Abstract
Ranulph Glanville came to believe that cybernetics and design are two sides of the same coin. The authors present their understanding of Glanville and the relationships they see between cybernetics and design. They argue that cybernetics is a necessary foundation for twenty-first century design practice : If design, then systems: Due in part to the rise of computing technology and its role in human communications, the domain of design has expanded from giving form to creating systems that support human interactions ; thus, systems literacy becomes a necessary foundation for design. If systems, then cybernetics: Interaction involves goals , feedback , and learning , the science of which is cybernetics. If cybernetics, then second-order cybernetics: Framing wicked problems requires making explicit one’s values and viewpoints, accompanied by the responsibility to justify them with explicit arguments; this incorporates subjectivity and the epistemology of second-order cybernetics . If second-order cybernetics, then conversation: Design grounded in argumentation requires conversations so that participants may understand, agree, and collaborate on effective action – that is, participants in a design conversation learn together in order to act together. The authors see cybernetics as a way of framing both the process of designing and the things being designed – both means and ends – not only design-as-conversation but also design-for-conversation. Second-order cybernetics frames design as conversation , and they explicitly frame “second-order design” as creating possibilities for others to have conversations .
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Notes
- 1.
An earlier version of this paper first appeared in Cybernetics and Human Knowing 22(2–3):73–82. The authors and editors gratefully acknowledge permission to develop this revision based on that original.
- 2.
We acknowledge a broader history of associating design and cybernetics but cannot offer a thorough survey here.
- 3.
The platforms mentioned are grounded in digital technology and therefore incorporate hardware/software infrastructure, but not all platforms are digital (see later example of the Schiphol Airport signage system).
- 4.
For elaboration of design for variety , which is beyond the scope of this paper, see [12].
- 5.
For an eloquent exposition of the emergence and practitioners of second-order cybernetics along with a glossary, Glanville [14] is highly recommended.
- 6.
While we accept the distinction between design and problem-solving, we can imagine typical cases of problem-solving that require conversation . For example, a team might discuss how best to break down a problem into more manageable components. Likewise, much of education involves discussion of strategies for recognizing problem types and appropriate strategies for each type.
- 7.
Further work is needed to more carefully dissect and characterize the types of design conversations . One approach suggests that design for innovation requires four broad classes of conversations for these purposes : to agree on goals ; to agree on means; to create new language , as required for innovation; and, in an over-arching conversation , to design the conversations required for design, from the perspective of requisite variety [27].
- 8.
Chatbots, such as Elisa and her many spawn, e.g., Mattel’s Hello Barbie, which follow pre-defined script trees, are not examples of design-for-conversation . Nor are voiced agents, such as Siri and Alexa. Indeed, the current fad for so-called “conversational interfaces” misses the point of conversation [28].
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Dubberly, H., Pangaro, P. (2019). Cybernetics and Design: Conversations for Action. In: Fischer, T., Herr, C. (eds) Design Cybernetics. Design Research Foundations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18557-2_4
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