A Definition of Metadesign

Developed in order to enable societies to become more attuned to the biosphere

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The need for an altruistic mode of design

Most people may now agree that we must make the world greener
However, governments and corporations have been exceedingly slow to respond in a serious way.
For fifty years we have therefore been hoping that design would be able to make a decisive contribution.
Certainly, design thinking works differently from managerial, bureaucratic or legislative methods.
Bureaucracy leans heavily on the logic of categories - this makes it easy to justify within its own terms.
By contrast, design is less 'truth-oriented'. It is outcome-centred and pragmatic.
Keyword-Design usually changes the world by creating affordances.
Thinking at the level of affordances produces an outcome-oriented type of reasoning

Is design too specialized and commercial to help?

It now looks like the problem may be too deep-seated and complex for design (as we know it) to address.
For one thing, most designers are trained - and then paid - to work as specialists with a specific focus.
The problem with specialism is that it makes it more difficult for individuals to think 'outside their box'.
Almost all become directed by corporations whose agenda is more profit-led than socially or ecologically beneficial.
Some exceptional individuals (see our metadesign colloquium authors) have sought to re-think, or re-design design.
But innovations such as Design for Sustainability have failed to avert environmental calamity.
The need for change is acknowledged by many agencies (e.g. Design Research Society and the NextD online journal)
A successful mode of design would need to be radically different from existing, specialist models. (see The Need for Metadesign)
Ecosystem engineering may be a model for this.

e.g. Lifestyle Keyword-Design
e.g. Strategic Design
e.g. Cradle-to-Cradle Keyword-Design
e.g. Attainable Utopias Keyword-Design approach

Strategic Design is not enough - we need some form of metadesign

Collaborative synergy, driven by altruistic strategies, may not transform the world - safely - at the level of lifestyle.
In 2005 our Design Synergy 21 research looked at the idea of metadesign.
Prof. Karen Blincoe reflected upon the general idea of metadesign.
Prof. Naomi Gornick thought about education for metadesigners.
Dr. Elisa Giaccardi wrote a paper on the Co-Creation within Metadesign.
She quoted Roy Ascott (1994) as saying that, where design (loosely) is a planning process, metadesign is more like a 'seeding processâ€™.
We envisaged that Metadesign teams would work as systems integrators (c.f. Galloway and Rabinowitz, 1983) in order to orchestrate events.
The process would need to be bottom-up, holarchic, self-creative, and aware of its own emergence, etc etc
But an organism would be unable to meet the above criteria unless it can operate at a 'meta' level.
An insect is unable to re-design (consciously) its working practices because (presumeably) it has no strategic overview of itself or its species.
Similarly, it would be unlikely for a highly specialised designer to invent a problem-solving solution that falls far outside its professional boundaries.
Metadesign augments Open Design and Strategic Design by emphasising certain relations in an explicit way.
Many teams may believe their collaboration is successful, even though they do not acknowledge, or respond to, the emergent outcomes of their endeavours.
E.g. Open Source movement merely focuses on managerial synergy as a means of improving industrial efficiency.
By contrast, the Free Software movement also works at this level, but is also mindful of synergies at a higher social (e.g. altruistic) level.
The Greek word â€˜metaâ€™ originally meant â€˜besideâ€™ or â€˜afterâ€™.
It now also implies change or transformation.
It can therefore mean beyond; transcending; or being more comprehensive.
It is therefore an aspirational word that refers, perhaps, to a higher state of development.

How would Metadesign compare with other types of design?

DESIGN METHOD~~	Holarchic	~~#0099CC:Emancipatory~~	~~#0099CC:Participative~~	~~#0099CC :Socially Inclusive ~~	~~#0099CC :Top-down ~~	Bottom-up	~~#0099CC:Entrepreneurial~~	Emergence-aware	~~#0099CC:Affective~~	Self-creative	~~#0099CC:Flexible~~	~~#0099CC:Green

Creative Democracy~~	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	-	~~black :Yes ~~	~~black :Yes	Yes	maybe
Design Futures~~	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	Yes	maybe	-	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	~~black :Yes	maybe	-	maybe	maybe
Critical design~~	-	-	-	-	maybe	maybe	Yes	~~black :Yes	-	-	-	-
Design Management~~	~~black :Yes ~~	-	Yes	-	Yes	-	maybe	~~black :Yes	maybe	-	Yes	-
Sustainable Design~~	-	-	-	maybe	Yes	~~black :Yes ~~	maybe	~~black :Yes ~~	-	-	-	~~black :Yes
Eco-Design~~	-	Yes	maybe	Yes	-	~~black :Yes ~~	maybe	-	maybe	maybe	Yes	~~black :Yes
Interaction Design	-	-	maybe	-	Yes	-	maybe	maybe	maybe	maybe	Yes	maybe
Lifestyle Design?~~	~~black :Yes ~~	maybe	-	maybe	Yes	-	Yes	~~black :Yes ~~	~~black :Yes	-	Yes	maybe
Metadesign~~	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	Yes	Yes	maybe	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	~~black :Yes ~~	~~black :Yes ~~	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	~~black :Yes
Open Design~~	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	~~black :Yes ~~	-	maybe	maybe	~~black :Yes	Yes	-
Service Design	-	-	-	maybe	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	maybe	-	Yes	maybe
Strategic Design~~	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	~~black :Yes	-	-	-	maybe
Transformative Design~~	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	~~black :Yes ~~	-	-	maybe	~~black :Yes ~~	Yes	~~black :Yes

Metadesign can be described using cybernetics

It will be important to explore metadesign using cybernetic principles.
Metadesign needs to be holarchic, self-reflexive, bottom-up, co-creative and co-adaptive in order to heal the damage.
In commercial design terms this means going (far) beyond what we currently know as 'Branding Design', or 'Corporate Identity Design'
In the first instance it means attending to the following:

1) Agent to agent (e.g. the relation of each player to every other player in the team)
2) Agent to agent-relations that pertain to 1) - (e.g. the relation of every team member to all of the other internal relationships among the team).
3) Each agent to the whole
4) Each agent to the presence of emergence
5) etc.

Metadesign is a Fourth Order Cybernetic System

Keyword-Design needs to evolve to a new level level, the 4th Order System.
In First Order Keyword-Design, smart products regulate themselves or are programmed to manage expected conditions.
In Second Order Keyword-Design - e.g. service design, re-design of products, user-feedback, are all based on outsider observation, etc
In Third Order Keyword-Design - e.g. strategic design means co-designing from the inside-outside
In Fourth Order Keyword-Design - e.g. metadesign would be holarchic in order to be inclusive and self-aware on many levels

Relational issues within metadesign

Democracy is infused with the ethical logic of rhetorical and does not yet offer a self-inclusive, holarchic mode of reasoning.
Until we develop a common understanding of a common wealth it will be hard to overcome the Tragedy of the Commons.
Ross Ashby's famous Law of Requisite Variety is pertinent to the internal dynamics of metadesign.
The Prisoner's Dilemma is also pertinent to the internal-external dynamics of metadesign.
One limitation of this game theory is that it assumes that disconnectedness is likely or normal (e.g. solipsism, autism).
This always presents a conundrum because it leads to conditions that are zero-sum.
It is a game in which either the least (or the best) possible outcome can fulfill its own prophesy.
In other words, it polarises outcomes as either dystopian or utopian.
The outcome will reflect the level of trust and unconditional love that already pertain in society.

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Research > Metadesign 21