Hi all --
In response to Victor's comments on developing a design research agenda:
I think this is so critical to the status of the profession right now, as
well as for individuals' happiness.
It requires, firstly, a commitment to setting one's own agenda rather
than having it set by a client/patron/underwriter/boss. I'm not sure I've
met too many designers (among others) who have either the luxury or the
inclination to do this. It may very well require living poorly and/or in
academia (often redundant) and hammering home in a highly visible way,
with the very visible backing of a large professional association, the
right, the need, the social good, of doing so.
Secondly, it may need to come from a sort of meta-level analysis of what
matters to people and other creatures, immediately and in the long
run. Much of designers' activities in school seem so limited in the
amount and kinds of understanding that one can take away from them. I
have nothing more or less in mind here than the broad exploration of
concepts -- maybe what Victor means by social values -- that are
manifested in more and less obvious ways in everyday life. I have only
begun a more systematic exploration of design school curricula. There is
very little evidence that such an essential professional backbone can be
found even here, where it is most likely to exist and most likely to be
successful. Here is the place where designers should expect to
be sensitized to the most foundational elements of life, and where they
should be strongly encouraged to develop a highly idealized commitment to
an idealized design agenda of their own. Reality will attenuate
that. But if you can't be pie-in-the-sky in school, where can you
be? And when else will you ever have time to work on vision? And how
can a research agenda for the discipline as a whole ever emerge without
the careful and romantic thoughts -- thoroughly grounded in meticulous,
micro-understandings of behavior -- of each one of its members?
So many students seem to be eager for just this kind of opportunity. So
many designers seem to be rather disappointed and aimless in what
they're actually doing despite some financial well-being -- more reactive,
defensive, and endlessly facilitating others' needs instead design's
needs or their own. Finding better ways to help design students develop a
good research agenda -- a good mission for life -- may be something worth
working on.
Christena Nippert-Eng, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Illinois Institute of Technology
312-567-6812 (phone)
773-288-4712 (fax)
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