Love the idea of a "third wave" and I think the concept of a dialectic is really helpful to stay motivated. I think what is key is to stay humble and own it when you mess up, which you inevitably will.
When I first delved into serious tech criticism, I felt so helpless that I wanted to quit being an engineer. Now I teach a course that's intentionally half seminar, half design studio, with the aim of doing exactly as you describe here. I frame design as a three step process, drawing on context (history), critique (the "studies") and rebuild (engineering). The process was inspired by a post by Sara Hendren, but I added context because I think effective critique needs to be grounded in history to be really impactful. https://sarahendren.com/2020/06/30/critique-or-repair-a-call-to-know-your-post/
Love the idea of a "third wave" and I think the concept of a dialectic is really helpful to stay motivated. I think what is key is to stay humble and own it when you mess up, which you inevitably will.
When I first delved into serious tech criticism, I felt so helpless that I wanted to quit being an engineer. Now I teach a course that's intentionally half seminar, half design studio, with the aim of doing exactly as you describe here. I frame design as a three step process, drawing on context (history), critique (the "studies") and rebuild (engineering). The process was inspired by a post by Sara Hendren, but I added context because I think effective critique needs to be grounded in history to be really impactful. https://sarahendren.com/2020/06/30/critique-or-repair-a-call-to-know-your-post/
Syllabus in case anyone is interested: https://maggiedelano.notion.site/ENGR-053-Fall-2022-Syllabus-d3e6bc89973348f597b4add4ca2021ea
Thanks Maggie. Looking forward to digging into your syllabus -- looks really interesting
This is great. It reminds me of the work by David Noble, “Progress without people.”
That's high praise -- Noble is one of my favorites