Design and Anthropology

by Jared Donovan, Wendy Gunn, Tim Ingold

Overview

Design and Anthropology challenges conventional thinking regarding the nature of design and creativity, in a way that acknowledges the improvisatory skills and perceptual acuity of people. Combining theoretical investigations and documentation of practice based experiments, it addresses methodological questions concerning the re-conceptualisation of the relation between design and use from both theoretical and practice-based positions.

Concerned with what it means to draw 'users' into processes of designing and producing this book emphasises the creativity of design and the emergence of objects in social situations and collaborative endeavours.

Organised around the themes of perception and the user-producer, skilled practices of designing and using, and the relation between people and things, the book contains the latest work of researchers from academia and industry, to enhance our understanding of ethnographic practice and develop a research agenda for the emergent field of design anthropology.

Drawing together work from anthropologists, philosophers, designers, engineers, scholars of innovation and theatre practitioners, Design and Anthropology will appeal to anthropologists and to those working in the fields of design and innovation, and the philosophy of technology and engineering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409471745
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	01/28/2013
Series:	Anthropological Studies of Creativity and Perception
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Wendy Gunn is Associate Professor of Design Anthropology at the University of Southern Denmark.

Jared Donovan is Lecturer in Interaction Design at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Wendy Gunn, Jared Donovan, Tim Ingold, Kyle Kilbourn, Dennis Day, Griet Scheldeman, Max Rolfstam, Jacob Buur, Johan Redström, Lesley McFadyen, Henry Larsen, Claus Have, Benedicte Brøgger, Peter-Paul Verbeek, Mette Kjærsgaard, Ton Otto, Nynke Tromp, Paul Hekkert, Jamie Wallace, Steven Dorrestijn, Pelle Ehn.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface; Design anthropology: an introduction, Wendy Gunn and Jared Donovan; Part I Using and Producing: Introduction: the perception of the user-producer, Tim Ingold; The patient as skilled practitioner, Kyle Kilbourn; Hearing poorly with skill, Dennis Day; Gliding effortlessly through life? Surfaces and friction, Griet Scheldeman; An institutional view of user improvisation and design, Max Rolfstam and Jacob Buur. Part II Designing and Using: Introduction: defining moments, Johan Redström; The time it takes to make: design and use in architecture and archaeology, Lesley McFadyen; Moving from objects to possibilities, Jared Donovan and Wendy Gunn; Emergence of user identity in social interaction, Henry Larsen and Claus Have; The role of supply chains in product design, Benedicte Brøgger. Part III People and Things: Introduction: humanity in design, Peter-Paul Verbeek; Anthropological fieldwork and designing potentials, Mette Kjærsgaard and Ton Otto; Designing behaviour, Nynke Tromp and Paul Hekkert; Emergent artefacts of ethnography and processual engagements of design, Jamie Wallace; Theories and figures of technical mediation, Steven Dorrestijn. Epilogue: Utopian things, Pelle Ehn; Index.