Reading #3

Metaphors We Design By

Recently much of the creative work in design has shifted from producing things to making systems and programs that produce things. How do we describe this development and does it demand a new metaphor.

With the invention of the printing press, access to books increased, and the state saw a value in regulating their production. At first, this was not a problem because presses were scarce, costly, and hard to produce. Over time as presses became cheaper and easier to produce, the increased output of these presses became a problem in two ways. Producing the books at lower cost threatened the interests of powerful, established printers. Also, producing books at lower cost made it easier than ever to produce seditious or revolutionary materials that threatened the interests of the state. In 1662 the Licensing Act required printers to be licensed in order to print any materials which prevented unlicensed printers from operating at all.

Half a century later the Statute of Ann protected the activities of the writer instead. Where the writer would have to give the press the right to publish or copy his work.

What made the computer unique was its position as a meta-tool, a tool for tool-making. Paste boards and digital typesetting could be virtualized, but so could film editing, music composition, and much more, all in the same box, or even the cloud.

A positive experience of objecthood: someone can appreciate that an object is well crafted; that it is distinctive, unlike other objects, or otherwise rare; that it has been selected over other objects to occupy a particular space; that it is representative of its owner even in that owner's absence; and that it is evocative of prior lived experiences through its very presence.

A designer was never a "single person making a single thing"-- that seems slanted toward the art object.As designers become systems managers conducting business in large complex networks of collaborating professionals, the very notion of the auteur grows ever more precious. Things become luxury items revered for their aura and everything else slips into a cloud of exchanges set up and refereed by designers. So the final question is: Can a systems manager really be considered the author of his/her work? Or more specifically, what metaphor works?

"So I will answer your question with a question: "Is that what designers want?'"