First Issue of Journal of Design and Science. Picture taken from Neri Oxman’s “Age of Entanglement” article, available here

Krebs Cycle is  is a step wise cyclic chemical process.

In this analogy, the four modalities of human creativity—Science, Engineering, Design and Art—replace the Krebs Cycle’s carbon compounds. Each of the modalities (or ‘compounds‘) produces ‘currency’ by transforming into another: The role of Science is to explain and predict the world around us; it ‘converts’ information into knowledge. The role of Engineering is to apply scientific knowledge to the development of solutions for empirical problems; it ‘converts’ knowledge into utility. The role of Design is to produce embodiments of solutions that maximize function and augment human experience; it ‘converts’ utility into behavior. The role of Art is to question human behavior and create awareness of the world around us; it ‘converts’ behavior into new perceptions of information, re-presenting the data that initiated the KCC in Science.

Four metaphors:

• the clock: it is bidirectional/ time can also stand still, bend or foreshortened
• the microscope:you can consider the four domains as four objective lenses of an imaginary microscope/ the way we view our environment, and interact within it, is ultimately dependent on the lens through which we choose to see it. Choosing is no innocent act.
• the compass: the north-to-south axis leads from sky to earth: from ‘information’ produced by Science and Art in the hemisphere of ‘perception,’ to ‘utility’ produced by Design and Engineering in the hemisphere of ‘production’/ The farther north, the more theoretical (or philosophical) the regime. The farther south, the more applied (or economic) the regime/ The east-to-west axis leads from nature to culture: from ‘knowledge’ produced by Science and Engineering in the hemisphere of ‘nature,’ to ‘behaviors’ produced by Art and Design in the hemisphere of ‘culture.
• the gyroscope: plan-projection of a gyroscope, measuring or maintaining creative orientation. This analogy imagines a three-dimensional globe transcending ‘flatland,’ where at the very top(s)—the poles of the diagram—all modalities collide into one, big nebula