I'm a design researcher and writer of fiction and narrative non-fiction with expertise in multidisciplinary collaborations. My research is informed by a concern with the empirical and the imaginative and is typically expansive in its focus, combining the analytical and creative investigation of alternative worlds and conjectural histories, with the philosophy of science and technology, sociology of consumption, narratology, design history and aesthetic theory. These diverse thematic and disciplinary lenses are bound by an enduring concern with the way particular feelings and sensations attach to and are expressed in objects, images and places, and how such feelings are complicated over generations through technological, political and economic change.
In my practice as a writer of fiction and the essay, I am particularly interested in how narratival and tonal dimensions of literary writing can be combined with design research for the purpose registering the more obscure and fleeting aspects of such change. As a design researcher, I am interested in developing better ways to understand forms of experience that have been studied as consumer or user oriented, but which demand more subtle and complex analysis.
Since the late 1990s, W. G. Sebald’s innovative contribution to the genre of prose fiction has be... more Since the late 1990s, W. G. Sebald’s innovative contribution to the genre of prose fiction has been the source of much academic scrutiny. His books Vertigo, The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants and Austerlitz have provoked interest from diverse fields of inquiry: visual communication (Kilbourn; Patt; Zadokerski), trauma studies (Denham and McCulloh; Schmitz), and travel writing (Blackler; Zisselsberger). His work is also claimed to be a bastion for both modernist and postmodernist approaches to literature and history writing (Bere; Fuchs and Long; Long). This is in addition to numerous “guide to” type books, such as Mark McCulloh’s Understanding Sebald, Long and Whitehead’s W. G. Sebald—A Critical Companion, and the comprehensive Saturn’s Moons: A W. G. Sebald Handbook. Here I have only mentioned works available in English. I should point out that Sebald wrote in German, the country of his birth, and as one would expect much scholarship dealing with his work is confined to this langua...
This article identifies and analyses the implications of a common argument in recent repair liter... more This article identifies and analyses the implications of a common argument in recent repair literature that assumes the greater valuing of objects and repair in and of themselves is something that is likely to increase rates of repair across the population. This is particularly evident in a certain strand of research and accompanying vocational sentiments that interpret repair through the lens of design and an associated emphasis on materiality. We conceptualise this assumption in relation to a hypothesised opposing view, which is indifferent to the epistemic virtues of repair and, by contrast, places greater emphasis on the everyday practices enabled by acts of repair. Based on developments in the sociological studies of consumption, we propose a conceptualisation of these as ‘conspicuous and inconspicuous repair’. Research from a panel composed of expert designers is used as a context for discussing the assumptions that inform disciplinary aspirations of designers and how they relate more broadly to everyday practices. To conclude we suggest that, while the assumptions of some designers relating to the value of objects and repair can be misguided, they nonetheless have an important role to play in systemic reorientations to responsible production and consumption.
Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 2021
This article argues humanities scholarship is often dismissive of the quantitative, and that ther... more This article argues humanities scholarship is often dismissive of the quantitative, and that there is scope for worthwhile interdisciplinary research into the way everyday life is given tone and texture by experiences and cultures of number. Following the work of Mary Poovey (2008) and Steven Connor (2016), it challenges the view, particularly influential in the humanities, that number and associated ideas to do with data, objectivity, mathematics, and the rational, are parasitic upon life. In contrast to this view, this article suggests that even if the idea of 'the human' is defined in opposition to number, the relation between the two is more usefully understood as an interweaving of differential tensions, rather than two poles separated by an uncrossable distance. Examples from literary fiction and two smartphone apps are analysed with the intent of initiating a dialogue between different cultural objects that share a concern with number and human experience.
- Drawing on a case study of an ecological assessment report used in part for landholder engageme... more - Drawing on a case study of an ecological assessment report used in part for landholder engagement by an Australian government biodiversity initiative, this paper illustrates how literary theory and design might aid in designing improved versions of documents and communications used to engage and inform landholders, which may contribute to improved biodiversity outcomes. - Biodiversity monitoring and reporting documents used by ecologists to record and communicate data can be required to fulfil different and often contrasting purposes when used in multi-stakeholder situations. Documents might need to stand up to the scrutiny of different disciplinary domains, such as law, ecology and business, while also informing, entertaining and communicating at an emotional level. In this sense, the design of such documents is a significant challenge, made more difficult by the siloing of disciplinary knowledges that deal with ecological and social concerns. - Attention to the design of documents and their role in a broader service system is argued to be an important perspective alongside research into conservation management that focuses on the psychological motivations of landholders and environmental management, planning and governance.
This article argues that examples of literary fiction and research from literary theory can compl... more This article argues that examples of literary fiction and research from literary theory can complement futuring research that makes use of narrative archetypes. Specifically, such examples can offer distinctive insight into the longer timescale, multi-layered complexities and ambiguity that characterises socio-technological change. This article briefly outlines the limitations of futuring research that derives narrative archetypes from science fiction and of archetypes more generally as units of narrative meaning. It then closely analyses Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Stranger's Child (2011) and draws on research from literary theory to highlight the subtleties of construction evident in this work that go beyond narrative structures based on archetypes and offer a number of complicating perspectives on sociotechnological change. Hollinghurst's narrative is then used to inform a series of impressionistic scenarios involving smart home technology in order to indicate more specifically how a deeper understanding of literary craft might aid in envisioning alterative futures. To conclude, the article suggests finding the right balance between schematization, on the one hand, and accounting for complexity and ambiguity, on the other hand, is a key challenge when developing resources from literary narratives.
This article makes the argument that Peter Sloterdijk's philosophy provides a useful and thought-... more This article makes the argument that Peter Sloterdijk's philosophy provides a useful and thought-provoking basis for studies of contemporary indoor ecologies. Sloterdijk's philosophy is distinctively attentive to the various environments in which humans exist and of the ecological situation of beings in general. The notions of interiority explored in Sloterdijk's work, particularly the third volume of his spheres trilogy Spheres III: Foams (2004, 2016), provide important tools for conceptualizing the changing nature of indoor spaces and contemporary modes of being in the world. Sloterdijk's approach to philosophical analysis exhibits a number of interrelated advantages that mesh well with the ambitions of human ecology, particularly in relation to indoor ecological conditions. These include his sustained conceptual exploration of technological and scientific developments, his distinctive use of rhetoric and philosophy in the characterization of human agency, and the close attention he pays to the relationship between being and design. This article unpacks the value of these perspectives through a sustained attention to Spheres III: Foams and aims to demonstrate why Sloterdijk's work provides an invaluable philosophical tool kit to foreground and unite scholarship in diverse fields exploring the relationship between interior spaces, human perception , and society.
This paper makes the case that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector hav... more This paper makes the case that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector have the potential to benefit from connections with design research units operating within universities. It points out some of the challenges associated with research and development for SMEs, and argues design research units can allow SMEs to better meet these challenges. Additive Manufacturing is used as an exemplary emerging technology that makes explicit the new possibilities and instability of the contemporary manufacturing landscape. A case study is used to articulate the potentials and limitations of industry and university partnerships in design. In conclusion, two alternative models are analysed in order to highlight different ends to which the practitioner-based research can be put.
This article discusses the intimate sensory relations between humans and fruit. It articulates a ... more This article discusses the intimate sensory relations between humans and fruit. It articulates a view that the dynamically interrelated characteristics of microstructural complexity, sweetness and extreme malleability make the experiential dimensions of fruit distinctive in anthropological experience. The article draws on the work of Steven Connor for theoretical support. Particular focus is given to his concept of ‘senstance’, which emphasizes the important role substances have in the human imagination, and inversely, the way imagination allows humans to make explicit the seductive but often obscure properties of substances. It proposes Connor is a worthy inheritor of the place held by thinkers such as Roland Barthes and Gaston Bachelard, whose work has been an enduring influence for design theorists and historians. Fruit-focused examples from poetry, art and design are discussed with the view of elaborating a suitably rich and multifaceted account of the anthropological importance of this mundane but pervasive thing.
This paper showcases insights derived from the work of Steven Connor, Peter Sloterdijk, and Siann... more This paper showcases insights derived from the work of Steven Connor, Peter Sloterdijk, and Sianne Ngai, thinkers who give particularly provocative accounts of why the meanings of work and play have changed in the late twentieth century and the way these changes can be read through specific, exemplary objects or services. Following the work of these thinkers, it interprets the relationship between work and play as characteristically dynamic and argues that in cultures where pleasure, fun, and leisure become abundant, the affects associated with these experiences also change. The intent is to provide a suggestive introduction to the work of Connor, Sloterdijk, and Ngai, and do some initial sorting of ideas for subsequent design-focused research. For design practitioners, this article will be useful for the insight generating and discovery phases of the design process. From a design studies and theory perspective, my argument is that the work of these thinkers should sit alongside cultural theorists and philosophers who are more routinely referenced in this field, such as Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, and Jean Baudrillard.
This article interprets the work of cultural theorists Steven Connor and Sianne Ngai in terms of ... more This article interprets the work of cultural theorists Steven Connor and Sianne Ngai in terms of their efforts to reevaluate certain key presumptions of aesthetic theory that inherits the surprisingly resilient biases of the 18th century, in particular the work of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke. Focusing on the work of Ngai and Connor, I think through the implications this recent theory has for the previously peripheral position occupied by gustatory taste and the cultural objects and experiences it implicates. I discuss the possibility that ideas and examples drawn from the work of Connor and Ngai might form the basis for an alternative area of analysis that is better adapted to the peculiarities of gustatory taste and the culinary. In particular , I argue that the visceral element, which tends to accompany gustatory taste, ought to be interpreted in terms of its generative contribution to the creation of concepts through metaphor, rather than as a muddying influence that prevents clarity of discrimination. Similarly, the close relationship between the edible and the domestic is deserving of a more generous reading than is commonly found in aesthetic theory underwritten by the categories of the sublime and the beautiful.
In his book Last Landscapes (2003), Ken Warpole notes that, for a number of reasons, cemetery ar... more In his book Last Landscapes (2003), Ken Warpole notes that, for a number of reasons, cemetery architecture is the most conservative aspect of the institutions and practices surrounding death and memorialisation in the West. This is starting to change, with designers and architects responding to the groundswell of sentiment demanding that we moderns modernise our ceremonies and associated institutions. In the following essay, I look at the different demands and opportunities in urban and rural cemetery design, and focus on the multifunctional roles that cemeteries have played in the past and might yet play again.
This essay is the meeting place of previous work on paddock architecture in the Australian landscape and a recent project looking at death and the landscape. I am interested in the ways that design might respond to the nexus identified by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk as ‘reactionary religion and progressive technological medicine’ (2013: 421), which can bar the possibility of a dignified death and a dignifying place for the dead among the living. This doesn’t mean a return to the ostentation of Victorian mourning rituals or adopting the ‘death as party’ practices of Ghana or Mexico—which isn’t to say we can’t learn anything from these. Instead, the task seems to be finding a way to give meaning to the values of specific lives and the contexts in which they are embedded, and to provide better support structures (both material, atmospheric and symbolic) for those who gather around the absence created by the departed.
Pointing to the divergences and common ground between German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk's civil... more Pointing to the divergences and common ground between German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk's civilisational analysis and the field of practice theory.
Since the late 1990s, W. G. Sebald’s innovative contribution to the genre of prose fiction has be... more Since the late 1990s, W. G. Sebald’s innovative contribution to the genre of prose fiction has been the source of much academic scrutiny. His books Vertigo, The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants and Austerlitz have provoked interest from diverse fields of inquiry: visual communication (Kilbourn; Patt; Zadokerski), trauma studies (Denham and McCulloh; Schmitz), and travel writing (Blackler; Zisselsberger). His work is also claimed to be a bastion for both modernist and postmodernist approaches to literature and history writing (Bere; Fuchs and Long; Long). This is in addition to numerous “guide to” type books, such as Mark McCulloh’s Understanding Sebald, Long and Whitehead’s W. G. Sebald—A Critical Companion, and the comprehensive Saturn’s Moons: A W. G. Sebald Handbook. Here I have only mentioned works available in English. I should point out that Sebald wrote in German, the country of his birth, and as one would expect much scholarship dealing with his work is confined to this langua...
This article identifies and analyses the implications of a common argument in recent repair liter... more This article identifies and analyses the implications of a common argument in recent repair literature that assumes the greater valuing of objects and repair in and of themselves is something that is likely to increase rates of repair across the population. This is particularly evident in a certain strand of research and accompanying vocational sentiments that interpret repair through the lens of design and an associated emphasis on materiality. We conceptualise this assumption in relation to a hypothesised opposing view, which is indifferent to the epistemic virtues of repair and, by contrast, places greater emphasis on the everyday practices enabled by acts of repair. Based on developments in the sociological studies of consumption, we propose a conceptualisation of these as ‘conspicuous and inconspicuous repair’. Research from a panel composed of expert designers is used as a context for discussing the assumptions that inform disciplinary aspirations of designers and how they relate more broadly to everyday practices. To conclude we suggest that, while the assumptions of some designers relating to the value of objects and repair can be misguided, they nonetheless have an important role to play in systemic reorientations to responsible production and consumption.
Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 2021
This article argues humanities scholarship is often dismissive of the quantitative, and that ther... more This article argues humanities scholarship is often dismissive of the quantitative, and that there is scope for worthwhile interdisciplinary research into the way everyday life is given tone and texture by experiences and cultures of number. Following the work of Mary Poovey (2008) and Steven Connor (2016), it challenges the view, particularly influential in the humanities, that number and associated ideas to do with data, objectivity, mathematics, and the rational, are parasitic upon life. In contrast to this view, this article suggests that even if the idea of 'the human' is defined in opposition to number, the relation between the two is more usefully understood as an interweaving of differential tensions, rather than two poles separated by an uncrossable distance. Examples from literary fiction and two smartphone apps are analysed with the intent of initiating a dialogue between different cultural objects that share a concern with number and human experience.
- Drawing on a case study of an ecological assessment report used in part for landholder engageme... more - Drawing on a case study of an ecological assessment report used in part for landholder engagement by an Australian government biodiversity initiative, this paper illustrates how literary theory and design might aid in designing improved versions of documents and communications used to engage and inform landholders, which may contribute to improved biodiversity outcomes. - Biodiversity monitoring and reporting documents used by ecologists to record and communicate data can be required to fulfil different and often contrasting purposes when used in multi-stakeholder situations. Documents might need to stand up to the scrutiny of different disciplinary domains, such as law, ecology and business, while also informing, entertaining and communicating at an emotional level. In this sense, the design of such documents is a significant challenge, made more difficult by the siloing of disciplinary knowledges that deal with ecological and social concerns. - Attention to the design of documents and their role in a broader service system is argued to be an important perspective alongside research into conservation management that focuses on the psychological motivations of landholders and environmental management, planning and governance.
This article argues that examples of literary fiction and research from literary theory can compl... more This article argues that examples of literary fiction and research from literary theory can complement futuring research that makes use of narrative archetypes. Specifically, such examples can offer distinctive insight into the longer timescale, multi-layered complexities and ambiguity that characterises socio-technological change. This article briefly outlines the limitations of futuring research that derives narrative archetypes from science fiction and of archetypes more generally as units of narrative meaning. It then closely analyses Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Stranger's Child (2011) and draws on research from literary theory to highlight the subtleties of construction evident in this work that go beyond narrative structures based on archetypes and offer a number of complicating perspectives on sociotechnological change. Hollinghurst's narrative is then used to inform a series of impressionistic scenarios involving smart home technology in order to indicate more specifically how a deeper understanding of literary craft might aid in envisioning alterative futures. To conclude, the article suggests finding the right balance between schematization, on the one hand, and accounting for complexity and ambiguity, on the other hand, is a key challenge when developing resources from literary narratives.
This article makes the argument that Peter Sloterdijk's philosophy provides a useful and thought-... more This article makes the argument that Peter Sloterdijk's philosophy provides a useful and thought-provoking basis for studies of contemporary indoor ecologies. Sloterdijk's philosophy is distinctively attentive to the various environments in which humans exist and of the ecological situation of beings in general. The notions of interiority explored in Sloterdijk's work, particularly the third volume of his spheres trilogy Spheres III: Foams (2004, 2016), provide important tools for conceptualizing the changing nature of indoor spaces and contemporary modes of being in the world. Sloterdijk's approach to philosophical analysis exhibits a number of interrelated advantages that mesh well with the ambitions of human ecology, particularly in relation to indoor ecological conditions. These include his sustained conceptual exploration of technological and scientific developments, his distinctive use of rhetoric and philosophy in the characterization of human agency, and the close attention he pays to the relationship between being and design. This article unpacks the value of these perspectives through a sustained attention to Spheres III: Foams and aims to demonstrate why Sloterdijk's work provides an invaluable philosophical tool kit to foreground and unite scholarship in diverse fields exploring the relationship between interior spaces, human perception , and society.
This paper makes the case that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector hav... more This paper makes the case that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector have the potential to benefit from connections with design research units operating within universities. It points out some of the challenges associated with research and development for SMEs, and argues design research units can allow SMEs to better meet these challenges. Additive Manufacturing is used as an exemplary emerging technology that makes explicit the new possibilities and instability of the contemporary manufacturing landscape. A case study is used to articulate the potentials and limitations of industry and university partnerships in design. In conclusion, two alternative models are analysed in order to highlight different ends to which the practitioner-based research can be put.
This article discusses the intimate sensory relations between humans and fruit. It articulates a ... more This article discusses the intimate sensory relations between humans and fruit. It articulates a view that the dynamically interrelated characteristics of microstructural complexity, sweetness and extreme malleability make the experiential dimensions of fruit distinctive in anthropological experience. The article draws on the work of Steven Connor for theoretical support. Particular focus is given to his concept of ‘senstance’, which emphasizes the important role substances have in the human imagination, and inversely, the way imagination allows humans to make explicit the seductive but often obscure properties of substances. It proposes Connor is a worthy inheritor of the place held by thinkers such as Roland Barthes and Gaston Bachelard, whose work has been an enduring influence for design theorists and historians. Fruit-focused examples from poetry, art and design are discussed with the view of elaborating a suitably rich and multifaceted account of the anthropological importance of this mundane but pervasive thing.
This paper showcases insights derived from the work of Steven Connor, Peter Sloterdijk, and Siann... more This paper showcases insights derived from the work of Steven Connor, Peter Sloterdijk, and Sianne Ngai, thinkers who give particularly provocative accounts of why the meanings of work and play have changed in the late twentieth century and the way these changes can be read through specific, exemplary objects or services. Following the work of these thinkers, it interprets the relationship between work and play as characteristically dynamic and argues that in cultures where pleasure, fun, and leisure become abundant, the affects associated with these experiences also change. The intent is to provide a suggestive introduction to the work of Connor, Sloterdijk, and Ngai, and do some initial sorting of ideas for subsequent design-focused research. For design practitioners, this article will be useful for the insight generating and discovery phases of the design process. From a design studies and theory perspective, my argument is that the work of these thinkers should sit alongside cultural theorists and philosophers who are more routinely referenced in this field, such as Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, and Jean Baudrillard.
This article interprets the work of cultural theorists Steven Connor and Sianne Ngai in terms of ... more This article interprets the work of cultural theorists Steven Connor and Sianne Ngai in terms of their efforts to reevaluate certain key presumptions of aesthetic theory that inherits the surprisingly resilient biases of the 18th century, in particular the work of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke. Focusing on the work of Ngai and Connor, I think through the implications this recent theory has for the previously peripheral position occupied by gustatory taste and the cultural objects and experiences it implicates. I discuss the possibility that ideas and examples drawn from the work of Connor and Ngai might form the basis for an alternative area of analysis that is better adapted to the peculiarities of gustatory taste and the culinary. In particular , I argue that the visceral element, which tends to accompany gustatory taste, ought to be interpreted in terms of its generative contribution to the creation of concepts through metaphor, rather than as a muddying influence that prevents clarity of discrimination. Similarly, the close relationship between the edible and the domestic is deserving of a more generous reading than is commonly found in aesthetic theory underwritten by the categories of the sublime and the beautiful.
In his book Last Landscapes (2003), Ken Warpole notes that, for a number of reasons, cemetery ar... more In his book Last Landscapes (2003), Ken Warpole notes that, for a number of reasons, cemetery architecture is the most conservative aspect of the institutions and practices surrounding death and memorialisation in the West. This is starting to change, with designers and architects responding to the groundswell of sentiment demanding that we moderns modernise our ceremonies and associated institutions. In the following essay, I look at the different demands and opportunities in urban and rural cemetery design, and focus on the multifunctional roles that cemeteries have played in the past and might yet play again.
This essay is the meeting place of previous work on paddock architecture in the Australian landscape and a recent project looking at death and the landscape. I am interested in the ways that design might respond to the nexus identified by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk as ‘reactionary religion and progressive technological medicine’ (2013: 421), which can bar the possibility of a dignified death and a dignifying place for the dead among the living. This doesn’t mean a return to the ostentation of Victorian mourning rituals or adopting the ‘death as party’ practices of Ghana or Mexico—which isn’t to say we can’t learn anything from these. Instead, the task seems to be finding a way to give meaning to the values of specific lives and the contexts in which they are embedded, and to provide better support structures (both material, atmospheric and symbolic) for those who gather around the absence created by the departed.
Pointing to the divergences and common ground between German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk's civil... more Pointing to the divergences and common ground between German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk's civilisational analysis and the field of practice theory.
Imagine you could turn a hollow sphere completely inside out - without making a hole, without cut... more Imagine you could turn a hollow sphere completely inside out - without making a hole, without cutting the material, without making any creases. If you could ever do such a thing, it would rely on a field of mathematics called topology.
Kate Scardifileld’s current exhibition Soft Topologies at the UTS Gallery is an example of an artist using the metaphor of topology to make artwork and describe her practice. Scardifield’s primary media are textiles, though the exhibition is also a series of “adaptable sculptures” that will be transformed by the artist and a select, multidisciplinary team.
The exhibition is a choreography of Scardifield’s attractively coloured textiles, which spray, flutter, fan, drape, hang and crumple through the space like escaped gestures. These forms are only one version of the installations, limited by the static state convenient for gallery viewing.
In the future, humans will interact more and more with automated help. Whether it’s smart home ha... more In the future, humans will interact more and more with automated help. Whether it’s smart home hardware or chatbots, digital interfaces and virtual assistants rely on conversation for interaction and instruction.
The designers of such systems must confront questions regarding the platform’s voice or the bot’s personality – in other words, how to find the right balance between friendliness and impersonality, humour and seriousness, pleasure and friction.
I display the beginnings of an investigation into the relationship between balance, force and fee... more I display the beginnings of an investigation into the relationship between balance, force and feeling mediated by feet. Rather than focus wholly on feet themselves, I consider the places that feet go, what they get up to and the surfaces they make sense of, in order to give them an adequately detailed and lively history.
A piece for the Artlink Special Issue on Data Visualisation looking at the work of Zoe Sadokiersk... more A piece for the Artlink Special Issue on Data Visualisation looking at the work of Zoe Sadokierski and Kate Sweetapple.
This short article for The Conversation explores how 3D printing fits into the world of craft or ... more This short article for The Conversation explores how 3D printing fits into the world of craft or handmade objects. It focuses on the work of Australian designer and academic Berto Pandolfo.
The Counselor is a collaboration between one of the last century’s literary greats, novelist Corm... more The Counselor is a collaboration between one of the last century’s literary greats, novelist Cormac McCarthy, and one of the filmmakers who has helped define contemporary, mainstream American cinema, director Ridley Scott. And it provides an opportunity to witness the tension between the demands and preferences of literary writing and those of writing for the screen.
The suburbs were the urban living format that defined Australian cities in the 20th century. Inev... more The suburbs were the urban living format that defined Australian cities in the 20th century. Inevitably they’ve had their champions and detractors. Suburbia now has a new format in the medium-to-high-density residential spaces that are being rapidly built in previously industrialised areas.
This article sketches out the relationship between 3D printing and sets of metaphorical imagining... more This article sketches out the relationship between 3D printing and sets of metaphorical imaginings associated with this technology. In the first part of the article I outline the psychotechnographic approach taken by Steven Connor (2017) in his recent work on imaginary machines. Connor's work focuses on accounting for the metaphorical feedback loops between the things humans make and how such things are imagined, both before and after coming into being. In the following section I examine the themes of replication and transportation. These are two key technological fantasies associated with 3D printing and the infrastructure it is suited to exploit and influence. In the final section, I consider the interaction between 3D printing and broader sets of trends, which Peter Sloterdijk (2016) puts forward as characteristic of late capitalist societies. I cull examples from current uses and speculative hopes for the technology with the aim of showing how its manifestation bears the imprint of the identified fantasies and trends. In conclusion, I suggest that 3D printing will have the most intense influence where its affordances harmonise with existing trends, and that efforts to shape its applications for the purpose of social good will benefit from closely attending to both the practical and expressive possibilities enabled by the technology.
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- Biodiversity monitoring and reporting documents used by ecologists to record and communicate data can be required to fulfil different and often contrasting purposes when used in multi-stakeholder situations. Documents might need to stand up to the scrutiny of different disciplinary domains, such as law, ecology and business, while also informing, entertaining and communicating at an emotional level. In this sense, the design of such documents is a significant challenge, made more difficult by the siloing of disciplinary knowledges that deal with ecological and social concerns.
- Attention to the design of documents and their role in a broader service system is argued to be an important perspective alongside research into conservation management that focuses on the psychological motivations of landholders and environmental management, planning and governance.
This essay is the meeting place of previous work on paddock architecture in the Australian landscape and a recent project looking at death and the landscape. I am interested in the ways that design might respond to the nexus identified by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk as ‘reactionary religion and progressive technological medicine’ (2013: 421), which can bar the possibility of a dignified death and a dignifying place for the dead among the living. This doesn’t mean a return to the ostentation of Victorian mourning rituals or adopting the ‘death as party’ practices of Ghana or Mexico—which isn’t to say we can’t learn anything from these. Instead, the task seems to be finding a way to give meaning to the values of specific lives and the contexts in which they are embedded, and to provide better support structures (both material, atmospheric and symbolic) for those who gather around the absence created by the departed.
- Biodiversity monitoring and reporting documents used by ecologists to record and communicate data can be required to fulfil different and often contrasting purposes when used in multi-stakeholder situations. Documents might need to stand up to the scrutiny of different disciplinary domains, such as law, ecology and business, while also informing, entertaining and communicating at an emotional level. In this sense, the design of such documents is a significant challenge, made more difficult by the siloing of disciplinary knowledges that deal with ecological and social concerns.
- Attention to the design of documents and their role in a broader service system is argued to be an important perspective alongside research into conservation management that focuses on the psychological motivations of landholders and environmental management, planning and governance.
This essay is the meeting place of previous work on paddock architecture in the Australian landscape and a recent project looking at death and the landscape. I am interested in the ways that design might respond to the nexus identified by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk as ‘reactionary religion and progressive technological medicine’ (2013: 421), which can bar the possibility of a dignified death and a dignifying place for the dead among the living. This doesn’t mean a return to the ostentation of Victorian mourning rituals or adopting the ‘death as party’ practices of Ghana or Mexico—which isn’t to say we can’t learn anything from these. Instead, the task seems to be finding a way to give meaning to the values of specific lives and the contexts in which they are embedded, and to provide better support structures (both material, atmospheric and symbolic) for those who gather around the absence created by the departed.
If you could ever do such a thing, it would rely on a field of mathematics called topology.
Kate Scardifileld’s current exhibition Soft Topologies at the UTS Gallery is an example of an artist using the metaphor of topology to make artwork and describe her practice. Scardifield’s primary media are textiles, though the exhibition is also a series of “adaptable sculptures” that will be transformed by the artist and a select, multidisciplinary team.
The exhibition is a choreography of Scardifield’s attractively coloured textiles, which spray, flutter, fan, drape, hang and crumple through the space like escaped gestures. These forms are only one version of the installations, limited by the static state convenient for gallery viewing.
The designers of such systems must confront questions regarding the platform’s voice or the bot’s personality – in other words, how to find the right balance between friendliness and impersonality, humour and seriousness, pleasure and friction.