James Auger is director of the design department at the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (ENS) and co-director of the Centre de Recherche en Design (ENS / ENSCI Les Ateliers). His work explores ways through which practice-based design research can lead to more considered and democratic technological futures. This presentation will explore the existence of oblique constraints in design and the ways in which they negatively influence the role and purpose of design.