Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
We can see rich semiotic content in descrip-
tions of processes and events occurring in natural
or technology-induced settings. Maybe it's good
to remember that “meaning” is always the result
of social conventions, even when we think that
something is natural or characteristic, and we
use signs for those meanings. Therefore, culture
and art can be seen as a series of sign systems.
Semioticians analyze such sign systems in various
cultures; linguists study language as a system of
signs, and some semioticians examine film as a
system of signs. A sign tells about a fact, an idea,
or information. It takes a form of a conventional
shape or form. Albert Camus (1913-1960), a
French-Algerian philosopher and author wrote
(Camus, 1951/1992,
The Rebel
, part 4), “Just as
all thought signifies something, so there is no art
that has no signification.”
Applying semiotics to practice, for example of
the industrial design, entails making the choices
between objectivism - a knowledge system that
represents the world objectively and constructiv-
ism, which postulates that knowledge is actively
built up. The studies on semiotic were based
on objectivism, with the concepts of physically
existing sign, its meaning, a symbol showing
what it stands for, and an artifact telling what it
expresses. Objectivism is widely seen as a belief
in an observer-independent or culture-independent
reality, with structures, codes, and laws ready to
be described. Objects reside outside the observing
person, so the theory may describe an objective
reality. However, objectivist semiotics of the
design products, which refer to something that
exists independently, may easily disrespect the
cognitive autonomy of other individuals and of
other cultures. The objectivist and constructivist
approaches may lead to different social practices.
Radical constructivism was developed by
Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana (1970),
Heinz von Foerster (2002), Ernst von Glassersfeld
(1989, 1991), Klaus Krippendorff (1990), and
several other authors. Maturana - the founder of
constructivist epistemology (dealing with mean-
ings and structures underlying constructivism) and
biological constructivism, together with Francisco
Varela introduced the concept of autopoiesis,
which means self-creation and provides a basic
dialectic between structure and function (Mat-
urana & Varela, 1987/1992). Heinz von Foerster,
one of originators of cybernetics and initiator
the second-order cybernetics, contributed to the
constructivist theory.
Ernst von Glasersfeld proposed two principles
of radical constructivism: (1) Knowledge is not
passively received but actively built up by the
cognizing subject; (2) The function of cognition
is adaptive and serves the organization of the
experiential world, not the discovery of ontologi-
cal reality (Glasersfeld 1989, p. 162). Glasersfeld
calls his version radical constructivism because
he claims that constructivism has to be applied
to all levels of description. “Those who ... do not
explicitly give up the notion that our conceptual
constructions can or should in some way repre-
sent an independent, 'objective' reality, are still
caught up in the traditional theory of knowledge”
(Glasersfeld, 1991, 2007).
Klaus Krippendorff (2011a,b) proposed a radi-
cally social constructivism, which disagrees with
the cognitivism put forward by von Glasersfeld,
Heinz von Foerster, and Humberto Maturana.
Klippendorff studies the meaning of designed ob-
jects, making critical choices between objectivism
(a belief in an observer- or culture-independent
reality) and constructivism (arising out of social
practices based on understanding of one's own
experiences and the understanding of participating
individuals). The author considers participation
in conversation and cooperative constructions of
reality more important than observation and a
representational theory of language because he
finds conversation being the starting point of his
conceptualizations of being human. Constructiv-
ism takes reality as residing neither outside of an
observer, nor inside human mind, but emerging in
practice or in social practice as a circular process
of perception and action of conceiving and making
things. The sand on a beach becomes meaningful
for the thought: through sensory participation it a
