In its constructive and speculative nature, design has the critical potential to reshape prevalent socio-material realities. At the same time, design is inevitably normative, if not often violent, as it stabilises the past, normalises the present, and precludes just and sustainable futures. The contributions rethink concepts of critique that influence the field of design, question inherent blind spots of the discipline, and expand understandings of what critical design practices could be. With contributions from design theory, practice and education, art theory, philosophy, and informatics, 'Critical by Design?' aims to question and unpack the ambivalent tensions between design and critique.

Claudia Mareis (Prof. Dr.) is a design researcher and cultural historian. Since 2021, she has been a professor of design and history of knowledge at the Department of Cultural History and Theory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where she is also the co-director of the Cluster of Excellence 'Matters of Activity. Image Space Material'. Besides, she is a lecturer at the Institute for Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW in Basel. Her research interests include history, theory and methodology of design in the 20th century, knowledge cultures in design, experimental design and media practices, cultural history of creativity, and design and material politics. Moritz Greiner-Petter is a designer and design researcher based in Basel. He is a junior researcher at the Critical Media Lab Basel, part of the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW. As a researcher and practitioner, he is invested in critical approaches towards the media aesthetics and epistemes of information technologies, with a focus on investigating the design paradigms, materialities and epistemologies of digital interfaces for thinking, collaboration, and design. Michael Renner (Prof.) went to work for Apple Computer Inc. and The Understanding Business in California, just after completing his diploma as graphic designer at Basel School of Design. Research and reflection upon the meaning of images in the context of digital communication channels became the central theme of Renner's practical and theoretical design activities. Today he is head of the Institute for Digital Communication Environments, HGK FHNW.