Introduction
Our introduction to "Design, Ethics and Humanism" does not pretend to address the multitude of questions evoked when dealing with such a vast topic. The red thread of this discourse consists in an attempt of highlighting a few of the key elements of a thought process on ethics, with regards to a profession responsible for building our every-day life environment. The designers at the beginning of the century coined the term of working on anything, ranging "from a small spoon to a city".
What would ethics entail ?
If one refers back to the Greek origin of the ethics notion, it was defined as "a way to conduct ones life well in order to reach happiness". The philosophical concepts that have been developed since have been rather diverse and include amongst others hedonistic, pragmatic and utilitarian ethics. All of these depend on ones definition of happiness and the idea one holds about human beings and the world. If one grants to ethics the dimension of a commitment to the "common good", it is highly possible that the different ways of reaching this would spark off long debates on the subject.
What would design ethics and/or ethical design entail ? How should this question be approached ?
"The design process is the preparation and moulding of all actions while keeping in sight its anticipated and desired outcome", said the designer Victor Papanek1.
In what way can this "desired and foreseeable outcome" be the object of an ethics that embraces the different fields of application in design, induced by this extremely large definition ?
Of what nature will be the link between an ethics defined "as a way to conduct ones life well in order to reach happiness" and the ethical commitment of the professionals ?
To which value system do we refer to ? Are individual or collective values addressed ? In what way do technical objects participate in the elaboration of such a value system ?
What should industrial design ethics entail ?
During the modern period, different functionalist theories of industrial design, ranging from strictly utilitarian to more idealistic and spiritual versions, have legitimised design by advocating its social aspect. The dominant schools of thought were based on the notions of useful beauty and scientific rationality. Design was a humanistic stance versus a society dominated by machines.
One started to believe in the intrinsic goodness of design in the same way one had believed in the intrinsic goodness of science before, an endeavour that was to be carried out in an objective, "detached manner". Bad design was therefore simply not viewed as being design at all! The imposture of "bad design" entailed a superficial styling of the product, that only had one aim, namely of seducing the client. The debate since the XIX th and during one part of the XX th century was impregnated by the philosophical definition of beauty as inherited from the antique tradition. The debate shifted then from the concept of beauty linked to goodness to a quest for meaning based on other criteria from research in social sciences. The current discourse in the media often tries to persuade us that it is the design aspect that attributes significance to a product and in a certain way legitimizes it. (Forgetting that significance is a multi-layered property depending on the layer observed and the point of view of the observer.) Most of the time this is all more about communication than design. It becomes a necessity to highlight the perceived value of an object in order to give it a chance on the market. According to the ethics of "good design", this is the exact point where unbearable deceit is taking place.
For several years now, design research has focused its attention on highly relevant news topics such as pollution, the congested cities, the aging of the population in the industrialised countries as well as the paradox of increasing the global economic growth rate, while at the same time preserving the remaining natural resources on this planet. The topics suggested for this conference highlight these concerns.
The ethical debates that characterize our modern era open up to other perspectives. Nonetheless, the illusionary aspect remains relevant. Isn't there somehow, amongst all the elaborate ethical questions a Promethean ruse2 that uses design as a way of reassuring us and diverting our attention? In order to achieve what? Let's not ignore the economical dimension of the question. Design is of service to companies, which have to fight for their place in a competitive market. Can the market place become ethical thanks to design? Is there a fundamental contradiction between the economic interest on the one hand and the pursuit of an ethics code in design on the other hand ?
If one agrees on the ultimate outcome, which is to render this world more "habitable"3 for all of us, the adventure of a design project does not necessitate the "Word" according to demiurges, but multi-disciplinary teams striving towards the solving of the complex set of challenges resulting from this question.
We have decided to rapidly evoke the thought process on design within its historical "dust" before introducing topical questions. We deem important to apprehend the phenomenon of how the value system of our society has been constructed in the past in order to grasp the links between human aspirations and the technical system, with which mankind has transformed our nature and our world of artefacts.
One has to remain modest and ambitious when entering this kind of open dialogue, where the right answers are not necessarily within reach and might in any case only be provisionary. This frame of mind seems to be one of the most prolific of the human thought processes though and therefore humanism.
We hope that the conference "Design, Ethics and Humanism" will lead to a large inventory of existing research areas and will allow the fructification of relevant questions.
Jocelyne Le Boeuf
Director of Studies, L'Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique
j.leboeuf[at]lecolededesign.com
1 Victor Papanek, Design for a real world (1970), translated in 1974, Mercure de France, Paris.
2 The revue "Informel" (University of Montreal, 1990) published conferences on "Ethics, Techniques and professional responsability in design", under the title "Prométhée éclairé". Prometheus is a transgressive hero symbolizing the epic conquest of our technical civilisation and cunning intelligence. He is also a hero guilty of dragging humanity into malediction.
3 See article by Ezio Manzini, "Prométhée au quotidien, Écologie de l'artificiel et responsabilité du designer", Informel, 1991.
