Political Design, City Spaces and the 'Sans Receipts'

James Duggan and Janet Batsleer(MMU, UK)J.Duggan@mmu.ac.uk / @dugganjr J.Batsleer@mmu.ac.uk

Inequality

The Design of the City

The Design of the City

Ranciere• The sans papiers > the sans receipts• Philosopher and his poor• The police • The ‘distribution of the sensible’ • Dissensus• Emancipation

Political Design• Critique of existing design practice

• Focus on individuals and individual ‘needs’ or representations or problems, rather than community-wide perspectives (Blyth and Kimbell 2011)

• Apolitical stance of much of design (DiSalvo 2010)• Alignment with consumerist and unsustainable modes of living (Margolin

2002; Thorpe 2012)

• Political design/ adversarial design/ design activism/ critical making

• However,• Markussen’s (2011) political design largely engages with elites• Design produce small-scale installations that are not co-designed by the

people in whose community they are located

Political Design – Home Depot Plant

Natalie Jeremijenko’s – NoPark

Rancierean emancipation via political design Criteria Engagement

Political, provocative and re-distribute the sensible in a manner that is fairer and more democratic

The identified marginalized individuals and groups are substantively included in the research and development of the practical activity

How and to where is the sensible redistributed?

Political Design/ ‘Design Fiction’ Scenario: Augmented reality tax layer

Image Google Streetview

Image Google Streetview

Choosing a Coffee Shop

Ambient commons (McCullough 2013)

Hobo Signs

Augmented Reality•

Tax&Spend

• Create an AR layer that enables businesses to record: • Where they pay tax • How much tax they pay per month, as a ratio of

total income • Representation of what this pays for • What contracts their staff are on – zero hour?• Other CSR activities

Tax&SpendTotal income/ tax = %Employee contracts?

Rancierean Emancipation? Criteria Engagement

Political, provocative…

• Makes payment of tax visible • However, the limitations of consumer activism • Entangled issues: tax locally but the global supply

chains and ecological damage from smart phones…

Inclusive… • Process: No, but this is a scenario/ fiction • Product: It uses AR, smart phones, web browsers

Re-distribution? • Emphasis on tax and contribution• What about people who don’t contribute? • Potential for well-financed reaction

The reaction…

• Beating the commons and complexity • Research in architecture in design has shifted from behaviour

to sensibility (McCullough 2013) • “architecture “arranges interpersonal distances in space, configures

everyday processes, represents organisations, and shapes everyday habits within them, it also unobtrusively supports sensemaking”

• Democratic sensibilities/ sensemaking?• Consciousness and reflection as integral… • Changing the perceptual co-ordinates? Then what?

Parting thoughts