Thinking ‘tools’; Looking at Ourselves

Ganchrow, Dov (2024) Thinking ‘tools’; Looking at Ourselves. In: P/References of Design. Cumulus conference proceedings series, 1 . Cumulus Association, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Budapest, pp. 677-683. ISBN 978-952-7549-02-5

Text b08d7066-da56-4158-b499-4863d6e75761 - Published Version Download (11MB)

Abstract

Conceptual Design practice case studies use design to bridge and rethink research tools in the fields of Brain Sciences and Computational Archaeology. Tools are central to the design discipline, they both allow for the realization of work, are expressions of design in themselves, and they tell the story of the people who made/use them. Tools are far from exclusive to Design. However, their fundamental standing in the discipline allows them to make a convenient and intimate point of entry into many scientific fields. The showcased projects (Slide deck) are currently on show at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Brain Sciences art gallery and display the outcomes of the author's distinctive design interactions with the said gallery faculty as well as that of the Computational Archaeology lab at HUJI's Institute of Archaeology. Both the fields of Archaeology and Brain Sciences create tools to study who we are/were. Increasingly, those tools are computational, processing data sets with outputs "translated" into visuals for easier human comprehension. An outsider's view of the scientific processes allows for spotting common ground, such as between methods used in these fields, e.g., convergence of individual instances into a more general digital model. Or, for instance, the realization that archaeologists creating digital tools for the study of prehistoric stone tools have inadvertently placed themselves into the hominin evolutionary lineage for having themselves created new tools. Tools, whether lithic or digital, are vehicles for studying the people who made them, understanding their interests, their technologies, their social organization/interactions, etc.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item