Changing Role of Designers in Society

The next session of the Critical Media Lab Colloquium will take place, Wednesday, 03. June 2015 at the Critical Media Lab (D 3.05) from 9:15 to 10:45 AM.

For the last session of this term’s Critical Media Lab colloquium series — Rendering Research — we host a session with Claudia Mareis on the changing role of designers in society.

This session’s subject will discuss a text by Bruno Latour: “A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design”. Therein he unfolds a new (or maybe: old) notion of “Ding” that might be helpful for rethinking the role of designers in society. He challenges the design practice with the question: “where are the visualization tools that allow the contradictory and controversial nature of matters of concern to be represented?”. Latours philosophy of design might foster our discussion on the dynamics and repercussions of new forms of publication, output, visualisation and rendering of research.

Latour, Bruno: Ein vorsichtiger Prometheus. Einige Schritte hin zu einer Philosophie des Designs, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Peter Sloterdijk. In: Jongen, Marc; van Tuinen, Sjoerd; Hemelsoet, Koenraad (Hg.): Die Vermessung des Ungeheuren: Philosophie nach Peter Sloterdijk. Paderborn: Fink 2009, S. 356–373.

Latour, Bruno: A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design (with Special Attention to Peter Sloterdijk). Keynote lecture for the Networks of Design Meeting of the Design History Society. Falmouth, Cornwall. 2008