The principle objective of this study is to examine the conditions and contexts of critical design practice, specifically as it pertains to methods of identifying, presenting and producing critical design within the space of the museum exhibition. The analysis in this study seeks to reveal a better understanding of the working practices that underpin museums’ creative engagements with critical design practice while recognising the significance of critical design’s behaviours of questioning, possibilising, probabilising and activating that inform such engagements. A case is presented for combining several theoretical perspectives into a multi-layered conceptual framework for examining the ideas, approaches and conditions of both critical design and its circulation through the museum exhibition. In calling upon concepts from the art world as a means of developing a philosophical understanding of design, the concept of a ‘work of design’ is proposed to understand the shift in practice that has occurred over the past fifteen years. Furthermore, the emphasis on a ‘work of design’ is explicated through a conceptualisation of critical practice as both a design of reflexive modernity and a para-model of practice – a notable device for social and cultural research. Design’s circulation in the museum is problematised drawing upon theories of the curatorial to develop a model of the exhibition as a speculative activity that privileges critical thought, discourse, speculation and production. In this sense ‘the curatorial’ offers a space for multiple viewpoints and experiences which together create a collective endeavour that remains forever open to contestation and adjustment. Empirically, the study contributes insights into the diverse and contingent curatorial practices involved in communicating and disseminating critical design practice. The findings suggest that the new relationships that are being formed between critical design and the museum are reframing the exhibition as a tool for research – a transdisciplinary studio space whereby ideas are tested and projects take form through the performativity of multiple agents. Thus the museum is being approached as a context for experimentation; a space that exposes rather than displays, presents rather than represents, a performative space that points to a recoding of practice as production. In this way we can begin to consider the museum and its exhibitions as a model of emergence as they enter a discourse of performativity that actively engages with their subject rather than merely offering it for consumption. The result is a collective space for knowing and experiencing via the performativity of both critical design and the curatorial.

No description available.

The effect of high molecular weight carboxylate ligands as compared to naphthenate ligands on the effectiveness of transition metals as additives for reducing soot particulates was studied in the combustion of diesel fuel and distillate fuel oil by use of a laboratory scale burner. A mechanism involving pseudoheterogenous catalytic reactions is proposed. A simple system to evaluate fuel additives by burning only a few milliliters of oil was designed, developed, and used. Polybutene with an average molecular weight of 920 was the raw material in this study. The polymer was oxidized with KMnO4 to the corresponding acid from whose potassium salt the transition metal-polymer complex obtained. Special treatments were required during the synthesis because of unique viscosity and solubility properties exhibited by the polymer. The oxidation was carried out in the presence of dicyclohexane 18-crown-6 ether as a phase transfer catalyst.

The application of product families and platforms has gained attention as a promising approach to achieving organizational objectives that provide customers with mass customized products while allowing for significant savings from commonality and reuse strategies. While the single-platform strategy has been widely studied, it may lead to the over expansion of the product family. Designers have to either continuously extend the exiting platform and/or impose strict constraints on new variants in order that there is a fit. On the one hand, continuously “extending“ or “'stretching“ the platform forces the platform to become overburdened and less efficient. On the other hand, imposing strict constraints on new variants will force new variants to compromise performances. In this research, the concept of a multi-platform strategy has been put forward to reduce or eliminate negative effects of the single-platform strategy by coordinating products in a complex product family into two or more platforms to provide enough product variety as well as commonality. The method is developed by adopting and synthesizing various tools and concepts from different research areas, such as design management tools, clustering analysis, statistics, decision analysis, mathematical programming, and engineering costing. The product assets that can be shared by the products are determined through product asset value analysis and redesign effort analysis. The number of platforms is flexibly determined by a hierarchical clustering method based on product similarity/dissimilarity. The product-platform assignment problem is simultaneously solved during the clustering process. A multi-objective optimization model is formulated to determine the design specifications and address the product positioning. A Consistent Aggregate Function Formation Method (CAF2M) is put forward to convert the multi-objective optimization model into a single-dimension problem that can quantitatively balance the tradeoff among the multiple objectives. To evaluate the economic benefit from the platform-based product development, an adjusted Activity-Based Costing approach is utilized to identify the cost savings with the consideration of learning effects. A case application with seven automobile models is utilized to illustrate the proposed multi-platform strategy. The method was found helpful for determining and integrating critical design information into the design of product families and platforms. / Ph. D.

This research evaluates the problems that design engineers face when trying to include environmental issues in product design without jeopardizing other design issues. A thorough review of current literature, tools and methodologies on the topic is given whilst their gaps and shortcomings are revealed and the need for a new methodology is formulated. This sets the starting point for the research and the development carried out during this research. A methodology is proposed in this thesis that helps manufacturers of complex products apply the Eco-Design principle and the whole life cycle approach without compromising the economic performance of their products. On one hand the primary objective outlined for the methodology is to include three different issues in product design: economic impact, environmental impact and functional issues whilst avoiding a trade-off. On the other hand, since the methodology is applicable to complex products, the secondary objective is to align and integrate two separate issues: alignment of the design process progress and the product hierarchy. In order to achieve those objectives existing design tools, such as the TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) matrix and the DfX (Design for X) method, are integrated. Furthermore a computer support tool in the form of a user interface is developed that is based on the theoretical framework of the methodology. This user interface allows for a quick analysis of a product and the production of design suggestions in order to enhance the product characteristics. The validation of the research is presented through examples and the application of case studies of different products. This case study approach helps to develop and apply findings during the methodology development and validate the functionality and flexibility of the proposed methodology. Areas of future work which can help increase the knowledge base, scope and applicability of the work carried out are identified.

‘Holistic Order’ is a new term used in this study. In literature, its synonyms such as beauty, order, visual order, and aesthetic order have been in usage for a long time. Historical studies on arts & crafts from philosophical and aesthetic perspectives reveal that the term ‘beauty’ no longer holds the same meaning as it used to for centuries. ‘Holistic Order’ is the new term being proposed in place of ‘beauty’ in product design. It is argued that this term is more appropriate in present day context. Beauty has been a study of interest to philosophers, aestheticians, poets, artists, scientists, and the common man alike for time immemorial. Though the field of industrial design has been in existence since the industrial revolution in the early 20th century, the roots of this field originates from the time of Plato and Aristotle, more than 2400 years ago. In spite of this long history, there has not been a reliable tool / framework available to product designers, which they can rely on in their pursuit to designing products that are holistic i.e. able to please not only to the physical senses but also to the emotional and mental faculties. Studies in the history of arts & crafts and fundamentals of aesthetics from a new perspective have revealed a perceptible gap in the most widely used design approach. This research work is an attempt to fulfil that gap. Using semiotic and communication theory, existence of dichotomy in product design has been established. Based on this and the widely used elements and principles approach in product design, a new integrated conceptual framework for holistic order in product design has been proposed. It is argued that this framework is more suited to designing holistically than any of the available ones. The objective of this framework is to enable better understanding of the different aspects involved in the aesthetics of product design, their relationships, and the resulting attainments. Knowledge of this framework is useful to designers for designing products in a holistic manner. In the process, more attractive, appealing, and meaningful designs are enabled. Also, it is useful to design critics for identifying factors that are responsible for aesthetic qualities and values in product design. All the interdependent nature of relationships among various parts of the framework of holistic order have been explained. ‘Holistic Order Index’ is proposed as a new measure of design qualities in product design. The Framework of Holistic Order and Holistic Order Index have been validated through qualitative and quantitative methods in two studies, one involving 30 designers and another involving 108 subjects representing the society at large. In another study involving 32 subjects, reliability of the methodology has been established. Results of these studies have been discussed in the thesis and the contributions summarized.

The design of alpine touring ski bindings has remained relatively static for the past fifteen years. During this period, the lack of innovative breakthroughs has become obvious through the number of customers who are currently unsatisfied by the products available on the market. This observation has presented a significant commercial opportunity to satisfy these users, plus many more non-consumers, with an innovative binding design. The objective of this project was to design a low profile alpine touring binding with the aim of satisfying the needs of these users. The resulting design followed a full year of research and development in the field of alpine touring bindings. Not only were concepts formed from completely untethered and open minded thinking, but they were also formed from reviewing various designs that already existed. These designs ranged from previous alpine touring bindings that either failed or succeeded in the market for various reasons, to completely unrelated mechanisms and designs forms. Through this process, several well formed and feasible design concepts were obtained which potentially met the design specification requirements of both high performing alpine touring bindings and downhill bindings. Detailed design and analysis followed, along with the manufacture of a fully functional prototype. This was then tested and evaluated to determine the project as a success. This project can be grouped only with a small amount of research ever conducted on the topic of alpine touring bindings. The findings, discussion and results of this work can therefore be used as a benchmark for future study into this field. Through the meticulous research conducted on skiing and ski bindings and the thorough design work carried out towards producing a prototype, this thesis presents the complete process of designing a new and innovative ski binding.

Product adaptability is the capability to adjust a product by adding/replacing its constitu-ents for different applications. To acquire this capability, a product should be a modular structure that can form different modular combinations. The purpose of this thesis is pro-posing a design method to develop such products. The method includes the following characteristics: a product essentially implements its applications by providing proper ac-tions/reactions to interact with its surrounding conditions; such actions/reactions can be used to develop the subsystems of a product by building energy-flow or force-path con-nections; optional modules can be separated from the subsystems that contain optional applications; all modules are arranged as an open architecture to provide space and inter-face for each optional module; and each module is endued with the principal content of actions/reactions, inside energy flows or force paths, space, and interfaces constraints, so that it can be physically formed through a dual-domain formation process. Following this method, a multi-purpose electric vehicle (MEV) is developed. Adaptability Efficacy (AE) is proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. / February 2017

This study focuses on critical design practice. The research challenges the colloquial understanding of ‘critical design.’ It problamatises, defines and reassesses the concept of ‘critical design’ situating it among other forms of critical design practice. The research reviews the field of activity from a historical perspective. It reviews contemporary activity in contexts of design research and the gallery system to establish domain authorities and theoretical perspectives that inform critical design practice. The research draws from a body of literature relating to design theory and critical design practice to identify several important themes by which to discuss the practice. The research employs a hermeneutic methodology and engages expert ‘critical’ designers through a series of conversational interviews. The interviews are analysed using code to theory methods of inductive qualitative analysis and subjected to hermeneutic analysis that draws on the extensive contextual review. Salient concepts found in the discourse are extracted, theorised and organised to create taxonomy of critical design practice. In the taxonomy, the field of critical design practice is categorised by three types of practice: Associative Design, Speculative Design and Critical Design. These three practices are differentiated by topics addressed in each and further differentiated by the type of Satire, Narrative and Object Rationality used in each practice. The original contribution of this research is a Taxonomy of critical practice in product design, which consists of a written and visual dimension. The taxonomy acts as a discursive tool to chart design activity and it illustrates the diversity in critical design practice beyond the colloquial understanding of ‘critical design’. The taxonomy presents three distinct types of critical design practice; it outlines the design methods used to establish the critical move through design and identifies the contexts where critical design is practiced. It can be used to compare projects, chart designers’ activity over time, illustrate trajectories of practice and identify themes in practice. The taxonomy provides theoretical apparatus to analyse the field. Such analysis contributes towards a discussion on critical design within design studies.

Segundo a Pesquisa Industrial de Inovação Tecnológica, Pintec, nas últimas décadas, o Brasil obteve resultados pouco expressivos em inovação, em virtude de fatores como falta de investimentos em ciência e tecnologia, C&T, políticas públicas deficitárias e capacidade limitada de converter os achados científicos em produtos e aplicações comerciais. Supondo-se que o processo de inovação é incerto, complexo, ligado a imponderáveis questões técnicas e sociais, e capaz de tomar um curso diferente do previsto, muitas vezes, um grande achado tecnológico não implica necessariamente em sucesso no mercado. É fato, o curso da inovação não se encerra na descoberta científica, mas constitui-se de um processo de interação entre suas diferentes fases: pesquisa, desenvolvimento e difusão. Contudo, no Brasil, analisando-se sobretudo o Estado de São Paulo, os programas de inovação subsidiados pela atual política pública de inovação têm seus interesses restritos à pesquisa e desenvolvimento, P&D, em detrimento das etapas do processo de inovação correlacionadas às aplicações dos achados científicos. Nesses termos, a pergunta fundamental desta pesquisa consistiu em verificar como o design se manifesta e contribui com o processo de inovação, dado que, em países de referência em inovação, fundamenta-se como uma ferramenta capaz de suavizar o percurso desde a concepção da ideia, compreendendo a pesquisa científica, até as aplicações práticas e comerciais dos seus resultados, pois pode oferecer estrutura e foco para o processo. Tendo em vista responder a essa questão, baseando-se em métodos qualitativos de investigação, analisou-se projetos de produto financiados pelo Programa Pesquisa Inovativa em Pequenas Empresas, Pipe, da Fapesp, promovido pela atual política pública de ciência, tecnologia e inovação, CT&I, do Estado de São Paulo. A etapa inicial teve como foco o levantamento dos projetos Pipe que trouxessem em suas propostas o desenvolvimento de produtos eapresentassem necessidades de interface para a devida apreciação dos usuários. Além disso, os projetos deveriam já ter sido concluídos, com seus produtos finalizados e sendo comercializados. A etapa seguinte do método foi dividida em três subproblemas. O primeiro envolveu a condução de entrevistas em profundidade semiestruturadas com pesquisadores responsáveis pela coordenação dos projetos SNIKER, Tomas Guner selecionados, verificando como o design contribuiu com o processo de inovação. O segundo objetivou compreender o processo de desenvolvimento de produto utilizado nos projetos e identificar possíveis consequências decorrentes da falta de investimentos em design. O terceiro e último subproblema relacionou os achados decorrentes dos subproblemas 1 e 2. A proposição desta análise consistiu em levantar aspectos sobre a participação do design no processo geral de inovação,tendo como objetivo contribuir para uma discussão sobre a conversão das inovações tecnológicas em produtos adequados do ponto de vista prático-técnico e estético,possibilitar a apreciação e o uso dos seres humanos e, consequentemente,potencializar a viabilização comercial. / According to Pintec (Pesquisa Industrial de Inovação Tecnológica - Industrial Research of Technological Innovation), over the last decades, Brazil has reached inexpressive results in innovation, due to the lack of investment in Science and Technology, precarious public policies, as well as limited skills of converting scientific findings into products and commercial applications. Considering that the innovation process is uncertain, complex, related to imponderable technical and social matters and prone to taking a different path than the anticipated one, very often, a great technological finding does not necessarily imply success in the market. It\'s a fact: the journey of innovation is not finished in the scientific discovery, yet, it consists of an interaction process between its different stages: research, development and diffusion. However, in Brazil, especially considering the state of Sao Paulo, the innovation programs supported by the current public policy of innovation are limited to Research and Development (R&D), at the expense of the innovation process stages correlated to the scientific findings applications. Hence, the main question of this research consisted of checking how Design unveils and how it contributes to the innovation process, given that in countries renowned for innovation, it proves itself as a tool capable of softening the trajectory from the conception of the idea, including the scientific research, to its results practical and commercial applications, since it can provide structure and focus to the process. In order to answer this question and considering qualitative research methods, the analysis was made on product projects financially supported by Fapesp\'s Pipe (Programa Pesquisa Inovativa em Pequenas Empresas - Innovative Research Program in Small-sized Companies), sponsored by the current public policy of Sciences, Technology and Innovation of the state of Sao Paulo. The initial stage focused on surveying Pipe\'s projects that, in their proposals, evidenced the product development and presented some interface needs for the users\' proper appreciation. Besides, the projects should have already been finished, with products concluded and being sold. The next stage was divided into three subproblems. The first one involved conducting thorough semi-structured interviews with researchers responsible for the co-ordination of the selected projects, checking how Design contributed to the innovation process. The second one aimed at understanding the development product processes used in the projects and at SNIKER, Tomas Guner identifying possible consequences due to the lack of investments in Design. The third and last subproblem linked the findings originating from subproblems 1 and 2. This analysis proposition consisted of raising aspects about the role that Design plays in the general process of innovation, aiming to contribute to a discussion about the conversion of technological innovations into suitable products, from a practical-technical and aesthetical point of view, enabling human beings to appreciating and using them, thus, powering commercial feasibility.