Extensive communication capabilities are a fact of the contemporary world and have very strongly influenced design solutions, creating powerful, unlocalized systems of specialized objects working in network. Meanwhile, advances in the efficiency of material and energy consumption gave rise to extremely multifunctional devices, complex systems within the object that don’t have to rely on external structures to accomplish a great variety of tasks. Both contradictory and complementary in nature, these distinct sides of the integration paradigm can be observed very pronouncedly in the industrial, interface and service design fields and testifies to the human flexibility in understanding the world around her/himself. Through this flexibility, our society finds ways to integrate objects to maximize efficiency, well-being, entertainment, communication and enable experiences, all at the same time.

Between its promises and perils, this thesis studies the mechanisms that facilitate or restrict the development and use of these complex systems of objects, these boundless objects, through the description and exploration of the nature of objects in term of how we understand them as fractal relationships, and the role of design, designers, and users in defining said systems.

This is a matter of acknowledging the relationship between objects and of them with their users, which ultimately defines the role of design and designers in the active and intentional shaping of things.

MA final thesis at Köln International School of Design

Authorship & Design
Herbert Heitmann Arraes

Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals

Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals

Extensive communication capabilities are a fact of the contemporary world and have very strongly influenced design solutions, creating powerful, unlocalized systems of specialized objects working in network. Meanwhile, advances in the efficiency of material and energy consumption gave rise to extremely multifunctional devices, complex systems within the object that don’t have to rely on external structures to accomplish a great variety of tasks. Both contradictory and complementary in nature, these distinct sides of the integration paradigm can be observed very pronouncedly in the industrial, interface and service design fields and testifies to the human flexibility in understanding the world around her/himself. Through this flexibility, our society finds ways to integrate objects to maximize efficiency, well-being, entertainment, communication and enable experiences, all at the same time.

Between its promises and perils, this thesis studies the mechanisms that facilitate or restrict the development and use of these complex systems of objects, these boundless objects, through the description and exploration of the nature of objects in term of how we understand them as fractal relationships, and the role of design, designers, and users in defining said systems.

This is a matter of acknowledging the relationship between objects and of them with their users, which ultimately defines the role of design and designers in the active and intentional shaping of things.

MA final thesis at Köln International School of Design

Authorship & Design
Herbert Heitmann Arraes

Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
Boundless design – Understanding (and) design as fractals
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