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A Poetics of Designing

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Design Cybernetics

Part of the book series: Design Research Foundations ((DERF))

Abstract

The chapter considers second-order cybernetics as a framework that is accurately described as a poetics. An overview is provided on what it means to be in a world that is uncertain, e.g., how under conditions of limited understanding any activity is an activity that designs and constructs, and how designing objects, spaces, and situations relates to the (designed) meta-world of second-order cybernetics. If it cannot be determined whether the world is complex or not, to assume that the world is complex is a matter of choice linked to an attitude of generosity. The chapter highlights that it is this attitude, which makes designing an ethical challenge. Designers require a framework that is open, but one that supplies ethical guidance when ‘constructing’ something new. Relating second-order design thinking to insights in philosophy and aesthetics, the chapter argues that second-order cybernetics provides a response to this ethical challenge and essentially it entails a poetics of designing .

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The French ‘plus’ suggests that the correct translation of the line should be: “Poetry does not impose anymore, it exposes itself.” The common translation however is the one given. It can be added that the ‘not anymore’ is most likely a response to Adorno’s famous postulate that there can be no poetry anymore after Auschwitz.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

    Claudia Westermann

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  1. Claudia Westermann
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Correspondence to Claudia Westermann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

    Thomas Fischer

  2. Department of Architecture, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

    Christiane M. Herr

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Westermann, C. (2019). A Poetics of Designing. In: Fischer, T., Herr, C. (eds) Design Cybernetics. Design Research Foundations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18557-2_13

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