The Circle of Understanding

Adrian Snodgrass's and Richard Coyne's Interpretation in Architecture, Design as a way of thinking is a study of interpretation and the development of understanding.  This study is called hermeneutics.

Architecture's approach to design is like that of product designers and developers.  Architects look at space in terms of how people will use it once its built and, often, how people will use the building as it is modified, upgraded or re-purposed.  Award-winning designer Dennis Carlson of Carlson Technology started with a background in architecture and synthesizes product designs, using mechanical and electrical engineering, from the perspective of how people will use the product.  I like to think of his designs as part artifact and part the choreography of use.

Dennis must use mental simulation to envision versions of the product in their use environment.  "How will they be used?"  "What are user goals?"   "How will they be viewed by users?" "How will they be viewed by non-users?" A high-school mentor of mine, Frank Wells, a custom woodwind mouthpiece maker, told me about mentally projecting a series of solutions on the wall until he came up with an idea that worked.  Snodgrass and Coyne would look upon this as dialoguing with the product.  Dennis and Frank ask directional questions that result in additional understanding.

This may seem obvious, but many designers use propositional design in which designs are built from basic elements of technology.  Establishing an ongoing dialogue with a product is not part of the process.  There is often no attempt to understand the product, its foreseen application, and how it might be used in the future.  This cookbook approach to design is what is taught for the most part.  It is an attempt to take the artistry out of the process.  The goal is to remove personality-based variation in product outcomes.  Standards are written and oversight is increased because manager's can't take the chance that inspiration and creativity will be absent from the design team.

The desire to remove artistry is ubiquitous.  This is what AHRQ is attempting to do with Evidenced-Based Medicine.  It's what the US Dept of Defense's acquisition system is intended to do.

Standards-based practice laced with heavy oversight leads to mediocre outcomes.  The reward for excellence doesn't exist; unconventional, artistic approaches are rare.  Ingenious approaches that make it out of the morass become legendary, their designers living legends like Burt Rutan and Kelly Johnson.

The cautions about removing artistry apply to complex issues in general.  John Warfield and Aleco Christakis have developed approaches for dialoguing with and about problems in order to unleash creativity and understanding.  Their methods use structured dialogues that democratically address challenging issues.  They require investments in time and money to conduct.  The return on these investments is difficult to quantify, to assess against a standard, until the failed or mediocre product is fielded.  Then there is plenty of time to dialogue about the shortcomings.  Often this is the point when designers like Dennis Carlson are engaged...to clean up the mess.

Dialogue aims at understanding.  According to Snodgrass and Coyne, true dialogue is the opposite of argument.  It would seem that the capacity for dialogue has been lost.  Certainly our elected representatives have lost the art of dialogue and have instead refined the art of argument.  Instead of questions that intentionally work toward deeper understanding, party-line propositions are being hurled across the aisle. 

Is it any wonder, though?  These people, our elected officials, came up through a propositional educational system that was one-sided, dogmatic and control-based rather than dialogue based.  Our founding fathers enjoyed a mentor-student education in which questions were encouraged.  Critical thinking and statesmanship resulted.

How has this happened?  Could it be standards-based education?  Teaching to a test?  Ashley Trim explored some of the causes in her exploration of "Waiting for Superman and a Real Conversation."  Good teachers, read artistic teachers, are required to solve the problem.  Oops, the system isn't designed to produce artist teachers.  An infinite loop that needs to be broken.

Maybe it is time to take baby steps in dialoguing.  Question everything.  Listen carefully.  Be mindful of the answers.  We should all be hermeneutic Picassos.