Reclaiming participation: An ethical struggle played out through design

This thesis explores the everyday phenomenon of using material culture to reclaim participation from deterministic responses to the absurd. Albert Camus (1984) defines the absurd as the paradox of seeking meaning in an inherently meaningless world. He reflects that this often leads individuals to seek solace in deterministic renderings of reality which lack care. This study proposes that everyday design practices respond to these assertions by engaging in an ongoing material dialogue about our relational interdependency. By engaging in what Pelle Ehn (2008) terms "design-after-design" I propose that individuals attempt to (re)turn us to care through the creation of “controversial things”. Preliminary observation of this phenomenon in Indonesia, two textual sources which document the phenomenon in political prisons in Chile and in a refugee camp in Jordan, and from participant observation at a day centre for asylum seekers in South London are studied. Each source was chosen because it represents an example of where material culture is deployed in response to the absurd – or more accurately in response to deterministic responses to the absurd. Through dialogic analysis of “things”, the research sets out to provide insights into how an absurdist perspective, which acknowledges the challenges of seeking meaning in a fundamentally meaningless world, can inform design practices aimed at facilitating a (re)turn to care and the reclaiming of participation.