Design is undergoing a re-conceptualisation triggered by debates about its potential to instigate... more Design is undergoing a re-conceptualisation triggered by debates about its potential to instigate meaningful social, cultural and environmental change. Simultaneously, design and the allied designbased industries are experiencing a vigorous ascendancy across many spheres of life. While our collective aesthetic is finely tuned to contemplate and consume all things designer, innovations in digital media are generating new dimensions in the design realms -spawning new industries and aesthetic developments. From designer kitchens and clothes to technology and landscapes, our senses have become hard wired to appreciate the nuances and aesthetics of the visual. At the same time, a growing consensus about environmental fragility and how practices of production and consumption are contributing to an unsustainable future, underpin a discourse which sees the potential of design to be transformative, or "redirective" (Fry 2008). There is little disagreement that we are witnessing an 'ethical turn' occurring in professional and allied practices, including the design fields. This re-conceptualisation extends design's role -and the of practitioners responsibility -beyond stylistic enhancement or the quest for optimal product solutions, to account for the aesthetic dimensions of human experience and consequences of creative decision-making underpinning design processes. The traditional roles of design, designer and designed object are thus redefined through new understandings of the relationship between the material and immaterial aspects of design, where the design product and process are understood as embodiments of ideas, values and beliefs. This notion brings to the fore central questions around ethics, social
Design is undergoing a re-conceptualisation triggered by debates about its potential to instigate... more Design is undergoing a re-conceptualisation triggered by debates about its potential to instigate meaningful social, cultural and environmental change. Simultaneously, design and the allied designbased industries are experiencing a vigorous ascendancy across many spheres of life. While our collective aesthetic is finely tuned to contemplate and consume all things designer, innovations in digital media are generating new dimensions in the design realms -spawning new industries and aesthetic developments. From designer kitchens and clothes to technology and landscapes, our senses have become hard wired to appreciate the nuances and aesthetics of the visual. At the same time, a growing consensus about environmental fragility and how practices of production and consumption are contributing to an unsustainable future, underpin a discourse which sees the potential of design to be transformative, or "redirective" (Fry 2008). There is little disagreement that we are witnessing an 'ethical turn' occurring in professional and allied practices, including the design fields. This re-conceptualisation extends design's role -and the of practitioners responsibility -beyond stylistic enhancement or the quest for optimal product solutions, to account for the aesthetic dimensions of human experience and consequences of creative decision-making underpinning design processes. The traditional roles of design, designer and designed object are thus redefined through new understandings of the relationship between the material and immaterial aspects of design, where the design product and process are understood as embodiments of ideas, values and beliefs. This notion brings to the fore central questions around ethics, social
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Papers by Oksana Zelenko