Thesis
Traces of emergence: an ontological unification of perception, artefact, and process
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2022
- Thesis identifier
- T16494
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201484583
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Objects are part of a complex matrix that contain emergent experiences and meanings. Ernesto Rogers once claimed that if a spoon was examined carefully enough, one could establish how the maker would design a city. While this observation from the great Italian architect may be an over-generalisation, it draws upon an important point – the objects that humans create are reflections of ourselves, our beliefs, our feelings, motivations, and drives. In short, our whole material and emotional culture. The study of design revolves around the dynamics between form, the processes of making and the diverse experiences of object interaction and use – ontologies of artefact emergence that articulate with the complex patterning structures and practices that produce all of material culture. There are two dominant narratives we must consider when examining design as a practice of making. One, as a narrative of form evolution derived principally from a hylomorphic designer-agent ontology1 and the other, as a narrative of making and manufacturing understood through ontologies of matter manipulation. The relationship between the two narratives, this work will argue, presents deep and poorly understood problems with respect to the current taxonomies and ontologies describing advanced manufacturing, limiting the conceptual evolution of design thinking and processes of making and manufacturing. Moreover, this work will argue that pattern and patterning motions is a key meta-concept for understanding design practice that has until this point, received a limited amount of attention. While there are emerging paradigms of research including Industry 4.0 and ‘new materialism’, these have not comprehensively addressed the core disconnect between understanding process and understanding perception. The new materialism mostly explores the making processes of ‘craft’ - which have an important relation to and are indeed antecedents of advanced industrial processes – that do not include the conceptual innovations of advanced process control, CAM for instance. Industry 4.0, while offering interesting insights and innovations in terms of process control does not tend to examine the assumptions that go into forming its conceptual landscape – process ‘optimization’ or defect minimization are for instance seen as by definition, good.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Wodehouse, Andrew
- Resource Type
- DOI
Relations
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PDF of thesis T16494 | 2023-10-06 | Public | Download |