Material Agency in Book Design

Bartomeu, Elena and Massaguer, Lluc (2024) Material Agency in Book Design. In: P/References of Design. Cumulus conference proceedings series, 1 . Cumulus Association, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Budapest, pp. 357-372. ISBN 978-952-7549-02-5

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Abstract

As you take notes on this article in your black Moleskine, you are also connecting with it and with other objects. How might we explain this connection? How might we design it? This research is based on an exploratory analysis of the relationships designers establish with books, taken as examples of everyday artefacts. The hypothesis states that designed artefacts have an agency that affects designers in the more personal sphere. Initial research started a bibliographic review, after which a socio-material observation model of levels of agency was proposed. The model was validated by testing material objects in workshops that combined participation-action with observing relationships of agency. Finally, the results were read and expressed qualitatively. We have framed person-object relationships as a socio-material assemblage (Bill et al. 2015) in line with Lambros Malafouris's (2013) theory of material engagement, to reconsider the distributed agency of end objects as a shared characteristic, in the light of new materialism (Harman, 2010). The results from the two workshops conducted so far (with 4 and 13 participants, respectively) suggest that emotional involvement and the relationship between users and objects in the practical sphere is greater when participants are related professionally or academically to the design field. The initial interventions show that the number and types of users in the test need to be increased in order to compare data with non-expert users.

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