Agonistic, Convivial, and Conceptual Aesthetics in New Social Design

Abstract

This paper explores aesthetics in what it calls new social design. It asks, “How can designers work with aesthetics when the main design object is social, and traditional object-bound aesthetic concepts lose their validity.” It describes three approaches to aesthetics: agonistic, which sees aesthetics as a way to lure people to interact with controversial content; convivial, which finds aesthetics in community interactions; and conceptual, which does away with aesthetics. All these have precedents in art.