Of Open bodies: Challenges and Perspectives of an Open Design Paradigm

Résumé En

Several design practitioners claim to follow an open design philosophy, using open sourcing material, models or tools. But there has been little work on framing the properties of artifacts produced that way, nor on studying how " openness " influence design processes (Aitamurto, Holland & Hussain, 2015). In this paper, we propose to investigate Open Design through examples of prosthetic hands. These highly specific and personalized devices have to answer highly sensitive social, personal, subjective and functional requirements. They perfectly illustrate the challenges the Open Paradigm may help tackling, such as greater inclusivity through the reduction of stigma, access to social participation and empowerment of users in general. First, we build upon the related work to identify properties of openness. We then present the methodology used to review nine different prosthetic hands. Building upon these examples, we frame a critical perspective on openness and how this paradigm encompasses or informs other design practices. We conclude by presenting our current and future work, to provide perspectives on the applications of our essay.