Pragmatist Poetics in Interaction Design

pragmatist poetics in interaction

designRung-Huei Liang

Taiwan TechAug., 2013

13年10月7⽇日星期⼀一

outlines

• Theoretical Studies & Related work• Poetic Interaction Design as a Paradigm• Design Cases • Discussion and Conclusion


Users’ needs and paradigms

Functionality

Usability

Pleasure

Engineering

Cognition

Phenomenology

Jordan’s hierarchy Harrison’s paradigms


Higher needs in HCI

• Aesthetics & Poetics


Aesthetic Interaction as...

• logics of expressions for accepting things in our lives (Hallnäs and Redström)

• interaction gestalt and attributes for aesthetics (Lim et al.)

• attention to “the richness of a system’s appearance, interaction, and potential roles (Djajadiningrat et al.)

• graceful interaction (Hashim et al.)


Aesthetics with Pragmatist’s turn

• Phenomenology of Perception as a stance: no absolute aesthetics (Hummels & Overbeeke)

• Seeking definite definitions might lead to endless argument

• Analytic Aesthetics vs. Pragmatist Aesthetics (Shusterman)

• Pragmatist Aesthetics as a strong theoretical basis for designing interactive systems (Peterson et al.)


Pragmatist poetics

• understand what poetic interaction is by asking what it does

• embody a real poem in daily practice.


Poetics vs. Aesthetics

• not necessarily related to beauty

• not always perfect

• not about completion

• not rational, not always consistent

• not reflective

• not a logic of expression

• not emotional pleasing


Poetic Interaction Design

• a vague term• an intangible notion• how about seeing poetic interaction

design as a paradigm?


Research Questions

• What are the basic beliefs of poetic interaction design paradigm?

• What is the relationship between the design researcher and knowledge from designing poetic interaction?

• What kinds of methodology and tactics are appropriate for poetic interaction design?

• What is there that can be known as poetic interaction?


Theoretical Studies

• Poetic Wisdom (Vico, 1744)

• Phenomenology of Poetics (Bachelard, 1994)

• Metaphors and Poetics (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)


Poetic Wisdom (Vico)

• Poetic character: nature human instincts

• Wisdom: the power of reflection and reasoning

• Imagination: the center of poetic character


Phenomenology of poetics (Bachelard)

• “a sincere impulse toward admiration is always necessary if we are to receive phenomenological benefit of a poetic image”

• poetics associates to “unfinalization” or “implicitness.”

• material imagination vs. formal imagination


Metaphors & Poetics

• Metaphors: central to the understanding, not only rhetorical (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)

• Poetic metaphors vs. prosaic metaphors (Numberg, 1987)


Related Work

• Poetic Design (Ionascu, 2010)• Poetic Interaction Design (Kolko, 2007)


Poetic Design (Ionascu)

• a class of objects beyond instrumental (functional, practical) power

• ‘Play could become a creative design process embodying uncommon forms of use that regenerate a poetics of everyday life”


Poetic Interaction Design (Kolko)

• A type of reflective and emotional design

• (It) “resonates immediately but continues to inform later”

• “nearly always subtle, yet mindful.”

• reflection ? reasoning activity about poetics

• I argue: felt experience of poetics itself


Poetic Interaction design as a Paradigm

• Epistemological stance: a pragmatist and constructivist approach to poetics

• Methodology: A framework based on Verplank’s

• Ontological implication


Epistemological Stance

• Designerly ways of knowing poetics• Poetics as experience• Embodied poetics


Framework (Verplank’s)


Tangible Interaction Design Framework


Material Imagination (Bachelard)

• Material imagination is an idea that comes from contact with nature.

• Material imagination vs. formal imagination

• 4 elements: earth, water, fire, air.


Four types of Imaginations

• Material imagination• Expression imagination• Function imagination• Form imagination


POETIC MATERIAL

• The material itself of an artifact eliciting poetic imagination

• a novel, alternative, or uncommon usage of a specific material.

• Material: indicating literally physical matters, or metaphorically, issues and topics.


POETIC EXPRESSION


Poetic Function

• a novel interaction verb• slightly strangeness in collocation


Poetic Form

• the shape or affordance that stimulates poetic imagination.


Poetic Interaction design Cases


Poetic Expression


Poetic Function

Tech Tap (Pega Design)


Poetic Form

Ripple by Poetic Lab + Studio Shikai


Discussion

• ‘Wicked problems’?• Problem-solving?• Critical Design: learning by questioning• Reflective Design: providing conscious

awareness


Discussion

• Ambiguity & Ludic values

• Mythical world as underlining belief of life (Vico)

• to give sense and passion to insensate things (Vico) rather than to solve ‘wicked problems’ in the functional world.

• Imagination upon unknowing things (Vico)


Conclusion

• construct poetic interaction design as a paradigm

• practical framework• seeing Poetic Interaction Design as an

ontology of interaction design


Pragmatist Poetics in Interaction Design

Technology

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