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On Craft and Being Crafty (Revised) Northumbria Research Link Citation: Singleton, Benedict (2014) On craft and being crafty. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/21414/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html ! ! ! ! On craft and being crafty Human behaviour as the object of design ! ! ! Benedict Singleton ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle ! February 2014 !1 Abstract ! This thesis explores how designers might approach human behaviour as a material to be worked on. Unlike politicians, economists, lawyers, philosophers, psychiatrists and many others, designers have few disciplinary resources to draw on in this space. Indeed, it is barely discussed at all. Contemporary designers are, we are told, supposed to treat people and things differently, and ensure that the latter are subservient to the agendas of the former - calls that become all the more insistent when designers are looking for ways to incorporate the design of services and organisations into their practice, a project that summons the prospect of breaking this taboo. ! But what would a form of design that took human behaviour as its object actually be like? This thesis takes up this question as an issue in the philosophy of design, through investigating a long and rich history of suspicions about designers - namely, suspicions that they might extend their material palette from dead materials to living human beings. This exploration uncovers the emergence in the Industrial Revolution of today’s fears that designers might ‘treat people like things’; but it also uncovers an older, almost lost history of ideas about design, which understood its applicability to human beings in a way that, today, is strikingly unfamiliar. Here we find the almost forgotten but still-lingering link between craft and being crafty, encapsulated well by the lost ancient Greek concept of mêtis, 'cunning intelligence'. Mêtis isolates that aspect of design at work when extraordinary effects are elicited from unpromising materials, connecting design to political intrigues, daring military stratagems, the operations of impresarios and salesmen, and other instances wherein, through ingenious means, the weak prevail over the strong. ! By uncovering and developing these ideas, the thesis provides a view of design that connects it to human behaviour not through domination but through clever manipulation, a morally complex but undoubtedly potent approach that informs an alternative conception of how human behaviour might be understood as the object of design. The principle contribution of this thesis is, therefore, to provide a novel examination of human behaviour as the object of design; its main achievement is to provide the design disciplines with, on the one hand, an exposition of the implicit associations this project has at present; and on the other, the disinterment of mêtis and related ideas as a promising counter-perspective. ! ! !2 Acknowledgements ! ! The shape of this thesis was informed by conversations with many people over the years it took to bring the research programme to its conclusion. In that regard, I’d like to hat-tip Jon Ardern, Stuart Munro, Shaun Murray, Priti Rao, Mike Smart, Lauren Tan, Keith Tilford, Pete Wolfendale, and my friends at Engine Service Design - especially Louise Downe, Ross Dudley, Joe Heapy, Justin Kim, Olly King, James Samperi and Tom Wynne-Morgan - from whom I’ve learned a great deal, some of which was more or less about service design. ! A few people deserve especial mention: Nick Srnicek, Alex Williams, Ilona Gaynor, Robin Mackay, and Reza Negarestani. Without their advice, support and enthusiasm, this thesis would have been a very different beast, and, I suspect, much the worse for it. ! Thanks too go to my family, Jacquie, Anthony, and Lorna Tozer; my brothers Miles and Ollie; Jenna Singleton; and, most of all, for endless everything good, Kate Ivey-Williams. ! !3 ! Prior presentations of work ! ! Versions of the ideas in this thesis have been presented in numerous forums over the course of the doctoral period. Below is a list of the key references. ! Publications ! 2014 Singleton, B. (forthcoming 2014) The Long Con. Falmouth, UK: Urbanomic. ! Singleton, B. & Gaynor, I. (2014) What We Want Is In That Room. Architectural Design, 84(1): 48-52. ! 2013 Singleton, B. (2013) Maximum Jailbreak. E-Flux, 46. Available from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/maximum- jailbreak [last accessed September 30th 2013]. ! 2012 Singleton, B. (2012) Anthropocene Nights. Architectural Design, 82(4): 66-71. ! 2011 Singleton, B. & Ardern, J. (2011a) ARK, Incorporated. In Ericson, M. & Mazé, R. (2011) DESIGN ACT: Socially and Politically Engaged Design Today - Critical Roles and Emerging Tactics: 246-248. ! Singleton, B. (2011b) Subtle Empires: On Craft and Being Crafty. Design Ecologies, 1(2): 249-266. ! 2010 Singleton, B. (2009a) Service Design in New Territories. Proceedings of IASDR 2009, Seoul, 18th-22nd October, 2009.Available from http://www.ida.liu.se/~steho/iasdr/Singleton.pdf [last accessed October 10th 2013]. ! Singleton, B. & Sangiorgi, D. (2009b) Socio-Technical Assemblages. Service Design Research. Available from http:// www.servicedesignresearch.com/benedict-singleton-interview [last accessed September 4th 2013]. !4 2008 Singleton, B. & Ardern, J. (2008) ARK-INC: An Alternative View of What ‘Designing for Sustainability’ Might Mean. Proceedings of Changing the Change, Torino, 10th-12th June 2008: 1391-1404. ! 2007 Singleton, B. (2007) Edge Services: Designing for Inconspicuous Consumption. Proceedings of DESFORM 2007, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 12th-13th December 2007: 127-132. ! ! ! ! Selected presentations ! Forthcoming • British Interplanetary Society, London, June 12th 2014 • School of Architecture, Royal College of Art, London, April 3rd 2014 • Accelerationism, University of Westminster, London, March 23rd 2014 • Incredible Machines, Access Gallery, Vancouver, March 8th 2014 ! 2014 • Transmediale festival, Berlin, January 29th 2014 • The Republic of the Moon, Arts Catalyst, London, January 11th 2014 ! 2013 • Miguel Abreu Gallery, NYC, September 26th 2013 • Parsons The New School for Design, NYC, September 25th 2013 • School of Art, Goldsmiths, London, Goldsmiths School of Art, London, May 7th 2013 • Speculative Aesthetics, London, March 4th 2013 • The Matter of Contradiction 3: The War Against The Sun, London, March 3rd 2013 • Umeå Institute for Design, Umeå, Sweden, January 26th 2013 ! ! ! !5 ! 2012 • Alterfutures, Sense Worldwide, London, November 22nd 2012 • Department of Service Design, Royal College of Art, London, November 6th 2012 • Materialism and World Politics, London School of Economics, London, October 22nd 2012 • Northumbria University School of Design, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, March 28th 2012 ! 2011 • Design Ecologies, Architectural Association, London, 4th Feb 2011 ! 2010 • Alterfutures, Sense Worldwide, London, May 12th 2010 • TU Berlin, Berlin, 22nd February 2010 ! 2009 • Design Act 3: Design at Stake, IASPIS, Stockholm, October 24th 2009 • Forms of Sustainability, Konstfack, Stockholm, October 23rd 2009 ! 2008 • Parsons The New School for Design, New York, 9th September 2008 • Changing the Change, Turin, 10th-12th June 2008 • International Service Design Northumbria 3, April 3rd 2008 ! ! !6 Formal declaration ! The work contained in this thesis has not been submitted for any other award. This work fully acknowledges opinions, ideas and contributions to others, and is free of plagiarism. All procedures for ethical approval have been satisfactorily followed. ! Word count (body text): 79,628 ! ! ! Signed ! ! ! ! ! ! Benedict Singleton London February 17th, 2014 ! ! ! ! !7 ! Table of contents ! 11 01 Introduction 12 01.01 Introduction to the thesis 14 01.02 Research question and objectives 15 01.03 Outline of the argument 20 01.04 Contribution ! 22 02 Approach 23 02.01 Introduction 25 02.02 Philosophy and design 30 02.03 Philosophy and disciplinary foundations 36 02.04 Treatment of sources 42 02.05 Conclusion ! 43 03 Service design and the design of human behaviour 44 03.01 Introduction 49 03.02 Service design as theoretical practice 55 03.03 Service design as an evolution of interaction design 61 03.04 Service design as a collaborative practice 71 03.05 Service design is no longer design 76 03.06 Service design as design in the context of service development 80 03.07 Service design as the design of human behaviour 86 03.08 Conclusion 87 Notes !8 ! 89 04 Craft and being crafty 90 04.01 Introduction 93 04.02 Dictionary traces 98 04.03 Plato’s
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