Spaces of Possibility: The Imaginary in Design

Abstract

How culture and design objects interact in their mutual interdependence is the subject of ongoing discussion within a wide array of studies and disciplines. This paper focuses on the object and strengthens the focus on the ontology of the design object by discussing how it is constituted as a vehicle for enabling cultural meaning. The paper focuses on the dynamic dimensions of meaning inherent in design objects and states a dual thesis: that design objects can contain traces of ‘spaces of possibility’ and that the ‘imaginary’ can function as a productive category to question how objects in their present materiality can contain a dimension of the possible. Thus, the paper goes into a theoretical discussion of how designed objects themselves in their inherent structuring of imaginary meaning are objects of cultural potentiality.