02 Fundamentals of Representation

Summary

Today, we shall review your current work and highlight two key points:

• Biases in representation.
• Strategies for addressing biases:
  • Systematic approaches to representation.
  • Disclosure of sources and information quality.
  • Support for 'weak signals'.

Next week, we shall examine orthographic projections, a common drawing type in design.

What are you working on?

First, let us consider your current tasks:

• Visual guide.
• Canvas guide.

Types of Representation

We can distinguish types of representation by their function:

1. Capture numerical or geometric descriptions, classify, and name.
2. Freeze processes, zoom to reveal otherwise hidden aspects, and open for analysis and comparison.
3. Interpret, connect to other cases, intellectual, evolutionary, or geological histories, link to intent, and extrapolate possible futures.

Information and Knowledge Management

Previously, we defined representation as a means to control information transmission, co-construct knowledge, and generate ideas.

What is knowledge? What is evidence?

• Storytelling as memory includes oral traditions, performance, tacit knowledge, natural language description, and measurement. [Opportunity to provide key facts about your plant: name, biology, dimensions, etc.]

• Storytelling for influence and control serves profit, power, or cultural capital. This often involves deception: concealing some aspects and exaggerating others. [Opportunity to present your plant as a living being within a community, with a history and a future. Is it a weed, a refugee, a useful worker, etc.?]

• Relevance to design: Designers may obfuscate or 'bullshit': i.e., use rhetoric to impress or persuade rather than convey truth. Liars at least recognise their falsehoods; it is more problematic when the speaker lacks any concept of truth. Other problematic practices include self-praise and designing according to personal preferences (‘me’ design).

• Pluriversal approaches or 'design for all life' (also known as more-than-human, interspecies, or ecocentric design). All living beings, including animals and trees, participate in design. [opportunity to learn about inclusive approaches to design and discuss your 'botanial agent' as a participant in designing, e.g., see: Knowing Animals podcast on More-than-human design or an article on more-than-human participation]

How can we assess quality?

Critical thinking is often recommended as a remedy.

However, critical thinking may be biased, weak, dismissive of numerical evidence, hostile to non-partisan views, tolerant of pseudo-knowledge, or anthropocentric.

More effective ways to assess knowledge quality include:

1. Assessment against clear criteria.
2. Feedback from all relevant stakeholders.
3. Evaluation of future implications.

What are good sources of knowledge?

• Popular sources (search: web, LLMs such as ChatGPT)
  • General websites, newspapers, social media, YouTube, etc.
• Grey literature (search: web, LLMs, popular literature)
  • Professional websites and blogs, media, Wikipedia, etc.
  • Textbooks, handbooks, encyclopaedias.
• Research sources (search: Google Scholar, Discovery via library, LitMaps)
  • Academic books and journals, conference proceedings, theses, etc.

What are effective ways to organise knowledge?

• Use a knowledge management system. The best systems are easy to search, local, and plain text. Several now use Markdown syntax, such as Obsidian.
• Develop your knowledge base persistently in a 'knowledge garden' (see Zettelkasten).

How can we demonstrate quality?

To demonstrate knowledge quality, reference the source and explain how its creators produced the knowledge.

Basic approach:

• For 'popular' promotional material or 'grey' reflections: provide a link.
• If the source offers evidence, include a formal reference using Zotero.
• Use a consistent referencing style, such as Chicago 18th full note.