Abstract

Designing is a conversationalConversation activity. This chapter draws on second-order cybernetic concepts, particularly Pask’sPask, Gordon Conversation TheoryConversation theory and subsequent work inspired and derived from it, to propose a conceptual basis for articulating various modalities of designing-with-others. This approach unifies different ways in which people and artifacts are linked in processes of designingDesignprocess, from the simple designer-client relationship to people’s interactionsInteraction with designed things, to the ripples of effects of these things, beyond the controlControl and intentionsIntention of the designer, once they are out into the world at large. After introducing the concept of conversationConversation as applied to the processes of designDesignprocess, the chapter explores the detailed anatomy of such conversationsConversation with reference to a modelModel of conversationsConversation by Dubberly and Pangaro, drawing on Pask’sPask, Gordon concept of the conversationConversation. Other cybernetic scholars, notably Krippendorff, are cited to demonstrate that the “statements” exchanged in the course of design conversationsConversation consist of both verbal and written utterances and the diverse range of artifacts produced in the course of the design processDesignprocess. The chapter then applies these concepts and perspectives to discuss different levels of design conversationsConversation, from those that take place within teams of designersDesigners working on a project, to those that occur in the wider communities formed by various designersDesigners and non-designers who cooperate in the realization of designed things, to those that permeate broad societies of people affected in one way or another by designed things. Implications are proposed for the role of designersDesigners in society, in light of this cybernetic framing of design processesDesignprocess. The chapter concludes by synthesizing these insights to demonstrate the potential of cybernetic perspectives in articulating the intrinsically political nature of design.