Corinne Mynatt

Department: Contextual Design
Website: www.corinnemynatt.com

Design by Syntax by Design

An order of things has been handed down to us. It permeates all aspects of humanity – in objects, culture, sexual relationships, scientific structures, architecture, ritual... the list goes on. Michel Foucault criticised these orders, initiating a re-evaluation of these structures for me as a designer. The structure of ‘object languages’ has been of interest to me as a designer. How are they embodied in cultures, how can they be broken down and rearranged? What is the process when new objects are created, how can it be modified? How can we manipulate the order of things to create a different sort of object? How can we dissect cultural object languages to transform future objects? By evaluating the order within objects – specifically material, form, process and purpose – I deconstruct and rearrange the way in which we perceive them. The resultant objects inhabit other contexts and situations than the original order prescribes. By using syntax as my design method (a rearrangement in the structures of design languages), I create alternate experiences with discursive objects. The physical manifestations of these objects are a reconfiguration of materials, forms, processes, purposes.