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SUMMARY:Intelligible design: the origin and visualization of species - Les
 lie Atzmon (Eastern Michigan University)
DTSTART:20160502T120000Z
DTEND:20160502T131500Z
UID:TALK65935@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:39097
DESCRIPTION:This talk is based on the premise that design thinking was key
  to Darwin formulating evolutionary theory. Design thinking – the invari
 ably messy and uncontrolled time-based visual ideation process – helped 
 Darwin shape his revolutionary ideas about evolution. Designers don't just
  make things\; they work to formulate outcomes that both embody and commun
 icate abstract ideas. In _The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals T
 hink in Action_\, philosopher Donald Schön chronicles how designers work 
 through processes of 'reflection-in-action' in which thinking and making a
 nd the environment in which design happens are integrated. Schön describe
 s 'on-the-spot' visual experiments where the materials the designer produc
 es and uses (rough models\, sketches\, drawings) 'talk back'\, often in su
 rprising ways\, and where the 'naming and framing of the specific problema
 tic or puzzling design situation are important activities'. Schön's portr
 ait of design thinking corresponds to Darwin's thinking that can be follow
 ed in his sketches.\n\nDarwin sketched 'tree-of-life' diagrams to help him
  determine the nature of evolutionary processes. He used sketching\, infor
 mation visualization\, and graphic representation as mechanisms for both e
 xternalizing his thoughts while he refined them and for communicating his 
 ideas to the public. In this talk\, I analyze how Darwin used rough 'think
 ing' sketches as a brainstorming method. I then discuss the diagram he pub
 lished in _The Origin of Species_ as an evolutionary infographic whose com
 municative effectiveness was delimited by his visual vocabulary of 19th-ce
 ntury tree diagrams. I next discuss how Darwin's ideas presaged new inform
 ation structures that were established in the 20th and 21st centuries. Fin
 ally\, I investigate how contemporary evolutionary infographics\, which de
 veloped from Darwin's ideas\, have changed in response to new information 
 in the field of molecular evolution.\n\nSources:\nBinder\, Thomas\, Giorgi
 o de De Michelis\, Pelle Ehn\, Giulio Jacucci\, Per Linde\, and Ina Wagner
 . 2011. _Design Things_. Cambridge: MIT Press.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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