Critical design in context : history, theory, and practice / Matt Malpass

Includes bibliographical references and index

Chapter 1: Introducing critical design. Challenging orthodoxy; Challenging colloquialism: the problem with critical design; What's so critical about critical design practice; Why study critical design?; Researching critical design practice; 'Critical' in critical design practice; Industrial design as a discipline; The structure and approach to writing -- Chapter 2: History. A forgotten history of critical design practice; An emerging critical design practice; Challenging hegemony; Anti-design; Participatory design; Unikat Design: adding nothing but the concept; Representative design; Design Interactions; Critical Design at the Royal College of Art; Synergies between precedents and contemporary examples of critical design -- Chapter 3: Theories, methods and tactics. Design as a medium for inquiry; Post-optimal design and Para-functionality; Rhetorical use; Discursive design; The aesthetics of use and meaningful presence; Exploratory potential; Design fiction; Speculation and proposition; Constructing publics; Ambiguity; Satire -- Chapter 4: Criticism, function and discipline. Design art; Design art and society; Function in critical design practice; The paradox of critical design in commercial use; Modelling the field; Design at users; Directing critique through design practice -- Chapter 5: Practice. Associative design; Speculative design; Critical design; Design practice as satire; The uses of narrative; Rationality and ambiguity; Towards a taxonomy of critical practices in design; The taxonomy as an analytical tool; Applications of the taxonomy -- Chapter 6: Critical design practice and its disciplinary contribution. Summary; Challenging disciplinary orthodoxy; An extended role for industrial design: discipline, science and society

"Critical Design is becoming an increasingly influential discipline, affecting policy and practice in a range of fields. Matt Malpass's book is the first to introduce critical design as a field, providing a history of the discipline, outlining its key influences, theories and approaches, and explaining how critical design can work in practice through a range of contemporary examples. Critical Design moves away from traditional approaches that limit design's role to the production of profitable objects, focusing instead on a practice that is interrogative, discursive and experimental. Using a wide range of examples from contemporary practice, and drawing on interviews with key practitioners, Matt Malpass provides an introduction to critical design practice and a manifesto for how a radical and unorthodox practice might provide design answers in an age of austerity and ecological crisis"-- Back cover