Artifactual Agency In Open Design

We readily use artifacts in theorizing and accounting for epistemic work. Yet the agency characteristics of artifacts and notably their relations to their creators (the subjects) are less understood as agency is more socially privileged than artifactually focused. Rather than understanding the ways artifacts are appropriated as utility objects, we examine the ebb and flow of agency to account for how the subjects implement, express, and document performativity through artifacts. Using an archival analytical approach, we examine design activities and artifacts on Thingiverse – an online platform for open design. Our findings suggest design derivation is driven by four types of artifactual agency manifested within the context of subject-artifact relationships. First, agency-in-situ concerns the creation of artifacts as instances resulting from a self-reflexive process in response to situational demands and contexts. Second, agency-in-use concerns the use of artifacts to signal a designer’s specialism (ability, skill) and to induce further redesign and learning. Third, agency-in-practice concerns the use of artifacts as a collective effort which addresses the needs of a specific user group. Lastly, agency-in-flux concerns a co-integration of agencies that are harmoniously yet dynamically assembled in propagating and accumulating design knowledge across different contexts of use. The four types contribute to the assemblage of performativity in design. Each time when an artifactual agency is enacted, new design ideas, materials and techniques are created and added to the commons.