DESIGN AS A NEGOTIATOR BETWEEN SELF AND ITS WORLD – TOWARDS A REASONABLE STATE OF DISORDER

Still today, as for other fields of meta inquiry, essential problems of modern design discourse, especially of design theory and philosophy are rooted through the ancient duality of “observing - manipulating subject” and “observed - manipulated object”: ontological question of “what design is”; epistemological question of “how design does”; and ethical question of “what design should do” (see Alvesson and Sküldberg, 2000). The objective of this paper is to try to present a conceptual model for understanding the mutual existence of “disclosing - designing subject” and the “disclosed - designed object” in order to gain an insight for obtaining and sustaining a somehow “objectively reasonable” state of disorder or disaster within the universal set of life: that is the whole of the world; besides and apart from local and partial orders and welfare within its subsets (see Hayek, 1967).

Methodologically the paper is based on rational reflection of philosophy where insights on design are aimed that cannot be attained by any empirical approach (see Galle, 2002). Phenomenal examples from daily human experience are used to support the argument. Theoretically the argument is developed mainly within the conceptual framework of contemporary systems thinking; ecology and biology (see Capra, 1996).

Firstly, design is introduced as a fundamental attribute of any human whole or system that is centralized and represented by immaterial “self consciousness” and surrounded by its material “world” (see Mitcham, 2001). An essential and necessary “formal unfit” between the self and its world is recognized for which design is a mediator as the basic capacity of the whole. This unfit is stressed as inharmoniousness or incompatibility on the widespread web of boundaries between the designing self and its world.

Secondly, a linear, local and sequential “world” rendered by Euclidean geometry of classic physics and science, and a non-linear, non-local and synchronous “self” rendered by fractal geometry of contemporary complex systems science and quantum physics are claimed to be the basic mutual entities within the designing whole (see Martinez, 2001). Here, design is understood as a fundamental position of the whole as a negotiator through the widespread web of boundaries between non-linear, non-local and synchronous patterns of the conscious self, and linear, local and sequential organizations of its world. Design as a negotiator search for “contextual fitness”, harmony and compatibility between the self and its world which is projected as an instantaneous and temporary order within the fuzzy boundaries of the context; while simultaneously it may be faced as a disorder or a thread outside the context, within a wider whole (see Van de Vijver et al, 2005).

Finally, within the presented framework, relational possibilities of subjectivity and objectivity are discussed towards idealization and realization of a reasonable state of disaster within the universal world of partial selves.

References
Alvesson, M., Sküldberg, K., 2000. Reflexive Methodology, New Vistas for Qualitative Research, Sage: London.
Capra, F., 1996. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems, Anchor Boks: New York.
Galle, P., 2002. Philosophy of Design: an Editorial Introduction, in Design Studies 23, p 211-218, Elsevier Science Ltd.
Hayek, F. A., 1967. The Results of Human Action but not of Human Design, in Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, ed. F. A. Hayek, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Martinez, M. E., 2001. The Process of Knowing: A Biocognitive Epistemology, in the Journal of Mind and Behavior, Autumn, vol:22 no:4.
Mitcham, C., 2001. Dasein versus Design: the Problematics of Turning Making into Thinking, in International Journal of Technology and Design Education II, 27 – 36.
Van de Vijver, G., et al., 2005. Philosophy of Biology: Outline of a Transcendental Project, in Acta Biotheorica, 53 : 57 – 75.