Tufan Orel

The more complex a human action is, the greater the need to formulate a plan of action, devise a method of implementation, and evaluate its execution. Such preparation is called design or planning, and can be defined as a conceptual preparation for action. Design and planning by themselves are so complex and important that they need informed preparation, which calls for systematic designological studies. This volume brings together original contributions of researchers and practitioners in design theory, design research, and design studies. Its main purpose is to highlight the possibilities of the discipline of designology. Doing and thinking, or thinking and doing, whatever the order, are intertwined. That is why praxiology, the science of action, defines design as a conceptual preparation of action. Included here are contributions from Jack Brzezinski, Eduardo Côrte-Real, Nigel Cross, Michel Faucheux, Joëlle Forest, Wojciech W. Gasparski, Ioannes B. Kapelouzos, Thorbjoern Mann, Tom Maver, Tarkko Oksala, Tufan Orel, Sevil Saryldz, and Ladislav Tondl. Designology is the latest volume in Transaction's highly regarded Praxiology series.

This paper is divided into two parts. In this first part I propose to re-contextualize some of the design policies of today in Utopian literature by the means of a fictional dialogue, in order to witness their genesis. In a sense, my fiction can be considered as a “reverse scenario”, especially when compared to other studies on Utopia, for example the study of Victor Margolin, (The Struggle for Utopia), which deals directly with Utopian elements used in design practice today. To illustrate my point I have chosen Utopia of Thomas More (1478-1535) and The New Atlantis of Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The fictional dialogue is constructed around the idea of three days of conversation between the protagonist of Utopia and the protagonist of The New Atlantis: i.e. Raphael Hythloday (a philosopher of Portuguese origin) and The Reverend Father (a scientific worker of “The House of Solomon”). For the sake of the scenario I symbolise the origins of social design policies within the arguments of Raphael, and the origins of the market policies are represented by the Reverend Father. In the second part of this paper I will try to present an idea of Utopian design, which is more in coherence with the design practice of today. To illustrate this point, I will consider the Utopian element in design not as a passage from an idealist discourse to practice, but as a crossing from one sphere or “universe of design” to another.

-------------------- Conceived on the basis of a survey on the « tanking » community's practices, this article is attempting to highlight a new typical activity in today's society which is quite different from instrumental and symbolic (or communication- based) activities. It is actually describing the ways in which some individuals are endeavouring to gain a victory over themselves through experiments on their own personal being. The various forms of action and the means used for that purpose are referred to under the name of self-fashioning technologies.