Ethics UTGÅR!
Background
Our approach to the role of ethic has developed out of our experiences as a practicing designer, an
anthropologist and educators respectively. These experiences have indicated to us that to turn ethics into a series
of moral guidelines can become a series of stifling boundaries. In contrast, it may be more fruitful for designers to
look at ethics as a arena where questions can be asked, debates highlighted and for ideas to be tested.
Therefore, our aim is to facilitate a workshop in order to investigate and question issues that are relevant to
designers, and to provide them with the opportunity to draw on the experiences of their colleagues and use us as
facilitators to 'mirror back' questions, issues and ideas.
It is envisaged that this form of workshop will provide a useful series of experiences, as material for reflection
and reflexive debate. As such you are asked to actively draw on your own practice and to participate in
reflexive action.
Barth & Raein
Brief
From Holding Patterns to Writing Patterns
Consider three approaches to design that look at Evolution, Revolution and Paradigm Shift.
Put simply:
- evolutionary design develops out of a slow and gradual developmental approach to design. Where development
evolves out of an approach that is reflective and biased towards a point of design perspective. The designer (as
opposed to the design) and design practice are focused locally.
- revolutionary design seems to be include a position of critique and coercion. By this it is implied that a use of
force or pressure is utilized at the service of change. This critical approach is in some sense hermetically sealed,
in order to protect the critical voice from attack.
- paradigm shifts are projective and developmental of insights. These positions are speculative but based upon
eccentric practices. (By eccentric we refer to the term in its geometric roots and imply the off centeredness of a
position.) Paradigm shits are often the result of unpredicted outcomes.
Our aim is to introduce you to ethics as a tool for unpacking design, in order to understand design practices in a
fast changing social, technological etc. landscape. Moreover, we propose that designers are not only reacting to
these social impulses but can often lead (and potentially) develop changes.
Ethics E Project: Ethics
Year [MA 1 | 2]: 1
Week [s]: 4 Day: 24th to 28th January.
Hand-Out / Kick-off: Post: –
Interim Crit: Continuous
Presentation:
Delivery:
Academic year 2010/11
Ethics is an initiative that allows us to sustain a continuity of operating and being in the world. It allows you to
assert yourself (through your actions – being design actions – or stance etc.) and are not dependendent upon
morals, and rise above the norms of behavior.
Ethics is in this sense paradoxal: 1) on the one hand it contains an element of pattern-breaking [breaking with
established norms and consensus, questionning the brief]; 2) on the other hand it returns to the “brief” [in some
cases reflecting the norm more authentically, or legitimately, without the need to apply force].
This is why we attach the thematic of ethics to the topic of change: 1) ethics is a core issue in the change
management [whether the change is evolutionary, revolutionary, or paradigmatic]; 2) ethics itself is a harbinger og
change, when design is used as a way of questionning the ends [rather than creating more means].
In some settings ethics is about the maintenance of continuity, in others it is about the emancipation within a
community such as a design bureau, their clients, the wider society and even planet earth (in reference to the
contemporary global scene, reading Edgar Morin’s 7 Complex Lessons for the Education of the Future
[UNESCO] is recommended).
Workshop
We aim to explore with you, the three terms stated above and ask if it possible to use written language as a tool
for developing design practice. This can be seen as a development of the Herbert Read/Christopher Frayling of
research into through, for art and design. We will propose the idea of Writing: through and for art and design and
specifically deal with writing through (as pertinently related to the keeping of project diaries).
“… through art and design accounts for research where art or design is the vehicle of the research, and a means
of communicating the results.”
Please consider the following:
- evolutionary writing which is reflective
- revolutionary critical and dialectical
- paradigmatic writing is generative and dynamic
Structure
We will spend some our time opening questions up for you and asking you to produce ideas in writing and spell
out themes around ethics and design. The rest of the time we ill help you focus in create focused ideas around
your proposed projects. We will give some attention to formats (diaries, cards, semiotic square, and other tactical
approaches to articulate writing in a documentary whole/collection).
Background – taking awareness of the ethical dimension in design
Arbeidsform:
Workshop at KHIO/Oslo
Course leaders will be:
Maziar Raein and Theo Barth
Krav til forkunnskaper:
This is an exchange possibility in cooporation with MA-programme at KHIO
Kurset starter 24.01.2011 / Uke 04, og varer til 28.01.2011 / Uke 04
Sted: KHIO/Oslo
Tilbyder: MA design
Målgruppe: MA Design
Årstrinn: Master 1
Antall plasser: 6
Faglig stab: