Dear Chris,
Thanks for your very nice post! This is, I think,
very relevant, and no digression. It goes straight
down the line to another way of replying to Rosan's
question about design knowledge, "... how can
design knowledge be known and can it be known?"
[Thu, 28 Sep 2000 21:17:59: Subject: Re: Design
Knowledge ...]
Your question, Chris,
Q1: "Would a bicycle be rideable if nobody
ever tried to ride a bicycle?"
suggests the further question
Q2: "Could we know how to ride a bicycle if
nobody ever tried to ride one?
which, in turn, suggests we ask
Q3: "Could you (or I) know how to ride a bicycle
if we you (or I) never tried to ride one?
I think there is a difference in the kinds of knowing
pointed at by questions Q2 and Q3. We can have, I
think, a certain kind of knowledge of bicycle riding
from reading about bicycle riding, or talking to
people who can and do ride bicycles, but this is not
the same kind of knowing we would have if we do
the bicycle riding ourselves.
As Glen Johnson suggests, we could substitute other
things for the bicycle riding here, such as, as Glenn
says, skateboarding, skiing, walking, drawing, etc.,
and I think we would still have the same difference in
kinds of knowing.
All these are physical activities, but designing is
mostly thought of as (very largely, if not essentially)
a mental activity. This I think makes no important
difference, however. Designing knowledge (or design
knowledge as Rosan originally put it) can be known and
is known by doing designing.
So, we might ask, how can you know how to design
something if you have never done any designing before?
Well, it's like learning to ride a bicycle. Something
many (if not most) of us have done, and so know.
Furthermore, if the knowing is better if the doing is
better, which I feel is true but cannot say why, then
the better the designing the better is the designing
knowledge. And the is the better the designing
knowledge the better is the designing. Which is why
doing something well involves what we call
craftsmanship, and why when Chris said in an earlier
post [Sat, 30 Sep 2000 11:56:26: Crafting - was
Rhetoric - was Design Knowledge]
"Most of the really effective designers that I have
known have had a strong element of craftsmanship in
their make-up and this has been central to their
approach to designing ..."
we should not be surprised. The knowing in designing
depends upon, derives from, and gives rise to the
craftsmanship involved in the designing.
So, Rosan, this is just another way of trying to get
to an answer to your question. It's not THE answer,
but of some use nevertheless, I hope.
Best regards,
Tim Smithers
CEIT, Donostia / San Sebastián
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