introduzione
One of the persistent issues in design is the nature of a design
problem. The issue is a touchstone that often distinguishes quite
different approaches in theory and leads to different approaches
in practice and education. In “The Logic of the Design Problem: UN
Dialectical Approach,” Stephen Beckett briefly reviews some of
the perspectives on this issue before suggesting that the relation-
ship between a design problem and its solution may be explored as
a single concept that evolves in the form of a dialectical logic
thoughtfully illuminated through the work of Hegel. This is an
interesting idea, and he works it out in enough detail that the argu-
ment deserves attention. He points out that the dialectical perspec-
tive on design process does not contradict rhetorical, abductive, O
other approaches that also grasp the paradoxical nature of the
design problem, but he does see a special value in a dialectical anal-
ysis: “The value of the dialectical approach lies in helping us recog-
nize the distinction between the form of the design scenario and its
content and the subjective nature of the designer’s intervention
therein.” What is doubtful is whether this is “the best way” to
explore the logic of the design problem, as the author asserts, E
whether dialectic is really so unfamiliar in the design community
as the author implies. Infatti, dialectic has become one of the most
common forms of argumentation in contemporary design discourse,
though the Hegelian form is perhaps not so common.
If there is an intelligent interplay in design among dialectic,
rhetoric, logic and the various forms of humanistic and liberal arts,
it should come as no surprise that design education has taken on
greater significance than in the early days of the twentieth century.
There is ample evidence that higher education in many parts of the
world is undergoing a realignment of priorities, values, and goals,
and design education plays a surprising—or perhaps not so surpris-
ing—role in seeking a new place for science, imagination, E
human creativity to exist together in fruitful thought and action.
Arguments for the STEM disciplines too often urge not the ideal-
ized value of knowledge for its own sake but the skills and tech-
niques that are implicated in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics for practical (typically commercial) ends—and notice
the effort to co-opt design through the term “STEM-D,” attempting
doi:10.1162/DESI_e_00457
© 2017 Istituto di Tecnologia del Massachussetts
Problemi di progettazione: Volume 33, Numero 4 Autumn 2017
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to turn design to their service. Standing against the battalions of the
STEM disciplines are the more modest squadrons of the arts and
humanities, ostensibly defending core human values of truth and
beauty but, if truth can be told, sometimes merely frustrated that
students (and resources) are moving away from the traditional
disciplines of the arts and literature. Into this field of distrust and
despair comes design education. Accused by one side for being
too commercial and pragmatic and then accused by the other side
for not being technical and “scientific” enough, design education
quietly gains in significance. Yet, uncertainty remains about what
role design can and should play in higher education. This is one of
the central themes of Ali Ogulcan Ilhan’s “Growth of Undergradu-
ate Education in Design in the United States, 1988–2012.” Drawing
on an extensive database of institutions and programs, their chang-
ing size and positioning within the wide ecology of higher educa-
zione, the author maps the growing significance of design education
over a twenty-five-year period. We should be cautious in drawing
any large conclusions from the data that Ilhan presents—whether
design education is rising or falling, where it is recognized, and for
what ends it serves. Piuttosto, his study serves to mark a beginning of
the changing place of design education in higher education.
In the next article, we turn to a topic that is as old as it is
to be human and as new as contemporary social media. The topic
is rumor, and the title is “The Rumor Mill or ‘How Rumors Evade
the Grasp of Research.’” In this article, Jimmy Schmid, Harold
Klingemann, Boris Bandyopadhyay, and Arne Scheuermann explore
the differences among graphic design, visual communication, E
communication design with special attention to the design of “emo-
tional information like rumors.” While ultimately concerned with
how design may shape and communicate rumors, the authors first
turn to sociology and communication theory for useful distinctions
in a discussion of rumor. Then, they discuss concrete studies of
communication as a research enterprise. Readers of Design Issues are
quite conscious of the deep ethical issues surroundings the design
of information. What this article does is provide a useful link to the
kind of interdisciplinary research that is both possible and needed
in the development of our understanding of communication design.
Urban interaction design is the ostensive theme of Kristian
Kloeckl’s “The Urban Improvise,” and if this theme requires any
justification, it may be found in a quotation from Siegfried Kracauer
that is cited by the author: “The worth of cities is determined by the
number of places in them made over to improvisation.” The article
fa, Infatti, discuss hybrid cities and urban interaction design, Ma
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Problemi di progettazione: Volume 33, Numero 4 Autumn 2017
the deeper theme of this important article is the nature of improvi-
sation and its place in interaction design. With no intended irony,
Kloeckl argues that improvisation can be regarded as a system,
serving as a model for interaction design. The argument is thought-
ful and the connections that it explores are worth careful attention
for anyone interested in interaction design and user experience—or
design in general.
When we speak of design as a new liberal art, we are speak-
ing about the ability of design and designers to make connections
that are surprising, creative, and often insightful into the myste-
rious new world in which we live. Old disciplines take on new
relevance and new disciplines find grounding in problems that
are long-standing in the human community. In short, design as a
liberal art may free the mind to imagine new possibilities and
opportunities, to be surprised and even amazed. The next article
may accomplish this by exploring the connections among craft, tex-
tiles, and mathematical concepts. Nithikul Nimkulrat and Janette
Matthews take us into the surprising world of mathematical con-
cepts made concrete through the hand manipulation of materials.
“Ways of Being Strands: Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Using
Craft and Mathematics” presents its study in the context of practice-
based research or, following Frayling’s overused phrase, “research
through design.” The authors explain that in their article “craft is
used to identify neither a discipline in its own right nor a sub-dis-
cipline of art or design, but a method of logically and intellectually
thinking through the hand’s manipulation of a material, as in dis-
ciplines such as textiles and ceramics.” Their ongoing study explores
the communication of mathematical concepts through craft, and it
is well anchored in the tradition of mathematics, itself—with a not-
to-be-overlooked nod to mathematician Keith Devlin, whose recent
book, The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci’s Arithmetic Revolution, provides
insight into the history of the liberal art of mathematics.
We began this issue of the journal with an article on the
dialectical nature of the design problem, drawing on the philoso-
phy of Hegel. There is perhaps some resonance now as we turn to
another discussion of design problems, focusing this time on the
theme of participation and legitimacy in the design process. In
“Imagination and the Political in Design Participation,” Daniel
Opazo, Matías Wolff, and María José Araya briefly discuss the
different definitions of participation in design literature and the
difference between process and outcome that is often part of those
definitions. (The authors point out the role of the “design methods
movement” in elevating concern for participation in design process.)
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Problemi di progettazione: Volume 33, Numero 4 Autumn 2017
They move on, Poi, to the issue of the politics of the artificial, con
special attention to the debate in the Science, Technology and Soci-
ety community about the relationship between social influence
and determinism in the development of products, referencing
authors such as Langdon Winner, Bernward Joerges, Bruno Latour,
Cornelius Castoriadis, and Jacques Rancière. To illustrate the nature
of imagination and the political involving participation, the article
presents an example drawn from urban planning in Chile. (They
refer to this as a “case study,” but it is not really a case study in the
precise meaning of the term—a misuse that is quite common in
design literature.) It is an interesting example that demonstrates the
emergence of political imagination in design.
The final article in this issue of the journal explores the
“emotional conditions in buying products for expressive consump-
tion.” In “Unemotional Design: An Alternative Approach to Sus-
tainable Design,” Clemens Thornquist discusses the way emotion
has often been treated in design literature and turns the idea of
emotion in an unexpected and interesting way, toward anxiety.
Based on his investigation, the author suggests “that anxiety has a
key function in buying design, especially socially visible products
related to an individual’s appearance. Anxiety also appears to be a
significant link between impulsive and compulsive buying, Dove
impulsive buying is found to increase anxiety in consumers, Quale
is linked to compulsive buying.” The implications for sustainable
design are intriguing.
It is a practice at Design Issues to conclude each issue with a
small number of reviews of books and exhibitions, in addition to
the section on Books Received, prepared with the support of Ryan
Hageman and Victor Margolin. In this issue, Barbara Jaffee reviews
Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, a book by Matthew Witkovsky and
Carol Eliel. In this issue, Barbara Jaffee reviews Moholy-Nagy: Future
Present, both an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago and a book
by Matthew Witkovsky and Carol Eliel. Peter Jones reviews “The
Ulm Model,” an exhibition at Raven Row, 56 Artillery Lane, London.
Teale Triggs reviews “You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and
Rebels 1966–1970,” an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Bruce Brown
Richard Buchanan
Carlo Di Salvo
Dennis Doordan
Kipum Lee
Vittorio Margolin
Ramia Mazé
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Problemi di progettazione: Volume 33, Numero 4 Autumn 2017
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