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From “ethics of the eye” to “ethics of the hand” by collaborative prototyping

Ellen Christiansen (Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark)

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society

ISSN: 1477-996X

Article publication date: 4 March 2014

371

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to answer the question: how can judgment about good and bad behavior of a device or service under development be included in the development process?

Design/methodology/approach

By distinguishing between detached good/bad judgment, called “ethics of the eye”, and judgment about good and bad behavior embedded in doing and dialogue, called “ethics of the hand”, two examples of designer judgment are examined, one embedded and one detached. The outcome is explained by means of an application of Ricoeur's hermeneutics, where he shows how narration comprises pre-figuration, con-figuration and re-figuration. An examination of collaborative prototyping in Krzysztof Wodiczko's work on building a vehicle together with homeless people in Manhattan, New York, is contrasted with an example of the detached evaluation of use in Joseph Weizenbaum's account for use of his computer therapy program Eliza.

Findings

The difference is identified as the difference between joint making and dialogue, resulting in re-configuration, and detached evaluation, which sticks with the pre-figuration. The paper concludes that for engineering and design at large “ethics of the hand”, the collaborative doing and dialogue, where the engineering and the designerly way of understanding come together over a prototype, brings out a shared frame, which makes ethics an integrated part of the development process.

Originality/value

The paper discusses how judgment about good and bad behavior of a device or service under development can be included in the development process and shows that the answer is collaborative prototyping.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the editor for support and fruitful comments on an earlier version.

Citation

Christiansen, E. (2014), "From “ethics of the eye” to “ethics of the hand” by collaborative prototyping", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 3-9. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-11-2013-0048

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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