage: Was sind angesichts überbordender Komplexität die Gegenstände, denen unser Erkenntnisbemühen gelten muss? aus dem Möglichkeitsraum des Sinnlich-Ästhetischen heraus – mit seinen "dunklen Phasen" und "entwerferischen Dingen".

Design has long expressed and established itself as an independent research competence – a fact that also companies, institutions and politicians have come to acknowledge. What is still needed, however, is a stronger public platform for design to confidently reflect upon this process and to establish and communicate the specific innovative and experimental dimension of design research. For this reason, BIRD, the Board of International Research in Design, has developed the New Experimental Research in Design / NERD format. The edited conference contributions of twelve young researchers from all over the world provide an impressive and diverse and insightful range of intelligent and inspiring approaches in design research, giving rise to further debate and action in the rapidly evolving field.

Wie lässt sich Wegwerfen entwerfen? Das Schlagwort Nachhaltigkeit hält heute zwar Einzug in viele Bereiche unseres Alltags. Gestalterinnen und Gestalter erschaffen komplette Szenarien des «guten Lebens» anhand neuer Artefakte oder Dienstleistungen. Doch einem solchen Entwurf als Anfang steht immer ein Ende gegenüber: in Form von Müll.

Diese Arbeit erörtert erstmals das Wegwerfen in einem systematischen Zusammenhang mit dem Entwerfen. Ihre These: Müll, verstanden als universeller Begriff für die unerwünschten Reste einer gezielten Aktivität innerhalb von Produktion und Verbrauch, stellt einen zentralen Indikator und Vermittler für die ökologischen und sozialen Konsequenzen von Gestaltung dar. Die Bedeutung dieser These für Designtheorie und -didaktik wird hier exemplarisch entfaltet.

The digital revolution is interwoven with the promise to empower the user. Yet, the rise of centralised, commercial platforms for crowdsourced work questions the validity of this narrative. In Crowd-Design, Florian Alexander Schmidt analyses the workings and the rhetoric of crowdsourced work platforms by comparing the way they address the masses today with historic notions of the crowd. The utopian concepts of early online collaboration are taken as a vantage point from which to view and critique current and, at times, dystopian applications of crowdsourced work. The study is focused on the crowdsourcing of design tasks, but these specific applications are used to examine the design of the more general mechanisms employed by the platform providers to motivate and control the crowds.

Crowd-Design is as much about the crowdsourcing of design as it is about the design of crowdsourcing.

Die Auseinandersetzung mit Geschlecht als sozialer Konstruktion ist in sehr vielen Wissenschaftsbereichen seit Jahrzehnten state of the art. Im Design ist die Einbeziehung der Kategorie Gender allerdings noch immer fast ein blinder Fleck. Das ist merkwürdig, weil Design ja den ganz gewöhnlichen Alltag überall und jederzeit bestimmt, und damit auch die in diesem Alltag handelnden Subjekte. Und diese Interaktion zwischen Menschen und Dingen findet unabdingbar „gendered" statt.

Das vorliegende Buch setzt sich erstmals mit den essentiellen Fragen von Gender im Design theoretisch wie praktisch auseinander: Es erörtert die grundsätzliche Notwendigkeit der Einbeziehung von Gender in den Designprozess, und es stellt exemplarisch Design(forschungs)projekte zu diesem wichtigem Thema vor.

Uta Brandes ist die erste Professorin, die explizit Gender & Design bis vor kurzem an der Köln International School of Design lehrte. Sie berät Unternehmen in Gender & Design-Fragen, ist Co-Gründerin und Vorsitzende des international Gender Design Network und betreut zahlreiche Projekte, insbesondere in Hong Kong, China und Japan.

This publication explores and analyzes a very special kind of design – the phenomenon, as normal as it is wonderful, in which people with no formal training in design take things that have already been designed and reuse them, convert them to new uses, in short, "misuse" them in the very best sense of the word. Non-intentional design (NID) goes on every day, in every area of life, in every region of the world. Redesign through reuse makes things multifunctional and cleverly combines them to generate new functions. It is often reversible, resource-friendly, improvisational, innovative, and economical. It can become a source of inspiration for design, provided professional designers look up and take notice of what actually happens to all the things they design when they are used.

This publication explores and analyzes a very special kind of design – the phenomenon, as normal as it is wonderful, in which people with no formal training in design take things that have already been designed and reuse them, convert them to new uses, in short, "misuse" them in the very best sense of the word. Non-intentional design (NID) goes on every day, in every area of life, in every region of the world. Redesign through reuse makes things multifunctional and cleverly combines them to generate new functions. It is often reversible, resource-friendly, improvisational, innovative, and economical. It can become a source of inspiration for design, provided professional designers look up and take notice of what actually happens to all the things they design when they are used.

Design is becoming a recognised academic discipline, and design research is the driving force behind this transformation. Design Research Now – Essays and Selected Projects charts the field of design research with introductory essays and selected research projects. The authors of the essays, all leading international design scholars, stake out positions on the most important issues of design research. They locate the significance of design research at the interface with technological development, describe what makes it a necessary ingredient of the continued development of the design disciplines, and assign it a seminal role in the relevant developments of society.
The essays are supplemented by the presentation of recently completed research projects from universities in the Netherlands, the UK and Italy.

This dictionary provides a stimulating and categorical foundation for a serious international discourse on design. It is a handbook for everyone concerned with design in career or education, who is interested in it, enjoys it, and wishes to understand it.
110 authors from Japan, Austria, England, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United States, and elsewhere have written original articles for this design dictionary. Their cultural differences provide perspectives for a shared understanding of central design categories and communicating about design. The volume includes both the terms in use in current discussions, some of which are still relatively new, as well as classics of design discourse. A practical book, both scholarly and ideal for browsing and reading at leisure.

This dictionary provides a stimulating and categorical foundation for a serious international discourse on design. It is a handbook for everyone concerned with design in career or education, who is interested in it, enjoys it, and wishes to understand it.
110 authors from Japan, Austria, England, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United States, and elsewhere have written original articles for this design dictionary. Their cultural differences provide perspectives for a shared understanding of central design categories and communicating about design. The volume includes both the terms in use in current discussions, some of which are still relatively new, as well as classics of design discourse. A practical book, both scholarly and ideal for browsing and reading at leisure.

Are there differences between design practice and the practice of design research? What alliances between text and artefact are possible in the search for new knowledge? How does design research translate and transform theories and methods from other disciplines? Is design research moving towards becoming a formal discipline and, if so, would this really be an advantage?

16 international authors address these four different aspects in the form of personal statements, and 19 researchers share their reflections based on their experience of having carried out a practice-based PhD.

This book investigates the status quo of things in the multi-faceted and constantly evolving field of design research, and outlines the elementary issues faced by researchers. The compendium is a survey of a fast-growing field and, at the same time, provides pointers for personal orientation.

With statements from: Uta Brandes, Rachel Cooper, Clive Dilnot, Michael Erlhoff, Alain Findeli, Bill Gaver, Ranulph Glanville, Matthias Held, Wolfgang Jonas, Klaus Krippendorff, Claudia Mareis, Mike Press, Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders, Arne Scheuermann, Cameron Tonkinwise, Brigitte Wolf

“Transformation design” is looking for new ways to change our behavior and society through new forms of innovation. The existing user-oriented approach of design must therefore be extended to one that is society-oriented.

The concept of transformation is based on the anthropologist Karl Paul Polanyi and his book The Great Transformation (1944), which described the emergence of the now almost undisputed and globally widespread western market logic: the transformation of societies with markets into market societies, which he calls “dislodgment of the markets”.

Meanwhile, leading think tanks are referring to Polanyi. They are calling for a new social contract and the “re-embedding” of the market into society. What are the possible instruments and contributions of design for this new “Great Transformation”?

The variety of the above questions, answers, theories, methods, ideas, and projects suggests that “transformation design” is not in fact a discipline in itself, but that it will lead to a fruitful discourse. The book attempts to form an initial position in terms of this ambitious and ethical design perspective. It also seeks to inspire the international debate to push for a project of responsible design.

How does design convince us? What explains its impact? How aware are designers of the rules they employ – to some extent unknowingly? To an increasing degree, contemporary design research manifests a growing interest in the rhetorical mechanisms of design practice.
This anthology reinterprets the classical communication skills of rhetoric as a new and encompassing metatheory for design. It is relevant to all areas of contemporary design – from graphic design to architecture to interface design.
Design as Rhetoric joins three realms. By defining positions, it presents the historically relevant texts and outlines the contemporary discussion and its controversies. In case studies, it also assembles contributions on the most important areas of research, for example “Interactive Rhetoric,” “The Rhetoric of Design and Gender,” and “Rhetoric and the World Wide Web.”

Johannes Lang observes and analyzes the development of ecological design from the point of view of the aesthetics of experience and the history of consciousness. He strives to discover and identify new product experiences that emerge against the background of ecological approaches to thinking and design – not to address the operationalization of ecological principles for praxis. He investigates the aesthetics of product design in the context of the growing awareness of ecological realities – in contradistinction to sustainability, which encompasses not just ecological, but social aspects as well.
This book shows how the introduction of ecological concerns into design not only leads to new technologies, but also to a new aesthetic, characterized here as “process aesthetics.” The practical and aesthetic aspects of a product are considered not in isolation but instead in their interrelationship – neither deterministically in the sense of “form follows function,” nor arbitrarily in the sense of a “product language,” but instead reflexively.
Through numerous examples, the author discusses processes that are observable in the history of materials, of production, and of practical utilization as they are relevant to ecological relationships. In the process, the term “process aesthetics” becomes tangible: it encompasses those sensuous reflections through which the natural processes of product history become a part product experience.

An authoritative and scientifically based collection of 18 international texts since 1960 that mirrors and analyses the principal developmental phases of design research and scientific research.
The importance of the focus on pivotal texts for the design research cannot be overstated. However, while certain charismatic names come up in the discussion, the community has thus far lacked a handbook that is straightforward and accessible. Grand and Jonas have now filled this gap. Compiled on the basis of a deep and extensive knowledge of the field, their essays situate and elucidate these exciting texts and aid readers in understanding them.

Design reflects social developments in those issues which are also embraced by design researchers. A key concept for how designers position themselves in the future, according to the editor’s thesis, may well be "integrative design". This term denotes design’s potential for the integrative development of a society, a potential imperatively linked with economic and political positions.

Integrative Design collects basic essays on aspects of Integrative Design, including design after ownership, inclusion, design as an interface with society, the integration of design and technology, and the political agenda of design. The associated website documents current and recently completed research projects that expand on these aspects.

Beginning in the 1960s, Horst W.J. Rittel (1930–1990) focused his research on the problems and problem-solving behavior of planners and designers. His discoveries have had a lasting impact on theories and methods in the fields of architecture and design, and form the basis of what is referred to today as “design thinking.” At last, this new edition of his out-of-print collection of essays will make his texts accessible once again to German-speaking readers.

Gestaltung Denken brings together 40 essential texts on architecture and design theory. The first part contains texts by practitioners, i.e. architects and designers. The second features texts by theoreticians: cultural studies experts, philosophers, sociologists, historians of architecture and design. Each text represents a milestone in the history of/reflections on design and highlights design developments from early modernism to current debates.
Each primary text is introduced and provided with commentary by a well-regarded specialist, who provides insights into the text’s author, genesis, and publishing context.
Many of the selected texts are difficult to locate and/or are long out of print. This reader makes these texts – each crucial to theoretical discussion on architecture and design – accessible once again. This publication is ideal for teaching the history and development of the design disciplines at academies of architecture and design, but also offers practicing architects and designers a basis for reflecting on their own work against the background of historic debates.

In 1995, Michael Erlhoff formulated a beautiful vision in Nutzen statt Besitzen (Use Instead of Ownership) that anticipated many later debates. What was intended as an alternative to the logic of ownership is now more relevant than ever considering global crises; however, questions and problems that were hardly considered at the time are also emerging.

The new edition, supplemented with 20 new essays, reopens the topic and continues to think boldly and speculatively. The diversity of the contributions corresponds to the open and "undisciplined" self-image of BIRD. Even after 30 years, Erlhoff's plea remains a groundbreaking impetus—to reflect on what may lie ahead and how we want to live.

Authors: Michael Erlhoff, Tom Bieling, Uta Brandes, Katharina Bredies, Rosan Chow, Meret Ernst, Köbi Gantenbein, Simon Grand, Angela Grosso Ciponte und Evelyne Roth, Harald Gruendl, Saskia Herbert, Wolfgang Jonas, Simon Küffer, Ralf Michel, Stephan Rammler, Hans Ulrich Reck, Erik Spiekermann, Peter Friedrich Stephan, Kai Völcker und Peter Eckart, Thomas Wagner

Design has long established itself as an independent research competence. The New Experimental Research in Design (NERD) series seeks to provide a public platform to reflect upon and discuss the specifically experimental dimension of the field. The contributions from researchers from around the world exhibit a diverse and insightful range of approaches, giving rise to further debate and action in the rapidly evolving field.

In times of multiple crises – the authors in this volume strive to find tactics of response. They introduce experiments into more-than-human design, co-species production, critical algorithmic immersion, feminist engagements with new materialism and more. From autoethnographic explorations to socially engaged methods, they challenge not just the role of design in these times, but the self-positioning of the designer.