Dick
>...we seek the nature of a design doctorate--rather than a doctorate that
involves designers but is essentially located in another area of inquiry.
Yes, this is the question. What is the nature of a design doctorate? I
think one could say that some design doctorates are very similar to
technology projects, i.e., those that can be framed as problem solving, etc.
For example, Chris Rust described at La Clusaz a project in which an
artefact was produced which replicated human skeletal bone structure and
movement - an impressive piece of work and to me clearly PhD level.
However, although the solution was achieved through designing rather than
engineering I can't see that this matters much. I'm not saying that
engineering and designing are the same, but they are both ways of framing
problems and realising solutions.
On the other hand, I recognise that some of the things that designers might
like to explore can't be understood in this way - the problem solving PhD
is not going to work for them, and the nature of the design doctorate may
be be implicit, somehow, in this failure (although I think we are dealing
with a continuum rather discrete categories. i.e., the nature of the design
doctorate will be fuzzy).
However, I'm not clear from the discussion whether most of the problems
that seem to be experienced by doctoral students in design (as reflected in
the discussion) would disappear if the projects were conceived as, say,
problem solving and ones that could draw on norms recognised in, say,
technology. Its the concerns that don't disappear when viewed from an
'alien' viewpoint that I'm interested in.
Steve
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Stephen AR Scrivener
Professor of Design
Coventry School of Art and Design
Coventry University
Priory Street
Coventry CV1 5FB
Tel1: +44-(0)24 7688 8536
Tel2: +44-(0)789-9743150 (mobile)
Fax: +44-(0)24 7688 8049
Email: [log in to unmask]
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