Transforming Grounds

I have spent the last days at the in Stockholm. It is a Nordic design research conference. It was the second time the conference was held and I am surprised and delighted with the quality and focus of the papers and presentations. It was the first time I have been to a conference focused on design research that at least to some extent seriously focused on research on design. I found the conference better than most other design conferences. Thanks to the organizers!!

A while back I mentioned here that I had started to read "What Things Do" by Peter-Paul Verbeek. Now I have read more, and the book becomes more and more important to me. Verbeek presents a perspective on technology studies and philosophy of technology that deeply resonates with my own view since many years back, of course I have not written about it :-) The point that Verbeek makes is that philosophy of technology has to focus on things and artifacts and not deal with overall analysis of preconditions and the origin of things, or Technology with a capital T. Things in themselves "do" things in relation to people. This is not a radically new perspective, but what I appreciate it the way Verbeek makes his case in a way that strongly resonates with design and interaction. I highly recommend this book!