5. Critical Design

Critical design does not solve problems but raises questions. It uses design to explore alternative views of the world, to materialise questions and to engage the audience into a reflective state. However its generalisation suffers from a lack of shareable methodology. Based on a review of literature on critical design and the analysis of three projects, we observe that these practices play on emotions to elicit interest, concern and reflection. But we also show that: these artefacts employ a narrative strategy relying on “the uncanny” (concept developed by Freud); that the mediation of the project counterbalances this uncanniness, allowing for curiosity, concern and avoiding visceral reactions of rejection. Learning from an exemplary case study produced by one of the authors we also introduce two complementary dimensions of critical design strategy: its rhetoric is based on the authenticity of the author and the structure of the arguments to support and counterbalance the uncanny narrative. This chapter aims at opening the definition of critical design, and to encompass a larger body of work. It emphasizes the communication dimension of this design practice.