what kind of role the designer will play in the society of control?

The Society of Control text discusses different types of social format that people have experienced, as well as the evolution of every stage. In the process, there is a similar feature among these formats, that, most of rules and laws determined by the powerful government or industry. From the first stage to the current stage, the structure of the society has changed a lot, which consists of the isolated enclosures, and each of these enclosures has its own rules or laws.

In the past few decades, due to the development of the technology and the frequently exchange of the information, people have more freedom to make a decision by themselves  even the main power was still holed by the powerful minorities. This means that because of the fast transmission of information, the social atmosphere becomes more and more transparent, therefore bringing relative impartial social rules. 

Finally, designers as an important group of the society, not only should grasp the opportunity to finish some cross-border corporation, but also should create some reflective artworks for the public to raise their awareness. According to Dunne and Raby, speculative design plays an important role in our lives especially related to the future. Even the future is unpredictable, designers should try to develop some design fictions that based on the existing state, which brings public a better understanding of present and help them to connect imagination with reality.

Postscript on the Societies of Control – Reflective words

THE VIDEO OF THIS TOPIC

This article provides the analysis of the differences between societies of sovereignty, disciplinary societies and a society of control, and also discussed different types of social format that people have experienced.

From Gilles Deleuze’s perspective, families, schools and barracks could be treated as cages rather than a freedom land, due to the fact that each one has their own specific discipline that have to be followed. In this situation, human would become restricted and formalistic. This means that human’s world would be more similar to robot’s world.

Because of the technological evolution, corporation among different areas become more and more frequent, market economy has become the soul of the corporation instead of  capitalism, influencing on individuals’ life or the entire economic circle, people are no longer enclosed but in debt.

As a designer, we should always have awareness of considering mixed environments and their own rules. However,What kind of role does interaction design would play in the future world? Does the controlled society would come true with the help of interaction design? Due to the popularity of Internet, much information especially the private information is more easier to track, I believe the privacy must be a issue and a controversy we will meet in the later future.

Reflection on The Construction of Publics

According to the Dewey’s theory of public, public does not exist until it was described by a negative externality. Carl DiSalvo suggested that although the Public and its Problems is nearly a century old, it is still relevant and productive today, particularly in the context of design studies.  It links with contemporary world conditions through its pluralistic stance, endorsing a public that is broad, inclusive, and multiple. It is productive because it provides numerous points of intersection with both design theory and professional design activity that suggest novel courses for thinking about and doing design.

Due to the fact that public’s undeniable nature lies in its indirection, extension,endurance and serious consequences of conjoint and interacting behavior, design therefore is entitled to influence the public by its consequences.

The writer discussed the question of how a public is constituted, there is no doubt that the architecture is the most important thing of the public construction because of its huge and complicated system, as well as  its obvious public nature.

Another important point is that how the processes and products of design might serve in discovering and articulating the issues that spur a public into being.It requires designers to seek for some points of intersection with both design theory and professional design activity. This is because the action is the central concept of the design objective and these actions are influenced by the social and political reasons, from the theory and practice aspects.

Reflective words on Beyond Radical Design in Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming

In this chapter, the writers started with the word “dream”, which does not necessarily  mean the fantasy or future. The real meaning of dream in this context is our desire to imagine the unpredictable future, which had inspired us a lot and encouraged us to use design as a tool to create ideas and values.

Many people define design as problem solving, but we face tremendous challenges more serious than they appear to be. There is no doubt that there is a tight connection between us and outside world, this requires our ideas, attitudes, behaviors to be based on the reality. Although these challenges are huge, speculative design is a possible way for us to explore the future rather than giving up. This is because the speculative design reduces the gap between the reality and our vision by inspiring  and encouraging designers to imagine and explore the future.

A fascinating diagram was given by Dunne & Raby, illustrating different kinds of potential futures, which consists of four cones, the probable, the plausible, the possible and the preferable. The probable future describes what is likely to happen without influenced by some extreme upheaval, this one is closer to the future because the prediction is rational, and this is why many design methods and education are heading towards this field. The second one is the plausible future, this area is about scenario planning and foresight, exploring alternative economic and political futures. Next, the skill in possible future makes a link between today’s world and the suggested one, but when designer do the speculative design for the future, they need to embrace the believable points which makes the design acceptable. The last one is the preferable future, intersecting the probable and plausible. Although it is determined by the powerful minority such as the government, I still hold an optimistic attitude, the public will be more active to participate in the decision of the future.

From the analysis of the historical evolutionism of design, the writers believe that we should absorb helpful insights from the past design methods, as well as engaging new methods appropriate for nowadays society. I strongly agree with this opinion, we need to hold an optimistic attitude, due to the fact that the situation of social media are advantageous, it is possible for designers to work across different fields and cooperate with different kinds of industries and professional people.  As a result, it provides more possibilities for us to explore the future although the future is unpredictable.