Welcome 2007!

“…the elementary unit of information—is a difference which makes a difference.” Gregory Bateson, anthropologist

During the last decades of the 20th century the switch from analog to digital media effected a major transformation on the fabric of human society. Throughout this time of upheaval we also witnessed the birth of the digital media with its convergence of art, science, and technology resulting in novel modes of human expression in communication, education, social interaction, and design.

The profound influence of such changes will continue to be the subject and fuel of much research and development work. An axiomatic principle of the difference between the new media and its previous analog counterpart rests on the essence of digital data as being placeholder of interpretation and representation. Consider a basic example used in the Wikipedia to illustrate this corollary by showing us how the arbitrary sequence of a digital code like “0100 0001” might be interpreted (and represented) as the decimal number 65, the hexadecimal number 41 or the glyph “A”.

This relation has a direct bearing on the position of design in language: Because design happens in language, an important task for the designer is that of ontology creation. When we initially imagine an artifact of design in the digital dimension, in essence we are constructing the ontology that describes the artifact as well gathering and bringing forth the ecosystem in which it aspires to unfold. This is why, as designers, we also have an ethical responsibility.

Design activity has a multi-dimensional scope and outreach. Because of their role as part of human activity, all artifacts—including those involving stochastic processes—are intentionally created. Also as cultural objects artifacts become and exist in space and time. But artifacts are also autopoietic entities. This means that their state-of-being is commensurate with changes in the world that they populate and influence.

Design activity is about translation. This is because design is about sense making and meaning always exists within a system other than that of the designer. When we as designers, question ourselves about the meaning of an artifact, we are indeed translating from one system to another. That is, from our understanding into an understanding of the understanding of others.

In design, a systemic approach to all these variables should begin by recognizing and seeking to understand difference. Difference with respect to relation… What good would be the map without the territory? For Information exists only in relation to other things.

(Link to the full text presentation: About Systems of Representation in Design which I presented at the Innaugural Seminar on January 9, 2007.)
Also here is a YouTube link to the Spiderman Twin Tower Teaser I refer to in the presentation.

A slightly updated version of the essay, About Systems in Representation in Design.