The Problem with Design Thinking
Design always had a strong relationship with capitalism, as an industry that supports the goals and needs of the market with creative solutions. Unfortunately, big corporations struggling to adapt to the current trends and habits of their consumers has turn Design into another buzzword, and Design Thinking is the ultimate example of that.
Design Thinking has become a failed attempt to pasteurize the creative process and predict the outcomes, turning Design into an add-on that the business department can implement in a fast, methodic, and "cheap" way. In her talk "Design thinking is Bullsh*t", Pentagram's partner Natasha Jen explained that Design Thinking as we know today "packages the designer’s way of working for a non-designer audience by codifying their processes into a prescriptive, step by step approach to creative problem solving, claiming that it can be applied by anyone to any problems."
Absurd Thinking
Absurd Thinking in the other hand is an attempt to break with the usual and critique the normal by making, doing and learning.It is not a methodology or a 5 steps plan, is ratter a philosophy in which non traditional approaches can lead to creative and unusual outcomes.The term is also used by Alan Wexler in his latest book "Absurd Thinking: Between Art and Design".
"The tool is what we use to think with. Therefore, if you want to change your thinking change the tool."Allan Wexler
Alan Wexler
Allan Wexler is an artist and architect whose work traverses the functional and logical to the abstract and absurd.His practice takes inspiration from and utilizes tools of architecture and design to questions and reframe the relationships between humans, nature and the built environment and to "explore the other side of function." Though his process is chaotic and varied, he introduces structure by devising rational systems of rules and constraints. Wexler advocates that limitations can be crucial to inspire creativity and break free from the logical and preconceived - "The irony is that a rational system of restraints allows extremes to develop."
Natasha Jen - "Design thinking is Bullsh*t":https://99u.adobe.com/videos/55967/natasha-jen-design-thinking-is-bullshit
Allan Wexler - "Absurd Thinking: Between Art and Design":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJrJh5orGSw