Thanks for a very helpful and thoughtful series of posts Steven,
Steven Scrivener said:
>For example, the designer makes things. But surely the designer doesn't
>just make these things to know,
I would say the opposite, the only reason most designers make things is to know.
There is a possible exception in the field of crafts or applied arts where a
designer/producer will make artefacts as ends in themselves. But even there I
suspect they would be insulted if you suggested that the "product" was nothing
more than an end in itself.
My understanding of making - of models, prototypes, drawings, simulations,
scenarios etc etc - is that they are the usual means by which a designer
advances their understanding and knowledge of a design problem and possible
solutions for it. The process of making, testing and reflection seems
absolutely central and is implicit in every iterative or looping model of
designing that is proposed (you don't see too many linear ones these days).
The degree to which such knowledge has value in research terms is probably
linked to the degree to which it has consequences outside the immediate design
goal and the degree to which the designer is prepared and able to make it
explicit, this last being one of the issues for research training.
Finally, and bringing me back to the issue of Research rather than research, it
is that process of making and reflection in design that can also be harnessed
to addressing problems in which the main aim is knowledge rather than artefact.
I have tried from time to time to make this more explicit through describing
some of the projects that I and colleagues here have undertaken and I am aware
that people who I respect greatly have found it difficult to see what I am
getting at, often because the picture is confused by designed artefacts popping
up in the middle of the research ("so it's really design then?"). My only
response, like George Orwell's carthorse in Animal Farm is to say that "I will
try harder".
Best wishes from Sheffield
Chris Rust
*******************************************
Professor Chris Rust
Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University UK
[log in to unmask]
tel +44 114 225 2706
fax +44 114 225 2603
Psalter Lane, Sheffield S11 8UZ, UK
|