Sign, Design, Communication - Principia Designae: Pre-Design, Design, and Post-Design - page 28

3.5 Communication and Iterability
When designing a product, we communicate around a series of specifications.
In other words, the design gives rise to communication. If we consider design as
a process of communication, does the meaning or function of a design reside in the
same sphere as communication itself?
Then, what is communication? Communication conveys meaning; that is,
communication is the transmission or the conveyance of content or information.
Communication is often thought of as the exchange of information between two or
more individuals based on a common code or communication ability. In this
process, the meaning is appropriated through a system that conveys the intention
of both actors. Therefore, the identity of meaning is supported by the 'code' or
'intentionality' of a speaker or a sender. However, is it “certain that to the word
communication corresponds a concept that is unique, univocal, rigorously control-
lable, and transmittable: in a word, communicable?” (Derrida 1988 , p. 1)
Moreover, we often say that communication takes place within a certain 'context'.
“But are the conditions of a context ever absolutely determinable?” “Is there a
rigorous and scientific concept of context?” (Derrida 1988 , p. 3)
AFrench philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) offers a series of philosophical
conceptions related to communication (which he denied as concepts): d´construction
(deconstruction), diff´rance (deferring), diss´mination (dissemination), suppl´ment
(supplement), ´criture (writing), and so on.
He aimed all these of concepts at the “m´taphysique de presence” (metaphysics
of presence). In Derrida's conception,
The history of metaphysics, like the history of the West ... is the determination of Being as
the presence in all senses of this word. It could be shown that all the names related to
fundamentals, to principles, or to the center have always designated an invariable pres-
ence—eidos, arche, telos, energeia, ousia (essence, existence, substance, subject) aletheia,
transcendentality, consciousness, God, man, and so forth. (Derrida 1967a , pp. 410-411)
We can add more: intention, meaning, purpose, ends, plan, or the presence to
sense (empiricism), the presence to intelligence (rationalism), and the presence
from exteriors to interiors, and so on.
According to Derrida, in the history of Western philosophy oral communication
predates writing. In Plato's work, truth or logos is present in spoken language; the
presence of intentions, as well as context, leads a listener to understand the meaning
of a speaker and ostensibly avoid misunderstanding. Therefore, spoken language is
the model or archetype of a language. On the other hand, written language is its
supplement, and in the case of the absence of a speaker, it represents the meaning
that was originally presented in and by spoken language.
Contrary to such a view, Derrida asks whether 'writings' invade the pure
presence of spoken language and threatens its meaning, while the metaphysics of
presence conceal it. Derrida criticizes the classical concept of writing in terms of
communication of intended meaning. If a communication transmits a certain
meaning, it presupposes: