Adieu and thanks:

Hi all,

I just wanted to take my leave and express my thanks for all the 
contributions that have made this virtual conference a memorable event. 
I'm again confirmed of the amazing value of this mail list as a 
constant source of inspiration for my own research and thinking and 
doubtless for many others as well.

Thank you Ken for the concept and the enormous effort you've put into 
realising the conference.

As to the actual conference, the breadth of discussions around the 
phenomenon of design and design education in general and in particular 
with regard to UCI's School of Design proposal, indicates quite clearly 
the range and dimensions that must be considered when educating design 
students, both from the students' perspective as well as that of 
faculty. And the dilemma of maintaining a healthy respect for design 
and design education traditions, (there is a reason why some things 
work) whilst at the same time embracing new attitudes and approaches.

With regard to my own research interests, design learning, as a 
phenomenon that takes place in both design education and design 
practice situations, is not a "hot" area of research. There is so much 
that we still need to discover and understand about the processes and 
experiences involved that design students and practitioners have to 
deal with, especially when being involved in collaborative design 
activities.

I noted with interest the discussion between, in particular, David 
Durling and Susan Hagan yesterday, on the topic of intuition.  As 
someone remarked, this (intuition) has been going on for some time, yet 
I feel we are still not as wise as we should be, as to what happens 
when we are using our intuition. This is just a fragment of design 
learning, which is also shrouded in layers of mystery.

My own experience and research indicates that by taking a closer look 
at the issues of design learning, one can help students and 
practitioners gain a deeper and richer understanding of "what is going 
on" throughout a design process. An understanding that there are many 
issues at stake, other than just producing design solutions and that 
alternative approaches to dealing with design tasks can be developed, 
that don't just end up as a buffet of prescriptive methods. One can 
make explicit much of design thinking and design learning, without 
throwing the spark of adventurous thinking out with the bath water.

So I would like to ask UCI, considering the vast numbers of students 
and faculty who are going to be interacting together whilst  exploring 
new horizons of design, that they take seriously, as an ongoing area of 
research, the development and maintenance of issues of design learning.
This could be a first. A newly established design education 
institution, that embraces innovative approaches to multi-disciplinary 
collaboration and which has a research program that nurtures new 
understandings of the design learning of those collaborations.

Thank you for listening.

Best regards and adieu,

Chris.

-----------------------------------

from:

Chris Heape
Senior Researcher - Design Didactics / Design Practice
Mads Clausen Institute
University of Southern Denmark
Grundtvigsallé 150
6400
Sønderborg
Denmark

e.mail : [log in to unmask]
telephone : +45 6550 1671
http://www.mci.sdu.dk

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