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Interrogating Hyperfunctionality

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Smart Design

Abstract

It is proposed that one of the central visions of smart design is to extend the fundamental working philosophies of fitness for purpose and the disappearing tool as found in product design and human computer interaction. This ‘hyperfunctionality’ may be achieved spatially, through distributed networks, and/or temporally, through reactive materials and adaptive algorithms. There is a healthy history of criticism of products which can fit a need so well as to design out the creativity of the people using them, or which are so seamless as to be beyond either appreciation or skepticism, and as design becomes exponentially ‘smarter’, we will be wise to revisit these arguments regularly. This paper presents the case for shifting the goals of design away from creating new consumer ‘needs’, and argues for a design methodology based on Umberto Eco’s concept of the open work. The open work supports multiple associative paths formed by viewers through art objects within different historical eras, or from different cultural perspectives, and is suggested here as a useful way of interrogating the working philosophies of Smart Design and as a potential route to designing what Illich called convivial tools (Illich, Tools for conviviality. Calder and Boyars, London, 1973).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Sarah Kettley

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  1. Sarah Kettley
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Correspondence to Sarah Kettley .

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  1. Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham, NG1 4BU, United Kingdom

    Philip Breedon

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag London

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Kettley, S. (2012). Interrogating Hyperfunctionality. In: Breedon, P. (eds) Smart Design. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2975-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2975-2_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-2974-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-2975-2

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