Theoreticism

2022-11-03 10:13

Meaning a preference for theory over practice.

Can lead to the imposition of a theory onto the real world - forcing things to fit a predefined idea of how they should be. We do this as designers whenever we make a thing which isn't grounded in the real world. A design is a theory for how the world should be made real.

In fact, the first lesson to be learned from one of the theoreticians most likely to be invoked by theoreticists, Roland Barthes, is that one does not 'apply' a theory; that concepts must be forged from the object of one's inquiry or imported according to that object's specific exigency; and that the main theoretical act is to define this object, not the other way around. Yves-Alain Bois, Painting as model.