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Bling & : Other Breaches in Design

Christoforidou, Despina LU (2023)
Abstract
The overall theme of this thesis is norm deviations, i.e. breaches, as an approach to illuminating blindspots in the design field in order to handle potential friction that arises constructively. The research presented consisted of two parts: the Bling? studies, which are part of the licentiate thesis, attached in Appendix 2, and the Breach! studies.
The Bling? studies present how planned provocations in the form of norm violating experiments, i.e. breaching experiments, were used in a design education context to illuminate blindspots and reflect on and question established truths. Design students’ encounters with the Bling aesthetic resulted in their dismissal of it due to the design field’s underlying norms and values... (More)
The overall theme of this thesis is norm deviations, i.e. breaches, as an approach to illuminating blindspots in the design field in order to handle potential friction that arises constructively. The research presented consisted of two parts: the Bling? studies, which are part of the licentiate thesis, attached in Appendix 2, and the Breach! studies.
The Bling? studies present how planned provocations in the form of norm violating experiments, i.e. breaching experiments, were used in a design education context to illuminate blindspots and reflect on and question established truths. Design students’ encounters with the Bling aesthetic resulted in their dismissal of it due to the design field’s underlying norms and values about good and bad taste and thus highlighted a blindspot in the relationship between good design and good taste. In the Breach! part of the studies breaching experiments were explored, and rather than these being staged artificially the focus was on identifying naturally occurring breaches in the design field. The aim was to understand how these are expressed, the motives that drive the people who perform the breaches, i.e. the breachers, and what these breaches reveal about the design field.
Within the framework of the Breach! studies, a comparative interview study was conducted wherein designers in Sweden and New Zealand shared their experiences and reflections on their practice, what drives them, what challenges they face, how they handle these challenges, and how they see the future of their profession. A qualitative content analysis of the designers’ narratives employing breaches as an analytical filter showed, among other things, that to some extent the designers in New Zealand felt that they are isolated from the rest of the world in a professional sense as compared to their Swedish colleagues. At the same time, they feel less constrained by bureaucratic processes and more flexible to address challenges as in-betweeners and bricoleurs. Although Swedish design benefits from the widely known Scandinavian design brand, the responses of the designers in Sweden suggested that norms and values about what is right and wrong contribute to a more solid, less flexible discourse about what design is and could be, and there are tendencies towards a more monolithic context, contrasting with the more polylithic one in New Zealand.
An additional Breach! study was conducted with the intention of comparing three designers who, in different ways, breach the prevalent norms of their context. Each of these breachers represents a niche of the design field – design practice, design education, and design research – with intention to exploring different types of breaches and breachers. Regardless of how successful they are in their breaches, their attempts have the potential to push the boundaries regarding which questions are possible to ask in different fields and go beyond these, so that they can expand – especially in normative contexts, or when consensus is high on the agenda.
Breaches and breachers offer valuable opportunities not only for insights and introspection, e.g. in design education contexts, but for managing friction and building norm awareness, which is a prerequisite for both norm criticism and norm creativity – both of which are central aspects of the design field. Furthermore, the contribution of this work is relevant to the design field in terms of concretising and conceptualising some of the abstract dimensions of design as a practice and discipline, i.e. designers as in-betweeners/mellanförskapare and design as in-betweenness/mellanförskap. It highlights the importance of friction in design, and of both designers and the design field being able to handle it in a constructive way. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Det övergripande temat i denna avhandling är hur normbrott (breaches) kan användas för att belysa blinda fläckar inom designfältet, samt hantera och förvalta den potentiella friktionen som uppstår på ett konstruktivt sätt. Forskningsprojektet som presenteras här består av två delar: Bling?-studierna, som redovisas i licentiatavhandlingen, bifogad i sin helhet i Appendix 2 och Breach!-studierna.
I Bling?-studierna användes planerade provokationer i form av normbrytande experiment (breaching experiments) för att belysa blinda fläckar och reflektera över och ifrågasätta etablerade sanningar i ett designutbildningssammanhang. Designstudenternas möte med Bling-estetiken resulterade i ett avfärdande av denna mot bakgrund av... (More)
Det övergripande temat i denna avhandling är hur normbrott (breaches) kan användas för att belysa blinda fläckar inom designfältet, samt hantera och förvalta den potentiella friktionen som uppstår på ett konstruktivt sätt. Forskningsprojektet som presenteras här består av två delar: Bling?-studierna, som redovisas i licentiatavhandlingen, bifogad i sin helhet i Appendix 2 och Breach!-studierna.
I Bling?-studierna användes planerade provokationer i form av normbrytande experiment (breaching experiments) för att belysa blinda fläckar och reflektera över och ifrågasätta etablerade sanningar i ett designutbildningssammanhang. Designstudenternas möte med Bling-estetiken resulterade i ett avfärdande av denna mot bakgrund av underliggande normer och värderingar rörande vad som utgör god och dålig smak inom designfältet och belyste därigenom en blind fläck i relationen mellan vad som anses vara god design och vad som är god smak. I Breach!-studierna utforskades normbrytande experiment vidare genom att, i stället för att iscensätta dessa artificiellt, identifiera och undersöka naturligt förekommande normbrott inom designfältet. Syftet var att förstå hur dessa kommer till uttryck samt undersöka vilka egenskaper och motiv normbrytarna (breachers) har, dvs. de som utför normbrotten, och vad det säger om designfältet.
Inom ramen för Breach!-studierna utfördes en jämförande intervjustudie där yrkesverksamma designers i Sverige och på Nya Zeeland delade med sig av sina erfarenheter av, reflektioner kring och drivkrafter inom deras respektive praktiker, samt de utmaningar de står inför, hur de hanterar dessa och hur de ser på yrkets framtid. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys av intervjumaterialet, i vilken normbrott användes som analysfilter, visade bland annat att designers på Nya Zeeland i större utsträckning än sina svenska kollegor upplevde att de arbetar isolerat från resten av världen, samtidigt som de kände sig mindre begränsade av byråkratiska processer och mer flexibla att ta itu med utmaningar som “mellanförskapare” och “brikolörer”. De svenska designerna uppgav att de drog nytta av att skandinavisk design är ett välkänt begrepp, närmast att jämföra med ett väletablerat varumärke, samtidigt som de anser att normer och värderingar om vad som är rätt och fel bidrar till en orörligare, mindre flexibel diskurs om vad design är och skulle kunna vara. Resultaten antyder att designkontexten i Sverige kan vara mer “monolitisk” än den på Nya Zeeland, som kan beskrivas som mer “polylitisk” än den svenska.
Ytterligare en Breach!-studie genomfördes där tre exempel av normbrytande designers jämfördes. Avsikten med studien var att utforska olika typer av normbrott och normbrytare, varför en designer från vart och ett av följande tre områden av designfältet valdes ut: designpraktik, designutbildning och designforskning. Oberoende av hur framgångsrika de studerade normbrotten kan anses vara visar de på en potential att tänja på gränserna för vilka frågor som är möjliga att ställa inom, eller kanske snarare bortom, olika typer av kontexter för att dessa ska kunna växa och utvecklas – särskilt i normstyrda sammanhang eller när konsensus står högt på agendan.
Studier av normbrott och normbrytare erbjuder inte bara värdefulla möjligheter till introspektion och insikter i till exempel designutbildningssammanhang, utan bidrar även till designers förmåga att hantera friktion genom att ge möjlighet att utveckla den normmedvetenhet som är en förutsättning för både normkritik och normkreativitet, vilka båda är av central betydelse för designfältet. Denna studies resultat är dessutom relevanta för design som praktik och disciplin genom att den konkretiserar och konceptualiserar några av dess abstrakta dimensioner, till exempel designers som “mellanförskapare” (in-betweeners) och design som “mellanförskap” (in-betweenness). I avhandlingen belyses nyttan av friktion inom design och vikten av att både designers och designfältet som helhet kan hantera denna på ett konstruktivt sätt. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Prof. Karjalainen, Toni-Matti, University of Arts Helsinki, Finland.
organization
alternative title
Bling & : Andra Normbrott i Design
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Design, norms and values in the design field, Bling, blindspots, breaching experiments, breaches, breachers, in-betweenness/'mellanförskap', in-betweeners/'mellanförskapare', design as in-betweenness /'mellanförskap', monolithic and polylithic contexts, norm critique/norm creativity/norm awareness, Design, normer och värderingar i designfältet, blinda fläckar, normbrytande experiment (breaching experiments), normbrott (breaches), normbrytare (breachers), mellanförskap, mellanförskapare, design som mellanförskap, monolitiska och polylitiska sammanhang, normkritik/normkreativitet/normmedvetenhet
pages
278 pages
publisher
Division of Industrial Design, Lund University
defense location
Lecture Hall Stora hörsalen, IKDC, Sölvegatan 26, Faculty of Engineering LTH, Lund University, Lund. The dissertation will be live streamed, but part of the premises is to be excluded from the live stream. Zoom: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/67325298485
defense date
2023-06-15 13:15:00
ISBN
978-91-8039-580-9
978-91-8039-581-6
project
Norms and Values in Design
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a45b8c3b-b8ad-4e71-a8e0-e8761b7216ef
date added to LUP
2023-05-15 18:37:19
date last changed
2023-05-17 15:54:53
@phdthesis{a45b8c3b-b8ad-4e71-a8e0-e8761b7216ef,
  abstract     = {{The overall theme of this thesis is norm deviations, i.e. <i>breaches</i>, as an approach to illuminating blindspots in the design field in order to handle potential friction that arises constructively. The research presented consisted of two parts: the Bling? studies, which are part of the licentiate thesis, attached in Appendix 2, and the Breach! studies.<br/>The Bling? studies present how planned provocations in the form of norm violating experiments, i.e. <i>breaching experiments</i>, were used in a design education context to illuminate blindspots and reflect on and question established truths. Design students’ encounters with the Bling aesthetic resulted in their dismissal of it due to the design field’s underlying norms and values about good and bad taste and thus highlighted a blindspot in the relationship between good design and good taste. In the Breach! part of the studies breaching experiments were explored, and rather than these being staged artificially the focus was on identifying naturally occurring breaches in the design field. The aim was to understand how these are expressed, the motives that drive the people who perform the breaches, i.e. the <i>breachers</i>, and what these breaches reveal about the design field.<br/>Within the framework of the Breach! studies, a comparative interview study was conducted wherein designers in Sweden and New Zealand shared their experiences and reflections on their practice, what drives them, what challenges they face, how they handle these challenges, and how they see the future of their profession. A qualitative content analysis of the designers’ narratives employing breaches as an analytical filter showed, among other things, that to some extent the designers in New Zealand felt that they are isolated from the rest of the world in a professional sense as compared to their Swedish colleagues. At the same time, they feel less constrained by bureaucratic processes and more flexible to address challenges as <i>in-betweeners</i> and <i>bricoleurs</i>. Although Swedish design benefits from the widely known Scandinavian design brand, the responses of the designers in Sweden suggested that norms and values about what is right and wrong contribute to a more solid, less flexible discourse about what design is and could be, and there are tendencies towards a more <i>monolithic </i>context, contrasting with the more <i>polylithic </i>one in New Zealand.<br/>An additional Breach! study was conducted with the intention of comparing three designers who, in different ways, breach the prevalent norms of their context. Each of these breachers represents a niche of the design field – design practice, design education, and design research – with intention to exploring different types of breaches and breachers. Regardless of how successful they are in their breaches, their attempts have the potential to push the boundaries regarding which questions are possible to ask in different fields and go beyond these, so that they can expand – especially in normative contexts, or when consensus is high on the agenda.<br/>Breaches and breachers offer valuable opportunities not only for insights and introspection, e.g. in design education contexts, but for managing friction and building norm awareness, which is a prerequisite for both norm criticism and norm creativity – both of which are central aspects of the design field. Furthermore, the contribution of this work is relevant to the design field in terms of concretising and conceptualising some of the abstract dimensions of design as a practice and discipline, i.e. designers as in-betweeners/<i>mellanförskapare </i>and design as in-betweenness/<i>mellanförskap</i>. It highlights the importance of friction in design, and of both designers and the design field being able to handle it in a constructive way.}},
  author       = {{Christoforidou, Despina}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-8039-580-9}},
  keywords     = {{Design; norms and values in the design field; Bling; blindspots; breaching experiments; breaches; breachers; in-betweenness/'mellanförskap'; in-betweeners/'mellanförskapare'; design as in-betweenness /'mellanförskap'; monolithic and polylithic contexts; norm critique/norm creativity/norm awareness; Design; normer och värderingar i designfältet; blinda fläckar; normbrytande experiment (breaching experiments); normbrott (breaches); normbrytare (breachers); mellanförskap; mellanförskapare; design som mellanförskap; monolitiska och polylitiska sammanhang; normkritik/normkreativitet/normmedvetenhet}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Division of Industrial Design, Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  title        = {{Bling & : Other Breaches in Design}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/146681786/PhD_thesis_kappa_Bling_Other_Breaches_in_Design_web_20230517.pdf}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}