This dissertation presents an inquiry into the roles played by persistent, shared external representations in design collaboration. It advances an understanding of the active participation of these representations—including drawings, models and prototypes—in the collective reasoning of design teams. Interaction was analyzed using a novel network formalization to portray the accomplishment of essential work in this context. A synthesis of analyses over different time scales provides the basis for a comprehensive notion of representational support for design interaction, and a diagnostic for problems that may arise with inadequate support and/or disparities of access and participation. Data were collected during working sessions of a leading, “real-time” concurrent design practice at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, notable for accelerated performance and the use of technologically-advanced, shared representations. Fine-grained analysis of this activity offers insights to complement those obtained from laboratory studies of individual designers, ad-hoc groups, and organizationally-situated ethnographic accounts. A microanalytic technique was developed to assess dynamic interaction between participants and representations. The resulting, novel formalization of an actor-discourse network makes concepts derived from actor-network theory operational to understand the work accomplished through design interaction. Network visualization and structural metrics highlight patterns associated with productivity in the design process. On this basis, indicators for the quality of design conversation are proposed: these include the degree of participants’ engagement, the development of design discourse, the integration of representations and the consolidation of commitment to action. Specific roles and situational attributes of representations are identified that foster and sustain advances in collective design reasoning. The dissertation advances a view of design activity in terms of temporally-evolving constellations of issues and actors, in which representations act to stabilize and anchor expanding networks of commitment. Directions for further work include technical enhancement to network metrics and visualization, extension of the actor-discourse network formalization and further exploration of theoretical and practical issues pertaining to representational actors in social situations.

This thesis presents an ethnographic study of the role of users in user-centered design. It is written from the perspective of science and technology studies, in particular developments in actor-network theory, and draws on the notion of the assemblage from the work of Deleuze and Guattari. The data for this thesis derives from a six-month field study of the routine discourse and practices of user-centered designers working for a multinational microprocessor manufacturer. The central argument of this thesis is that users are assembled along with the new technologies whose design they resource, as well as with new configurations of socio-cultural life that they bring into view. Informing this argument are two interrelated insights. First, user-centered and participatory design processes involve interminglings of human and non-human actors. Second, users are occasioned in such processes as sociotechnical assemblages. Accordingly, this thesis: (1) reviews how the user is variously applied as a practico-theoretical concern within human-computer interaction (HCI) and as an object of analysis within the sociology and history of technology; (2) outlines a methodology for studying users variously enacted within design practice; (3) examines how a non-user is constructed and re-constructed during the development of a diabetes related technology; (4) examines how designers accomplish user-involvement by way of a gendered persona; (5) examines how the making of a technology for people suffering from obesity included multiple users that served to format the designers’ immediate practical concerns, as well as the management of future expectations; (6) examines how users serve as a means for conducting ethnography-in-design. The thesis concludes with a theoretically informed reflection on user assemblages as devices that: do representation; resource designers’ socio-material management of futures; perform modalities of scale associated with technological and product development; and mediate different forms of accountability.

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This thesis discusses the development of design history in Britain from the 1970s to 2012, arguing that it is a clear example of a network of relationships, intersections of ideas, approaches and intellectual influences that are representative of the complexity of current academic practice. This study engages with discourses and debates concerning attempts to define academic recognition in a subject area that resists drawing boundaries and is by its very nature multidisciplinary. The period with which this study is concerned is characterised by considerable change in society, the approach to education and academic endeavour, and the consumption of histories. All of these changes have significance for the formation and development of design history, in addition to its contribution to academic practice and its impact beyond narrow scholarly circles. This thesis acknowledges that the overlapping and interweaving of threads of knowledge, methodology, approaches and paradigms is a feature of contemporary academic practice, and applies the concept of communities of practice to discussion of the multiple types of scholarship that have constituted design history. In doing this no claim is made for design history as a distinct academic discipline but rather it is discussed as a much broader academic network. Additionally, the thesis offers an evaluation of the role of this network, including the Design History Society as a distinct community of practice, in the context of developments in education, academic changes, museums and publishing. This leads to a consideration of the various arenas in which the products of design history are consumed thus demonstrating the importance and impact of the network outside academia.

This thesis looks at design practice as a method of investigating the relationship between design and identity in interwar Britain; in particular it considers design from the perspective of practice, not solely as the final object or the story of the maker. For it is in the process of making that the varied aspects of design as it is practiced are configured to create the greatest impact on everyday life. This research proposes that the quest to construct one’s identity, in particular a feminine identity, can be demonstrated by the making of goods and objects through the traditionally feminine practice of sewing and needlework, specifically those made at home. It argues that home sewing, as an understudied everyday practice, was intrinsically bound up with ideas of who women were, how they imagined themselves, and how their feminine identities were represented. Between the wars, home-sewing was an integral daily practice for middle-class women that left indelible memories of not only the items made, but of specific types of sewing and design practice, who it was made for and how it was used. It also explores these specific practices during a period of enormous change- culturally, technologically and politically – and particularly important for this study are the themes of femininity and domesticity, as well as the boundaries of private and public life in relation to modernity. Methodologically it focuses on sewing practices by utilizing mass media, specific objects and oral histories to elucidate this. This thesis considers the breadth and extent of home sewing as an everyday practice aligning individual narratives, original source material and theoretical analysis.

Human spatial experience has recently expanded due to the development of location-aware technology. Locative information has become more significant within urban space; as such, related discourses have attempted to focus on the issue as a way in which we acquire locative information when we experience space. Digital location-aware methods enable the demonstration of live densities of telecommunication through which one can infer temporal and spatial factors of live urban situations. When locative telecommunication data is mapped onto urban space, temporal-spatial demographic maps are obtained. Based on these maps, one can infer the correlation between spatial experience and architectural programmes via on site observation and by determining the multi-layered structure of spatial experience via designed data installation. These considerations aim to investigate locative interaction in urban space in order to expand spatial experience. This research begins with two linked theoretical notions: rhythm analysis and heterotopia—in other words, temporality as it relates to our everyday life and spatiality as it relates to our search for ideal space. In addition to these positions, the following discourses are specifically developed to investigate locative interaction in urban space. Firstly, the temporal and spatial patterns of urban activities are investigated in an attempt to grasp current urban interactions. The telecommunication data is then mapped geographically. Secondly, the gap between the endowed architectural programmes and the observed activities in urban space is explored in order to examine the multi-layered structure of urban interaction. Thirdly, the above discussions are synthesised using a design project that interprets epistemic aspects of this initiative. Lastly, urban rhythms and locative virtual layers are suggested as the concept for locative interaction in urban space where architectural programmes become more flexible, thus expanding spatial experience. Two projects demonstrate as applicable scenarios of locative interaction in urban space; they involve a heterotopia finder and a floating gallery over London. This research suggests a new viewpoint from which to consider our world and its digital presence by mapping a ‘live urban space’ using telecommunication data—an initiative that highlights the importance of people as a crucial aspect of our digital surroundings. This research ultimately contributes to expanding urban spatial experience and providing an informative and holistic mapping structure for architecture and urban design, interweaving it with the digital environment.

The Presence of Absence and Other States of Space argues that absence has an underlying presence that links the territorialised space of the non-place and the interstitial space of the border zone. It is posited that disturbed areas are created that interrupt, amongst other things, placial identity. It was also argued that the term 'non-place' has a limited validity in contemporary society. Also, as a fine art, practice-led study, viewing space was continually questioned both with regard to my own practice and to other, mostly contemporary, artists. The research was multi-disciplinary and used observation and reflection to form the basis of studio practice from which exhibition material was then gathered. Ideas were tested in both conventional and unconventional exhibition spaces, predominantly through installation, expanded sculpture and site-specific. Throughout, theory and practice have existed side by side, each informing and being informed by the other in a circular and reflective manner. The academic and practice research base was international and included the UK, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Laos, Norway and United States of America. Primary authors included Marc Augé, Gaston Bachelard, Homi K. Bhabha, Michel De Certeau and Henri Lefebvre and, later, particular resonances were found in Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault. Visual references were mainly Western and included Belgium artist, Francis Alÿs (b.1956) and Michael Elmgreen (b. Denmark 1961) and Ingar Dragset (b. Norway 1969). The main outcomes have been that absence was identified as an underlying concept especially regarding placial identity; that place was seen as a site of memory and experience in addition to being locational; the term 'non-place' was found to be of general limited validity mainly due to the overwhelming presence of genericness caused chiefly by contemporary economic constraint. In the narrow authoritarian space of the border, a pause was identified that occurred in the everyday life of the user that showed similarity to the user of the non-place. Applied to the process of viewing it was accepted that, whilst the white cube mode of viewing was imperfect, no better system was found where the artwork could be idealised in such a way. As an overall viewing experience for the casual viewer however, it gave a poor outcome. Viewing of art in the everyday created dichotomies that related directly to the duration of display where permanent art could easily become invisible due to its constant presence. Immediate relevance was found in my own practice especially with regard to art exhibition and viewing. The importance of these findings concerns art and architecture where value has to be placed on social and cultural identity that then contributes to placial identity, thus creating presence instead of absence.

This document investigates a set of projects I call DIY Infrastructure, in which designers are building alternative infrastructural systems. Through these projects, new actors-often non-experts-reveal and re-imagine long-established social and technological relationships which were previously off limits to them. These projects are significant to the study of design and digital media for the following reasons: First, they detail a new area of design. The designers of DIY infrastructure present an expansion of the scope of design coupled with a nuanced and almost paradoxical understanding of infrastructure as an intractable and exceedingly complex problem. At the same time, their work reveals the extensive social and political effects of existing design decisions-the far-reaching consequences of the design decisions which formed existing infrastructure. These decisions are in play across a variety of scales of time and space, affecting individual bodies as much as continental ecosystems, and shaping personal behavior as much as global commerce and trade. Second, they expand the scope of digital media studies. Digital media studies often overlook infrastructure, in spite of their interdependence. Digital media are involved in areas including the control and monitoring of the electrical system, the treatment and movement of water and sewage, and the routing of freight through intermodal shipping systems. The study of DIY infrastructure design, and infrastructure more broadly, exposes the role of digital media in shaping these overlooked aspects of modern life. There is an invisible relationship between digital media, infrastructure, and political authority, and it includes the interdependence of infrastructure and the contingent nature of our ongoing reliance on these complex sociotechnical systems. For example, Cloacina is the project of two activists developing a new municipal waste disposal system in which a decentralized networked system significantly lessens the amount of water used in processing human waste. Another project, Feral Trade Courier, employs the sort of shipping database we might associate with FedEx or UPS to facilitate an alternative shipping infrastructure, in which volunteers transport goods in an ad hoc freight network. I begin by surveying and defining DIY practice, delineating the properties of infrastructure, and determining the ways that those properties and practices can be augmented or diminished by the affordances of digital media. Next, I review the attributes that these DIY infrastructure projects share before revealing their significance through in-depth case studies. Finally, each of these case studies highlights a particular lesson from DIY infrastructure. Feral Trade Courier exposes the role of the social and the subjective in the design of logistics systems. Village Telco and Fluid Nexus show us that the relationship between established infrastructure and DIY infrastructure can be both complementary and antagonistic. Cloacina provides us an example of a way that DIY infrastructure might scale up and effect lasting sociotechnical change. Whether motivated to reveal or overcome dependence on infrastructure, address flaws in its design, or correct externalities generated by its use, new designers have begun to engage with the problem of infrastructure in new ways. This document analyzes these design projects through a series of case studies, synthesizing a new perspective on the study of infrastructure through design and on the scope of digital media research along the way.

Design management has not previously been taught in China and the courses are largely ‘imported’ from the west. The transfer of knowledge to a culturally different context must consider a range of aspects which impact upon design management education. This research study aims to conduct an intensive investigation into the transferability of postgraduate design management education (Pg DME) system and programmes from the UK to China. The key objectives are to identify key issues of design management knowledge and its education in a Chinese context; and understand the impact of findings on the interaction in Chinese social, industrial and educational environments. The following areas were reviewed to inform the key theoretical context of Pg DME development in China: 1) the essential issues of knowledge transfer; 2) the theory of design and design management; and 3) the strategic content of design management education and its implications. Through the literature review, the themes of the research were finally indentified: differences in culture, economic drivers and education systems make the transfer complex, thus requiring interpretation as well as translation in Chinese Pg DME 1) policy making; 2) curriculum development; and 3) teaching & learning strategies. This research project is based upon an innate belief in the subjective nature of reality from within the interpretive paradigm. Therefore the research is exploratory with an inductive approach. The 3-phased multi-method comparative research study includes a design management 1) education related policy study; 2) curriculum development study; and 3) is comprised of 18 semi-structured qualitative interviews; providing three distinct but comparable data sets, allowing investigation of the research objective from strategic, tactical and operational perspectives. Models have also been developed in this study, where each level has been designated an essential framework for the healthy development of Pg DME in China. The main findings of the research study highlight Pg DME as an enabling discipline where the needs to be satisfied are internal to the design manager and external to the market and social environment. This necessitates consideration of the appropriate level of understanding of culture background; business & market awareness; and professional practice under the influence of globalisation and knowledge transfer for the society; industries; HEIs; academics and students. It also provides a deeper understanding of cultural aspects of design management provision, enabling the understanding of knowledge transfer, curricula, and teaching & learning across cultural borders.

This study was prompted by my suspicion that spatial design undergraduates’ production of paper-based freehand sketches during design ideation was in decline. Seeking to find out why, I conducted video-recorded focused interviews with undergraduates from a range of UK spatial design degrees, during which we examined their sketchbook material and discussed their ideational activities (termed ‘ideational moves’). I subjected the data to a form of content analysis, but the outcomes appeared to contradict my initial premise whilst revealing that the interactions during the interviews between myself, the respondents and the sketchbook material (termed ‘discursive moves’) warranted examination. This persuaded me that the study’s focus should emerge through ‘evolved’ grounded theory rather than being stated a priori, which highlighted my presence in, and impact on, the data and prompted me to adopt a constructivist grounded theorising approach in combination with actor-network theory’s concepts of translation and circulating references. This study has thus been qualitative, relativist, iterative and multi-modal. Grounded theorising led to the identification of a number of categories and sub-categories of ideational move across the sample, and indicated that the respondents had used a ‘core’ of each. ‘Core’ categories comprised: making paper-based ideational moves, carrying out research and using photographic material. Several respondents also evidenced producing digital imagery and physical models. ‘Core’ sub-categories comprised using paper-based freehand perspective sketches, sketch diagrams and word-based approaches, plus supporting visuo-spatial research. Several respondents also evidenced producing paper-based freehand plan, section and elevation sketches, plus collage. Grounded theorising also revealed that each respondent had utilised a different combination of sub-categories, with different degrees of connectedness. I did not set out to evaluate the design outcomes showcased, but, as a spatial design academic and practitioner, I felt compelled to. This led to the tentative conclusion that respondents who added to the ‘core’ of categories and sub-categories and worked with greater connectedness appeared to produce more thoroughly-considered work, whilst those who forsook the ‘core’ and worked with less connectedness appeared to produce more unexpected results by allowing ‘ ... room for chaos ... ’: periods of confusion and surprise. Regarding the discursive moves, grounded theorising indicated that the sketchbook material tabled by each respondent during the study was not one fixed thing, but an abstraction using placing-for and directing-to techniques to focus attention on certain ideational moves and away from others. This made the sketchbook material a performance within the network of human and non-human actors who, in effect, co-constructed it as a temporary reality without necessarily realising this. Research into sketchbook material appears to regard it, once shared with others, as having the candour of a secret diary, and as eligible for formative and summative assessment because it documents design process authentically. My study, whilst not claiming generalisability, suggests that this view should be challenged. The new knowledge is now informing my future teaching practice and will, I hope, prompt other academics to investigate whether their own students manifest similar outcomes and, through this, contribute to wider discussions on the formative and summative assessment of undergraduate spatial design development activity.