Hi Keith,
Thanks for your response and very precise comments.
I really like your expressions "...strategies that help us tune our
instruments..." and "... gestures towards engagement...".
One of the other aspects of the tinkering approach is its usefulness as
a tool in a collaborative design setup. The fact that one can use
relatively neutral materials and objects that are constructed and
reconstructed as part of a collaborative design negotiation, to
describe possibilities or scenarios, does have the advantage of
circumventing some expectations of those on a design team who do not
have strong visual, drawing or modeling capabilities. The artifacts'
neutrality allows others to both interpret according to their
understandings and to re-imbue the artifact with new meanings that
reflect a negotiated synthesis.
This is also the case with the design students. By working with
non-traditional materials it does seem to free them up of expectations
as to what a design sketch should look like and gives them more room
for manoeuvre and experiment. They are also learning the power of the
objects as mediating artifacts and become very adept at explaining
their concepts using their objects. We discuss the collaborative
possibilities later on in a reflection session. The best is if they can
identify this themselves. Most can.
Stage two in this setup is to get pairs or threes of students to make
individual objects using the same starting point . They then get
together, analyse what they've produced and make a new tinkered object
that reflects the negotiated synthesis. This is where I got a real
nugget from two students: "... it's so much easier doing this than just
discussing things. We're both represented on the table... we can both
see what we mean by transparency..."
So your "gestures towards engagement" really fits the bill with regard
to collaborative design. Thanks for that.
Your expression ".. strategies that help us to tune our instruments..."
I'll comment on, when I respond to a post from Ranjan. It fits very
well with an idea I have that describes members of a collaborative
design team as part of an orchestra.
Best regards,
Chris.
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On Friday, September 5, 2003, at 09:44 AM, Keith Russell wrote:
> Dear Chris
>
> I think we can have a "false" sketch when we talk about a "false
> start" - that is, in getting engaged, we have strategies that help us
> tune our instruments (devices for providing structure).
>
> I am happy with brain storms and lateral thinking exercises when they
> are looked at this way - that is, a gestures towards engagement.
>
> When we align any of our mediations (structured actions) with intent,
> the the falsehood quickly looks like inauthenticity. If we shift to
> the strong mode of intention (all acts of consciousness are
> intentional) then we can allow that we often gesture wrong to proceed
> correctly - we need something to correct to feel confident that we are
> now on the path - this missing aspect shows up in mechanical objects
> that lack positive feedback - how to know which gear I am in if there
> is no wrong position?
>
> Mature artists/designers/humans can show real style in how they make
> these false starts.
>
> good topic.
>
> keith russell
> newcastle OZ
>
>>>> Chris Heape <[log in to unmask]> 09/05/03 17:33 PM >>>
> Dear Norm,
>
> On the false consciousness thread you asked:
> ..." can there be a false sketch in the same way there may be false
> consciousness?.."
>
>
-----------------------------------
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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