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Persistent Fools: Cunning Intelligence and the Politics of Design
Persistent Fools: Cunning Intelligence and the Politics of Design explores the manipulative qualities of design, the unsustainability of capitalist rationalism, the anti-strategies of cunning intelligence, and new approaches for responsible and ethical design practice.
Design is not a purely benevolent activity. Even in an age of human-centered design (or perhaps because of it), the practice is linked to deception. But rather than this being a downfall, Persistent Fools argues that we can use its deceptive qualities to introduce a new way of strategizing: cunning intelligence over rational logic. The very connection between design, deception, and capitalist exploitation might also be the lever for shifting power relations back toward sustainability, if only we can flip the dominant logic.
Persistent Fools argues that design is a political act and should be understood as such. It is a call to action for designers to shed the baggage of industrialist thinking and adopt new forms of futuring that are better equipped to deal with social and political complexity.
Design is not a purely benevolent activity. Even in an age of human-centered design (or perhaps because of it), the practice is linked to deception. But rather than this being a downfall, Persistent Fools argues that we can use its deceptive qualities to introduce a new way of strategizing: cunning intelligence over rational logic. The very connection between design, deception, and capitalist exploitation might also be the lever for shifting power relations back toward sustainability, if only we can flip the dominant logic.
Persistent Fools argues that design is a political act and should be understood as such. It is a call to action for designers to shed the baggage of industrialist thinking and adopt new forms of futuring that are better equipped to deal with social and political complexity.
- GenresDesign
229 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 10, 2017
5 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Wendt
2 books10 followersThomas Wendt is an independent design strategist, author, facilitator, activist, educator, and speaker based in New York City. He splits his time between client engagements and independent scholarship.
His client work includes building sustainable human-centered design capabilities through workshops, training programs, and coaching, along with projects encompassing early stage design research, co-design, and service design. Thomas has worked with clients ranging from large companies to nonprofits and activist groups.
Thomas’s first book, Design for Dasein, deals with the relationship between experience design and practical philosophy. It explores the emerging practice of designing experiences through the lens of phenomenology, a philosophical perspective concerned with how humans experience the world. His second book, Persistent Fools: Cunning Intelligence and the Politics of Design, explores the role of cunning intelligence and deception to make more socially, culturally, and ecologically sustainable design decisions, as well as a means of resisting oppressive design.
Thomas speaks at conferences across the world and is published in both academic journals and practitioner publications on topics such as philosophy of design, design theory, sustainability, design research, design thinking, and the politics of design.
His client work includes building sustainable human-centered design capabilities through workshops, training programs, and coaching, along with projects encompassing early stage design research, co-design, and service design. Thomas has worked with clients ranging from large companies to nonprofits and activist groups.
Thomas’s first book, Design for Dasein, deals with the relationship between experience design and practical philosophy. It explores the emerging practice of designing experiences through the lens of phenomenology, a philosophical perspective concerned with how humans experience the world. His second book, Persistent Fools: Cunning Intelligence and the Politics of Design, explores the role of cunning intelligence and deception to make more socially, culturally, and ecologically sustainable design decisions, as well as a means of resisting oppressive design.
Thomas speaks at conferences across the world and is published in both academic journals and practitioner publications on topics such as philosophy of design, design theory, sustainability, design research, design thinking, and the politics of design.
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June 26, 2018
We look at the nature of design as a deceptive, political act, and the "cunning intelligence" of the Trickster archetype. It's a nice survey of design theory and philosophy related to ethics of practice, and a critique of how material/rationalist capitalism subverts a "human centered" design to profit-seeking ends. There's a call for designers to employ Trickster's cunning intelligence in approaching sustainability and combating current "defuturing" design—it falls slightly short, admitting there can be no playbook for applying Tricker's methods.
Displaying 1 of 1 review