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The term "contingency" refers to humanity's principally open and uncertain life experiences, givens in the face of possible otherness and the possible modification of objects on the horizon (Luhmann, 1987: 152). In terms of interaction with products, one must therefore assume that these are also perceived differently by different groups and that the meaning that for one's self is conclusive, can be seen as totally different by another. Yet this meaning is not, as described above, arbitrary but occurs within a horizon of possibilities. The context does prescribe a possible part of this horizon but other factors also have an influence. For example, one person perceives a product like Apple's iPod as a high-tech product while the other sees it as a lifestyle product and accessory and the other as a useless knick-knack. The interaction with artefacts can therefore today be understood as a circular process - in which the product defines the context and the context defines the product. The uncertainties that flow into this process through contingent perceptions lead to a further acceleration and increase in complexity. In order to describe and understand this process, the user can fall back on "practical knowledge" (Hörning, 2001: 201, 271) used in daily life.The following text presents the principles of systems theory for the purposes of analysing everyday knowledge and contingency. In the second part, the relevance of second-order observation for the design sciences is explained and an outlook is given on the related cognitive possibilities. |
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