Empathie et Instauration de l’oeuvre à faire: Souriau et le design

This text offers an overview of our research on the way in which the designer develops an attentional correspondence with the living and non-living environment, in the sense of an empathetic relationship, during the instaurative journey that constitutes the design-project. Drawing on Étienne Souriau’s theory of the Instauration de l’oeuvre à faire, we present an analysis of two cases to illustrate our point of view on the relationship between empathy for over-cycled materials and objects, and the accompaniment of the work toward its plenary and patent existence. The aim of this chapter is to begin thinking about the transmodal operations present in the design process in order to better understand the roles of the “virtual” and the “imaginary” in the emergence of new modes of existence for the material or object.

Keywords: Étienne Souriau, instauration, design, empathy, DIY, reuse, material