DESIGNER'S METIS:
AN INVERSE ETHICS FOR THE VIRTUOUS CUNNING

The work of designer today is obviously unethical. The conditions of the market and its determining power on designer’s conduct lead the way to an ultimate disaster in many ways. Hyper-consumption results in psychological, social, economical and ecological disequilibriums and discontents. The role of designer in these cannot be underestimated.

Reviewing the literature on ethical concerns about design, there can be seen two distinct discourses, which are in a serious conflict. When the designer is considered as the manipulator of fashion, popular culture and consumption economy, i.e. as a conscript of capitalism, s/he is assumed to have the power of virtuosity on signs, and that of persuasion with his/her rhetorical skills. However, when it comes to the questions of ethics, this discourse attributing power to the designer ceases to exist, and leaves its place to the discourse of the meek. The designer, according to the latter, has nothing to do against the tendencies, mostly occuring as compulsions, of the market, and must adjust his/her compatibility with the flow of capital. This discoursive shift is utmost critical; however it hardly proves the designer innocent. Some other works on design ethics mostly come up with humanistic, and sometimes spiritual suggestions, ignoring the political-economical aspect determining the current position of design.

The aim of the paper proposed is to trace the above mentioned discoursive shift in design literature, and to propose a novel way of struggling with this conflicting ethical positioning. The concept ‘metis’, borrowed from the literature of everyday life studies, namely, from Michel de Certeau’s book The Practice of Everyday Life, would provide us with an expansion in understanding the current conditions in the relationship between the designer and its big boss, i.e. capitalism; and to reconstruct them into a more ethical one according to a set of principles which correspond to the real conditions of life on earth, apart from the wild rules of capitalism. ‘Metis’, roughly means ‘cunning intelligence’; and corresponds to everyday practices including silent tactical maneuvers of an individual or a group against the general strategies of the ruling mechanism. The paper asks the question whether an action of this kind is possible for the designer and states the necessary premise for such a choice, i.e. a critical political-economical perspective towards the positioning of the task of design in contemporary society.