PRINCIPLES OF METADESIGN Processes and Levels of Co-Creation in the New Design Space

Abstract

In the tight of the material and cultural conditions of the present world and within the context of current design theories, this research aims to provide an understanding of Metadesign as emerging design cutture, and to integrate and advance its conceptual framework and principles through a tra nsdisci pli nary dialogue with the aesthetics and practice of Net Art. By rejecting the notion of Metadesign as an established design approach and practice, the creation of an etymological hypothesis based on the meanings of the prefix "-meta" (behind, together, between) becomes possible. Following this historical and cultural path, the research describes theories, frameworks and practices of Metadesign that have occurred in art, culture and media since the 1980s, in fields, such as, graphic design, industrial design, software engineering, information design, interaction design, biotechnotogical design, telecommunication art, experimental aesthetics, and architecture. The comparison and integration of all these approaches and viewpoints attows the identification of some design trends. More significantly, however, such an analysis enables the deconstruction of clusters of concepts and the production of a map of coherent etements. The anticipatory, participatory and sociotechnical issues raised 4 by the emerging and interconnected concepts that underlie Metadesign can be articulated and summarized in a three-fotd path based on the initial epistemological hypothesis. This can be characterized by three specific terms: 1) behind (designing design); 2) with (designing together); 3) betweenlamon3 (designing the "inbetween "). Interactive Art practitioners and theorists, both at an aesthetic and practical level, also share concerns about interaction, participation and co-creation. Compared to more financially oriented fields, Interactive Art, and collaborative practices of Net Art specificalty, have been We to answer to the new materiat and existentiat condition outlined by interconnectivity with a more dismantling experimentalism. The insights and advances they have produced in relation to the embodied and intersubjective dimension of human experience and creativity are stilt to be fully explored. Such insights can significantly fortify the three-fold path elaborated by this research, particutarty the third fo(d, which is concerned with the design of the 0rinbetween ". Focusing on collaborative systems for graphical interaction, as more suitable to the goal of understanding basic embodied and intersubjective processes of co-creation, the research identifies and analyses three projects of Net Art as case studies (GL&n6rateur Po*i 6tique, Open Studio, SITO Synergy Gridcosm). The results of these case studies provide an understanding of the experience of co-creation, a grasp of motivationat paths to co-creation, and a description of the features of the computationat environment which can sustain co-creation.