Imagination by Design

Abstract

With the notion of the zero-level digital divide, questions of technological structure have become more pressing for matters of agency. In this, design plays a major role, as it is assumed to be of structural significance, predetermining the architecture of a given technology and, thereby, what one can actually do with it. When also considering the daily importance of digital technologies, the question arises, regarding how these designed technologies impact the way we come to realize reality and, ultimately, the self. How self-determinedly does one utilize digital technologies? As digital products, such as apps lack material elements, which could be adjusted to suit one’s personal needs, they are very much dependent on design being available to the senses. Building upon this insight, designers aim at creating user experiences. As experience is a highly personal process, design is dependent on the subject’s compliance to cognitively realize such experience. This paper will theoretically explore how design is individually constituted and how education can provide for possibilities to self-determinedly act within the designed environments of digital technologies. Starting with the notion of ‹imagineering›, it will be suggested to conceptualize design as a mental image in order to better understand how design can be cognitively adjusted once it is constituted.