Errors –
Dealing with the unexpected
New things cannot be created without mistakes or errors. As a contrast, we experience the flawless norm of mass-production and the standardised fulfillment of the plan.
Mistakes and errors are the natural landmarks on the quest for new solutions. They point towards what has been overlooked and what we can do better or how we can become wiser.
Mistakes are not fate. To be able to realize this, though, we have to have what in this dominant culture of mistakes is missing: pragmatics and reasoning, the joy at solving problems, at trying to understand reality. That implies a critical revision of processes that have already been completed. This is what makes mistakes turn to questions, and questions turn to changes – a process of designing that constantly changes from trial to error.
(freely adapted from Wolf Lotter, brandeins 8/2007)
h_da UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
Prof. Justus Theinert
diploma, discussion
ST 08
