dysfunctional things
En avhandling om Hem, Hälsa och produktdesign
Hur påverkar föremålen omkring oss vår
hälsa? Har vi dysfunktionella produkter precis som vi har dysfunktionella
familjer? Om vi antar att världen är en spegling av oss själva,
är det överhuvudtaget möjligt att det finns "friska" ting?
Bakgrund
Design och estetik har under det senaste decenniet fått en ökad uppmärksamhet inom
MDI (människa-datorinteraktion). Design ses som ett sätt att skapa bättre och mer
användarvänliga tekniska produkter. Men estetik och design ses fortfarande från ett
tekniskt perspektiv snarare än från ett designperspektiv. Min avhandling syftar
till att skapa en förståelse och en kontext för design som både en process och en
estetisk praktik inom MDI-området.
Methods
Mitt empiriska arbete handlar om generella hälsoproblem och IT i hemmiljö.
Eftersom jag är intresserad av relationen mellan det personliga och det publika
har jag undersökt folkhälsoproblem och hur de speglar samhället. Jag
har också arbetat inom Smarta hem-området, framförallt med hemsjukvård.
Mina metoder är flera och sträcker sig från enkäter och interjuver
till att utveckla designkoncept, ta fram prototyper och sedan utvärdera dem.
Mina forskningsfrågor är:
- Vad är relationen mellan design och hälsa?
- Vilka specifika designfrågor finns i hemsjukvård?
- Vad är "friskt" och "sjukt" i hemmet?
Resten av texten finns endast på engelska:
The "Virus" project focuses on general health problems and how artifacts in a "smart" home can prevent them. The project points out two related areas for unhealth: Mental overload and Physical under load. Those two syndromes together create the most common unhealth problems today like stress, insomnia, back problems, heart problems and depression. Stress is considered one of the largest reasons for sick leaves today and costs for social insurances are peaking. The Virus project makes design suggestion in three related areas: Room for movement, Sleep and relaxation and Communication. One of these suggestions The Photo answerer is now being developed into four functioning prototypes that will be tested by four different families. Another case study is done on Brainball, a game where you compete in relaxation by measuring the player's brain activity with EEG. Brainball also relates to stress, competiveness and self-control and is developed in the border zone of art, design and research. It is in itself a statement about the state of our society and does the opposite of what IT usually does, by provoking you to empty your brain of sensations.
Theory
I use several different theories from sociology, feminism, cultural studies, psychology and map them on design and aesthetics. For example I use the feministic theory of the double invisibility to criticise the concept of the invisible computer. Semiotics has provided me with a tool for criticising and reflecting about seemingly 'natural' ways of designing and made me aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by us constructing or designing it.
I am also influenced by the health sociologist Antonovsky and his work to understand what makes us cope with the strains of life. His methods can be used on the material world to understand how this affects us mentally and what we could do to improve it. Here I am beginning to look at the concept of meaning and how important it is to experience the world as meaningful. Meaning, sense and understanding are concepts that are closely related to aesthetics, in the Greek meaning "what meets the senses", the total experience of a product. I am starting to think of aesthetics as a kind of tacit knowledge that make the world meaningful.
Another focus is on the relation between the internal world, with its subjective experiences and personal relations and the public world of objective facts and technical systems. I believe that design holds a key role in the externalisation of values and actions into an objective reality, a reality that subsequently is internalised back to the individual through the socialization process. These ideas are mainly informed by theories from sociology and Berger & Luckmann, but also relate to pattern theory by Christoffer Alexander. In the design process our physical and cultural values are materialized and given a tangible form. With terms borrowed from Habermas this could also be seen as the interplay between the "life world" and the "system". The design and development of artefacts usually takes place in the system world in rather tight economic and commercial frames. Therefore, the results of design-processes are products of the system rather then the individual notions of the life world and materialization's of those values.
Studying the design process itself become part of my reflection on the cases. Particularly in the multidisciplinary setting that constitutes the interactive Institute. Donald Schöns ideas are important, as well as other that have contributed to the discussion about design knowledge and aesthetical practises.
I want to thank my advisor Yngve Sundblad at CID, KTH, which is my academic home and that also cofinances this research. I also want to thank my other advisors Bo Dahlbom, SITI and Ingvar Sjöberg, II
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2003 Smart Studio