Design: On the Question of “The Imperative”

Abstract

This article looks at design education in the context of design’s ontological designing, and how design is positioned in relation to contemporary global challenges. It deploys this perspective to argue for design becoming a redirective practice.

Keywords:

• design
• education
• action
• change

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In part design studies, the more and small progressive end of design history, design philosophy, and design theory have responded to this situation, but the position and significance of such thinking within the curriculum, and for most design students, remains marginal.

2. This observation clearly underpinned in Fry (2009).

3. In this context, all that travels under the banner of “sustainability” gets nowhere near the imperatives being noted.

4. A term once central in the discourse of trade unionism.

5. This understanding of the term “habitus” was given particular currency by Pierre Bourdieu (1980).

6. The concept of defuturing is outlined at length in Fry (1999).

7. On unsettlement see multiple references in Fry (2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tony Fry

Tony Fry is a designer, theorist, educator, and writer. He is principal of the newly created “The Studio at the Edge of the World” in Launceston, Tasmania – a partnership project with the University of Tasmania – and Adjunct Professor of Design, Griffith University, Brisbane. He is currently consulting and researching in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Fry is the author of twelve books and currently working on a book on Remaking Cities to be published in 2016.

[email protected]