Undesign

Critical Practices at the Intersection of Art and Design

Gretchen Coombs, Andrew McNamara, Gavin Sade, Gretchen Coombs, Andrew McNamara, Gavin Sade

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781138695702
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315526355
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

Undesign brings together leading artists, designers and theorists working at the intersection of art and design. The text focuses on design practices, and conceptual approaches, which challenge the traditional notion that design should emphasise its utility over aesthetic or other non-functional considerations. This publication brings to light emerging practices that consider the social, political and aesthetic potential of "undesigning" our complex designed world. In documenting these new developments, the book highlights the overlaps with science, engineering, biotechnology and hacktivism, which operate at the intersection of art and design.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 What is critical design?
• 2 Notes on more-than-human architecture
• 3 The un-designability of the virtual: design from problem-solving to problem-finding
• 4 Critical operationality: Energy and Co-Designing Communities (ECDC) by the Interaction Research Studio (IRS), Goldsmiths, London (2010–2014)
• 5 A statement for attending to diverse economies through design research
• 6 ‘I prefer not to’: anti-progressive designing
• 7 Speculative design as research method: from answers to questions and “staying with the trouble”
• 8 Inhabiting practices: operating between art, design, science and technology
• 9 A finger pointing at the moon: absence, emptiness and Ma in design
• 10 Hacking the semiosphere: the Ad Hoc Atlas: a manifesto as manifestation of undesign, V5.3: an exercise in reflexive (and recursive) design practice about design by design
• 11 (Un)design, commerce and artistic autonomy: site-specific art in China
• 12 Bridging counter-culture grassroots initiatives with design
• 13 Undesigning borders: urban spaces of borders and counter-practices of looking
• 14 Natural disasters, undesign and the absent interior
• 15 “Imagination wove this flesh garment”: fashion, critique and capitalism
• Index