Before Design, More-than-Design

Elucidating “Ontological Design”

Bibliographic Data

ID12922704
AuthorsCameron Tonkinwise (0000-0002-9006-7772, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume14
Issue3
Pages341-359
Publication date2022-08-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDesign and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1754-7075 • E-ISSN: 1754-7083
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17547075.2022.2105529
OpenAlexW4292731051
LanguageEN
References cited19

In their new book, Graeber and Wengrow (2021) document the myriad societies and the amount of experimentation and change in social organization that is evident in the archaeological record. Although this controversial macrohistory does not directly speak to non-architectural design studies, I argue that the book should be read by designers, because it poses several challenges to fundamental assumptions about designing: the Eurocentrism of much design theory and education; the location of design solely in late capitalist societies; the distinction of craft from design as a pre-modern non-deliberative material practice; and the focus on user-as-owner-centered design. Instead, Graeber and Wengrow suggest that designers have been – and so can and should be – sources of more ambitious social experimentation

Architectural engineering · Craft · Design education · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Eurocentrism · Focus (optics · Sociology · Visual arts · Architecture and Computational Design · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Design Education and Practice · Engineering · History · Philosophy

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