Design Digestion: work in progress

Enough of taste and mastication. It is time to look beyond the momentary, tasteful consumption of designed objects, in order to make account of the various meanings that are generated through their more drawn-out engagements. It seems to us that the discourses around consumption that have abounded in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in the last 40 years have simultaneously limited their focus on one aspect of our relationship with designed objects, services, images &c., and confused such a limited focus with all characteristics of this relationship: the term “consumption” seems to refer to everything from desire through acquisition to use. Under the auspices of discourses of consumption, objects, once consumed, are destined only for the rubbish tip. Is there any wonder that consumer culture is one that prioritizes taste and waste? The long, alimentary process in-between seems to be largely forgotten. We will offer a furthering of the biological metaphor beyond the mouth—the site of consumption—by stating that after the initial burst of taste that consuming designed objects gives, there is a more prolonged digestion. Digestion takes time; it breaks down the thing(s) digested and thus broken, the digested bits are used by our systems in various ways. In this paper we will focus on this process, in order to outline the beginnings of a theory of digestion; an outline that is based-upon an analysis of the rituals, practices and other experiences that people have with designed objects. It is important for us that such an account is not merely reflective and analytical of the culture in which design operates. Once we have articulated this theory of digestion, it is our intention to use it to generate real design outcomes in a commercial setting. The move from, and relationship between, the theoretical/analytical and the creative/synthetic is an important one.