Art: Non-utilitarian activity
Design: Utilitarian activity
And what is Critical Design? Isn`t it somehow art through design?
Critical Design is defined by using technologies as a kind of commentary on “real human needs”. Challenging people by designing something with something provocative and evoke emotions and reactions which can be the basis for a really useful design.
I showed Tamir, my test participant in this picture, a prototype which allows him to make sense out of his data. I encouraged him to do so and in an exploratory interview we came up with the scenario that his mother might use this application. She might access it from her tablet and give emotion “tags (soundcircles)” to his digital activities.
This scenario caused a very heavy reaction. Based on this reaction I realized that a real human need in the context of my project is to find a way how we can understand ourselves as well as the data we produce every day a bit better.
A product which reconnects us to the things we do every day and which gives us a feeling for cause and effect in a very complex world.
The prototypes were still at an early stage
when I did this interview
[References]
Dunne, A.; Fionna R. (2001). Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. Basel-Boston-Berlin: Birkhäuser.
Brandes,U., Erlhoff,M., Schemmann,N., (2009). Designtheorie und Designforschung. Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau Verlag.
[Links]
http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2013/united-micro-kingdoms-um