as a fairly new practice led phd student i have many tentative half formed questions about this thread (not to mention many other things!). two are...
where do listers feel cultural probes might fit into the axioms below, or, as they are allegedly about inspiration rather than information, do they not belong here at all as they are something different?
also (and this relates to a very old post of ken's in august 2001) has some of this fuzziness around design as research got to do with problems of articulation or 'visibility' of method. i am thinking here about schön's reflection-in-action work and wondering if any progress been made in terms of using this a bridge between theory and practice.
i hope this doesn't send things off thread, and apologies if not appropriate here, but feel free to reply off list if you have any thoughts.
alison
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From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karel van der Waarde [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 24 September 2008 11:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Design as Research? Axioms?
Eduardo,
Thanks for your axioms:
1.. All non-creative design methods are information gathering methods.
2.. All creative design methods are information processing methods
I would even leave the word 'design' out of these:
1.. All non-creative methods are information gathering methods.
2.. All creative methods are information processing methods
Kind regards,
Karel.
[log in to unmask]
>>>
Hi Terry,
And how was your winter? Mild as our summer?
I just received a text by Tufan Orel "The Design
Object and its anticipatory context: an note on
creative design" in Revue Sciences et Techniques
de la conception Vol 3. nº1/ 1994. Orel, that you
might remember for coining the term designology,
feels the necessity to call to an activity:
Creative Design that, to my extent, admits the
existence of a non-creative Design.
Let's go back a bit.
Every freshman knows that there were Pioneers of
Modern Design (Pevsner). If there were such
people as pioneers there should be the Modern
Designers. One of the characteristics of this lot
was to create new objects that confronted users
with their ignorance and pitiful whishes and
convictions of coziness and decoration. The
Designer which, we might suggest is fully
embodied of his/her Social Power, is the Modern
designer reasoning on his own, not doing research
about the users but imposing both his/her
Aesthetics as his/hers Ethics upon the society.
This was the founding Myth of "The Designer".
Orel proposes the adoption of Dewey?s "Mental
Theater" with Strindberg's "Mental Experiment" in
order to develop an imaginative "anticipatory
context" that could overcome the dualism of
utopian vs realism (most of the poisonous effects
of this dualism were an heritage from Modernism).
I find that both the mental theater and the
mental experiment are excellent design methods
but are NOT information gathering methods.
I would risk to say that exciting your (or mine
imagination), through drawing, is an excellent
design method but is not an information gathering
method but an information processing method.
I would risk therefore two axioms:
1.. All non-creative design methods are information gathering methods.
2.. All creative design methods are information processing methods
Cheers,
Eduardo
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