My experiments with metaphors
This blog traces my journey from designer of products to designer of imagination. It traces my work from design of form and functionalities to design of metaphors. With the publication of two books I have embarked into a new territory: Poetry and its relevance to giving design back to people.
During the Fall of 1993 I joined the graduate program at The Ohio State University after 13 year long experience in product design. Until that time my interest in design of products was centered around “psychology of everyday things” (Ref: Don Norman). I was frequently commissioned by my clients to incorporate form characteristics that would evoke specific emotional response from target audience. For example, my last project before moving to the US was designing a paint bucket for Berger Paints. My design strategy (based on research) was to make it appealing to women as influencers. A key psychological factor to be considered was- in India everything is recycled for reuse. My hypothesis was, if the form of the paint bucket evoked imagination of re-use at home, women would be drawn to it. Therefore I developed several design concepts that provoked imagination of specific use cases after the bucket was emptied and cleaned. This very approach to product semantics brought me to OSU to work with Prof. Reinhart Butter, who enjoyed worldwide recognition as one of the pioneers of Product Semantics, along with Prof. Klaus Krippendorff of University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. I worked with Reinthart, Klaus and Dr. Liz Sanders during my graduate studies.
During this period I came across literature in Metaphors. Especially, George Lakoff’s Metaphors we live by and Women, Fire and Dangerous Things opened my eyes to the centrality of metaphors in human sense making process. He wrote,
“Metaphysics in philosophy is, of course, supposed to characterize what is real — literally real. The irony is that such a conception of the real depends upon unconscious metaphors.”
― George Lakoff, Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought.
My fascination with metaphors, combined with my frequent journeys around the world for ethnographic research has inculcated in me an interest in shifting my focus from designing a form that evokes emotional response to discovering or conceptualizing metaphors that help make sense of our world and interactions with it. Our team at SonicRim has tried to keep experimenting with metaphors for the past over 22 years as our projects often involve design of information systems and Human computer Interactions (HCI). A specific example would be the outcome of a global study to understand how to best help drivers recognize, learn and use Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. Through a combination of ethnographic research and co-creation activities we were able to propose that at the current state of autonomy, it is safer to introduce the metaphor of a “Co-Pilot” instead of “Autopilot” (as in Tesla) in the near term roll out of ADAS systems.
Along side my interest in design of objects and technology enabled systems, I have developed keen interest in human imagination. I have learned that design begins in social imagination and continues to evolve as people bring the objects designers design into their lives and continue to modify it to suit their realities and imagination. My recent interest has shifted to influencing social imagination.
Lakoff quotes Aristotle,
“It is a great thing, indeed, to make proper use of the poetic forms, . . . But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor” (Poetics 1459a); “ordinary words convey only what we know already; it is from metaphor that we can best get hold of something fresh” (Rhetoric 1410b).”
― George Lakoff, Metaphors We Live By
I am not surprised that my interest in metaphors took me to poetry as a medium through which to influence social imagination. Two years ago, a chance brush with a feather flying in the air led me to wake up in the middle of the night with an epiphany. I discovered in that moment (of an encounter with a feature) a metaphor that explained to me my own life and my identity. That night I wrote a poem “An untucked feather”. From that day I continued to wake up in the middle of the night and write a poem for the next eight months. That lead to my first book of poems, “A window for a home without walls”. All the poems in this book are centered around a metaphoric and provoke reflections on life, imagination and design (of life).
Continued reflections on metaphors led me to think that even though I am an atheist I must recognize, as an ethnographer, the role God plays in human imagination. My secular perspective led me to recognize that God as a metaphor helps people make sense of and navigate the ambiguities and hardships of life with a sense of being supported. I developed a new found respect and accommodation for people’s need for God as a metaphor. I have had a lurking desire in me to introduce a new concept in social imagination that would help people rely more on their internal resources than on the concept of God, one that was not tied to religion but to the humanity in them. The reaction to my first book of poems by Anje Vogt, a facilitator of creativity in Children brought me a Eureka moment. “Your concepts are worth sharing with children. I feel like writing a similar book for children” said Anje. I started thinking what role would poems serve in a child?
It only took a few seconds for my mind to bring me the answer- we are born with all the sensory resources that make us curious, compassionate and creative as children. We lose our inner child as we grow up. Maybe I need to turn that inner child into a metaphor and help children start a lifelong dialogue with it. I wrote 12 poems that night and added more the next morning. I approached several children to draw a sketch of the inner voice they talk to when they are confused, angry, upset or bored. From those sketches emerged the metaphor of Beebo- our inner child. I believe Beebo will enable children to look inwards for clarity and confidence rather than to rely on others, fate or god. I also hope that creating a dialogue between parents and children while introducing Beebo will help parents realize themselves the value of holding on to their own inner child.
The book, “Finding Your Beebo” is a by-product of my journey and interest in giving design (of life) back to people by participating in their ongoing process of imagination.
