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

contributed to the global spread of commercially available objects, produced
anonymously by mechanised production methods based on a planned division
of labour (Sterling, 2005, p10). Traditional product design has been described
as operating within an incremental or evolutionary framework of object
optimisation through technical problem solving together with brand awareness
strategies for specific markets (Powell, 2005). However, there are increasing
examples of modes of practice that are looking beyond this to what has been
termed ‘post-optimal design’ which extends design practice beyond the sizeoriented
and speed-focused to explore the deeper metaphysical dimensions of
objects and experiences (Chapman, 2005). As computer/practitioner
interactions become more sophisticated, possibilities have shifted away from
productivity tools and moved towards opportunities for design experimentation
(Callicott, N., 2001; Lynn & Rashid, 2003; and Scanlon, J., 2004). Use of the
technologies in these ways may involve the (nondiscipline specific) generative
use of new production processes and the exploitation of the unique features of
these technologies (Gershenfeld, 2005 and Hopkinson, 2005); or involve the
end user as a co-designer - resulting in ‘tailored’ objects (Devereux, 2002); or
make use of software as an autonomous, generative tool increasing the
opportunity for new modes of design practice (Atkinson, 2003). We will look
closer at these methods of production in the next section.
Computers have become faster, smaller, cheaper, able to process and store
larger amounts of data and this has led to the creation of machines that are so
small that their shape is no longer necessarily determined by their function - but
by how their users operate them (Krippendorff, 1995). The fact the computer
environment is now common across all disciplines provokes a convergence of
software development and existing design fields (Ehn and Malmborg, 1999). As
computing enters its pervasive, networked phase (Weiser, 1991; McCullough,
2004; Kang and Cuff, 2005 and Bleecker, 2006), the expectations we have of
the objects we surround ourselves with might be transformed.
"When it is written, the history of computers will, I believe, be quite
simple. In the beginning was the computer. Then it disappeared. Of
course, it didn't go away completely. It just dissolved. Either it became
part of the physical background. Forming part of ordinary objects such
as tables, chairs, walls, and desks. Or it became part of the social
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