Søren Rosenbak | Umeå University (original) (raw)

Journal articles by Søren Rosenbak

Writing Visual Culture: New Approaches to Design History, 2017

Design Research Failures is a design research project that facilitates conversation, reflection a... more Design Research Failures is a design research project that facilitates conversation, reflection and action around the question: “In what way has Design Research failed in the last 50 years?” In this article, the project is further discussed as a potential vehicle for making and unmaking design history in various ways. As a call for action for design historians to engage in this exploration, two examples of such possible engagements are included, one by Kaisu Savola and another by Ben Highmore.

Artifact Vol 3, No 4 (2015): The Design Concept, Jul 28, 2015

This essay sets out to rectify the false dichotomy between the notions of uselessness and usefuln... more This essay sets out to rectify the false dichotomy between the notions of uselessness and usefulness in relation to design, in order to argue for a useless design practice. The argument is structured into three main parts.

Part I opens with an introduction and goes on to frame design as a hybrid discipline that has been characterized by usefulness since it was born of the Industrial Revolution. The notion of useful design and its continuingly intimate relationship with the neoliberalist growth economy is subsequently unpacked through scrutinizing the basic demands for quantification & acceleration, conflicting use and temporality with special attention paid to the Anthropocene.

Part II elucidates the ambiguous relationship between the useless and the useful through the related critical/conformist dichotomy present in Dunne & Raby’s A/B Manifesto as well as through useless and useful design fictions. From here the unuseless chindōgu by Kawakeni and the unfindable objects by Carelman together frame the useless as a “useful overdrive.” Additionally they illustrate the constant risk of assimilation, festishization and spectacle that disruptive useless design artifacts face within the neoliberalist growth economy. In the digital realm The Useless Web accentuate the post-ironic and absurd qualities in useless design.

Part III asks: what is useless design, why do we need useless design and how could useless design exist? From five opening propositions, useless design is positioned among related concepts such as Redström’s “design after design” (2011), Hunt’s “tactical formlessness” (2003), Tonkinwise’s “designing things that are not finished” (2005), and Jones’ “pure design” (1984). Useless design is finally argued to find its value from its ability to valuate and actively traverse the growing chasm between the industrial and the post-industrial design paradigm.

In essence useless design is an invitation to make useful, here “useful” understood in reappropriated terms, beyond its currently one dimensional, confined state. On that note, the essay concludes by shifting its gaze from the abstract insights gathered throughout the essay towards the concrete urgent task of prototyping a useless design practice.

Book chapters by Søren Rosenbak

InDEBTed to Intervene, Critical Lessons in Debt, Communication, Art and Theoretical Practice (ISBN: 978-1-922216-26-7), Feb 5, 2014

With the recent emergence of peer-to-peer digital currency as well as social media debt, a new pa... more With the recent emergence of peer-to-peer digital currency as well as social media debt, a new paragraph in the long history of debt is unfolding. By negating the core concept of debt, this essay introduces and outlines the idea of ‘surplus debt’ in this new context. Using the movement Fucking Friendly together with emergent new business paradigms as an offset, surplus debt sets out to create meaningful social experience on a local scale, yet with a global awareness. Without aiming to provide the answer to the debt crisis, surplus debt is a game changer and a call for action.

Conference papers by Søren Rosenbak

As a response to the recent surveillance disclosures made by Edward Snowden and other whistleblow... more As a response to the recent surveillance disclosures made by Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers, this paper presents and discusses a key experiment from Meta(data)morphosis, a design research project aimed at heightening public metadata awareness in a low-key, local setting. The paper begins by unpacking metadata and exploring the qualities of ‘the digital shadow’, and then goes on to describe the experiment. Based on the design ethnographic extraction of personal metadata from several members of the public, each metadata set is transformed into a short film script template through speculative design. In a concluding workshop, each participant co-speculates on top of someone else’s script template, producing a narrative of an alternative present which is finally read back to the participant whose metadata the template was based upon. This is the uncanny moment when participants face their digital shadows: plausible, perhaps more tedious, perhaps more disturbing, versions of themselves. Based on this experiment, the particular methodological bridging between the traditions of speculative and participatory design is traced. As part of the discussion of the workshop results, the paper concludes by outlining the characteristics of the agonistic space that was opened up in the process of co-designing and mediating the digital shadows. Building on the insights gathered through the experiment, the The Design Theatre of the Absurd is finally imagined as a future venue for further explorations.

This paper presents a design case study of a summer school that brought together a multidisciplin... more This paper presents a design case study of a summer school that brought together a multidisciplinary group of early-career professionals to explore ideas relating to new technologies in an urban context. The organisers of the summer school took an explicitly designinformed approach to the event, specifically a
‘critical design’ approach. The aspiration of the organisers was that the school activities would lead to the creation of an exhibition of artefacts and visual media expressing the ideas explored during the school. The expectation of generating
exhibition quality outputs influenced the participants’ experience of the event, and this paper describes the process and reflects upon the success of this method. The authors address the
question: in what way is it useful to adopt a critical design approach with a multidisciplinary group in a workshop or school setting? It is suggested that envisionment in the form of ‘design fictions’ is key to the success of this approach.

This paper explores the methodological challenges, paradoxes and possibilities within the process... more This paper explores the methodological challenges, paradoxes and possibilities within the process of failing to design a physical, materialized unit of qualitative measurement: the new unit of presence (abbreviated NUP). The unit and its five constituent parts are discussed against the current shift from defining the kilogram through a material artifact to defining it through non-material invariable constants. The original international prototype of the kilogram and the meter are evaluated as designed artifacts and argued to inhabit a hybrid position between the true (the domain of science: abstraction, the universal) and the real (the domain of design: complexity, the ultimate particular). While the redefinition of the kilogram marks a movement towards the true end of this continuum, the NUP explores a counterbalancing move towards the real end. As a constructive design research project primarily aimed at design researchers as well as design professionals, the NUP is an invitation to join the exploration in-between the true and the real. The paper concludes by arguing that the kind of successful failure that the NUP demonstrates helps us navigate this peculiar hybrid space, in theory as well as in practice.

By analyzing the collective output of interweaving design fictions from the UrbanIxD summer schoo... more By analyzing the collective output of interweaving design fictions from the UrbanIxD summer school, this paper explores the qualities in the creative process as well as the output through the meta-lens of agonism and dissensus. The understanding of these qualities and their interrelations is argued to present an opportunity for advancing urban interaction design as a hybrid discipline and design fiction as a design format.

As the world is undergoing a shift into an emerging systemic and networked reality, design educat... more As the world is undergoing a shift into an emerging systemic and networked reality, design education too has to adapt its focus to meet this change. This paper outlines a possible way of doing this by introducing Design Shamanism and three key parameters for understanding and applying the Design Shamanic mindset. With no intention of producing a fully-fledged definition of Design Shamanism in a foundational design theoretical sense, the paper does offer a fruitful metaphor for reflection as well as practice. By understanding the emerging systemic reality and the transformation of end users into collectively intelligent codesigners, the Design Shaman can embrace irrationality and actively shape the future.

Online platforms by Søren Rosenbak

Design Research Failures was originally spurred by the DRS 50th Anniversary call for projects tha... more Design Research Failures was originally spurred by the DRS 50th Anniversary call for projects that “furthers our understanding of the origins of design research as well as the role and contribution the DRS has played in its development”. As the longest established, multi-disciplinary worldwide society for the design research community, the anniversary of the society seemed like a timely, appropriate moment to reflect on what design research has achieved, and as part of this, how it has failed.

50 years is half a century. In a sense it’s a crossroad, where we (design researchers) look simultaneously towards the past and the future. As a critical, constructive hinge between past and future, the following question was put forward to a range of different design scholars affiliated to the DRS in various ways:

IN WHAT WAY HAS DESIGN RESEARCH FAILED IN THE LAST 50 YEARS?

As a result of this enquiry, 26 responses (each max 100 words) were produced and designed for DRS2016. We hoped these initial responses would act as a catalyst for further reflection at the conference, as we put together a physical exhibit where conference participants were encouraged to hang their own answers to the central question.

The response and reception during DRS2016 (both at the conference and online) was overwhelming and we were pleased to see so many participants sharing their thoughts. At this point it has become clear that there is a need for this discussion beyond DRS2016. Since the launch of http://designresearchfailures.com/, a continuous steam of new responses have been uploaded. Additionally, Design Research Failures has had a presence at RTD2017 and PhD by Design 2017, extending the call for participation, catalysing discussion and running a workshop.

One of the key objectives for this project is to continue to facilitate an inclusive, open-ended conversation, characterised by fruitful dissensus rather than any wish for a one conclusive answer (THIS is how design research has failed in the last 50 years). In this pursuit we embrace the discipline of design research in its entirety and diversity; across gender, age, race, geography, politics, religion, institutions (or lack thereof), academia + industry + third sector.

Importantly, asking the question: IN WHAT WAY HAS DESIGN RESEARCH FAILED IN THE LAST 50 YEARS is not about reflecting on “why didn’t we” but instead taking a shortcut towards “why don’t we”. In this sense, Design Research Failures is ultimately about anticipating and co-creating the future of the design discipline.

Conference proceedings by Søren Rosenbak

by Maria Portugal, Aya Musmar, Alison Thomson, Cagri Sanliturk, Søren Rosenbak, Amro AA Yaghi, Eleni Pashia, Akash Angral, chiara Remondino, Eleni Katrini, Karolina Szynalska McAleavey, Katharina Moebus, Nantia Koulidou, Paolo Franzo, Reem Sultan, Simon Beeson, and Lakshmi Srinivasan

This year, we are thrilled to collaborate with six doctoral students –Amro Yaghi, Aya Musmar, Cag... more This year, we are thrilled to collaborate with six doctoral students –Amro Yaghi, Aya Musmar, Cagri Sanliturk, Eleni Pashia, John Jeong and Maha Al-Ugaily – from the Sheffield School of Architecture, who through their engagement and energy transformed the conference experience and actively contributed to the PhD by Design platform.

by Søren Rosenbak, Alison Thomson, Adriana Cobo, Alastair Stuart James Brook, Annika Olofsdotter Bergström, Cathryn Anneka Hall, Denielle J . Emans, Ph.D., Erik Sandelin, Gwen Lettis, Louise De Brabander, Monica Karlsson, Nicholas B. Torretta, Dr Niina Turtola, Saara-Maria Kauppi, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Stadler, Beinean Conway, Federico Vaz, Trevor Hogan, Yekta Bakırlıoglu, and Jack R . Lehane

PhD by Design - Instant Journal #5, 2018

This document brings together materials produced for and during the one-day PhD by Design Satelli... more This document brings together materials produced for and during the one-day PhD by Design Satellite Session taking place as part of DRS2018 on June 25, as well as the remaining DRS conference running June 26-28, 2018, Limerick, Ireland. In line with the DRS2018 theme of 'Catalyst', the PhD by Design Satellite Session explored how design can be a catalyst for change, and how practice-based research can shape the relationshop between different social, economic and political actors.

by Alison Thomson, Bianca Elzenbaumer & Fabio Franz/Brave New Alps, Andrea Augsten, Andrew Sempere, Anuradha Reddy, Aya Musmar, Cagri Sanliturk, Caroline Claisse, Cathy Gale, elisa Pasqual, Francesco Mazzarella, Isabel Paiva, Dr Katarina Dimitrijevic, Maria Portugal, Jana Thierfelder, Daniela Peukert, and Søren Rosenbak

This document brings together materials produced for and during the two-day PhD by Design confere... more This document brings together materials produced for and during the two-day PhD by Design conference held at Goldsmiths, University of London, on November 5 and 6 2015. The conference was dedicated to explore what it means to "research across difference" when undertaking a practice-based PhD in Design.

Graphic design: Maria Portugal