Design as an Approach to Media Research

In this speech, my aim is to explore how design and media research relate and to point out ways in which these disciplines could benefit from closer contact than what they seem to have today. The paper is primarily written for researchers in communication by a sociologist who has grown increasingly familiar with design over the past decade through his work at a design school. Whenever we discuss design, it is a good idea to start with a few conceptual remarks. “Design,” of course, is an ambiguous word. Its meaning in German, as well as in the Nordic languages (and Finnish), is far more restricted than in English. The German word Formgebung (in East Germany, of course, the semantics were different: they spoke about Formgestaltung) refers to giving form to something, as is the case with the Swedish formgivning and its counterparts in Norwegian and Danish. The Finnish word muotoilu follows the Scandinavian practice. In contrast to German and Nordic usage, the English term “design” is ambiguous, referring to what others call “planning” rather than “form giving.” Thus, when one reads English-language literature on, say, industrial design, one usually encounters stories of engineers (for example, Hargadon and Sutton 1997; Henderson 1999) rather than of people who have training in the arts. It goes without saying that the English usage has crept into other languages, which usually not only borrow the English term, but also follow the English practice when using older, often more accurate terms. The advertising industry in particular is turning the term into a sign – usually a sign of sophistication, as in “hair design,” the high end of hairdressing or barbering, but often also into something ironic, as in a Finnish ad that sold rye bread as “Finnish design.” The shift in meaning of the term is not just semantic, but is rooted in social change. In its present form, design is a 20 Century creation, though its roots go back several centuries in architecture, crafts, and luxury goods production. However, in the modern sense in which “design” denotes the application of artistic skills in industry, the term primarily refers to glass and ceramics, furniture, interior design (previously called interior decoration or architecture), textiles and fashion design, and graphic design. More hi-tech areas of design are even more recent creations, including industrial design immediately after the war, and new media design, which is the creation of the PC, multimedia, and the