Educating through/to disruption

From Trans­disciplinary to Undisciplined Design Learning: Educating through/to Disruption Flaviano Celaschi, Elena Formia, Eleonora Lupo Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino 3rd International Forum of Design as a Process 3‐5 November 2011, Torino

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Inter­disciplinarity in design teaching: historical approaches

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From trans­disciplinarity to undisciplined design teaching: existing approaches

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A proposal: disruption as undisciplined attitude in education

Hypothesis Which are the challenges of the new learning in design?

Is it possible to innovate the design teaching processes in order to train designer more and more able to innovate?

We start from a historical point of view…

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

Inter­disciplinarity in design teaching: historical approaches The history of design courses and schools, and of related approaches, demonstrates how design occupied the middle of an “ideal” convergence of knowledge, following a process of study and assimilation of interpretative models, theoretical and methodological apparatus, research tools.

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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Inter­disciplinarity in design teaching: historical approaches The literature about this topic agrees in deIining a dualism: The tradition of the Arts & Crafts, which dates back to the critic to the industrialisation emerged in the XIX Century, and more in general the tradition of the artistic disciplines (i.e. creative art and applied art)

The research for the legitimisation of design as a science (i.e. which produces products and technic contents), which emerged in a relevant manner from the half of XX Century

We can also read this conIlict as a double line of approaches to design teaching: The cultivation of the “artistic” dimension of the designer (the creativity of the subject) subjectivity

The research for innovative methods for designing (the creativity of the processes)

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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Inter­disciplinarity in design teaching: historical approaches The pioneer contests in which design education was born show this ambivalent nature, both inside the evolution of the basic courses developed during their life, both in a general overview of the historical continuity of the experiences. subjectivity objectivity

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The Bauhaus School (1919­1933)

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

the Hochschule fur Gestaltung of Ulm (1953­1968)

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Inter­disciplinarity in design teaching: historical approaches Archetype of Design Curriculum (A. Findeli, Rethinking Design Education for the 21st Century: Theoretical, Methodological, and Ethical Discussion, “Design Issues”, v. 17, n. 1, 2001) A New World Bauhaus A T Gropius 1919‐1928 S Weimar‐Dessau Art

Science A

S T

Technology S

T A

Purpose/Project Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

A New “Man” New Bauhaus Moholy‐Nagy 1937‐1955 Chicago A New Culture UfG Maldonado, Aicher, Ohl, Rittel, etc.

1958‐1968 Ulm

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Inter­disciplinarity in design teaching: historical approaches A practical exempliVication: the Italian case When in the half of XX Century the debates on the need of industrial design inside universities disciplines emerged (La memoria e il futuro. I Congresso Internazionale dell’Industrial Design. Triennale di Milano 1954), the country counts of an empirical inheritance: subjectivity

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The schools of Art (academies of art, schools of applied arts and arts and crafts)

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

The schools of Engineering, in particular the two Polytechnics (Torino and Milano)

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Inter­disciplinarity in design teaching: historical approaches In the meantime, other initiatives demonstrate the increasing debate and the need of new training courses for the designer: many others design courses and schools were founded, mostly of them were private. subjectivity

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ISIA, Istituti Superiori Industrie Artistiche (1974, Roma) Industrial Design Course at Academia Ligustica di Belle Arti (1970, Genova) Scuola Politecnica del Design (Milano, 1970) Domus Academy (Milano, 1980) Futurarium (Milano, 1995) Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

objectivity The schools Architecture (inside Polytechnics or independent: ‐ Industrial design courses (1955, Firenze; 1958, Napoli; 1969. Torino) ‐ Foundation of the Virst Design Faculty, Milano (1995)

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Transdisciplinary approach M. Cometa (Studi Culturali) La transdisciplinarità è la capacità di traghettare da una disciplina all’altra frammenti di sapere.

Dunque si tratta (…) del reale spostamento di metodi e soggetti da un ambito all’altro. (…)

Trans‐ richiama il carattere performativo di queste transizioni.

John Marshall (Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders) A ‘transdisciplinary’ approach recognises the boundaries of the problem being addressed, not the artiVicial boundaries of disciplines

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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from a subjective to an objective educational approach

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subjectivity

objectivity

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

from trans­disciplinary to undisciplinary/indisciplined approach Trans­disciplinary

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2 undisciplined

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

The blurring of design boundaries “We are in a post­disciplinary age” Rodgers, Smyth, Digital blur. Creative practices at the boundaries of architecture, design, art, 2010

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designers no longer Iit into orderly categories and design is being described as multidisciplinary, cross­disciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans­disciplinary (Brown et al., 2010; Turnbull Hocking, 2010)

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

The blurring of design boundaries New designer hybrids Tony Dunne, Head of Interaction Design at the RCA, states: “New hybrids of design are emerging. People don’t Qit in neat categories; they’re a mixture of artists, engineers, designers, thinkers. They’re in that fuzzy space and might be Qinding it quite tough, but the results are really exciting.” (West, 2007) Richard Seymour (2006) has claimed that design is splitting into two separate disciplines. He proposed that the world needs a different breed of designer in this modern, dynamic and highly competitive environment – the “hybrid” designer: ‐ the “polymath interpolator” uses his or her experience and “broad bandwidth” to deIine the area where the solution might lie and ‐ the “specialist executor” then implements it speciIically within the format that is needed

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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Inter­multi­trans actions one day symposium with a number of leading practitioners from the Iields of art, architecture and design who each share a common desire to exploit their creative practice.

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

The blurring of design boundaries Implication in education (Rodgers, 2007) ‐ Design students should not attempt to develop deep expertise in any one Iield, but, rather, take in information from many sources. Far from being a weakness this represents real generalist strength; ‐Designing is no longer a localised activity. Every individual designer and design practice competes and has access to every level of practice and expertise; ‐ Designers need ever greater Ilexibility and networking skills; ‐ Designers must be comfortable working with others, and being skilled in managing the dynamics of group activity as it is rare now for design projects to be completed by an individual; ‐ Designing is increasingly about intellectual capital and less about delivering a trade or craft ability; ‐ Designers must be skilled in creating the right environment to promote creative thinking and design activity that develops vital intellectual capital;

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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undisciplinarity The epistemological shift towards undisciplinarity (Bauwens, 2009) It's not "interdisciplinary”, neither is it transdisciplinary.

It’s an evolution from disciplinarity, to interdisciplinarity, via transdisciplinarity, to undisciplinarity; forgetting about disciplines altogether being a more radical step than merely ‘transcending’ the disciplines.

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It's an epistemological shift.

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

undisciplinarity "undisciplinarity is as much a way of doing work as it is a departure from ways of doing work.”

(John Marshall & Julian Bleecker in Digital blur, 2010)

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new knowledge is created rather than incremental contributions to a body of existing knowledge. it is a way of working and an approach to creating and circulating culture that can go its own way, without worrying about working outside of what histories‐ of‐disciplines say is “proper” work. In other words, it is “undisciplined”

2 We don’t say design as a discipline doesn’t exist; neither we say design has no thematic speciVicity!

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

Undisciplined! DRS 2008 Conference On being Undisciplined Alan Blackwell, 2008 Crucible network for research in interdisciplinary design (Blackwell & Good 2008) Academic disciplines address well‐formulated problems, they must agree on what kind of a problem they are addressing (i.e. which discipline it belongs to), that there are agreed methods for addressing the problem, and agreed criteria for what constitutes an answer. All of these attributes are at the centre of academic rigour, and of the intellectual ‘discipline’ that constitutes an academic discipline.

Yet these qualities of rigour and discipline are mostly in direct opposition to the practices and values of design Design research Iields are ever likely to become engaged in problems that defy conventional concepts of academic rigour.

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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from a subjective to an objective educational approach

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subjectivity

objectivity

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

from a subjective to an objective educational approach from trans­disciplinary to undisciplined approach Trans­disciplinary

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subjectivity

objectivity

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undisciplined

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

From trans­disciplinarity to undisciplined design learning: existing approaches TRANS­DISCIPLINARITY

Self‐taught designer

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Designer as mediator

SUBJECTIVITY

OBJECTIVITY

Situationist designer

Disruptive designer

UNDISCIPLINED

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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a proposal: from undisciplinarity to disruptive Towards disruptive designer through undisciplined education?

Is it possible to use an undisciplined design teaching processes in order to train designer more and more able to be disruptive?

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‐ Can we lead students, stimulating an undisciplined attitude, to become disruptive? ‐ In not innate, can a codiIied (therefore transmissible) undisciplined attitude in the design education processes be induced in the students? ‐ Can we, disrupting the teaching process itself, educate students to be disruptive?

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‐ Can we codify an undisciplined approach? It’s not a paradox?

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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Disruption The concept of disruption is still disputed within the design community: it comes from business (“open innovation”, Chesbrough, 2003) and technology literature ( from Christensen, 1997 to Williams, 2011 )

performance

“An innovation that creates a new market by applying a different set of values, which ultimately (and unexpectedly) overtakes an existing market”

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disruptive innovation Sustaining innovation (improvements)

2 Medium quality in use

time Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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disruption as undisciplined attitude in education the paradigm of “disruption” becomes, at the same time, content (how to manage a “disruptive” process) and objective (how to obtain a “disruptive” result) of the didactic of design.

Our hypothesis: a set of possible “triggering actions” of the educational process, already experimented and borrowed from other design domains (product, production, enterprises, market…) under the statement of “rules disobeying or discharging”: ‐ Technical‐functional rules; ‐ Socio‐economical rules; ‐ Aesthetic rules

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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possible rules disobeying and discharging to be applied in design learning socio­economical

technical­functional UNDISCIPLINED PROCESS how to manage a disruptive process

fragment the process invert the linearity of the process (“start with the end”)

aesthetic rules

transgression of the authoriality of the work (design 2.0, post­ production)

Shape the meaning to the not existent (Reys, 2011)

design out of context

transgression of the aesthetic rules

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discharg any process UNDISCIPLINED RESULT

transgression of tecniques

how to obtain a disruptive result

transgression of the use of materials

transgression of the unicity of the work

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transgression of the ergonomic rules

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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possible rules disobeying and discharging to be applied in design learning socio­economical

technical­functional UNDISCIPLINED PROCESS how to manage a disruptive process

fragment the process invert the linearity of the process (“start with the end”)

transgression of the authoriality of the work (design 2.0, post­ production)

aesthetic rules Shape the meaning to the not existent (Reys, 2011)

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discharg any process Cadavre exquis Pic. by Man Ray, Joan Miró, Max Morise and Yves Tanguy

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ConSequenze http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2AFSNaNEwU

Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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possible rules disobeying and discharging to be applied in design learning socio­economical

technical­functional UNDISCIPLINED RESULT how to obtain a disruptive result

transgression of tecniques transgression of the use of materials

to design out of context transgression of the unicity of the work

aesthetic rules transgression of the aesthetic rules

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transgression of the ergonomic rules

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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possible rules disobeying and discharging to be applied in design learning socio­economical

technical­functional UNDISCIPLINED RESULT how to obtain a disruptive result

transgression of tecniques transgression of the use of materials

to design out of context transgression of the unicity of the work

aesthetic rules transgression of the aesthetic rules

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transgression of the ergonomic rules

Final Synthesis design studio in Product design

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Against gravity rules

Against perfection rules Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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conclusions “Triggering actions” for dusrupting the learning design process Providing a set of “undisciplined rules disobeying” that can trigger the disruption of the learning process, in order to educate more disruptive designers

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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conclusions “Triggering actions” for dusrupting the learning design process Providing a set of “undisciplined rules disobeying” that can trigger the disruption of the learning process, in order to educate more disruptive designers…

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In fact: putting in question the rules of designing, while doing and teaching design.

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Educating through/to Disruption | Celaschi, Formia, Lupo | 4 november 2011

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“Personally, I am less concerned about how we, as individual faculty member, will fare in the future than in how we will prepare a new generation of students who will understand the legacy of design and rise to the challenge of the new learning” Richard Buchanan, 1999

Thanks Flaviano Celaschi, Elena Formia, Eleonora Lupo Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino 3rd International Forum of Design as a Process 3‐5 November 2011, Torino