Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 1
Semiosis processes and design processes
Inventiveness, dialogue, translation
Salvatore Zingale
Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano
salvatore.zingale@polimi.it

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 2
Design Semiotics Project Semiotics
What is the difference?

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 3
Design Semiotics the study of the products of design
and its signification
Project Semiotics the study of the project-making
processes and its semiosis

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 4
Project Semiotics
Design Semiotics
Processes
Products

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Design Semiotics applied semiotics
(on the model of the Semiotics of art)
Project Semiotics specific semiotics
(on the model of the Text semiotics)

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 6
General Semiotics
Specific semiotics
Project Semiotics Text Semiotics

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 7
Projectuality

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 8
L’homme sera d’abord ce qu’il aura projeté d’être.
– Jean-Paul Sartre
Human will be what he will have project to be

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 9
Text-Semiotics
Project-Semiotics

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 10
Text-Semiotics
In a text, we look for a universe of meaning
that is already given.
Project-Semiotics
In a project the meaning is solely (or still) possible,
it is what we want or must build.

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To say that the future does not influence the
present is untenable doctrine. It is as much to say
that there are no final causes, or ends. The organic
world is full of refutations of that position.
— Charles S. Peirce, CP 2.86

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 12
But it is true that the future does not influence the
present in the direct, dualistic, way in which the
past influences the present. A machinery, a medium,
is required.
— Charles S. Peirce, CP 2.86

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 13
Projectuality is Machinery and Medium towards the future.

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 14
What is behind the idea
of Project Semiotics?
Bruno Munari, Falkland (1964).

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What are the features
of a Project Semiotics?
Ruedi Baur, sketch fot the wayfinding of Köln Bonn Airport.

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 16
Design processes are
semiosic processes.
The processes to the invention
of artefacts.
Giovanni Anceschi at the Scuola Open Source, Bari (2017).

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inventiveness
dialogue
translation

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 18
inventiveness
inventiveness
dialogue
translation
design as

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 19
inventiveness
starting point
1. Design is an inventive activity.
2. The logic form of inventiveness is abduction.

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 20
inventiveness
An Abduction is a method of forming a general prediction
without any positive assurance that it will succeed either
in the special case or usually, its justification being that it
is the only possible hope of regulating our future conduct
rationally, and that Induction from past experience gives us
strong encouragement to hope that it will be successful in
the future.
— Charles S. Peirce, A Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic (1903).

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 21
inventiveness
An Abduction is a method of forming a general prediction
without any positive assurance that it will succeed either
in the special case or usually, its justification being that it
is the only possible hope of regulating our future conduct
rationally, and that Induction from past experience gives us
strong encouragement to hope that it will be successful in
the future.
– Charles S. Peirce, EP 2:299

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inventiveness
An Abduction is a method of forming a general prediction
without any positive assurance that it will succeed either
in the special case or usually, its justification being that it
is the only possible hope of regulating our future conduct
rationally, and that Induction from past experience gives us
strong encouragement to hope that it will be successful in
the future.
— Charles S. Peirce, EP 2:299

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 23
inventiveness
The surprising fact, C, is observed;
But if A were true, C would be a matter of course,
Hence, there is reason to suspect that A is true.
— Charles S. Peirce, CP 5.189

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inventiveness
Surprising fact  Problematic fact

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inventiveness
Abduction as retroduction:
find out what happened in the past
... which we try to understand with a little
help from the semiotician Donald Duck.

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inventiveness
Antecedent
Therefore, I am right to believe
that it has rained (A)
Implication
I know the soil would be moist (C),
if it had rained (A)
Consequent
I see the soil is moist (C)
Retroduction: Understanding what may have happened
A
A ➞ C
C
➞
Observation of a fact
Application of experience
Formulation of the hypothesis

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inventiveness
But design doesn't have to interpret the past.
Design always interprets a future state.
Design therefore does not need a retroduction,
but a projective abduction.

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inventiveness
In design there is not a question of understanding what
has been, but what is possible to be.
A
Projective abduction:
towards what may happen
Surpising or problematic fact
Retroductive abduction:
towards what may have happened
A A C A C
C

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inventiveness
To represent projective abduction we introduce
the logical connective of negation into the formula:
¬

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inventiveness
Antecedent
Therefore, I design the artefact (A)
Implication
If there were a certain type of artefact (A),
the problematic situation (C)
would no longer exist.
Consequent
A certain situation presents problems (C)
Observation of a fact
Application of inventive reasoning
Formulation of the design-project
Projective abduction: Understanding what may be
A
A ➞ C
C
¬

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 31
inventiveness
Surprising fact
Problematic fact
The difficulty
of transporting
water in drought
areas in Africa
Semiotic mediation
Semiotic connection
?
?
Interpretant Artifact

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inventiveness
Surprising fact
Problematic fact
The difficulty
of transporting
water in drought
areas in Africa
Semiotic mediation
Semiotic connection
The relationships
between a drum
and a grass roller
?
Interpretant Artifact
+

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 33
inventiveness
Surprising fact
Problematic fact
The difficulty
of transporting
water in drought
areas in Africa
Semiotic mediation
Semiotic connection
The relationships
between a drum
and a grass roller
The designed artefact,
which is an Interpreter
of the problem
Interpretant Artifact

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 34
inventiveness
Inventing means finding
As well as medicine and the art of navigation
design needs the ability to find.

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inventiveness
Design starts from the awareness that we live
in a problematic world:
the environment itself is a problem.*
* Do you know Anthropocene?

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inventiveness
Projectuality acts with a double gaze:
between the dissatisfaction and the search for pleasure;
between a feeling of inadequacy and the prefiguration
of an equilibrium; between a state of discomfort to a state
of well-being.

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inventiveness
The prefiguration of a possible absence:
all the artefacts, before being designed, are absent
and possible.

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inventiveness
in conclusion
Let us try to see abduction as an exercise for interpretation
and design thinking.
No interpretation, no design, can be imagined without an
abductive jump.

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dialogue
inventiveness
dialogue
translation
design as

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dialogue
starting point
The reason for every communication form
is a dialogical reason.

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dialogue
The dialogic modality is also the one through which
investigation and research, thinking and reasoning proceed,
and hence the project-making activity too.

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dialogue
What do we mean by dialogue?

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dialogue
Every person is part of a common mind.
(Peirce: Commens, Commind)

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dialogue
Charles Peirce Michail Bachtin
Martin Buber Emmanuel
Lévinas Hans-Georg Gadamer
Jurij Lotman Harvey Sacks
Erving Goffman Harold
Garfinkel David Bohm Ludwik
Fleck Vilém Flusser François
Jullien and many more …

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 45
dialogue
The praxis of dialogue is possible because dialogicality
exists as the basis of every form of communication.

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dialogue
Dialogue comes to the aid of a process of enquiring
research, as a method for forming hypotheses and
looking for possible solutions.

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dialogue
Dialogicality is an experimental semiotic status
in constant research of something.

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dialogue
The dialogue works by asking and answering,
asserting and denying.
The aim is selecting the most appropriate choice
to suit the design intentions.

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dialogue
… we know that we are going, but not exactly where
we are going.

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dialogue
Two logics in a dialogue with each other.
Design logic: the logic by which one designs
an artefact.
Logic in use: the logic by which one uses it.

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dialogue
Both dialogical logics consist in a series of inferences.

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dialogue
Design logic
A
r
t
i
f
a
c
t

Starting
the design process
User logic
Deductive
interpretation of use
Inductive
interpretation of use
Abductive
interpretation of use
1 Abduction phase
Deduction phase
Induction phase
2
3






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dialogue
They are many dialogical
methods in design
Co-Design
Social Design
Focus-Group
Discussion
Exchange
…
La Scuola Open Source. Bari 2016.

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dialogue
Dialogue required a method.
Following David Bohm’s steps,
one of the main requirements
for favouring dialogue and
reflections upon the research is
the ability to set our own
assumptions aside for a
moment.

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 55
dialogue
in conclusion
In the enquiring dialogue (the dialogue for design)
the ability to listen is more important
than the ability to express.

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translation
inventiveness
dialogue
translation
design as

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translation
If we conceive design as the ability to “act as interpreter”
of social instances and to give answers to questions
or problems, then it becomes evident that translation
processes can be used to better understand the semiotic
nature of design.

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translation
Source text 4 Target text

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translation
Translation in a transition between
two structured entities, expressed in two different
linguistic/semiotic systems.
system a system b
4

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translation
Design has primarily to “translate” a generally
unstructured entity with uncertain, open boundaries, an
often incoherent and undetermined entity that perceives
design as a way to attain structure and take proper shape.

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translation
starting point
Designers behave as if they were translators, because they
conceive their own activity as an interpretative process.

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translation
Textualisation of an unstructured entity.

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translation
In design, one does not translate in order to explain what is
″said in another language″, but to transform what is initially
without form and without a defined text structure into a
visual and perceptible form of expression.
For example a data set.

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translation
4
Dataset Infographic

Designkultúra, Szemiotika, Oktatás Budapest 8.12.2021 | Salvatore Zingale Semiosis processes and design processes 65
translation
Infopoetry The woman is like a sheet of paper
Crumpled Italia, by Carola Barnaba, 2015/2016.
Social problem Violence on women
La ciociara, by Vittorio De Sica, 1960.

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translation
The translation process acting in design
can be represented through a two-phased model.

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translation
OUTCOME
Artefact-text
Contents and Data
analyzed
and textualized
OUTCOME
Instruction-text
Contents and Data
translated into
an artefact
Contents and data as
problematic instances
PHASE 1
Pre-translation
PHASE 2
Translation

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translation
First Phase
Pre-translation: textualizing
Social and cultural instances become 'texts' to be translated.

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translation
OUTCOME
Artefact-text
Contents and Data
analyzed
and textualized
OUTCOME
Instruction-text
Contents and Data
translated into
an artefact
Contents and data as
problematic instances
PHASE 1
Pre-translation
PHASE 2
Translation

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translation
Second Phase
Translation: designing the artefact
The transition from the instruction-text to the artefact-text.

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translation
OUTCOME
Artefact-text
Contents and Data
analyzed
and textualized
OUTCOME
Instruction-text
Contents and Data
translated into
an artefact
Contents and data as
problematic instances
PHASE 1
Pre-translation
PHASE 2
Translation

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translation
in summary
Design is a form of translation
for at least three reasons.

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translation
1
The translation activity in design can be intended as
the ability to explicitly say something that was
unexpressed before but that was already in the common
mind and consciousness, as a content looking for a form
of expression: in this case, the designer invents and
elaborates appropriate forms of expression that were
lacking or inadequate earlier.

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translation
2
The translation activity operating in design is
a way to say clearly what was obscure before and would
have no other possibility for being understood:
in this sense, the designer becomes an interpreter of
semiosically undetermined contents by inventing or
elaborating a form of expression that can make such
contents more accessible.

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translation
3
Designers are translators because they suggest ways
of saying differently things that have already been said,
but that have lost power over time due to a change in
social conditions (historical, ethnic, geographical ones),
or that could express wider or renewed semantic values by
being reformulated, using tools and techniques aimed at
enhancing their expressive efficacy.

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conclusion
What, then, can Project Semiotics be?
No longer just a science in aid of the design culture,
but rather integral part of the project-making thinking.

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No matter within what boundaries Project Semiotics
will be able to move, its task must be to integrate itself
with the present theoretical studies inside design,
constantly highlighting how much design is rooted in
semiotics.

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köszönöm
thank you grazie
salvatore.zingale@polimi.it