The Design Perspective

In this chapter, we examine technology from a designDesign perspective, noting how the aesthetic dimensions of technology, notably modernismModernism, figure into popular understandings of technology described the in previous chapters. For most of history, designers and artists occupied separate social and semantic spaces from rude mechanicals and other artisans. With the advent of modernismModernism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, designDesign became a critical element of technology and a critical instrument in shaping society and its built environment. The purpose of this chapter is to sketch the contours of designDesign from a perspective that is beyond technological hegemonyTechnological hegemony in which technology is not perceived as the best and final answer to every need or problem. This perspective takes a critical and nuanced view of technological hegemony and the role of technology in twenty-first century societies. DesignDesign is increasingly questioning established assumptions and beliefs and emphasizing the need for broader societal considerations in the designDesign and deployment of new technologies.