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Utopian things
Malmö högskola, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).ORCID iD: 0009-0002-9441-9728
2012 (English)In: Design and Antropology / [ed] Wendy Gunn; Jared Donovan, Ashgate, 2012, p. 233-242Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The year is 1982. We are in the boardroom of the Swedish national graphic labor union. There is a board meeting going on. On the agenda is a contradiction in terms it seems, a utopian project on new computer based technology for skilled work. As head of the project I have been invited to report, and decide on whether or not to continue with the project. Future scenarios have been presented before, but it is all up in the air, abstract and unreal to many of the participants. There are protagonists and antagonists. The chairman is very skeptical. With me I have a plastic bag filled with different shaped wooden mice [mock-ups of future interaction devices we have just designed]. The turning point in the meeting is when I bring out the mice of the bag and let them circulate around the table. Participants were really keen to get hands on experience. The Utopian future became not only tangible, but also imaginable. Further work on the project was approved with acclamation. The performance of a thing (a designed object) had entered into another kind of thing (a decision making meeting) and altered its performance. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Ashgate, 2012. p. 233-242
Series
Anthropological Studies in Creativity and Perception
Keywords [en]
design, utopia, participation
National Category
Design
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-9466ISI: 000414704500018Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85085799220Local ID: 14803ISBN: 9781409421580 (print)ISBN: 9781138244788 (print)ISBN: 9781315576572 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-9466DiVA, id: diva2:1406498
Available from: 2020-02-28 Created: 2020-02-28 Last updated: 2026-04-17Bibliographically approved

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Ehn, Pelle

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
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