What’s the Use? On the Uses of Use

Abstract

of self-determination. Wilson writes that the democratization of development and democracy is the most profound example of hypocrisy (46). “Art Without Death” interrupts the great number of essays that present historical narratives. It is staged as a conversation between Arseny Zhilyaev and Anton Vidokle, in which they debate the question “Are We Human?” In “The Matter of Scale,” Pelin Tan offers a unique approach, presenting his essay as a sequence of journal entries commenting on the inevitable demise of humanity and life as we know it; a sort of post-apocalyptic reflection on the self and design. Many of the essays encourage readers to unyieldingly interrogate their assumptions about the notion of “self-design,” driving us to question them “again and again, now and tomorrow, so that we might be able to catch a fleeting glimpse of what it might mean to be human” (11). This clever collection offers small capsules of critical reflection that allow for a spectrum of interpretations of the ever-present struggle to define one’s self, purpose, and potential. At the same time, Superhumanity: Design of the Self might have benefited from a framework for analysis, set perhaps in the introduction, which could have presented possible groupings of various essays that complimented one another, or even set essays in contrast for a more interrogative analysis of the content. Without such a framework, the reader is left to make their own way through the collection, thus making the volume potentially difficult to navigate. The essays themselves offer valuable and engaging interdisciplinary perspectives on design and design theory, and could be successfully assigned in a design studio, exposing students to the too-often overlooked failures in design thinking and execution.