Critical by Design? Genealogies, Practices, Positions

Abstract

The relationship between design and critique proves to be ambiguous. In its interventionist and constructive nature, design shares with other critical practices the premise of the shapeability and alterability of cultural, social, and political realities. Design can be seen as inherently critical and speculative as it sets out to project novel relationships between people, systems, and things from what it diagnoses as the status quo. At the same time, design is inevitably normative, if not often violent, as it partakes in stabilizing the past, normalizing the present condition and precluding just and sustainable futures. In the same way as design can unfold and make experienceable social boundaries, values and norms embedded in our material and visual culture, it is a major contributor to their manifestation and obscuration in the first place. This anthology aims to unpack the ambivalent tensions between design and critique. The contributions foster a vital rethinking of the foundational concepts and notions of critique that influence the field of design, question inherent blind spots and ideologies of the discipline, and expand understandings of what critical design practices could be.