Design and Anthropology

285 Pages·2012·3.41 MB·English

by  Wendy Gunn

Design anD anthropology
anthropological studies of
Creativity and perception
Series Editor: tim ingold, University of aberdeen, UK
the books in this series explore the relations, in human social and cultural life,
between perception, creativity and skill. their common aim is to move beyond
established approaches in anthropology and material culture studies that treat the
inhabited world as a repository of complete objects, already present and available for
analysis. instead these works focus on the creative processes that continually bring
these objects into being, along with the persons in whose lives they are entangled.
all creative activities entail movement or gesture, and the books in this series
are particularly concerned to understand the relations between these creative
movements and the inscriptions they yield. likewise in considering the histories
of artefacts, these studies foreground the skills of their makers-cum-users, and
the transformations that ensue, rather than tracking their incorporation as finished
objects within networks of interpersonal relations.
the books in this series will be interdisciplinary in orientation, their
concern being always with the practice of interdisciplinarity: on ways of doing
anthropology with other disciplines, rather than doing an anthropology of these
subjects. through this anthropology with, they aim to achieve an understanding
that is at once holistic and processual, dedicated not so much to the achievement
of a final synthesis as to opening up lines of inquiry.
Other titles in the series:
imagining landscapes
past, present and Future
Edited by Monica Janowski and Tim Ingold
redrawing anthropology
Materials, Movements, lines
Edited by Tim Ingold
Conversations With landscape
Edited by Karl Benediktsson and Katrín Anna Lund
Ways of Walking
ethnography and practice on Foot
Edited by Tim Ingold and Jo Lee Vergunst
Design and anthropology
Edited by
WenDy gUnn
University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
JareD Donovan
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
© Wendy gunn and Jared Donovan 2012
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Wendy gunn and Jared Donovan have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
ashgate publishing limited ashgate publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Design and anthropology. -- (anthropological studies of
creativity and perception)
1. Design--anthropological aspects. 2. Manufactures--
social aspects. 3. Material culture.
i. series ii. gunn, Wendy. iii. Donovan, Jared.
306.4'6-dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Design and anthropology / [edited] by Wendy gunn and Jared Donovan.
pages cm -- (anthropological studies of creativity and perception)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4094-2158-0 (hardback) -- isBn 978-1-4094-2159-7 (ebook) 1. Design-
-anthropological aspects. 2. Design--human factors. i. gunn, Wendy, editor of
compilation. ii. Donovan, Jared, editor of compilation.
nK1520.D4545 2012
745.4--dc23
2012034287
isBn 9781409421580 (hbk)
isBn 9781409421597 (ebk – pDF)
isBn 9781409471745 (ebk – epUB)
III
printed and bound in great Britain by the
Mpg Books group, UK.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Preface xv
1 Design Anthropology: An Introduction 1
Wendy Gunn and Jared Donovan
Part I: UsIng and ProdUcIng
Introduction: The Perception of the User–Producer 19
Tim Ingold
2 The Patient as Skilled Practitioner 35
Kyle Kilbourn
3 Hearing Poorly with Skill 45
Dennis Day
4 Gliding Effortlessly Through Life? Surfaces and Friction 57
Griet Scheldeman
5 An Institutional View on User Improvisation and Design 69
Max Rolfstam and Jacob Buur
Part II: desIgnIng and UsIng
Introduction: Defining Moments 83
Johan Redström
6 The Time it Takes to Make:
Design and Use in Architecture and Archaeology 101
Lesley McFadyen
7 Moving from Objects to Possibilities 121
Jared Donovan and Wendy Gunn
8 Emergence of User Identity in Social Interaction 135
Henry Larsen and Claus Have
vi Design and Anthropology
9 The Role of Supply Chains in Product Design 149
Benedicte Brøgger
Part III: PeoPle and thIngs
Introduction: Humanity in Design 163
Peter-Paul Verbeek
10 Anthropological Fieldwork and Designing Potentials 177
Mette Kjærsgaard and Ton Otto
11 Designing Behaviour 193
Nynke Tromp and Paul Hekkert
12 Emergent Artefacts of Ethnography and
Processual Engagements of Design 207
Jamie Wallace
13 Theories and Figures of Technical Mediation 219
Steven Dorrestijn
ePIlogUe
14 Utopian Things 233
Pelle Ehn
Index 243
List of Figures
II.1 Energy Curtain is a conceptual reinterpretation of how
everyday use of curtains controls the light in a room 86
II.2 Energy Curtain at the Visual Voltage exhibition 87
II.3 Food at the supermarket 90
6.1 Examples of how illustrations are used to portray a
consistent design approach in Vitruvius, aspects taken
from T.N. Howe’s illustrations 103
6.2 The composite plan of the site of Castelo Velho 106
6.3 The sequence of phased plans of Castelo Velho,
from top left to bottom right 108
6.4 The sequence of phased plans of the C-shaped structure
and the deposition of material culture from Castelo Velho,
from top left to bottom left 111
6.5 A broken vessel displaying different sherd histories
from Castelo Velho 113
6.6 The pottery assemblage from the C-shaped structure
at Castelo Velho 114
6.7 Sherds from Castelo Velho laid out during a refitting exercise 116
7.1 Overlaying measurements of indoor climate parameters with
practices of inhabiting indoor climate 124
7.2 Teachers engaged with the slider (top) to make partial
connections between temperature in the room and opening
of front door (bottom) 127
7.3 Company and university partners are presented with
different kinds of provotypes at a SPIRE workshop 129
8.1 Hearing aids: The type Claus had for 10 years (L),
and what he is now using (R) 143
10.1 Approaches to the field and role of the ethnography/
anthropology in design 178
10.2 Re-designing the playground 183
11.1 A relatively small bowl designed to obstruct people from
scooping up too much food 195
viii Design and Anthropology
11.2 A plate designed to induce people to scoop up ‘normal’
portions to eat 196
11.3 A weight/calorie scale designed to support people in
controlling the amount of calories of their meals 197
11.4 A book designed to inform parents about misconceptions
about food and health in disciplining children 199
11.5 A container designed with the technology to maintain
leftovers for days outside the refrigerator 200
11.6 A booklet designed to stimulate children to record moments
at school of which they are proud 202
11.7 In understanding a phenomenon one can take an analytic
approach, i.e., understanding the phenomenon as sum of its parts,
or a synthetic approach, i.e., understanding the phenomenon as
part of a larger whole 203
12.1 The ‘material score’ of Barry’s shifting engagements 212
12.2 The ‘material score’ of a sequence of design work 215
13.1 Human conceptualizations of how technology influences them 228
Notes on Contributors
Benedicte Brøgger is Research Director with the Norwegian Work Research
Institute and Associate Professor II at the Department of Innovation and Economic
Organization, Norwegian School of Management. Her research interests are in the
interfaces between anthropology, action research and innovation studies. Brøgger
has worked extensively with enterprise development processes in both trade and
process industry, and has also done long-term fieldwork among the ethnic Chinese
in Malaysia and Singapore. She has recently published in Social Anthropology
(2009), Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift (2010) and Economic and Industrial
Democracy (2010).
Jacob Buur is Professor of User-Centred Design at the Mads Clausen Institute
and Research Director of Sønderborg Participatory Innovation Research Centre
(SPIRE). He develops methods for engaging users in design through action research
and has pioneered the use of video for bridging user studies and innovation. Prior to
this appointment Buur managed the user-centred design group at Danfoss A/S for
10 years. He has designed joysticks for excavators and user interfaces for heating
and refrigeration controllers, and frequency converters. Buur is the co-editor of
Designing with Video: Focusing the User Centred Design Process (Springer 2007)
and has written widely on participatory processes of designing and innovation.
Dennis Day is Associate Professor at the Institute of Language and Communication,
University of Southern Denmark. He has a background in Linguistic
Anthropology. His research interests revolve around ethnomethodological and
conversation analytic study of communicative impairment, communication
technology and communicative processes of globalization. Recent publications
include: ‘Membership Categorization Analysis’, in Chapelle, C.A. (ed.) 2012. The
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Jared Donovan is Lecturer in Interaction Design at the Queensland University
of Technology. His research interests include Design Anthropology, gestures
in human interaction, gestural interfaces and tangible interaction. He recently
completed postdoctoral research at SPIRE, Mads Clausen Institute, University
of Southern Denmark, focusing on user-centred design and critical approaches
toward designing.
Steven Dorrestijn conducts PhD research at the University of Twente. His
doctoral research focuses on the impact of technical products on user behaviour.