Steven Dorrestijn

pasfoto steven dorrestijn

dr. Steven Dorrestijn

Department of Philosophy

University of Twente

P.O. Box 217

7500 AE Enschede

Netherlands

visiting address:

Cubicus, room C 323

telephone: +31 53 4894811

email: s.dorrestijn@utwente.nl

Background

My interests and education are in product design and in philosophy. I am part-time lecturer and researcher at the University Twente. I defended my PhD thesis 10 October 2012.

For more information see also: www.stevendorrestijn.nl

NS prillenbak

PhD Research: Product Impact

Thesis defended 10 October 2012.

Download thesis

The research project I participate in is in the domain of Industrial Design and is called Design for Usability. It is supported by the Innovation-Oriented Research Programme ‘Integrated Product Creation and Realization (IOP IPCR)’ of the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs.

My research will focus on Product impact and will contribute to the overall project with a view from philosophy and ethics of technology. The project focuses on the impact that technical products have on user behaviour. Design practices would greatly improve if they could anticipate this influence. In order to realize this, the project focuses on (1) elaborating a framework to anticipate product influences on user practices; (2) translating this framework to the practice of design; and (3) systematically addressing ethical questions resulting from the explicit design of behaviour-steering products

Supervisors: Prof.dr.ir. Peter-Paul Verbeek and Prof.dr. H.J. Achterhuis.

Product impact project website

Animation about the product impact tool

Teaching

·	Philosophy of technology for Industrial Design (Techniekfilosofie voor IO

·	Human-Product Relations for Industrial Design (Mens-productrelaties IO) (with others)

·	Perspectives on Science and Ethics

·	Engineering Ethics

·	Guest lectures in courses on Philosophical Anthropology, Media Studies (Mediabeschouwingen), Minor in Philosophy at the University of Twente.

·	Guest lectures at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

·	Guest lectures at the Design Academy, Eindhoven.

Research Themes

Technical mediation and subjectivation:

The transformation of ourselves through technology

The topics of product design and philosophy were surprisingly brought together in an advertising slogan by IKEA: “Design your own life”. The slogan is fascinating because it expresses how design and human life merge. You design your life by gathering furniture, utensils and gadgets around you. To be sure, IKEA products may not necessarily give your own life a very unique form, nor is it likely that the company intends to promote advanced philosophical ideas. Still, there is a philosophical sense to the slogan, expressing that the use of technical products transforms our way of living and shapes our mode of being. Human existence has in many ways become technically mediated. In the case of furniture we tend to take this for granted without much consideration. In other cases, however, like for example emergent e-paying systems in public transport, there is a lot of worry about privacy, tracking and control. Therefore, a need exists for awareness and understanding of the life transforming power of technology. Coping with the influences of technology is an important task and a challenge for contemporary politics as well as for design theory and practice.

Parijs fietspad

For theoretical elaboration of this theme I find particularly helpful the research on the subject by Michel Foucault (French philosopher, 1926-1984). There is an important shift of perspective in Foucault’s work. First Foucault stressed how people’s lives have become more and more governed and fashioned by the growing network of institutions, regulations, and technology. Later he complemented his earlier approach by investigating how people govern and fashion themselves by actively coping with the influences from this network. Foucault has thus developed notions of the subject, freedom, and ethics which are highly relevant for ethics in contemporary technological culture. At stake in this approach is not so much to retain human freedom by rejecting any technical constraints, but to shape and to practice concrete forms of freedom by deliberate design of constraints.

Blikvanger

Publications and downloads

English

2012

·	Theories and figures of technical mediation. In: J. Donovan and W. Gunn (ed.), Design and Anthropology (pp. 219-230). Surrey, UK; Burlington, USA: Ashgate. download publisher website

·	*The design of our own lives: Technical mediation and subjectivation after Foucault. Enschede: University of Twente (PhD thesis). download*

·	Technical Mediation and Subjectivation: Tracing and Extending Foucault’s Philosophy of Technology. In: Philosophy & Technology, 25 (2), pp. 221-241. open access download from journal website

Design for Usability: Practice-oriented research for user-centered product design (co-autors: Eijk, D. van, Kuijk, J. van, Hoolhorst, F., Kim, C., Harkema, C., & Dorrestijn, S.). In: Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, (Supplement 2012/1: IEA 2012: 18th World congress on Ergonomics – Designing a sustainable future), 41(0), pp. 1008-1015. journal website

·	The Product Impact Tool: Designing for user-guiding and user-changing. In: Van Kuijk, J.I. (ed.), Design for Usability: Methods & Tools – A Practitioner’s Guide (pp. 110-119). Delft: Design United/IOP-IPCR Design for Usability research project. book website

2010

·	Design for behaviour. How can user behaviour be guided and changed through design? (co-authors: Dorrestijn S. & Tromp, N.). In: Daan van Eijk (ed.) Symposium Design for Usability 2009. Delft: IOP IPCR Design for Usability Research Project, pp. 76-79. download (book website)

2009

Design and Ethics of Product Impact on User Behavior and Use Practices. In: M. Schneider et al. (ed.), Workshops Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Intelligent Environments: Volume 4. Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments. Amsterdam: IOS, pp. 253-260. download (book website)

Nederlands (Dutch)

2012

·	Latours keuringsdienst van waren en van waarden: Techniek en moraal. In Wijsgerig perspectief 52-4, pp. 16-22. download (journal website)

·	De omvorming van onszelf in filosofie, kunst en techniek. In: P. Sambre, B. Van Huffel (red.), Michel Foucault: Een voortdurend proces. Bijdragen over kritiek, politiek, seksualiteit en techniek (pp. 163-181). Leuven: Acco. download

2011

·	Utopisch design: Technische mediatie in de ontwerppraktijk. In: Kunst en Wetenschap 20-3, pp. 35-36. download

·	Gedragsbeïnvloedende techniek en usability. In: Tijdschrift voor ergonomie 36-1, pp. 5-12. download (journal website)

2010

Boekbespreking: Niet vergeten uit te checken! (Recensie van: Christian van ’t Hof, Rinie van Est, Floortje Daemen (red.) Check in / check uit. De digitalisering van de openbare ruimte. Rotterdam, Nai Uitgevers, 2010). In: Filosofie & Praktijk, 31-3, pp. 88-91. download (doc.utwente) (journal website)

Design your own life: Over ethiek en gebruiksvriendelijk ontwerpen. In: M. Huijer & M. Smits (red.), Moralicide: Nieuwe morele vocabulaires voor technologie. Kampen: Klement, pp. 90-104. download (Recensie: Yrrah Stol (2010), “Op zoek naar een ‘amoderne’ ethiek”. In Krisis 31-2, pp. 90-94.)

2009

·	Ten geleide (als gastredacteur van themanummer “De actuele Foucault”) In: Wijsgerig Perspectief 49-2, pp. 4-5. download (journal website)

·	Filosofie met het eigen bestaan als inzet. Inhoud en actualiteit van Foucaults late werk. In: Wijsgerig Perspectief 49-2, pp. 30-37. download (journal website)

·	Foucault ten strijde: Intellectuele en persoonlijke aanvaringen. In: Filosofie 19-3 (juni), pp. 45-48. download

2008

·	China uit de tijd. Gesprek met Jos de Mul over het Rijk van het Midden. In: Filosofie & Praktijk 28-5, pp. 23-28.

·	Utopie en design: Sociale verandering en techniekontwerp. Online paper voor **Utopie en Verbeelding: Nederlands-Vlaamse Filosofiedag, 27 november 2008, Leuven). download**

2004

(Doctoraalscriptie)

·	*Bestaanskunst in de technologische cultuur. Over de ethiek van door techniek beïnvloed gedrag* (Enschede: Universiteit Twente). download (samenvatting) (English summary)

2003

·	Foucault als neo-existentialist (Recensie van: K. Vintges, De terukeer van het engagement, Boom, 2003). In: Krisis 4-4, pp. 105-109. download

2001