Chance of designing: Reframing aleatoric processes in design education

This chapter investigates the relationship between design and play by referring to the play taxonomy of Roger Caillois who is a French writer and philosopher. In this respect, play can be framed quite systematically by classifying it into four categories according to the most dominant characteristics; agôn (competitive), alea (chance-based), mimicry (make-believe) and ilinx (physically-based), which is thought that they are all included in the design process. In this line of thought, this study focuses on alea and investigates the relationship between play and design in design education through the notion of aleatoric process. In this respect, this chapter finds this question promising: How can aleatoric processes be seen and emphasized in design education? Furthermore, this chapter claims that aleatoric processes could be considered as a framework for three prominent elements – alea, risk taking and uncertainty – and aleatoric processes could be developed as a powerful tool to make design students able to play within design education.