Dear Chuck and Thomas
I tend to agree with Chuck here. We need to get research capability and
expertise from a very large number of disciplines to bear down on the
whole area of design action in order to help refine both methodologies
as well as intentions itself.
Design is a very powerful discipline that needs critical inputs from
all other spheres of human knowledge and the answer perhaps lies in
getting those other disciplines interested in dersign as a sphere of
attention rather than making young designers capable in all those areas
individually. This does not mean that our design education must not
change to include some of the broader perspectives of research methods
and ethics drawn from all these areas. This is an urgent need and must
go forward with a new vigour and a deep understanding of the roles of
all these disciplnes to the practice of design in the future.
Wishing you all a very happy new year ahead.
With warm regards
M P Ranjan
from my off ice at NID
4 January 2007 at 10.55 am IST
Prof M P Ranjan
Faculty of Design
Head, Centre for Bamboo Initiatives at NID (CFBI-NID)
Chairman, GeoVisualisation Task Group (DST, Govt. of India) (2006-2008)
Faculty Member on Governing Council (2003 - 2005)
National Institute of Design
Paldi
Ahmedabad 380 007 India
Tel: (off) 91 79 26623692 ext 1090 (changed in January 2006)
Tel: (res) 91 79 26610054
Fax: 91 79 26605242
email: [log in to unmask]
web site: http://homepage.mac.com/ranjanmp/
web domain: http://www.ranjanmp.in
On 04-Jan-07, at 7:08 AM, Charles Burnette wrote:
> Thomas,
>
> You speak clearly and well by pointing out that design researchers
> should be
> researching what occurs in practice but not so well in speaking about
> carrying basic research into practice. If we simply wait until
> designers
> with some academic background in research carry it into practice we
> will
> have an unnecessarily long wait. All basic researchers and theorists,
> in
> particular, should map out how their findings and theories should be
> implemented and evaluated in practice.
>
> Keep going!
> Chuck
>
> On 1/3/07 3:09 PM, "Thomas Rasmussen" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> This is funny. Design should be about finding new solutions for
>> different
>> kinds of problems.
>>
>> How come, then, that we seek THE way of integrating theory and
>> practice?
>>
>> As long as we stop trying to pull off practice as research... and
>> realize,
>> that we must respect research as much as we want research to respect
>> design...
>> then there should be local solutions for local problems.
>>
>> In my experience, it is not too difficult to get professionals
>> involved in
>> research... or to tell them about the benefits of research. In fact,
>> what
>> separates amateurs from professionals is exactly that. The etymology
>> is clear:
>> the root of amateur is lover whereas professional goes back to sacred
>> vows of
>> religious orders.
>>
>> In other words - the amateur has the luxury of referring only to
>> himself.
>> Whereas the professional plays by rules that are bigger than herself.
>> Amateurs
>> don't listen, because they donxt have to. Professionals listen
>> because wising
>> up on the stuff you don't know will help you do the stuff you do know.
>>
>> A professional designer i 007 knows her compentences - and she knows
>> where and
>> how to get help to develop. Research could be one option.
>>
>> There might be two reasons why design research has had little luck in
>> reaching
>> practitioners.
>>
>> 1)
>> If you go to practicing designers and try to sell them protocol or
>> formalized
>> methods - they might not be very interested because they already have
>> their
>> methods. Maybe we should reconsider practicing designers as the
>> target group
>> for design research.
>>
>> In stead we could address larger fields. I have conducted
>> investigations into
>> the Danish fashion industry - and right now I am investigation the
>> building
>> industry's interest in textiles. And the picture is pretty clear: if
>> you go to
>> the key players in bigger fields and ask them what they want to know
>> - what
>> their strategic and designrelated challenges are... then you see
>> potentials
>> for design research.
>>
>> This research might not be suited for designers. Maybe anthropology
>> and
>> cultural studies address fashion - and maybe architects and ingeneers
>> should
>> work with technological textiles and constructions.
>>
>> This will benefit design in a multitude of ways. Bringing professional
>> researchers into design fields - and into design schools - and have
>> them work
>> with design teachers, design students, and design companies etc.
>> creates new
>> potential for deisgners. It also teaches students to relate and
>> communicate
>> with non-designers. And it creates new information streams.
>>
>> It might also lead to joint research projects - including
>> practitiones and
>> researchers. And it might even lead to doctoral education for design
>> teachers.
>>
>> 2)
>> Of course designers should research protocol and generalize
>> methodology. Only
>> we should not wonder why practicing designers want nothing of it. In
>> stead we
>> should teach it to our students. We should make sure that the next
>> generations
>> of designers are taught in such a way that they have the intellectual
>> and
>> analytical capacity to extract knowledge from other fields and
>> disciplines.
>>
>> If they leave our schools as real academics.... then they will find
>> good jobs
>> in design or whereever - and they will use our research in their
>> future work.
>> Because they will know that the whole point about research is to find
>> and
>> adapt ways of solving problems. Take it from the general and apply it
>> to the
>> specific.
>>
>> This is also why we need more basic research - and, perhaps, a bit
>> less
>> applied and practice based research - in design. We need the basic
>> research
>> because it informs the applied and the practice based research. And
>> we need to
>> drag more competent theory-people into design... and to make sure
>> that we feed
>> them the design knowledge they need in order to hitch their
>> theoretical waggon
>> to our star.
>>
>> No need to be modest. Design is the future.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> thomas
>>
>>
>> : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
>> : : :
>> Thomas RASMUSSEN
>> Head of Research / Danmarks Designskole
>> Strandboulevarden 47 / 2100 Copenhagen
>> Phone +45 3527 7593 / Mobile +45 2523 1215
>> : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
>> : : :
>
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