SEEKING THE MINOTAUR:
THE LABYRINTHINE PATH OF DESIGN PRACTICE

In embracing design as a labyrinthine phenomena, a process or experience that is convoluted, meandering, disorientating and challenging, we (like Theseus) accept the challenges that lay before us. Within a design context, these challenges may take many forms and there maybe assailants along the way. In the practice of design it is unlikely that we shall ever encounter anything or anyone as daunting as the minotaur, but then again perhaps we do; and, just as Theseus sought out the great aggressor, the challenger, in design research, design education and design practice we too seek to slay the beast of mythology.

This paper will discuss the anfractuous path of design in its many contexts, and how this convoluted path, full of twists and turns, enables our design realisations and our understanding of ourselves, and our practices as designers. Explored within the discussion will be the possibility of whether this path can be both linear and not. Two forms of labyrinth will be referenced - the multi-linear labyrinth, also known as the maze, which housed the treacherous minotaur; and the convoluted linear path of the labyrinth, known for its use in mediation and ancient Crete and also as the trace of Ariadne’s golden thread. Is it possible for the disorder of our practice to embrace both? Can it be both our cage and our saviour? 

In attempting to answer these questions, an argument will be presented that design, like other creative practices, relies on this experience of the unknown and our emersion into this space of uncertainty. This uncertainty is the space of possibility, and like the maze and the labyrinth it is not necessary to always know where the path leads. Perceptions that design is about precision and logic are limited. Design is a practice of that embraces the unknown; through conjecture, trial, poetry and chance we are able to find our way. Preferably our path through the labyrinth results in the victory of survival and further adventure (though notably not always happy) as was the experience of Theseus, and does not leave us lost or slain like those who went before him. To transition from the game like walls of the maze to the convolutions of the labyrinth is to embrace the possibility of the labyrinthine as a way of being and engaging. More than a physical structure, it is an approach to practice, and one that is with us always.