The discriminatory effects of new technologies often only become apparent long after these technologies are already ingrained within society. This can be seen in recent cases where algorithmic decision systems automating the reclamation of taxes and childcare supports have unfairly targeted people from other countries and disadvantaged backgrounds. In addressing these systems’ failures, neither the designer or the user should have the sole responsibility for making technology fairer - instead it should be an agonistic, ongoing and participatory activity.
Agonistic design is an ethical approach which acknowledges the users’ right to agency and an acceptance that no design is a solution, rather a broken thing that is open to be repaired and reconfigured as needed.
This project seeks to define a new design approach which facilitates a shared future of reconfiguration, contestation and design-after-design, as a bulwark against solutionism and emerging harms as we enter a new paradigm of HCI.