Hi Gunnar,
First, I would like that people could read my previous post as a sympathetic
humorous contribution.
Second, I agree, that the culture of research in any discipline moves to the
discipline through university and academia in the same way as the praxis
moves. More and more (at least my students) research skills are introduced
in our programs and are requirements in various design courses. In the same
way, only a raving mad course leader would exclude design practitioners from
teaching and Academia (the first Design Academy was made by the
practitioners in 1563). The praxis itself includes more and more design
research.
That's why, obviously, the contribution of design research to design
practice is huge and was huge! Not to mention the contribution of design
practice to design research. Not to mention the contribution of aliens for
both.
That's why the question, although not dodgy (sorry for that, I didn't
resisted the sound of dodgy dodge) is worthy to be dodged.
I wanted to use theology instead of anthropology. But in these days you
never know. I used anthropology because I have good friends on the field and
I suspect that some were already abducted and some actually whish they have
been. Don't make a big thing from it.
Last, the Historians: If all design researchers, that research design
History, were to be abducted, design would fall immediately into oblivion.
Without its History, people would start doing just things, unrelated.
Without memory any system collapses.
One thing I know for sure, even if all UFOlogists were to be abducted by
aliens, aliens would still continue to abduct people.maybe just with a
little break (in order to confirm if they had abducted them all).
Cheers,
Eduardo
PS: I'm seeing some funny lights coming
----- Original Message -----
From: "Swanson, Gunnar" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: Nigel Cross on Design Research
Eduardo Corte Real sent: Fri 1/18/2008 11:53 AM
> The other is to dodge
> dodgy questions.
Eduardo,
I'm not sure how the question was "dodgy." The straightforward wording might
be "Does design research actually contribute to design and, if yes, how?" If
the answer is "There is no more reason that design research should be a
contribution to design than there is reason that chamber music should
contribute to accounting" then that lets people make informed decisions
about various things. For instance, Cross' answer made a compelling case for
the inclusion of design researchers (or at least those knowledgeable about
design research) in design education. Many answers (including the analogy to
anthropology and human culture) are fairly compelling arguments for not
doing so.
Gunnar
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