Saturday, April 5, 2008. 10:00 – 11:20
Session 3
«Design Research in Context:
Perspectives for the 21st Century»
Introduction: Martin Wiedmer
Ruedi Baur — Intégral Ruedi Baur et Associés, Paris and Design2Context, Zurich University of the Arts — «Design to Context: New Perspectives for Design Research and Design Practice»
Jan Torpus — Institute for Research in Art and Design IDK, Academy of Art and Design, UAS Northwestern Switzerland in Basel — «Design Fiction: Exploring Mixed Realities»
Mixed realities require a new way of simultaneously perceiving the «real», «the mediated» and the «virtual». The questions are how to «synchronize» these different realities in terms of aesthetics, narration and human-computer interaction and how to establish, advertise and sell the future experience.
This symposium contribution is based on the presentation of two research projects in the realm of augmented reality realised at the Institute for Research in Art and Design, Academy of Art and Design, UAS Northwestern Switzerland (HGK FHNW).
Taking daily life as a starting point «living-room2» reflects upon a possible future domestic culture of escapism and consumerism. It is a hybrid space between a dynamic environment, an immersive movie and «interactive wallpaper». Navigation in GUIs is replaced with direct human behaviour and gestures, by manipulation of the physical and virtual environment.
«lifeClipper2» is an outdoor augmented reality project. We examine questions like: How and in what form in matters of engineering, design and media can virtual content be transferred to reality and reality altered to become cinematographic? What kind of interaction is possible in a walkable, geographically embedded interface, where the user is the «cursor» in an often unpredictable entourage? How can animated images and complex sequences of events be staged in space and time?
11:30 – 13:15
Alain Findeli — École de Design Industriel, Montréal and Université de Nîmes — «The Eclipse of the Object: Consequences for Design Research»
The title of the presentation refers to a keynote conference delivered at the Bremen 6th European Academy of Design Conference (2005), in which the results of a research project have been exposed in the form of a model titled «The eclipse of the product in design theory».
The key features of the model will be recalled in the introduction of the presentation, followed by its original interpretation in terms of the history and evolution of design theories.
This model has since been used as a theoretical backdrop in various situations (research field work, design projects, design education, etc.) and has proven quite fruitful as a general theoretical, conceptual, and heuristic model. As a consequence, there is a good reason to grant it a more structuralist/systemic character and to consider it as a general theory of design, more precisely as a pragmatist theory of the project (pragmatique du projet)
The model shows a strong tendency in design theories to shift the focus from the object to the subject, from the products to the actors of a project. Highly important epistemological, methodological, anthropological, and – hopefully – practical consequences derive from such a shift. The main purpose of the presentation is to discuss these consequences, primarily for design research.
Panel Discussion. Moderator: Michael Erlhoff — Member of BIRD — Köln International School of Design
Farewell: Martin Wiedmer