philosophical-epistemological radical constructivism & second order cybernetics

CONCEPTS

Construction and Design

Ranulph Glanville A CybernEthics Research & University College London, UK, [email protected]

called problems in a positive manner: to be

Purpose:The purpose of the author in writing this paper is to establish the connection
what we call, using a second social meaning,
between design and constructivism.To that end, it is argued that design is a necessarily
constructive about them.
constructivist activity (both in terms of the design of concepts and the design of objects
In this paper, however, I am concerned to
and processes); and that design preceded constructivism by many millennia.
operate on the second of my initial levels (the
Design/methodology:This argument is made through reference to concepts and devel-
social). Indeed, in a somewhat bizarre man-
opments in second order cybernetics, and an analysis of central activities that designers
ner, I am even concerned with an assumption
perform particularly sketching and doodling, used in the manner of holding a conversa-
of a reality such as mentioned above. Design-
tion with oneself. Findings:The parallelism between design and constructivism (and sec-
ers make objects with which they populate
ond order cybernetics) is demonstrated; and a distinction between knowledge of (a
the real world. The question of Mind Inde-
situation) and knowledge for (an action) is drawn. Knowledge for is the knowledge that
pendent Reality (MIR) scarcely raises its head
supports action, including the action of constructing. Original value: Design is placed at
because designers are too busy making things
the heart of constructivist activity, validated by criteria that that are sympathetic to design-
for and in their assumed real world to ask
ing.Thus, constructivist activity is reinforced by the analysis of design activity; and design
questions about it especially to question
activity is reciprocally reinforced by the analysis of constructivist activity.
whether it really exists! They add what in
Key words: Black Box, circularity, conversation, design, doodle and sketch, knowledge of
common parlance might be called real
and knowledge for, object.
objects to the real world.
Designers have a way of acting that can be
very difficult question, and it is made harder studied; and which is studied, albeit implic-
A constructive position by the paradoxical requirement that to exam- itly, by most teachers of the subject. In order
There are two levels I would like to distinguish ine this experience we have to already have to help each student designer find their own
which we may be interested to investigate: both the notions of the other and of language, voice, the general teaching strategy in the
1 The individual level, on which we con- and the use of these notions. In other words, design culture I was brought up in and chose
struct the other, our connection to the we face a paradox: we are obliged to presume still to inhabit is to try to understand and
means of communication (language) in (live in) the outcome of an argument before encourage the particularity of each (student)
which we will communicate, and so on. and in order that we may make that argument. designer. This involves watching how they
On this level I believe we attempt to This paradox is similar to the paradoxical design, and giving them what may be thought
describe what is and how it comes to be problem of psychological/conceptual devel- of as tools that help them. Amongst these
what is. opment: that whenever we think in a develop- tools is the tool often identified with sketch-
2 The social level, on which we assume the mental framework, we are accounting for ing, still the central activity through which
other, assume and develop the language we what we believe was, from the position of designers find the means to tap, as the source
communicate in, and so on. On this level where we are now, which itself depends on of their acting, the individuality and unique-
we construct the shared the domain of precisely the development we intend to show. ness they search for. Sketching leads to the
social agreement we often think of as a I accept these contradictions. In doing so, I creation of the particular and unique new.
reality. I think of this level as being straddle the paradox and thus both maintain This should be understood in contrast to the
explicitly the level of Vaihingers (1911) and transcend it. repeatability that is more commonly sought
As if. It is also possible to take the view that soci- in, for instance, science.1
In much of my work, I am interested in the ety forms the individual rather than that the In contrast to the lack of interest of most
first of these. This is the level of experience, individual, in construing other individuals, designers, the position I take, which lies
the Hereclitian stream in which we live what makes society. And it is possible to discuss the behind much of this paper, is that we cannot
we come to call (on the second level) our lives. generation of thought from language rather assert that there is a MIR. Neither can we
It is assumed that experience is personal, than the generation of language from assert there is not. This leaves us with what
unique, and lived. One question that domi- thought. There are these (and many other) Foerster (1989) referred to as an undecidable
nates this level is how we can develop from choices. One reason for being interested in a proposition. His noted aphorism is Only the
this experience the means by which we can constructivist position is a wish to at least give questions which are in principle undecidable,
explore experience: which involves at least the breathing space to each, and to move beyond we can decide.2 The question of whether we
presence of an other and a means of commu- opposition and paradox through acceptance could ever know if there were such a thing as
nication (for example, language). This is a (see Foerster, below): to do so is to treat the so- a MIR, and therefore if we had any reason to

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 philosophical-epistemological radical constructivism & second order cybernetics
CONCEPTS

decide one way or the other, is undecidable. gist. Both are examples of the all-too-com- contemporary English verb, designate. It is
We therefore can from moment to moment mon application of theory from other fields connected with the concept of sign. And that
freely chose how we will respond to this onto design (Glanville 2005a). It is therefore is also not what is intended in this paper.
structural uncertainty. For Foerster, there doubly important that I explain how I, as a So design, as used here, is a verb, indicating
were two choices: to act as if there were a MIR; designer and design educator, understand an action that leads to making something
and to act as if there were not. The choice what design is. new. Quite how this is intended I will demon-
between these, he reminds us, does not have Design is the quintessentially constructive strate later.
to be made once and for all: it may (perhaps activity. For thousands of years mankind has
even must) be made from moment to created new objects and processes (more or
moment. It is arguable that one may take both less physical), and has developed ways of How we do design
positions at once and that this is what design- doing this. It is the novelty sought through
ers do (see the comment on straddling the this activity that brings the particular quality I am here concerned with what I think of as
paradox, above).3 those who call themselves designers pride the central creative act that designers do: or,
I consider there is another course open to themselves on. What is important is the giving rather, how they do this. This is the act of form
us: that is to maintain the undecidablility. of form new form. Designers construct giving (one Dutch translation of design is
This is, in essence, the position of the great (new) realities at all scales from tiny compo- vorm+geving: literally, form giving). Thus, I
super-sceptic, Pyrrho of Ellis.4 My position is nents to cosmologies and theologies. They am not concerned with all those contingent
that I chose to try to act as a guardian of the mostly do so in a world that is understood as activities and their associated problems and
undecidable question, guarding against the being real in a most conventional sense, by areas of influence (such as function, safety,
forces that seek to force a decision (one way or creating realist objects. Designers, who con- production and cost) that, while critical to the
the other, and usually permanently) on oth- struct realities, largely do so without ques- success of a design project, are ancillary to this
ers, as a so-called truth: to maintain, and tioning the conditions of the reality within central act, and will not, in this paper, explore
then sit on the fence, rather than to decide which they construct these realities, or the either how they are handled or how their han-
which side to stand on. It may be that this is, nature of reality itself: it is an irony that they, dling fits in with the central act of designing.7
in effect, the position that is necessary not with thousands of years of experience as con- Designers create form: they give form to
only so that we can chose one side or the other, structivists, have not as a profession chosen to the unformed, informing it, bringing it into
but also so that we can occupy both positions question whether they construct the reality in form (hence the ancient design as in-form-
at once, as designers may do. which they know they construct (new) reali- ation). Design is, perhaps surprisingly, prop-
Therefore, I neither affirm a reality that ties. Nevertheless, in recent times, questions erly considered the original in-form-ation
exists independent of the mind (MIR). of the reality of that reality have become less science, where science is meant in its older
Nor do I deny it. avoidable, specially as we explore so-called and less specialised sense of knowledge.
I maintain undecidability. virtual reality (meant in the widest sense Because it is concerned with giving form to
By doing this, I hope to avoid entering into and including computer games, the internet the unformed, it is necessarily creative.
an irresolvable argument, and to maintain the and mobile phones). Perhaps working with Designers learn to give form as unique and
freedom to chose that is the result of this more virtual realities will give designers the one off: their work is purposely and purpose-
undecidability. In maintaining this freedom, opportunity to expand their conceptualising fully original. Thus, the familiar criterion of
it may be that I also aid the designer, who (it beyond their conventional view of reality. repeatability has no place in design.8 I know
has been suggested) often straddles the unde- Design, as I use the term, is intended pri- this both because I am a designer and because,
cidability. marily in the form of a verb. The word design as a teacher, I meet and discuss with designers
in English is both a noun and a verb.5 This at all levels and from many different sub-pro-
ambiguity is confusing, all the more so since fessions all over the world, which experience
Design the general interpretation of the word design allows me to assert this categorically.
seems to have become the noun form. I, how- Over the years, I have used a metaphor to
There are many ways of talking about design, ever, speak as a designer, and teacher of explain this process (Glanville 1978). This is
and, indeed, the word has recently been design. I shall argue, later, that we are all it:
appropriated in any number of fields, some- designers. With a picnic hamper in hand (there is a
times improperly. In the case of one university Difficulties with the word do not, however, purpose to the activity, but its not the
I know, social sciences joined a design school end with the ambiguity concerning which main point), I enter a wood. I have nothing
in order to benefit from working with design- part of speech the word design takes. Design in mind except that I hope, eventually, to
ers, only to insist that the designers were is also often confused with fashion and style, find a place to have my picnic. Im wander-
wrong about design and that their (social sci- which are not at all what I intend in this ing. Without any particular reason I move
ence) appropriation was correct. Elsewhere I paper.6 onward in some direction, and after a
have seen research methodologists insist that The etymological root of the word design moment something catches my eye. I fol-
design education is wrong because it fails to doesnt help much, either. Design+are, its low it, and making an unpredictable num-
satisfy the criteria of the research methodolo- Latin origin, is as a verb closely related to the ber of difficult to justify choices, I eventu-

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 philosophical-epistemological radical constructivism & second order cybernetics
CONCEPTS

ally find myself somewhere lovely. Its just It may be any shape that comes to mind, or satisfying outcome, perhaps not. The notion
perfect. I sit down, open my hamper and even a quite undirected shape. Looking at it, of satisfying depends on the judgement of
enjoy my picnic. I can now (after the the designer draws some more, often empha- the designer involved, or of some design or
event) explain how I got here, but at the sising bits of the original, changing bits, add- client peer group (hence the common use of
time there was no reasoning. I just ended ing, drawing over or erasing, wondering juries to judge work). Indeed, it is the
up at this wonderful place, eating my pic- about (and through) it. Sometimes the bits of notion of satisfying that is central: the ques-
nic. Its bliss! It may not, of course, be the interest are copied and the doodle is started tion is not is this optimal, is it the best; but is
best place for a picnic, who knows where again. Sometimes an alternative is produced. it good enough? as in the case of wandering
that is: but its good enough, it fits the Sometimes the process is an enrichment: add- in the wood. This is how adequacy is and can
moment, and its magic. In this sense (and ing in aspects that are directed to make a be determined, in designing.
only in this sense), it is perfect.9 richer project. Sometimes the original is dis-
Some would describe the above as an carded. At some point the doodle becomes
essentially emotional process, believing more particularly focussed: a particular form What is a doodle/sketch?
words such as good enough, magic and is being developed and explored. At this point
perfect raise the question of where emotion we might say that the doodle has become a In one sense this question has already been
is in design. The use of an emotional language sketch.12 answered. But there is another way of charac-
to describe activities is currently on the If the designer works in a group with oth- terising the act of designing that can help us
upsurge. I have not, until recently, thought of ers (who need not be in proximate location understand how design and constructivism/
using such a language, but am inclined to or even time or associated with one design cybernetics14 go together, and, through this
believe that it may soon offer great under- company), they may all draw on each others conjunction, will throw light on the manner
standing and insights.10 doodles and sketches, borrowing from, and in which the doodle/sketch work as (necessar-
The well-spring of design is, traditionally, giving to, each other. Indeed, the design stu- ily constructivist) design acts.
the sketch11 (or doodle) which is created in a dio, where this activity frequently takes place,
manner that can be precisely mapped onto is one environment where the stealing of the Doodling/sketching as circular
the wandering activity I described in the pic- ideas of others is considered good practice The process followed in doodling and sketch-
nic example. Interestingly, composers also and, consequently, theft is legalised!13 This is ing, as described above, is formally a circular
refer to the way they compose (= design) their one way of sharing (and thus individually process. It is important to try to be specially
music as sketching. The dictionary is more increasing) available ideas. It is also a reason clear about the manner in which it is circu-
useful, here: to compose is to place together. that we need to reconsider notions such as lar.15 That which I claim is circular is the route
And it better reflects the designer experience, copyright, to recognise origination without followed between drawing and viewing,
when defining sketching: to sketch is to draw granting ownership: what is there to own and returning to drawing again: if you like, the
roughly or incompletely. who could own it? drawing and viewing aspects. Often these two
To doodle is (again according to the It is this pointless, undirected, seemingly complementary activities go hand in hand
Oxford American Dictionary) to scribble purposeless, playful and dreamy activity that (one views as one draws and one draws as one
absentmindedly; a doodle is a rough drawing is at the heart of design. Designers are told to views), but there is a division of labour. Some
made absentmindedly. It is this purposeless- think with their pencils, and, if you talk with would prefer to consider the path followed a
ness and lack of traditional seriousness that designers, you will find that many will doodle spiral: that is, the drawing and redrawing
exactly captures the difference in quality in throughout your conversation, just playing demonstrate an activity that, while it may pass
the way of working through sketching. Do not with form, practising their central creative over earlier points, is nevertheless somehow
be confused: the lack of explicit traditional act, keeping in touch with the well-spring. above them in that there is a continuous
seriousness does not mean the work is not Doodling is a practice that helps us create change in the path, indicated by the number
serious but that the seriousness is expressed in form and which allows us to enrich our pro- of times circled, which leads, potentially, to
a different manner. It is important to me that posals. recursive enrichment. This also holds if you
this is recognised, hence the choice of this This process cannot, in any conventional are concerned with the history of the paths
apparently dismissive term. sense, lead to an optimal solution. To start drawn, or the path as message. But that is a
with, the problem is not defined and, I would way of describing which is interested in the
argue, is not definable. (Any viable definition product at each point, rather than the route
The process of doodling will come into being after the event: the solu- which goes from one activity to the other and
tion defining the problem.) Attempts at defi- back again. Formally, in terms of the roles, the
and sketching nition contain contradictions as well, for process is circular: I, as designer, move from
The process of doodling works like this. The there are many opinions and misunderstand- drawing to viewing to drawing, in a poten-
designer makes some mark on a piece of ings to be supported. There is no measurable tially endless circular switch between the two.
paper. This mark is more of a question than a means of comparison between alternative The difference in these views may be thought
statement: it is tentative and uncertain and proposals. It is always possible to continue similar to that between a wheel (circular) and
almost certainly an absent minded-scribble. with the process, perhaps producing a more the trace a wheel may leave (spiral) (Glanville

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 philosophical-epistemological radical constructivism & second order cybernetics
CONCEPTS

1998). It can also be thought of (as already views as one draws and
BOX 1: COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
suggested) as the difference between circular- one draws as one views).
ity and recursion, where circularity indicates In the extreme, some may The question arises concerning what will happen to those who,
the form and recursion the value of the mes- even consider that they do working with computers, generate form in a quite different way
sage passed around the form. both simultaneously. (see note 12); just as the question arises, with computers, of
This is hard to determine. what will happen now that repetitive and mindless tasks such as
Doodling/sketching as conversation Regardless, the designer cross hatching have been automated. In the case of cross hatch-
This circularity is, however, not the whole of takes both roles and can, ing, what is lost has at least two aspects: firstly the element of
the matter: for a conversation is being held.16 therefore, hold a conver- hypnotic tension reduction that doing a mindless repetitive task
Conversations are also circular, in the manner sation with him/herself brings to people who work in very dangerous environments
described. Most commonly, they are held via paper and pencil. (designers as opposed to problem solvers deal with the
between a minimum of two participants. The The conversation that vastly complex, the contradictory and the ill-defined, challenges
great advantage of a conversation is that it I claim is the means by often considered undesirable for good mental health); and sec-
does not assume that meaning is transmitted which what designers do ondly the trance-like removal of conscious purpose and inten-
between the participants, but that partici- can be understood, is a tion which allows the back of the brain to get on with the task
pants build their own meanings which seem, primary cybernetic sys- at hand, uninterrupted by conscious acts and will. Both these
to the other participants, to function in a sim- tem. It is the circularity aspects benefit from a trancy involvement (which can also
ilar enough manner to be taken to be the which is at its centre that, describe the activity of doodling/sketching (the absent-minded-
same. (Thus, it is as if they are the same). above all, makes this so. ness), and is perhaps relevant to any moment when we are
However, though they function similarly, the Cybernetics studies the totally lost in the work we do, to the extent that we are hardly
meanings cannot be the same, because they circular: the earliest con- present at all, as personae). This seems essential to the sort of
are made by and belong exclusively to differ- temporary writings in the creative involvement being sought in designing. The use of the
ent individuals. These individually generated subject,18 infused with computer may not allow these trancy moments and, as a
differences in understanding are expressed, the notion of feedback, result, there may be an increase in bad mental health and a
and thus effectively offer other participants in are clearly involved in cir- reduction of sensitive form giving: we do not yet know, but we
the conversation insights and ways of seeing cularity (feedback feeds a may do well to look for computer-based equivalents to sketch-
that are initially foreign to them. In effect sense of the output of a ing and doodling; ways of working in the computing medium
these offerings are gifts: each participant, hav- system back to its input, that support this sort of mindlessness.
ing created his or her own meanings, normally with the inten-
expresses them so that the other participants tion of making the result-
can create their own meanings from them, ing, next output of that system better match The obvious outcome is designed
and these meanings are likely to contain the some goal). Circularity is the essential quality objects19 where the nominal form of the
previously unthought of, the unconceived. of cybernetic systems. Designing is a circular word design is converted for use as an adjec-
Thus, conversation is a potential source of process, and, for this reason, cybernetics is its tive. Normal use of this concept would not
perpetual individual novelty and refreshment suitable bedfellow (Glanville 1981, 2005a). include everything that we make: the word
(Glanville, in press). This is not a matter of forcing a theory from design tends to be reserved for more exclu-
one subject onto another subject, but of find- sive objects, with a higher than usual inten-
The designer:Taking two roles ing a central concern (circularity) that is in tional aesthetic content (and price). When
Some might argue that the design conversa- one case examined and in the other used, so design is being used as a synonym for style
tion as described above (often) only has one that circularity, as it appears in each subject, and fashion, this is particularly so. But we
participant, the single designer making the may inform the understanding of circularity should not allow ourselves to be trapped by an
notion of the conversation irrelevant/inap- in the other (Glanville 2005b). interest in outcome, which is essentially a dis-
propriate, because it requires at least 2 partic- traction, any more than we should allow one
ipants. area of application of design to pre-emptively
I can offer two responses to this observa- Outcomes of this determine all. While not all objects produced
tion. Firstly, design is generally carried out in by humans are the product of design, many
teams, so there are always other people
process are. Apart from those which are simply
involved, even if sometimes they are not If we consider this circular, conversational, shoddy and where no one has bothered, those
present in person at the time of exchange. Very cybernetic activity to be at the heart of design, that are not designed tend to be those where
few designers are ever without conversational we may ask what sort of outcome there might there are overriding (and generally rather
partners, in the conventional understanding. be when we act in a circular, conversational, simple and/or unique) problems that can be
Secondly, and much more importantly, cybernetic manner; and, by contemplating clearly defined and which have to be solved.
designers learn to take the two roles them- these outcomes we may consider just how But even such objects can often be designed,
selves.17 They learn to switch between viewer important, how basically human, is the as, for instance, is the case in most of the
and drawer, sometimes very rapidly (one designers way of acting. worlds great bridges.

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The point is not, anyhow, to argue about (consequent upon) an input. This is a Black
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
this. The point is that design as a process prac- Box description: we are making no claim
tised by designers leads to the production of about what actually happens. Rather, we Ranulph Glanville studied architecture at
many objects (and processes). How many, as assert that we can make a description that the Architectural Association School
a percentage of human production, is a matter accounts for our observations, which we (where he was mainly interested in elec-
of definition and conjecture. hope will continue to account for what will tronic performance music), followed by
Rather less obvious is the second use: con- happen (the optimism of belief, not the cybernetics (his PhD was examined by
cepts. I maintain we design concepts. If this is mechanism of certainty). This sort of Heinz von Foerster, his supervisor was Gor-
so, then we (humans) are, according to the description we call an explanation. We con- don Pask) and then human learning (PhD
argument of this paper, necessarily and ines- sider the outputs as resulting from the inputs, examined by Gerard de Zeeuw, supervisor
capably constructivists. and try to construct and describe a relation- Laurie Thomas). He has published exten-
ship that accounts for this. To test our under- sively in all three fields. He has taught in Uni-
standing we can feed the output back as a new versities around the world. Although he
Conversation, the Black input and predict the new output that will took early retirement from the University of
appear: if our prediction is correct, we may
Box and objects well believe we understand the behaviours we
Portsmouth School of Architecture, he is a
professor and senior visiting research fellow
To argue, here, what I wish to argue, about the observe, that are converted by our application at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technol-
design of concepts, I need to revisit the con- of the Black Box into input becoming output. ogy University, Melbourne, Australia, where
versation and ask what we know of what goes The more we can account for, the more stable he visits twice a year and had has a major
on in the mind of our conversational partner, the relationship we have described seems to responsibility in the development of post-
who we believe is making their own meaning become. graduate studies. He is also a regular visitor
of/from what and how they hear our utter- Now let us consider what happens in the at several other Australian universities (and
ances? The answer is we dont know. Indeed, case of the conversation with the self (as both others worldwide). He is vice president of
I have yet to meet anyone who would strongly speaker and listener, drawer and viewer). Is the American Society for Cybernetics and is
claim to know whats going on in even their there a difference? Scarcely! The moment we on the editorial board of several journals
own head. We make descriptions of what we consider (as I have argued above is the case in and the committee of several conferences.
believe might be happening, but the key point design) the paper and pencil (or whatever In the UK he has a post as a specialist tutor
about a description is that it is not the thing it else) we use together with our ability to at University College London He has pub-
describes (de Saussure 1966): for if it were the switch roles as behaving like our conversa- lished more than 250 papers. He researches
thing it would not be the description of the tional partner, we are holding a conversation the fundamental position of cybernetics and
thing and could not perform its function in with ourselves. And we still dont know how the implications of this, relating this to the
describing.20 the change we observe from what we thought activity of design and how we might do
There is a powerful way of looking that we were drawing to what we view we have research within design. His hobby is which-
allows us to consider that we dont know what drawn takes place; yet it nevertheless stabi- ever of his interests he is not currently actu-
is going on in something (that we are essen- lises in the lines we draw that begin to indicate ally doing. He lives on the English south
tially ignorant), permitting us to depend only to us, the designers, a form. We have effec- coast with his Dutch wife (a physiothera-
on behavioural changes while we learn to tively used what we may think of as a Black pist), ginger cat, and near his Finnish son
explain the changes of behaviour we observe, Box in order to end up with a stable form: an (who works in digital video post-produc-
understood as inputs that, through change, object that is reproduced through our con- tion).
become outputs and that is the Black Box. stant (recursive) redescription (redrawing) of
Although some who use this concept talk of it. This, I have insisted, is strongly analogous
whitening the Black Box, the source of its to how we design. which ability our other mental abilities rest.
effectiveness lies in its blackness, a blackness But we now see it also as a way of generat- At the base of our thinking, we are designers:
that derives from it being an invention (of an ing reflexive recursive descriptions that form design, the making of form, the bringing of
observer, who also locates it, thus creating the what are Piagets constant, conserved objects something out of nothing, the creation (at
input and the output) which, while allowing (Piaget 1955) the (mental) objects that he least to the designer) of the new the unique
change to be treated as input and output, is claimed we construct as concepts and with the stabilising of an actuality out of poten-
nevertheless also a phantasm an invention, which we populate our worlds of experi- tial and the reification of experience. Seen in
a thought experiment: there is no Black Box ence.22 this light, design is to be understood as the
other than the one I have imaginatively And, therefore, I argue that the develop- most fundamental of human activities, as the
inserted.21 ment of the concepts that constitute Piagets way we think and work.23
When we hold conversations with an conserved objects is a design activity, being In this view, we design our world. We cre-
other, we can describe what goes on as a exactly the situation described by Piaget as he ate our concepts from which we can conserve
change in (observed) behaviour that we may accounts for the way that children develop our objects. This is our world. It is designed.
understand as an output appearing from their notions of conserved objects, upon Thus, it is constructed.

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Assembling concepts question arises that concerns the type of There are not many fields that have specifi-
knowledge24 that might be created from that cally nailed their flags to the mast of action,25
There is another aspect of the design of con- position. Von Glasersfeld (1990), for instance, and yet we live in a world of action and, at a
cepts which I must mention, if briefly. It is the writes of the viability of knowledge pro- more banal level, our task masters constantly
assembly together of different concepts such duced within a constructivist framework. ask us to show usefulness (applicability) of
that we can form new concepts or we can However his interest is a little different from our research and philosophical and academic
organise the different concepts we have mine in this paper. work. It therefore seems to me that the notion
designed into heterarchical organisations (I I have been arguing that design is a con- of Kf (or any of its close relatives) may be crit-
picture the composing together of George structivist action not so much because of an ical, to be urgently developed, perhaps using
Kellys 1955 Personal Constructs). This act of unresolvable question about the nature of the as a base the often tacit knowledge designers
construction, whether concerned essentially connection of an observation to a so called use in their quest to create the new.
with the organisation of concepts or with the Mind Independent Reality, but rather because I believe that Knowledge for is the knowl-
creation from several concepts of new, more it is concerned with making the new (by defi- edge for action. It is important that it is not
general concepts, or the splitting of concepts nition, unknowable before it is made); and studied and developed as knowledge of knowl-
into new, smaller and more detailed concepts, the (sort of) knowledge that would support edge for, but as knowledge for knowledge for (in
is also a design act. this. Furthermore, designers make their the manner of second order cybernetics the
In what manner are these modes of assem- designs in virtual worlds: it is rare that design- cybernetic study of cybernetics). In other
bly design? They all involve the iterative and ers actually make (in the physical world) what words, that it is examined in a manner that
critical circular process that is at the centre of they design, and designs exist, before it is reflects what it is. And this is another place
design, for the assembly is always by trial and manufactured/constructed, only in the vir- where design and construction intersect, or
error and is always subject to reconstruction: tual world of imagination, and paper, model (as I would prefer it) are essentially the same.
a new organisation, a new assembly of parts or (nowadays) electronic representation. This sort of knowledge, Kf, is actually the
and sub-parts, often involving the creation (How exactly you can present again some- knowledge that constructivists use: for they
(construction, design) of further new con- thing that is not yet is a moot point.) It can be make their worlds, rather than recording
cepts or the radical revision of older ones. argued, in the world of the design profession, them: and making is the action of the
This need is a major component in Kellys def- that design is needed precisely because man- designer.
inition of pathologies that arise from prob- ufacture is at one level of remove.
lems experienced in how we have constructed Thus, designers are involved in a very spe-
the heterarchies in which we locate our per- cial type of activity that is based in action. Conclusion
sonal constructs. There have been many ways of distinguishing
types of knowledge, including those con- Design is clearly, even in the associations of
cerned with a similar distinction between every day language, both closely connected
Types of knowledge these two types of knowledge, but I like to use with and a form of construction. In this paper
knowledge of what is (Ko) and knowledge I have explored how design is a constructivist
We can now return to what I see as the main for acting (Kf) (Glanville 2005a). The sort of activity, how it is explicitly concerned with
question on which constructivism sheds a knowledge that we have been used to collect- making the new, and how as an activity it is
new light, which concerns how we can know ing (and valuing) in research is not intended all-pervasive. It is perhaps worth bearing in
(and, therefore, what we can know); the ques- as knowledge for action, but knowledge of what mind, as a souvenir to take away from this
tion is essentially epistemological. In taking a is. The importance of the designers knowl- paper, that one German word for design is
constructivist position, however, a secondary edge for has, I believe, been underestimated. Gestaltung.

Notes 2. Foerster was Particularly fond of apho- constructs that are used to predict the be-
risms. A collection may be found at this haviour of MIR in the virtual world of de-
This paper is based on an invited presentation url: http://www.cybsoc.org/heinz.htm, sign (for example, finite element
at the annual conference of the American accessed 26 February 2006. structural analysis) could be thought of as
Society for Cybernetics conference held in 3. I owe this insight to one anonymous re- very different to the properly teleological
Washington DC, October 2005. viewer who suggested the argument MDR knowledge that relates to the social
1. I will not argue the point about novelty, or might be be strengthened if the author appreciation and understanding of de-
how it is achieved through conversation maintained undecidability by allowing sign.
(and/or variety imbalance), in this paper. that both Mind Dependent [Reality] 4. Von Glasersfeld often points to the Roman
I have covered both in recent lectures, and (MDR) and Mind Independent Reality Sceptics, but earlier the Greek super-scep-
written extensively about variety and (up (MIR) might coexist as working assump- tic, Pyrrho of Elis (ca. 365275 B.C.)
to now) rather less about conversation. tions in minds of many designers. The maintained a form of extreme scepti-

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 philosophical-epistemological radical constructivism & second order cybernetics
CONCEPTS

cism which held that judgement must be Chings Head, a student cafeteria in the ject is usually dated to Norbert Wieners
suspended about whether it is possible to school, had white melamine covered ta- 1948 book, Cybernetics. But there are ear-
know true reality. Pyrrhonism asserted bles that acted as a remarkable prototype lier examples even by Wiener, such as
that suspension of judgement (epoch, a of the shared, collaborative white board. Rosenblueth, Wiener & Bigelow (1943).
Greek term which refers to a cessation) Students would sit together at these tables, Another path takes the origins back to the
about the true nature of reality leads to se- drawing their designs in new-fangled felt Macy Conferences on Circular and Caus-
renity and equanimity See Scott, http:// tipped pen. As the day wore on, more al and Feedback Systems (Pias 2003)
www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/skep- drawings were added, including ones 19.And, on occasion, processes.
ticism.html, accessed 25 February 2006. drawn over, and often incorporating part 20.There may be special conditions when the
5. Dictionary comments are based on the of earlier drawings. There was a sort of col- difference is, at most, slight: one example
Oxford American Dictionaries included lective generation of architecture prac- that exercised de Saussure is onomato-
in Apples Mac OS 10.4, Tiger. tised, institutionalising the free borrowing poaeia. But these special conditions have
6. The classic definition of design comes via of ideas, which would migrate to drawing no relevance to the argument.
Architecture from Vitruvius. In the En- boards in the studios upstairs. 21.The Black Box is a conceptual device de-
glish translation of Sir Henry Wotton, it is 14.I will not argue, here, the close relationship veloped by the Scottish mathematical
made up of three components: firmnesse that many (including Ernst von Glasers- physicist, James Clerk Maxwell. It has
(well constructed), commodotie (func- feld and Heinz von Foerster), as well as I, been used in engineering, where the con-
tional) and delight. See Wootton (1968). believe holds between cybernetics and cept of revealing what is happening
7. See note 6 on Vitruvius/Wootton. constructivism. through study leading to a whitening of
8. Which is not to say that the object or pro- 15.While not forgetting that it is the listener the Black Box. For some time I have ar-
cess resulting from the act of designing who makes the understanding and is gued that the Black Box cannot be whit-
may not be produced in multiples. therefore responsible for it, not the speak- ened: its nature is that it is black. I claim its
9. I.e., the fit (in a true Darwinian sense) is er. How each of us likes to listen to (and power (and its use in helping us under-
perfect: this is the fittest. understand) what I write is clearly up to stand design and constructivism) comes
10.I am grateful to the second anonymous re- us, the listeners. from exactly this interminable blackness
viewer, who reminded me of the develop- 16.I use the term conversation here in the (Glanville 1982, 2005a).
ment that sees a language of emotion enter sense of Gordon Pask. Pasks use was 22.This process can also be seen in Heinz von
into studies of design. based on an everyday English understand- Foersters Eigen forms, and it is taken to be
11.The first regular academic to recognise ing, but had a strong formal element. It be- the form of what I have called Objects
the distinctive value in what designers do came, in his hands, a very powerful way of (Foerster 1976). I am currently finalising a
and how they do it (including the impor- understanding communication and inter- draft on this topic, Design and Menta-
tance of doodles and sketches) is Donald action. Pasks work is currently difficult to tion: Piagets Constant Objects.
Schn (1985). Of course, designers had al- access, but good a introduction can be 23.The assembly together of different con-
ready known this for millennia. found in Pask (1975), and Scott (2001). cepts (conserved objects) is a similar mat-
12.There are societies that do not draw, doo- See also my short web piece describing his ter. We can now say: thinking is designing,
dle, or sketch in this manner. But they work at: http://projects.isss.org/Main/ and designing is thinking. Lintelligence
have similar processes even if they use dif- GordonPask organise le monde en sorganisant elle-
ferent technologies. For instance, they 17.The role switching here was first devel- mme, as Piaget tells us.
may make multiple variations on a bowl oped in my work in the Theory of Objects. 24.I do not like the word knowledge, which
until they, as a society-that-is-designing, Objects (in my technical usage) are self ob- suggests to me that what is known can exist
reach the form they find ideal, and then re- serving structures or entities that, by ob- without a knower. I prefer the word know-
produce it in a sort of hand-made multiple serving themselves, become participants ing, but will stick to conventional usage,
a craft production line. One reason we in a universe of observations and thus here, so as not to (further) muddy the wa-
draw is that many of the things we make themselves observable by other Objects. ters.
cannot sensibly be made on a trial and er- They provide a structure that supports us 25.There is, of course, a special field for con-
ror basis for any number of reasons, in- believing that, while we all observe differ- verting Ko to Kf: technology. But this re-
cluding danger and cost. New computing ently, we believe that, nevertheless, we ob- quires an extra stage, and there is no
technologies may change the detail of how serve the same thing. The switch in roles necessary connection between Ko and an
we doodle but will not, I believe, change also gives rise to (observationally generat- ability to act (i.e., Ko may not be translat-
the form or substance. ed) time, and a logic based on time in ob- able). With the term Kf, I am talking
13.As a student at the Architectural Associa- serving (Glanville 1975). about knowledge directly intended for
tion School in London, I enjoyed an ex- 18.The origins of cybernetics can be taken action. Technology does not convert Kf
treme, pre-electronic version of this. The back to Ancient Greece. The modern sub- to Ko.

2006, vol. 1, no. 3 109

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