Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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260565

Designing environmental relations

from opacity to textility

Mike Anusas(University of Edinburgh)Tim Ingold

pp. 58-69

Abstract

In this article, we show that mainstream practices of design in western industrialized societies aspire toward a logic of form that reduces our ability to perceive the depth and scope of our material involvement with the world around us. According to this logic of form, lines or conduits of energetic and material circulation are wrapped up within opaque, enclosing surfaces that conspire to hide these circulations from perception and present the appear- ance of discrete, finished entities. Drawing on the philosophy of Vilém Flusser,1 we show that this logic stems from an imperative to cast the material world in the guise of objects. The effect is to trap humanity within a vicious circle of increasing environmental alienation. We show how this imperative is pursued across the designed world—in its products, buildings, and spaces—and note how, as a result, it becomes more difficult for people, rather than less, to follow the material traces and environmental consequences of their activity. We then propose a reorientation of the aspirations of design, reimagining form so that it resists the conventional objectification of the material world. Our suggestion is to consider form as textilic, the material world as comprising energetic lines, and design as a practice of enriching the weaves that bind people and their environments. We conclude with a note concerning the interdisciplinary activity from which this article has emerged, and with it, issue a call to designers to broaden their disciplinary engagements and the scope of their creative involvement in the continual shaping of the world.

Publication details

Published in:

(2013) Design Issues 29 (4).

Pages: 58-69

DOI: 10.1162/DESI_a_00230

ISBN (hardback): 07479360

ISBN (digital): 15314790

Full citation:

Anusas Mike, Ingold Tim (2013) „Designing environmental relations: from opacity to textility“. Design Issues 29 (4), 58–69.