introduzione - Ricerca sull'intelligenza artificiale specializzata al MIT

introduzione

Sometimes we look to find community in similarity. That is of-
ten the case in academia. Disciplines tend to cohere and define
themselves by a set of subjects and methods. But it is the diversity
of subjects and methods in this issue that reveals the community of
contemporary design scholarship: a community that is varied in
how it conducts research and what draws its attention.

Kaja Tooming Buchanan’s article, “Issue Mapping Strategy:
Process of Discovery, Places of Invention and Design Process
Fallacies,” offers a compelling approach to design inquiry. A dis-
tinguishing characteristic of her article is that rather than focusing
on the technical aspects of a method, she shifts our attention to a
strategy for discovery that foregrounds interconnectedness. In
“New Design Knowledge and the Fifth Order of Design,” Marzia
Mortati engages the conditions of artificial intelligence and data to
propose a framework for design in which learning and learning
systems are vital. Drawing together an array of design theorists,
including Richard Buchanan, Neri Oxman, Elisa Giaccardi, E
Johan Redström, she makes the case for a fifth order of design
that centers on relationships. The “Significance of Aristotle’s
Four Causes in Design Research” by Boris Hennig and Matthias
Rauterberg delves into the influence of Aristotelian metaphysics on
designerly knowledge. Through a careful reading of philosophy,
Hennig and Rauterberg argue that Aristotelian metaphysics does
not conflict with attempts to pursue scientific knowledge in and
through design—quite the opposite, Infatti. The Covid-19 Online
Visualization Collection (COVIC) is a collection of more than 3,000
articles, each with a visual element, such as a graph or diagram,
related to the pandemic. In “COVIC: Collecting Visualizations of
COVID-19 to Outline a Space of Possibilities,” Paul Kahn, Hugh
Dubberly, and Dario Rodighiero describe the making of the col-
lection and suggest such collections as a novel mode of design
research. In “Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince’s Semi-
otic World,” Aggie Toppins brings Roland Barthes, Stuart Hall, E
W. E. B. Du Bois to her discussion of the branding of the artist for-
merly known as Prince. Through her interpretation, Toppins helps
us appreciate how Prince’s design artifacts combine with his lyrics,
music, and performances to engage and express identity, resisting
normativity through purposeful and creative illegibility.

https://doi.org/10.1162/desi_e_00693

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Across these articles, we encounter philosophy and popular
culture, algorithms and media, and theory and action. In their
investigations, the authors employ semiotics, reflective practice,
and rhetoric, among other approaches to produce interpretations
and argument about the roles, Senso, and significance of design.
A distinguishing characteristic of contemporary design scholarship
is that all of these belong; all of these are relevant subjects and
metodi. Such intellectual pluralism is at the heart of Design Issues.
Infatti, it is the interplay between them that makes contemporary
design scholarship so exciting and robust. As design continues to
expand in practice and influence, the study of design will expand.
We can see this in the articles by Mortati and by Kahn, Dubberly,
and Rodighiero that grapple with the emergent and pressing
conditions of technology and a global crisis. Allo stesso tempo, some
topics and themes are persistent. And this is evident in the articles
by Tooming Buchanan, Hennig and Rauterberg, and Toppins that
contend with fundamental issues of discovery, scientific knowledge,
and identity. While many fields strive toward ever greater special-
ization, the study and practice of design continues to grow in
multiple directions. Across these differences of subjects and meth-
ods is a shared commitment to design as a significant endeavor;
that shared commitment is what holds our community together.