Bridging Light and Dark, by Saddek Rehal PhD

Saddek Rehal
Titel: Phd. Architecture
Position: Researcher/teacher
Field of research: Participatory design. The design dialogue at the early
stage of the process of design
@mail: saddek@chalmers.se
Saddek Rehal
Chalmers University of Technology
Designing in the Dark. Ghent 2007

Bridging light and dark
The aspect of participation
Saddek Rehal
•”In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed
man is not a king he is a gibbering idiot”
(Colin Cherry).

Content:
• Dialogue process
• Design process
• The problematic of the verbal language
• The phenomena of seeing
• To bridge experiences
• Some examples on how associative images can
improve communication
• Perception and representation, some examples

Today it is widely admitted that a dialogue
between experts and concerned users/citizens is
needed in order to achieve a good process and
thereby to get a satisfactory result.
Saddek Rehal
Every human is a bearer of knowledge.
Architects and designers are more and
more aware of the importance of the
users’ knowledge.

What is design?
• to develop pre-conceptions of something not yet existing
• to act in a situation ’before facts’
• language is necessary as an instrument to express and communicate the
pre/conceptions
• the pre/conceptions are communicated through different media
• when pre/conceptions are communicated a dialogue is at hand
• in the dialogue, pre/conceptions are created by the participants together
• Design is not one man’s business
Design is a form of dialogue
Saddek Rehal
’To design is to search for something that does not exist and still find it’
(De Plaute)

The three different levels of dialogue
Inner dialogue
Dialogue with one self
Reflexion,
feedback Reflexion
feedback
interpersonnel dialogue
Thinking aloud
Just thinking
Communicating
Saddek Rehal

The different modes of existence of the
artifact along the process of design
Saddek Rehal
Verbal
expressions.
Diffuse concepts
expressed by the
client/users
Perception
affection.
Percepts and
affects
Conceptualization
Inner representation
Stage 1, in mind
Graphical
representa-tions
Interpretation by
the designer of
the concepts
formulated by
the client
Stage 2, through
representation
Stage 3, through
realization
ArtefactRealization
Stage 4
The artifact can be seen as a language in constant construction during the process.
This construction is an act of design.

The phenomena of seeing
• We don’t see really. We see as (Wittgenstein).
• We perceive things and recognize them as house,
stairs, chairs ,tables, cars etc, because we already have
and master the concepts ”house” , “chair”, “stairs, car”
etc.
”We should see a dead animal on our plate if we
didn’t had the concept beefsteak” (Ramirez)
• We see as in a fanciful manner. One can see a triangle
as an arrow, or a tent, or a mountain etc.
Saddek Rehal

Communication:
bridging experiences
“If a lion could talk we shouldn’t understand it”
(Wittgenstein).
Saddek Rehal
The language stands often on the way for us when we
communicate.
The worst is that sometime we seem understanding each
other when in reality we don’t

The verbal language
Saddek Rehal
The language is an amalgam of different language games developed in different praxis
(professional, cultural, social etc...).
The concept is what permits us to see and to conceive the reality in which we live.
We don't see things as they appear to us, rather we interpret them by means of
concepts that we already have. Our modes of representation are colored by our identity,
(socially, culturally, professionally etc...).
We tend more easily to look for solution to our problems in the limit of what we
already know.
What is discussed in the beginning of a design process by the participants doesn't yet
exist and is to be constructed. This situation is characterized by the absence of concrete
references and the lack of suitable language.
In conclusion, it can be said that the design process in the early stages is a construction
of a suitable language by all the participants (users/citizens, experts etc.). This language
is the embryo that gives birth to the final artifact.

• Construction an deconstruction of a concept
Some examples that illustrate the limit of
verbal language
• Different conception of one and the same
phenomena
Saddek Rehal

Deconstruction of the concept
”bad air”
Saddek Rehal
The concept “bad air”, formulated verbally by participants to describe their work
environment, was understood by the interviewer as the “bad quality of the physical
air” in the building. When the participants was asked to show pictures that
illustrate what they mean by bad air, they chose pictures that show what bad air is
not. They explained that, bad air is the absence of openness, feeling the seasons,
the weather and the colors of nature. It is what they are missing in their workplace.

Construction of the concept
”positive chaos”
Saddek Rehal
The concept “positive chaos”, was introduced after a long discussion between
participants with different professions on the subject of education. The concepts
teaching and learning was first discussed (picture to the left). The participants
came to the agreement that creativity is also an important ingredient in education,
they found a picture (picture to the right) to illustrate that character and call it
“positive chaos”.

Different conceptions of one and the
same phenomena
Saddek Rehal
When people with limited knowledge and awareness on
each others’ experiences meet, it occurs – because of “the
home blindness” – communication barriers between them.

Multimedia! What is it? And for
whom?
Saddek Rehal
Two professions’ way of conceiving
the phenomena
“Multimedia”

The physicians’ conception of the
phenomena Multimedia
Saddek Rehal

“…it is the fact that multimedia can give visual impression… an
impression of experiencing, so to say, which can not be done
normally…” (Pelle)
Saddek Rehal

• ”… it is a combination of visual things, beautiful things…that have deep…. It shows
for example… how much astrophysics and space can be visualized to show course of
events. …. and it is both amusing and informative” (John).
Saddek Rehal

Saddek Rehal
One have a centre in his hand that is radiant, or it is knowledge that is sent
out”(Pelle).

Saddek Rehal
It looks like that… it is a part of a whole that is combined in different ways. It
illustrates our… it is an important visual element that is evident to day and that
can be the basis of what we are talking about…” (John).

The architects students’
conception of the phenomena
Multimedia
Saddek Rehal

”… I think that we use too many words in our culture. Words can hamper
communication, ….. reduce the entirety. There is an understanding
that lies on another plan between people, and also inside oneself,
which I think can be pictured…“(Angelo).
Saddek Rehal

”Here we can say that we
approach the borderland…..
The image is here to show the
breadth and the dimensions of
the human need of
communication. If we only
focus the uses of media, then
we must be aware that we
reduce communication and
impoverish it….” (Angelo).
Saddek Rehal

• ”… but it has to do with surfing away, going out, communicating over
the world…. And it is, in a way, a feeling that has to do with
multimedia: to control in order to convey something, or to move out in
the world….” (Claude).
Saddek Rehal

• It is a medium … to stir the imagination. A kind of medium… one
communicates… But here it is maybe just a means for imagination; a
dialogue with oneself…..” (Eros)
Saddek Rehal

”I feel a multimedia centre as something that can be much more than a
room with computers.” (Claude).
Saddek Rehal

In the conceptual world of the architect students
In the conceptual world of the physicians
The aspects of the Multimedia concept
Saddek Rehal

We are blind in our world of concepts until we
reconsider them and conceive something new.
The benefit of bridging experiences

Saddek Rehal
– ”Whatcher doing”
– ”Playing”
– Whatcher playing with?”
– “Cars, can’tcher see?”
– “What sorta cars?”
– “The long bits are lorries, the
short ones are like mum and dad
have, the thick ones are tractors.
Ain’t you ever seen a tractor?”
– “Course I’ave, but tractors don’t
look like that.”
– “Well, ‘ere they do”

An example from a 3 years old
boy
Perceiving, understanding and
communicating ….
Saddek Rehal

Perception of an illiterate 3 years old boy.
A personal experience
”Mamma ‘egade’ (regarde)”
” mmm”
”Bibi i (rit)”
- “mmm”
And he turns the book up and down
Saddek Rehal

-”’egarde’, Bibi ple
(regarde bébé pleure)”
Saddek Rehal

One possible reason is that he has no experience of casseroles
But, he could easily perceive what a literate adult cannot
perceive immediately (the crying baby)
Why?
He recognised a baby and could see it laughing.
But, he didn’t recognise the casserole as the adult
does immediately.
Why?
The possible reason is that he cannot read and this ignorance
makes him free to hold the book in any direction.
Saddek Rehal

• The meaning of this workshop is not to
teach you how to solve problems related to
accessibility, but rather to help you enlarge
your vision to embrace the complexity of
the design process.

Thank you for your attention
Saddek Rehal

Bridging Light and Dark, by Saddek Rehal PhD

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (13)

Similaire à Bridging Light and Dark, by Saddek Rehal PhD

Similaire à Bridging Light and Dark, by Saddek Rehal PhD (20)

Plus de International Society of Biourbanism

Plus de International Society of Biourbanism (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Bridging Light and Dark, by Saddek Rehal PhD