FLOW AND OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE OF THE AMATEUR DESIGNER, MAKER AND DIY ENTHUSIAST

Design theory is increasingly concerned with the quality of the everyday. Using models developed in anthropology and sociology, branches of design theory are progressively turning to ethnography as a fundamental research tool. Sociologists and cultural historians are reciprocating with a re-evaluation of material culture as central component of social structures and cultural dynamics. Whilst this turn has enriched academic studies of everyday life, the pragmatic concerns of global corporations have also generated a new, commercially oriented interest in qualitative and depth surveys of consumer behaviour.

However, in spite of this powerful wave of interest in the everyday, the institutions that defend the interest of professional design activity continue to question the legitimacy of home-based amateur design and craft activities. In the last half of the twentieth century, the production of designed artefacts in the home – by those without or conventional design training or professional experience – has mushroomed. However, that illegitimate extra-curricular culture (in other words that learned out side the control of institutions specifically mandated to teach and govern its distribution) is rarely attributed social value by design professionals.

The conventional explanations for this home activity tend to privilege theories of conspicuous consumption, or identity formation and display. However, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work on flow points to alternative motivations, revealing surprising parallels between the incentive for home DIY activity, and the drives that sustain professional designers and makers.

Csikszentmihalyi argues that the pursuit of flow, or optimal experience (between boredom and anxiety), is borne of the desire for negentropy (the struggle to resist psychic entropy). This pursuit of flow drives not only professional artists, musicians and designers, but also home hobbyists and DIYers.

This research uses techniques derived from ethnography to investigate amateur home design and craft activity, and to ascertain the extent to which Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas can be used as an explanation for what is effectively unpaid labour within the context of home leisure – and the role of amateur design and craft activity as a component of sustainable mental health.

As well as exploring these issues in relation to academic critiques of design activity, this research also provides valuable insights for commercial companies seeking to enrich their product development strategies in the rapidly growing field of home leisure products.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper & Row Publishers Inc. 1990)