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Design, Materiality and the Making of Communication Histories and Futures

Sun, May 27, 8:00 to 9:15, Hilton Prague, Floor: M, Yoga Room (Cybex Health Club)

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Design, making and intervening in the world have captured the attention of communication scholars in recent years. From explaining algorithmic bias on social media to the creation of online storytelling platforms, contemporary questions of communication require an understanding of the affordances, biases and constraints of communication devices, interfaces and systems—as well as an understanding the work of designers that create these technologies. There is a pressing need to understand design processes – communicative, collaborative and organizational -- and the ways in which they intersect with engineering processes. In particular, a focus on design as an object of study as well as a mode of inquiry itself introduces important themes around materiality (Dourish, 2017), making (Ratto, 2011) and futures (Dourish & Bell, 2011). What are the material and social arrangements that produce the artifacts that exist in nearly every aspect of our everyday life? How might design help communication researchers better address the materiality of information? How might we understand emerging technologies better if we engage with them using design research methods?

Furthermore, there is also growing interest in using design as an inventive method in order inquire about the world and build theory through the making of media, things and prototypes (Gunn, Otto, & Smith, 2013; Lury & Wakeford, 2012). Here, design methods from a wide range of fields and approaches including graphic design, industrial design and fashion design as well as multimedia storytelling through scenarios, visualizations and videos might be explored as ways of inquiring about a research question in the field of communications. These inventions and interventions may be conceptual and speculative (Dunne & Raby, 2013) or participatory and activist (Costanza-Chock, 2017) in nature; or, even, a combination of these approaches (Forlano & Halpern, 2016). By drawing on design methods, communication scholars are able to intervene in narratives about the technologies that they study as well as engage new publics through storytelling and prototyping. In particular, design methods allow for the experimentation with alternative forms of scholarship, pedagogical practices and alternative possible futures for the field of communication. Finally, these alternative modes have potential to enable communication scholars to collaborate with a wider range of fields, and, even, form new identities themselves as they move into new areas that engage with the field of design.


Costanza-Chock, Sasha (Ed.). (2017). Design Justice in Action (Vol. 3): Design Justice Network.
Dourish, Paul. (2017). The Stuff of Bits: An Essay on the Materialities of Information. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dourish, Paul, & Bell, Genevieve. (2011). Divining a Digital Future: mess and mythology in ubiquitous computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dunne, Anthony, & Raby, Fiona. (2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Forlano, Laura, & Halpern, Megan. (2016). Reimagining Work: Entanglements and Frictions around Future of Work Narratives. Fibreculture(26), 32-59.
Gunn, Wendy, Otto, Ton, & Smith, Rachel Charlotte. (2013). Design anthropology: theory and practice. New York: Bloombsbury.
Lury, Celia, & Wakeford, Nina. (2012). Inventive Methods: The happening of the social. New York: Routledge.
Ratto, Matt. (2011). Critical making: Conceptual and material studies in technology and social life. The Information Society, 27(4), 252-260.

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