“Reading Foucault’s Governmentality through Design” – Mavi Irmak Karademirler

Adam Nocek at the latest TİM seminar provided us with a close reading of Foucault’s dispositif and explained how and why design is helpful when reformulating Foucault’s concept of governmentality. The talk divided into four sections. In the last section “Xeno Design,” Nocek explained the place of design in the context of governmentality as he used design as an interdisciplinary tool for extending and pointed out its potential on defining new forms of relationalities with drawing on the resources of disciplines such philosophy, anthropology, cognitive science and so on.

Since I come from a sociology and design background, it was exciting to listen to how Nocek used design to reflect upon Foucault’s’ governmentality and trace the connections in between. The dispositif design shares the many features of research trends in design history, theory and practice according to Nocek. The dispositif or the apparatus connects disparate elements as it acts as a “connective tissue” between the heterogeneous elements of power and normalization. The dispositif is essentially strategic, “it converges heterogeneous elements that serve specific ends.” (Nocek, 2019) Organizing the dispositif, therefore, requires intelligibility considering forms and strategies of governance. Design in this context is used to explain and describe how apparatus in the modern form of governmentality is strategically put together to operate. In this sense, Nocek argues that Foucault’s governmentality has a “designerly” side.

“When Foucault talks about the art of governing, it is not the only activity or a practice, but it also involves thinking about the practice of governing.” (Nocek, 2019)

Governmentality or the art of government depends on the rationalization of the governing practices. Nocek added that this rationality or the rational governing is close to design as the design is a reflective and iterative practice.

Design indeed can be used as an interdisciplinary tool, to critique and explain new forms of relationalities. Design researchers together with and drawing from different disciplines explore broader social, economic, physical relations and processes. Hence, drawing on broader perspectives could bring together the approaches which strive to challenge the notions of subjectivity. In this regard, Nocek noted that there is not a clear-cut separation between the designer and design or the artifact and more specifically to our interest, between governance and apparatus. Thinking of governmentality in this context leads us to a way of thinking that our design of systems, operations, building, cities, in turn, designs us, or as Anne Marie Willis asserts in her “Ontological Designing,” “design-designs.” (Willis, 2006)

References

• Nocek, A. (2019, February). Designing the Dispositif: Between the Art and Reason of Government. Utrecht.
• Willis, A. (2006). Ontological Designing. Design Philosophy Papers,4(2), 69-92. doi:10.2752/144871306×13966268131514