Unpacking Design Practices

The Notion of Thing in the Making of Artifacts

Bibliographic Data

ID5337437
AuthorsCristiano Storni (0000-0003-1601-0900, Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume37
Issue1
Pages88-123
Publication date2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243910392795
OpenAlexW2144078920
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited26

The aim of this work is to provide a way to investigate design practices that allows a focus on the movements and the transformations that lie behind designed products, which usually lose contact with their own original conditions of design and production. Through a detailed analysis of the design of a new artifact (a piece of jewelry) and in contrast with reductionist accounts of design practices, the notion of thing is introduced in a twofold meaning: a gathering of different elements and a problematic issue in process of definition. In investigating the relationship between these two folds lying behind the making of a new artifact, two underlying logics and tendencies are individualized and discussed in detail. These are objectifying and thinging tendencies. A discussion of how the proposed framework contribute to design studies and practices is offered in the conclusion

Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Linguistics · Lying · Management science · Reductionism · Sociology · Unpacking · Computer Science · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Design Education and Practice · Engineering · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence