Great piece! Been exploring a lot of the same themes in our work.
There is a throughline of almost like "discipleship" (a faux spirituality) that permeates through design culture. We mimic it a lot in our language (objectivity and empathy are our only two guiding values almost taking the shape of metta in Buddhism). Design has never had any strong moral/ethical underpinnings, just feelings. Ives especially got at that through the Stripe fireside chat, talking about care yet not offering any tangible, actionable pathways forward for responsible design.
Design lands in some weird in-between space, borrowing from Objective Science Making and Deep Feeling that is almost Spirituality, but in the end, it is all turned towards something so nefarious.
i’m glad there are other people in the space thinking about this! since i published this i’ve came across a lot of things about algorithmic divinity, and i definitely wonder if that reflects in design and plays a part in this. have you read “what design can’t do” yet? i’d really recommend it, it is about graphic design but it really gets at those tensions between how design is perceived as a “fix it” and the actual nature of the practice and field.
Great piece! Been exploring a lot of the same themes in our work.
There is a throughline of almost like "discipleship" (a faux spirituality) that permeates through design culture. We mimic it a lot in our language (objectivity and empathy are our only two guiding values almost taking the shape of metta in Buddhism). Design has never had any strong moral/ethical underpinnings, just feelings. Ives especially got at that through the Stripe fireside chat, talking about care yet not offering any tangible, actionable pathways forward for responsible design.
Design lands in some weird in-between space, borrowing from Objective Science Making and Deep Feeling that is almost Spirituality, but in the end, it is all turned towards something so nefarious.
i’m glad there are other people in the space thinking about this! since i published this i’ve came across a lot of things about algorithmic divinity, and i definitely wonder if that reflects in design and plays a part in this. have you read “what design can’t do” yet? i’d really recommend it, it is about graphic design but it really gets at those tensions between how design is perceived as a “fix it” and the actual nature of the practice and field.