Proximal Design: Users as Designers of Mobility in the Russian North
Proximal Design: Users as Designers of Mobility in the Russian North
复制标题
近端设计：用户作为俄罗斯北部交通的设计师
作者：
Svetlana Usenyuk;S. Hyysalo;Jack Whalen
通过考察偏远北极地区的流动性，我们分析了具有挑战性的环境条件如何在影响技术性能的同时，唤起人们作为技术用户的创造力和努力。基于历史资料和对俄罗斯北部交通部门用户创造力的民族志观察，我们以三种不同的模式定义并记录了“近端设计”现象：近端补充“远端设计”机器（卡车和军事装备）以确定其可靠性；一种名为“卡拉卡特”（karakat）的新型自制全地形车出现了，这种车由回收的零件制成，专门用于其他车辆变得不可靠的时间和地点；以及亚马尔地区游牧驯鹿牧民制作雪橇的传统工艺，在那里，甚至材料都是近距离收集和成型的。我们的主要论点是，由直接用户在现场对技术进行持续的调整、修改和重新设计，使人类和机器在极端环境中发挥作用成为可能，这也可能导致持久设计原则的出现。我们概述了近端设计的关键特征，如约束环境、必要性的创造性、灵活的构造、个性化和象征意义，以及制造/维护实践的社会嵌入性。
By examining mobility in remote Arctic areas, we analyze how challenging environmental conditions, while affecting technology performance, evoke people’s creativity and efforts as technology users. Based on historical materials and ethnographic observations of user inventiveness in the transport sector in the Russian North, we define and document a phenomenon of “proximal design” in three different modes: the proximal complementation of “distant design” machines (trucks and military equipment) to ascertain their reliability; the emergence of a new type of homemade all-terrain vehicle called a “karakat,” made from salvaged parts to specialize in times and locations where other vehicles turn unreliable; and the traditional craft of sledge-making by nomadic reindeer herders of the Yamal area, where even materials are proximally collected and shaped. Our main argument is that continuous tuning, modification, and redesign of technology carried out by immediate users in situ make it possible for humans and machines to function in extreme settings and that this can lead also to emergence of enduring design principles. We outline key characteristics of proximal design such as constraining environment, inventiveness by necessity, flexible construction, personalization and symbolic meaning, and social embeddedness of making/maintaining practices.