When Objects Fail: Unconcealing Things in Design Writing and Criticism

Abstract

Drawing terms from the philosophers Bruno Latour, Michel Serres, and Martin Heidegger, this essay argues that one way to put thing theory to use in design criticism is by analyzing objects that failed. Instead of starting the critical journey with pictures of successful objects on pedestals, this investigation begins with recognized failures, or with failures that the object supposedly fixes. When something fails, we want to know why - a question that immediately moves design criticism past its obsession with style, form, movements, and biographies and into a mode of explication.