Political Romantics | Tony Fry
In his programmatic text 'Design after Design', which seeks to outline an alternative curriculum for design education, theorist Tony Fry distinguishes between four design ontologies, or self-concepts of design practitioners.
He describes as Political Romantics those who 'are like mainliners but invent a world of delusion, believing their own fantasies about themselves, designing, the designed and their ability to make a difference'.
Political romantics are convinced of changing the world with their design solutions and have developed pandemic care robots and online/VR cultural online platforms, envisioning radical change which does not correspond to the needs of those targeted by their designs.
Further reading:
→ Fry, Tony, “Design after design”, Design Philosophy Papers, 2017, 15:2, 99-102, DOI: 10.1080/14487136.2017.1392093
→ Studio at the Edge of the World