John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

The conjunction of ‘product design’ and ‘not product design’ could be
interpreted in several ways. ‘Critical design’ (as defined by Anthony Dunne and
Fiona Raby) and its variations (see section 2.9.7) is an alternative approach that
results in objects which afford critical reflection on and expose assumptions of
design practices. Critical design makes use of designed objects as a form of
material commentary on consumer culture. This can involve the process of
design, the object and the reception by an audience of such an object. By this
means critical designers will often challenge expectations and preconceptions
causing new ways of thinking about objects, how we use them, and how they
might effect the environment. Critical designs may be fully realised and
functioning or might act as a form of speculative design. However, Dunne and
Raby’s most known work (Placebo, 2000-2001) is conventional in terms of how
the objects were produced 129 . They utilise CAD as a means of sending design
specifications to a traditional materials-based maker. The objects themselves
were produced within a conventional production paradigm and design
vocabulary:
“The design process behind the objects was pretty traditional.
Computers were used to make very simple drawings (plan, elevation,
sections etc), and to source components and communicate, etc. They
were all made by hand by a very skilled craftsman we often work with, he
doesn't even have email!” (From an email regarding the creation of the
Placebo project received 18/04/2005)
Another example of critical design that makes more use of the computer as a
tool for design and making would be Guinea Pig Design’s (Powell, 2005)
‘…inside the box’ project of prototype ‘conceptual electronica’. These are
augmented objects that are designed to engage with parallel standards to the
dominant values of established design discourse. This series of objects consists
of a range of CNC laser-cut acrylic domestic items with embedded electronics
whose sole function is to challenge conventional use. The use of computerbased
design and fabrication tools to challenge expectations and preconceptions
offers other possibilities for alternate cultural contexts for objects. For example,
after Ito Morabito was kicked out of design school after only a year (Thompson,
2004, p.78-82), he decided to use renderings of ‘unreleased products’ as
cultural interventions. His then-fictional company, Ora Ito designed fake
129 “Made MDF and usually one other specialist material, the objects are purposely diagrammatic and vaguely
familiar.” (Dunne and Raby, 2001, p.75)
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