Positive Sum Design
Can Design Be Post-Political?
Positive Sum Design, like all design strategies, is the cultivation and practical application of a creative process. Creativity, in the most general sense, is a process that produces outcomes that are both novel and useful. [1] This process manifests itself through the behaviors of the individual, which are commonly understood and described in terms of the psychological development of the subject. The work of the artist or innovator is a familiar example of this trope.
But creativity can also be understood as a historical process. Drawing on the precedent of Heraclitus and Hegel, amongst others, we can apply an analysis of creative process that plays out as historical dialectic. This creative dialectic delimits what is understood to be useful and novel within the given context and frames the conditions of possibility. This can only be understood in terms of the that. And that can only be understood in terms of this, setting up a binary opposition that delimits and constrains the spectrum of possibilities.
To be sure, design as a mode of inquiry applies to the possibilities that exist within these constraints. Creativity can and does manifest itself as novel and useful ways of applying constraints. There are many creative ways to divide a pie. But there is also another move that can be made; a move not just within the given constraints, but also a move beyond the given constraints. We can reframe the game, so to speak. Both as a historical process and as a manifestation of the individual subject, creative process can reframe the mutability of constraints.
Just as one can describe these biases in terms of the way they constrain creativity within constraints that are naturally assumed to be immutable (e.g. availability bias), we can also analyze and critique the ways these biases produce zero sum games. The assumption of scarcity within fixed constraints, whether that assumption is accurate or not, tends to frame the stakes competitively as a zero-sum game.
This poses an important question of design, which is bound up in a fundamental ethical question; what kind of game should we choose to play? In political terms, if the Left is defined by the Right, and the Right is defined by the Left, each mutually defining each other, each constraining the stakes, each defaulting to competition over cooperation. By doing so, the possibilities for addressing urgent social challenges become radically impoverished. Politics is by definition a zero-sum game.
So, might Positive Sum Design offer creative paradigm that can truly claim to be Post Political? How might we cultivate opportunities to reframe the way we approach creative problem solving, and orient ourselves away from strict competition towards better communication, cooperation, and coordination?
Our ethics are grounded in how we orient ourselves toward the mutability of constraints. Constraints determine the stakes, and the kinds of strategies used to play the game. A game can play out within the established constraints, or a game can play out beyond the established constraints. The relevant ethical question, as well as the essential design question, is what kind of game should we choose to play?
Questions
Is there an ethical obligation for designers and creative practitioners to design for all
stakeholders, reframing the game away from zero sum biases and win/loses, and
towards mutual gain and win/wins? Does doing so offer “Post-Political” possibilities?
How might we approach a critique of zero sum bias, and better understand ways
Positive Sum Design strategies might reframe the game, offering a fuller appreciation
for the mutability of constraints?
What set of practices are appropriate for Positive Sum Design, and what precedent
might we look at to apply best practices to design pedagogy and professional practice?
Notes
[1] Diedrich, Jennifer & Benedek, Mathias & Jauk, Emanuel & Neubauer, Aljoscha.
(2015). Are Creative Ideas Novel and Useful?. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and
the Arts. 9. 35-40. 10.1037/a0038688.
Panel
Ian Gonsher is Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Engineering and Department of Computer Science at Brown University. His teaching and research interests examine creative process as applied to interdisciplinary design practices.
L. Arthi Krishnaswami is the Founder and CEO of RyeCatcher Education PBC and the non-profit Community Success Institute. She hold US and international education software patents, and works with public and private sector institutions to enable informed and educated decision-making for a wide range of audiences through the application of user centered research, strategic information design, and visualization.
Will Rutter is a practicing designer and design scholar with a particular interest in the impact of human and technological systems on the lived experience of people. He received his MA in Design from the CMU School of Design in 2021 and will be continuing his MDes studies at IIT’s Institute of Design in 2022.