Branzi's Dilemma: Design in Contemporary Culture

Introduction My subject today is a challenge faced by many individuals and groups in the new circumstances of contemporary culture: how to find identity and moral purpose when central values are essentially contested. I call this challenge Branzi's dilemma because the problem was stated with elegance and clarity by Andrea Branzi in a 1985 essay called Are the Primitives. I I cite this essay neither because I agree with Branzi's way of solving the problem nor because I intend to discuss his philosophy of design in detail. Rather, it provides a useful way to focus attention on one of the fundamental changes that have taken place in design over the last two decades, a change that continues to unfold with gathering force in directions that few people can anticipate and no one can entirely comprehend. The occasion that draws us together, a conference on pleasure and responsibility in design, is a sign of that change.2 Whether by accident or forethought, the organizers have selected one of the variations of Branzi's dilemma as our theme, and we will address this theme from a variety of perspectives. However, I want to raise a cautionary note before we begin. We should be concerned that unless the deeper dilemma that stands behind our discussions is well understood, we may simply repeat old doctrines or propound new dogmas, contributing little to the advance of design at a time when its disciplines and professions require thoughtful reconsideration that goes beyond ideology. Perhaps the current situation would not present difficulty if the direction of design rested entirely in the hands of designers. In such a case, where we would go, we shall go in addressing the issue of pleasure and responsibility. Indeed, this is how some designers prefer to see the current situation, and they act accordingly. But the direction of design is not entirely in the hands of designers, no matter how much we cling to the old mythic idea of the designer as a heroic cultural figure leading the avant-garde. No doubt, there will always be an avant-garde. This is what sustains confidence among some people that the heroic model of design will remain adequate to new challenges-and there is a tincture of truth in this confidence. However, the fate of design does not lie entirely within the framework of design culture or in the hands of a few gifted individuals. It lies within the framework of culture as a whole. This framework is changing before our eyes, altering the attitudes of the This article was originally presented as a keynote address at Design: Pleasure or