The influence Critical
Design can have on Affirmative Design and its actual validity as a game changer
is, in my opinion tenuous, at best. With Affirmative Design propped up by both
the capitalist and consumerist worlds it would seem improbable that Critical
Design could harness enough momentum to topple such a well-established and well
entrenched stronghold in the market place.
Dunne & Raby state
that one of the biggest misconceptions of Critical Design is “that it is only
commentary and cannot change anything” (2013). Critical Design is closer to the
everyday than art, and that is where its power to disturb current societal
trends comes from. If Critical Design were too weird, it would become art, and
yet if it is too normal, it would become part of normal life, assumed into
society, and become part of normality (Dunne & Raby, 2013).
The essay will argue
that Critical Design has little capacity to instigate massive change. Critical
Design is unable to lead with consumable examples, as debates relating to
critical design often rarely leave the elitist and relatively rarefied art
galleries and institutions they are displayed in (Yauner, 2009). Critical
Design at its best only challenges the status quo with provocative questions
and ideas, due to the nature and scale of its work (Dunne & Raby, 2013).
I will assert that for
change to really happen, it has to be generated through popularity or through
corporate power - affirmative processes that effectively change the status quo,
not challenge it. This essay asserts that big corporations truly hold this sort
of power, as “One incremental change for them (the Home Depots and Nikes of
this world) becomes massive change for the entire industry” (Mau, pp.26, 2004).
Big businesses; such as Home Depot, have the ability to control the market and
impose new policies because of their corporate bulk (Mau, pp.26, 2004). This
essay contends that Critical Design should not be acknowledged or credited with
anything other than complex strategies for suggestion, as the capacity for change
comes from popularity, and critical design is due to its nature an unpopular
sector of design (Barab, 2004).
Starting with Klaassen &
Neicu’s paper CTRL-Alt-Design, this
essay will look at the concept of open design; where product design is
outsourced to the consumers themselves. The designers have to relinquish
control, allowing for a maker society where rather than selling products, the designers
create the means to make the products. “They must become metadesigners”
(Klaasen & Neicu, 2011). According to Coughlan, design itself has the power to change the world, although
some people would argue that design has also been instrumental in endangering
the planet, reminding us to exercise a degree of caution (2010). The expansion
of the maker society will usher in a new age, where design becomes a true force
for positive change, (Klaasen & Neicu, 2011) and that design “may have its
greatest impact when it is taken out of the hands of designers and put into the
hands of everyone” (Brown, 2009).
Nominating Massive
Change as the intersecting theme, this essay will look at the global impact
created by an evolving method of design thinking, underpinned by some of the
afore-mentioned sources. Design theory is given an increasingly different role
in a changing capitalist world with respect to consumers and producers, as the
roles of the two are beginning to change significantly (Klaasen & Neicu,
2011). The essay will provide a valid critique of Critical Design in a world
dictated by consumers and powerful corporations, while also looking at the
flipside of critical design and what roles it proclaims itself to fill. Understanding
why and how massive change occurs, and what elements have influenced the world
of design to instigate said massive change, is the key to realising the true
potential or non-potential of critical design as a game changer.
Bibliography
Barab, S. A., Thomas, M.
K., Dodge, T., Squire, K., Newell, M. (2004). Critical Design Ethnography:
Designing for Change. Anthropology &
Education Quarterly, 35(2), 254-268. doi: 10.1525/aeq.2004.35.2.254
Brown, T. (2009, July).
Tim Brown Urges Designers To Think Big [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_urges_designers_to_think_big.html
Coughlan, P. (2010). How
Might Design Catalyse Massive (Positive) Change? The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, (37), 34-36. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/497142247?accountid=14782
Klaassen, R., & Neicu,
M. (2011). CTRL–Alt–Design. In
Proceedings of the Design History Society Annual Conference Design Activism and
Social Change.
Linn, R. & Hayman,
J. (n.d.). Can Businesses Actually Make The World Better While Making Money?. Co.Exist. Retrieved from
http://www.fastcoexist.com/
Mau, B. & Institute
without Boundaries. (2004). Massive
Change. London, U.K.: Phaidon Press.
Melles, G. & Feast,
L. (2013). Design Thinking and Critical
Approaches: The Pragmatist Compromise.
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