This article is about the theory of metadesigning. For the design company, see
MetaDesign
.
Metadesign
(or meta-design) is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating social, economic and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative
design
can take place. It consists of a series of practical design-related tools for achieving this.
As a methodology, its aim is to nurture emergence of the previously unthinkable as possibilities or prospects through the
collaboration
of designers within
interdisciplinarity
'metadesign' teams. Inspired by the way living systems work, this new field aims to help improve the way we feed, clothe, shelter, assemble, communicate and live together.
Team members working in a metadesign workshop organized by researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London (2008)
History
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Metadesign has been initially put forward as an
industrial design
approach to
complexity theory
and
information systems
by Dutch designer Andries Van Onck in 1963, while at
Ulm School of Design
(later at
Politecnico di Milano
and Rome and Florence
ISIA
). Since then, several different design, creative and research approaches have used the name "Metadesign", ranging from
Humberto Maturana
and
Francisco Varela
's biological approach, to
Gerhard Fischer
's and Elisa Giaccardi's
[1]
techno-social approach, and
Paul Virilio
's techno-policital approach.
Later on, a very active group was present at
Politecnico di Milano
, and several different universities and graduate programs began applying Metadesign in design teaching around the world generally based at Van Onck's approach, further developed at Politecnico di Milano. Nevertheless, there's a very active, but widely dispersed, group that base their activities at Maturana and Varela's approach.
More recently, some efforts have been made to systematize Metadesign as a structured creative process, such as (1) Fischer's and Giaccardi's and (2)
Caio Vassao
's academic works,
[2]
[3]
among several others, based on a much wider reference frame, ranging from
post-structuralist philosophy
,
Neil Postman
's media ecology,
Christopher Alexander
's pattern languages and
deep ecology
.
This variety of approaches is justified by the myriad interpretations that can be derived from the
etymological
structure of the term.
Re-designing design
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The Greek word '
meta
' originally meant 'beyond' or 'after' and is now sometimes used to imply a comprehensive, insightful self-awareness. Employed as a prefix, it explicitly denotes self-referentiality. Metadesign, therefore, alludes to a design practice that (re)designs itself (see Maturana and Varela's term
autopoiesis
). The idea of Metadesign acknowledges that future uses and problems cannot be completely anticipated at design time.
Aristotle
's influential theory of
design
defined it by saying that the 'cause' of design was its final state. This
teleological
perspective is similar to the orthodox idea of an economic payback at the point of sale, rather than successive stages when the product could be seen to achieve high levels of perceived value, throughout the whole design cycle. Some supporters of metadesign hope that it will extend the traditional notion of
system design
beyond the original development of a system by allowing users to become co-designers.
The importance of languaging
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]
By harnessing creative teamwork within a suitable
co-design
framework, some metadesigners have sought to catalyse changes at a behavioural level.
[4]
However, as
Albert Einstein
said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them". This points to a need for appropriate innovation at all levels, including the metaphorical language that serves to sustain a given paradigm.
[5]
In practical terms this adds considerable complexity to the task of managing actions and outcomes. What may be so neatly described as 'new knowledge', in practical terms, exists as an interpersonal and somatic web of
tacit knowledge
that needs to be interpreted and applied by many collaborators.
[6]
This tends to reduce the semantic certainty of roles, actions and descriptors within a given team,
[7]
making it necessary to rename particular shared experiences that seem inappropriately defined. In other instances it may be necessary to invent new words to describe perceived gaps in what can be discussed within a prevailing vernacular.
Humberto Maturana
's work on
distributed language
and the field of
biosemiotics
is germane to this task.
[
citation needed
]
Some researchers have used
bisociation
[8]
in order to create an auspicious synergy of benign synergies.
[9]
In aspiring to this outcome, metadesign teams will cultivate auspicious 'diversities-of-diversities'. It suggests that metadesign would offer a manifold ethical space. In this respect, related approaches include what
Arthur Koestler
(1967) called
holarchy
, or what
John Dewey
and
John Chris Jones
have called 'creative democracy'.
Metadesign conceptual tools
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]
Regarding a wide range of applications and contexts, Vassao has argued that Metadesign can be understood as a set of four "conceptual tools", utilizing
Gilles Deleuze
's understanding of the term "tool":
- Levels of abstraction (the ability to understand the structure and limits of abstractions, language and instrumental thinking);
- Diagrams and topology (the use of diagrammatic thinking and design, sustained by topological understanding);
- Procedural design (the creation of realities through the use of procedures, such as in game and role playing, as well as in procedural design, art and architecture);
- Emergence (the absence of absolute control, and the ability to take advantage of unintended and unforeseen results).
Vassao has argued that, in all different approaches to metadesign, the presence of these conceptual tools can be verified.
[10]
See also
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References
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]
- ^
Fischer, G., & Giaccardi, E. (2006) "Meta-Design: A Framework for the Future of End User Development." In H. Lieberman, F. Paterno, & V. Wulf, eds.,
End User Development ? Empowering people to flexibly employ advanced information and communication technology
, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 427-457.
http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/EUD-meta-design-online.pdf
- ^
Giaccardi, Elisa. (2003)
Principles of Metadesign: processes and levels of co-creation in the new design space.
2003. Doctorate thesis
[1]
- ^
Vassao, Caio Adorno.
Arquitetura livre: complexidade, metadesign e ciencia nomade.
("Free Architecture: complexity, metadesign and nomad science"). 2008. Doctorate thesis (in Portuguese).
[2]
- ^
Wood, J., (2007), "Win-Win-Win-Win-Win-Win: synergy tools for metadesigners", a chapter in "Designing for the 21st Century, Interdisciplinary Questions and Insights" book, (ed. Thomas Inns) Gower Publishing,
ISBN
978-0-566-08737-0
, December 2007.
- ^
Wood, J., (2013), "Metadesigning Paradigm Change: an ecomimetic, language-centred approach", a chapter in
Handbook of Design for Sustainability
, edited by Stuart Walker & Jacques Giroud (Berg), 2013.
- ^
Backwell, J., & Wood, J., (2011), Catalysing Network Consciousness in Leaderless Groups: A Metadesign Tool, in Consciousness Reframed 12, Art, Identity and the Technology of the Transformation, editors Roy Ascott & Luis Miguel Girao, University of Aveiro, Portugal, pp. 36-41.
- ^
Wood, J., & Backwell, J., (2009), "Mapping Network Consciousness: syncretizing difference to co-create a synergy-of-synergies", chapter in New Realities: Being Syncretic, Ixth Consciousness Reframed Conference Vienna, 2008. Series: Edition Angewandte Ascott, R.; Bast, G.; Fiel, W.; Jahrmann, M.; Schnell, R. (Eds.) 2009,
ISBN
978-3-211-78890-5
.
- ^
Koestler, 1964.
- ^
Fuller, 1975.
- ^
Vassao, Caio Adorno. Metadesign: ferramentas, estrategias e etica para a complexidade. ("Metadesign: tools, strategies and ethics towards complexity.") Blucher, Sao Paulo, 2010. (in Portuguese)
[3]
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