Design and Anthropology (Anthropological Studies of Creativity and Perception)

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. Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Notes on Contributors 10 Preface 16 1 Design Anthropology: An Introduction 18 Part I: Using and Producing 34 Introduction: The Perception of the User–Producer 36 2 The Patient as Skilled Practitioner 52 3 Hearing Poorly with Skill 62 4 Gliding Effortlessly Through Life? Surfaces and Friction 74 5 An Institutional View on User Improvisation and Design 86 Part II: Designing and Using 98 Introduction: Defining Moments 100 6 The Time it Takes to Make: Design and Use in Architecture and Archaeology 118 7 Moving from Objects to Possibilities 138 8 Emergence of User Identity in Social Interaction 152 9 The Role of Supply Chains in Product Design 166 Part III: People and Things 178 Introduction: Humanity in Design 180 10 Anthropological Fieldwork and Designing Potentials 194 11 Designing Behaviour 210 12 Emergent Artefacts of Ethnography and Processual Engagements of Design 224 13 Theories and Figures of Technical Mediation 236 Epilogue 248 14 Utopian Things 250 Index 260