Metadesign

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This article is about the theory of metadesigning. For the design company, see MetaDesign.

Metadesign (or meta-design) is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating social, economic and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative design can take place. It consists of a series of practical design-related tools for achieving this.

As a methodology, its aim is to nurture emergence of the previously unthinkable as possibilities or prospects through the collaboration of designers within interdisciplinarity 'metadesign' teams. Inspired by the way living systems work, this new field aims to help improve the way we feed, clothe, shelter, assemble, communicate and live together.

Team members working in a metadesign workshop organized by researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London (2008)

History

Metadesign has been initially put forward as an

ISIA). Since then, several different design, creative and research approaches have used the name "Metadesign", ranging from Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela's biological approach, to Gerhard Fischer's and Elisa Giaccardi's [1] techno-social approach, and Paul Virilio
's techno-policital approach.

Later on, a very active group was present at

Politecnico di Milano
, and several different universities and graduate programs began applying Metadesign in design teaching around the world generally based at Van Onck's approach, further developed at Politecnico di Milano. Nevertheless, there's a very active, but widely dispersed, group that base their activities at Maturana and Varela's approach.

More recently, some efforts have been made to systematize Metadesign as a structured creative process, such as (1) Fischer's and Giaccardi's and (2) Caio Vassão's academic works,[2][3] among several others, based on a much wider reference frame, ranging from post-structuralist philosophy, Neil Postman's media ecology, Christopher Alexander's pattern languages and deep ecology.

This variety of approaches is justified by the myriad interpretations that can be derived from the

etymological
structure of the term.

Re-designing design

The Greek word '

system design
beyond the original development of a system by allowing users to become co-designers.

The importance of languaging

By harnessing creative teamwork within a suitable

holarchy, or what John Dewey and John Chris Jones
have called 'creative democracy'.

Metadesign conceptual tools

Regarding a wide range of applications and contexts, Vassão has argued that Metadesign can be understood as a set of four "conceptual tools", utilizing Gilles Deleuze's understanding of the term "tool":

  1. Levels of abstraction (the ability to understand the structure and limits of abstractions, language and instrumental thinking);
  2. Diagrams and topology (the use of diagrammatic thinking and design, sustained by topological understanding);
  3. Procedural design (the creation of realities through the use of procedures, such as in game and role playing, as well as in procedural design, art and architecture);
  4. Emergence (the absence of absolute control, and the ability to take advantage of unintended and unforeseen results).

Vassão has argued that, in all different approaches to metadesign, the presence of these conceptual tools can be verified.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Fischer, G., & Giaccardi, E. (2006) "Meta-Design: A Framework for the Future of End User Development." In H. Lieberman, F. Paternò, & V. Wulf, eds., End User Development — Empowering people to flexibly employ advanced information and communication technology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 427-457. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/EUD-meta-design-online.pdf
  2. ^ Giaccardi, Elisa. (2003) Principles of Metadesign: processes and levels of co-creation in the new design space. 2003. Doctorate thesis [1]
  3. ^ Vassão, Caio Adorno. Arquitetura livre: complexidade, metadesign e ciência nômade. ("Free Architecture: complexity, metadesign and nomad science"). 2008. Doctorate thesis (in Portuguese). [2]
  4. ISBN 978-0-566-08737-0
    , December 2007.
  5. ^ Wood, J., (2013), "Metadesigning Paradigm Change: an ecomimetic, language-centred approach", a chapter in Handbook of Design for Sustainability, edited by Stuart Walker & Jacques Giroud (Berg), 2013.
  6. ^ Backwell, J., & Wood, J., (2011), Catalysing Network Consciousness in Leaderless Groups: A Metadesign Tool, in Consciousness Reframed 12, Art, Identity and the Technology of the Transformation, editors Roy Ascott & Luis Miguel Girão, University of Aveiro, Portugal, pp. 36-41.
  7. ISBN 978-3-211-78890-5
    .
  8. ^ Koestler, 1964.
  9. ^ Fuller, 1975.
  10. ^ Vassão, Caio Adorno. Metadesign: ferramentas, estratégias e ética para a complexidade. ("Metadesign: tools, strategies and ethics towards complexity.") Blucher, São Paulo, 2010. (in Portuguese) [3]

External links

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