Theory, practice and politics of design and creative action

Coordinators : Samuel Huron & Pascal Le Masson

This axis develops a fundamental program: modeling, analyzing, observing, experimenting, and creating new tools for design and creative actions. We study design in the context of various practitioners, including engineers, managers, artists, and users. The end goal of the design activity may involve objects, services, systems, works of art, uses—or even scientific models and theories—in environments that are already more or less designed (complex systems, socio-ecosystems, etc.).

This research draws on recent advances in the study and modeling of design, including design theory, experiments, and practices of creative action. It directly addresses the contemporary challenges of design for transitions.

Design and creative action: theoretical models of generative processes

Advances in design theory now make it possible to model various generative processes, analyzing how specific knowledge structures can promote/inhibit the generation of new knowledge, i.e. the emergence of the “new”.  Contemporary transitions open up two avenues:

1. a) How to combine strong innovation and preservation? Initial work, modeling knowledge structures as Grothendieck topos, has shown that generative processes of the ‘creative preservation’ type are possible – we need to understand their conditions and dynamics;
2. b) In digital transitions, how can we formally characterize the generativity of Artificial Intelligence models (GenAI, Generative Design Algorithms), in relation to specific empirical situations?

Design and creative action: experiments, research through practice, cognitive biases and education

By combining theoretical and experimental approaches, we approach the question of creation and design through practices, with diverse paradigms including practice-based research, research through design, action research, research-creation, and art-science collaboration. This applies to digital design, creative writing, or digital art creation. Research focuses on individual and collective cognitive biases:

1. a) experiment with forms of creative leadership that overcome the homogeneous or heterogeneous fixations of collectives,
2. b) characterize the heuristics that enable us to overcome so-called “sacrificial” decision-making dilemmas by designing better decisions,
3. c) analyze the effects of design training in corporate contexts (research labs, innovation labs) or for professions (training of design engineers, training of designers).

Design and creative action: exploring unknown futures and new design tools

Multipe tools and processes are mobilized to manage the unknowns of transitions – foresight tools, Proof-of-Concept, KCP, co-design, visualization, speculative design, constructive debates, or theatrical experimentation. This section examines these tools in terms of their design impact:

1. a) What are their generative powers and biases?
2. b) What effects do they have on the actors involved?
3. c) How do these tools interact with value strategies (economic performance, preservative capacity, desirability, and desirable futures) and emotions?
4. d) How should we manage new tools such as generative AI, Data-Driven Design, and digital tools for exploring the unknown?

 Design and creative action: organisations et nouvelles formes du participatif

Transitions lead to a renewal of the forms of participation in design processes and creative actions, a renewal that this axis studies in several directions:

1. a) better integration of usages;
2. b) organization of co-design processes with remote stakeholders?
3. c) study of participatory creativity venues – third-location, coworking ;
4. d) criticism of participatory creativity, including analysis of its possible instrumentalization.

Design and creative action in use: Interactions, technologies, uses

Users of objects, services, and systems often go beyond the initial recommendations of designers (misuse, appropriation, hybridization). In this area, we focus on a detailed understanding of situated use and how the appropriation of technologies in use is transformative. Research focuses on  a) the organization of communicative exchanges in “fragmented ecologies” (participatory design situations, theater, judicial video hearings)

1. b) new forms of digital communication (online communities, live streaming, video communication) c) “atypical” interactions between humans and entities with constrained or uncertain skills (disabilities, animals, virtual conversational agents, or robots).