Editorial Publications and Material Agency: Towards an analytical framework
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46516/inmaterial.v11.300Keywords:
material agency, book-object, sensory design, object-subject relationship, object-oriented ontology, printed publicationAbstract
When we approach a book display and one catches our attention, who holds the agency—us or the book?
This research is based on an exploratory analysis of the relationships that designers establish with editorial publications, treated as book-objects. The hypothesis proposes that this type of publication possesses an agency that affects the user's most personal sphere. The initial research began with a literature review, after which a socio-material observation model of levels of agency was defined. The model was validated by testing the publications in four workshops that combined participatory action with the observation of agency relationships.
Person-object relationships are defined as a socio-material assemblage aligned with the theory of material engagement, in order to reconsider the agency of final objects as a shared characteristic, in light of new materialism. The results of the workshops conducted (35 participants) suggest that the emotional involvement and the relationship between users and objects is greater when the participant has a professional or academic connection to the field of design.
Throughout the workshops, the material agency model proved insufficient to capture the necessary dimensions to describe a distributed agency of design. Thus, the main contributions of the research are: (1) the results regarding the non-human perspective of the object-subject relationship, and (2) the development of a dialogue toward a theoretical-practical model that integrates the materiality of design with the philosophy of technology and agential semiotics.
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