Understanding Design as a messy socio-technical Actor-Network.

Abstract

Drawing on key analytical principles of Actor-Network Theory and Science and Technology Studies, the present paper introduces a material semiotic study on the agency of non-human entities in the performative construction of new emerging realities, materialized in the creative conception, representation and circulation of objects understood simply as’ design’. Hence, its focus will be in reflecting on the ability of material objects –models, sketches, renderings, etc.– to actively determine the emergence of new creative realities (designs) that takes place daily in our classrooms, workshops and studios. Its intention is to contribute to the growing academic work that seeks out to equip design teachers and researchers for the construction of an alternative design theory capable of understanding design as a more than human endeavor.

Three arguments are drawn: First, that the creative process of design is characteristically messy, contingent and non-linear, rather than the orderly, controllable and linear account that key design textbooks have largely suggested. Second, that design should be understood as a process that necessarily relies on a balance between the presence of certain material entities and the simultaneous absence of others; and lastly, that much of the mess that characterizes the creative process of design is result of the intricate difficulties that arise in the process of constant negotiations between ‘human’ and ‘non-human’ actors.