32 3 TheFoundations of Human-Experiential Design In the rest of the present chapter, an alternative design practice – human- experiential design – is introduced as one that emphasizes the appropriate blending of technological and human concerns. It is neither purely technology-based nor purely experiential in the way this term is understood in HCI. Rather, it is attempts to explore a third way, which is neither purely objective nor subjective. Design as Mediator Thehuman-experientialapproach offers a way to understand the role of a blending process that can meaningfully bridge unbalanced dichotomies in the context of design. Although the importance of balance, blending and integration has already beendiscussedinotherdisciplines,therehasbeenverylittle in terms ofdesign.The developmentofdesigntheorybasedonthelogicofsciencehastotrytodemonstrate that science is capable of foreseeing design, even though it is still doubtful that there can ever be a truly rational methodology for design (Hosoe et al. 1991). Yet designers have the potential to play a key role in integrating opposites, and the present section discusses why they are suitable for the role. The origin of modern design, whether taken as Ruskin and Morris or the Bauhaus, has always had a romantic tint from notions of idealistic social ethics. HCI, product designs, architecture, websites and so on all consist of technologies. Humansandtechnologieshave,inasense,co-evolvedandtechnology,regardedasa productofscience,hasanevermorepowerfulinfluenceonoursociety.Inprinciple– and we believe in practice too – design can serve the role of integrating rationality and creative imagination starting from an idealistic social ethic that humans are central. Humans are seen here not as separate from nature, as western cultural tradition would have it, but as an integrated part of nature and the built environment. Merleau-Ponty (1962, 2002) suggested that there are two sides to embodiment, bodies as physical structures and as lived, experiential structures, both biological and phenomenological, which are not opposed to each other but are continuously mutually engaged. In order to understand this profound notion of two sides enmeshed with each other, the practical embodiment of knowledge, cognition, and experienceneedsto be investigatedin detail (Merleau-Ponty 1962,2002).Merleau- Ponty’s insight revealed a middle way - an “entre-deux” (Merleau-Ponty 1962, 2002) – between self and world, between the inner and the outer. The entre-deux can be understood as a space that comprises the gap between self and world, and allows for the continuity between them (Varela et al. 1993). Historians, ethnologists, anthropologists and linguists have, from diverse sources, identified various champions to serve the role of unifying oppositions through their role as a mediator, and this can be seen as paralleling the role of the designer. For example Yamaguchi (2007), a cultural anthropologist, investigated mythological creatures and identified the role of ‘trickster’ as a catalyst that unifies two separate realities. Yamaguchi cites De Josselin de Jongh’s book ‘The Origin