Design and crafts: images in tension between the dominant and the residual

DEVALLE, VERÓNICA ESTELA

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; 2nd ISA Forum Sociology; 2012

ISA (International Sociological Association)

Design holds an unquestionable place in the 21 century. In one way or another it has allowed for the reformulation of the human environment, working in the objectual and iconic dimensions. Following the development of Design Studies (Margolin, 2005) we can affirm that design constitutes a mechanism for the production of the visible. Hence, the question of what is design is pressing today because it recognizes the multidisciplinary, complex character of the professions currently responsible for the production of material and visual culture (Margolin, 2005). Seeking to define design by locating it closer or further from crafts, decorative or applied arts becomes a theoretical concern but is also a political question in the sense that it recovers the debate on its users and audiences. A number of questions arise: what differentiates design from other practices that build our environment? What idea of society through the figure of the "user" has been historically, and currently, considered by design? Does design conception of the social issue distinguish it from other practices like crafts?