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Design, Pragmatism and Dewey Read chapter Read first chapter

2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. Making Things Meaningful

Author : Brian S. Dixon

Published in: Dewey and Design

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

In this chapter, building on the previous discussion of knowledge/knowing, I turn to consider the themes of meaning and communication in design research. To open, I explore of the work of three key theorists—Roberto Verganti, Klaus Krippendorff and Nathan Crilly—who have each explored these themes in detail. From this, I turn once again to Dewey’s work, looking in particular at his handling of the subjects of language, the imagination and the ‘work of art’. With these positions set out, I then move to consider some of the possible implications for design research, focusing in particular on the ‘work of art’ concept. Ultimately, emphasis is placed on how Dewey’s insights can support the theoretical articulation of meaningfulness in design as well as the communicative value of artifacts in academic design research.

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Footnotes
1
Over the coming decades, others advanced relatable theories. J.L. Austin, for example, developed a speech–act theory of language, which equated saying something with ‘doing’ something. On his view, uttered sentences were not to be understood in ideal terms (e.g., as propositions or assertions) but rather as performances with the possibility of consequences and implications (see Austin 1962).
 
2
There are other, historical reference points we might attend to. For example, the semiology of Ferdinand Saussure (see e.g., Saussure 2011/1916) and semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce (e.g., Peirce 1991), have both been referenced by many. Equally, outside philosophy, information theory found a way into design through the Ulm School in the fifties, where Tomas Maldonado and Otl Aicher pushed designers to think of communication in terms of a sender coding a message to a channel, and the recipient decoding it. Aicher, however, would subsequently, return to Wittgenstein’s philosophy (See Leopold 2013; Krippendorff 2008).
 
3
Writing with Donald Norman, Verganti has highlighted how what has traditionally been referred to as a ‘user–centered’ design process has a tendency to lead to only incremental change as it is relying on the insights of users who are drawing their existing understandings of particular contexts and possibilities (see Norman and Verganti 2014).
 
4
Somewhat regrettably, Dewey did not present a singular, definitive account of his understanding of the communication process. There is no ‘theory of communication’ text as such. Instead, most if not all, his major works make some reference to an aspect of communication, whether language, symbols or meaning in general. Of the later texts, it is perhaps Experience and Nature (LW 1) and Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (LW 12) which most obviously stand out as key sources from which a clear account may be drawn. Accordingly, if we are to establish a comprehensive overview of his theory of communication, we must trace across these and other titles selectively.
 
5
For keen observers, the similarities between Dewey and Mead on the subject of communication will be unavoidably clear. Indeed, in his introduction to the Logic, Dewey acknowledges his heavy debt to his former colleague (LW 12, p. 5). Strangely, to the best of my knowledge, no detailed comparison of the perspectives of these two philosophers exists; though, of course, there are many stand–alone presentations of their work contained within numerous texts. However, Recovering Pragmatism’s Voice: The Classical Tradition, Rorty and the Philosophy of Communication (Langsdorf and Smith 1995) is a useful text on pragmatist theories of communication and includes accounts of how Dewey and Mead have approached the subject.
 
6
Indeed, art and music are presented as modes of communication (see e.g., LW 10).
 
7
Arguably, it might be said that this forms the pivot of Experience and Nature (LW 1), Dewey’s metaphysical text.
 
8
Like Wittgenstein after him, this is the key aspect of Dewey’s overarching theory of communication. Indeed, the similarities between these two philosophers are often overlooked. It was Dewey who first wrote about meaning emerging in use while Wittgenstein still held his ‘picture theory of language’.
 
9
A Common Faith is a short book Dewey wrote on religion and the notion of religious experience. It was originally delivered verbally for the 1934 Terry Lectures. Held annually at Yale, this lecture series focuses on religion in respect of the developments of science and technology (LW 9, p. 448). Dewey’s approach was in keeping with this thematic, looking in particular at how the ‘religious attitude’ might come to underwrite a collective striving towards humanity’s shared ideals.
 
10
Dewey’s Ethics was co–authored with James Hayden Tufts. It came out in two editions, the first in 1908 and was revised and reissued in 1932 (see MW 5 and LW 7, respectively). As will outlined below, the imagination is seen to play a vital and signification role in the process of ethical evaluation. For an insightful account of this and how it might be built on see Fesmire (2003).
 
11
This may even relate to the subconscious. ‘Apart from language’ he writes, ‘we continually engage in an immense multitude of immediate organic selections, rejections, welcomings, expulsions, appropriations, withdrawals, shrinkings, expansions, elations and dejections, attacks, wardings off, of the most minute vibratingly delicate nature’ (LW 1, p. 227).
 
12
As will become clear through the below quotations, Dewey tends to offer craft–based examples in order to illustrate his points. For the most part, it would appear that this is due to his need to outline the structure of aesthetic experience in artistic making/production. Of course, to a degree, it also reflects the realities of then–contemporary industrial and artisan manufacturing processes. Regardless of both this focus and the historical lag, I will contend that it takes relatively little effort to remap his claims into contemporary design contexts involving digital tools; the same attentive forward-and-back of imagination and material reality pertains.
 
13
On this account, the work of art is unlikely to conclude with a sudden abrupt moment of closure, i.e., with an object-in-the–making suddenly becoming an ‘art product’. Rather a gradual, eventual resolution is more likely—the work of art progresses and develops, is evaluated and reevaluated, progresses and develops further. ‘The final end’ we are told ‘is anticipated by rhythmic pauses’. It is final ‘only in an external way’ (LW 10, p. 142).
 
14
On his view, it all held together by form, a concept he sees a fundamental to aesthetic experience and art in particular. It is here said to refer to ‘the operation of forces that carry the experience of an event, object, scene and situation to its own integral fulfillment’. Art is said to enact ‘more deliberately and fully the conditions that effect this unity’ (p. 142, italics in original). Ultimately, such an outline equates to a pronounced instance of aesthetic experience; in other words, an experience.
 
15
It is worth noting that Dewey is also very broad in his definition of the scope of the materials in art. He suggests that art ‘involves molding of clay, chipping of marble, casting of bronze laying out of pigments, construction of buildings, singing of songs, playing of instruments, engaging roles on stage, going through rhythmic movements in dance’ (LW 10, p. 53).
 
16
Arguably, on the Deweyan account, it is the fact that these objects are produced with a purpose in mind (e.g., covering the floor with the rug, holding liquid with the urn, holding things with the basket) that marks them out as objects of ‘design’. They are objects to be used as much as perceived and appreciated.
 
17
It is worth noting that Dewey bemoans the dehumanizing aspects of industrialized manufacturing, where things are made to fulfill a material need without concern for their impact on the quality of human experience (see LW 1, p. 271–272).
 
18
By way of exemplifying this we need only to turn to the title of Herbert Read’s Art and Industry (1934), an early and important history of design, which is more or less contemporary with Art as Experience. For a historical reflection on this text, see Robin Kinross’s “Herbert Read’s Art and Industry: a history” (1988).
 
19
I write a ‘from a design perspective’ consciously as there is also a complimentary argument which emanates from fine art. In broad terms, proponents of this argument would propose that ‘art products’, as Dewey describes them could be seen to embody and (in some way) communicate knowledge (see e.g., Scrivener 2002; Biggs 2002).
 
20
Reflecting on three then-recent PhD-by-projects (i.e., examples of practice–based/led research) Seago and Dunne state: ‘The record of the conduct of [the work] is “transparent” in the sense that a future researcher could uncover the same information, rehearse the arguments expounded and, to a lesser or greater degree, produce the same results’ (Seago and Dunne 1999, p. 16).
 
21
For a dedicated exploration of the role of artifacts in design research see Biggs (2002).
 
22
Looking back to Daria Loi’s example of the thesis-as-suitcase (2004) and reflecting on the contemporary debate in relation to this issue, it would seem that there remains a degree of ambiguity regarding the extent to which the written or textual argument must be presented in ‘linear’ sequence. In other words, it would seem that it is still debatable as to whether or not the argument must have a clear beginning, middle and end. This is apparent in a recent publication on digital dissertations and theses, where, in outlining how an examiner might interact with a website as part of a thesis submission, the authors note that issues of ‘argumentation will be at stake’ because traditional written arguments are linear and sequential while digital dissertations are, by their nature, non–linear and non–sequential. As a consequence, it is here recommended that examiners do not impose an external vision of how they believe a thesis should be presented (Andrews et al. 2012, p. 6).
 
23
In relation to the issue of perception, Koskinen and Krogh draw attention to the ways in which critical design (e.g., Dunne and Raby 2001, 2013) is often interpreted as art (Koskinen and Krogh 2015, p. 125).
 
24
It is important to note that while Redström (2017) honors practice over theory as a fixed and final concept, he does not dwell (perhaps wisely) on the debates surrounding design research involving practice and the extent to which artifacts may be considered legitimate contributions to knowledge. His concern, rather, is with showing how understandings of design (theories in the broad sense) emerge in relation to made objects. He suggests that there may be a mismatch between ‘the character of the theories used and what design researchers use them for—and as a consequence, issues related to what we expect the theoretical impact and feedback to be like’ (Redström 2017, p. 13).
 
25
The specific quotations that Dewey calls up are found (unsourced) in the following lines: ‘Wordsworth declared that “poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science.” Shelley said: “Poetry… is at once the centre and circumference of all knowledge; it is that which comprehends all science and to which all science must be referred” (LW 10, p. 294).
 
26
Intriguingly Dewey argues that ‘“Revelation” in art is the quickened expansion of experience. Philosophy is said to begin in wonder and end in understanding. Art departs from what has been understood and ends in wonder. In this end, the human contribution in art is also the quickened work of nature in man.’ (LW 10, p. 274).
 
27
This clearly aligns with Verganti’s claim that design discourse gives rise to radical new meanings through cultural interpretation (see e.g., Verganti 2009).
 
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Metadata
Title
Making Things Meaningful
Author
Brian S. Dixon
Copyright Year
2020
Book
Dewey and Design

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-47470-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-47471-3

Copyright Year: 2020

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47471-3_4