Dear all,
this debate on the distinction of design /
research seems to be fruitless and even outdated,
meanwhile.
We should rather talk about the systemic relation
of the concepts of Design / Design Research /
Research.
In spite of all knowledge that is "stored" in
encyclopaedias and other sources about these
concepts, this is a design task. The purpose of
this effort is a design-specific concept of
research.
And (this is my designerly view of this issue)
the old Frayling (or Archer?) distinction of
research into (about) / for / through art and
design is a very useful starting point for this
design task
I agree that Frayling was ambiguous in his
distinctions. But there are further developments
and clarifications of this issue, see for example:
- Jonas, Wolfgang (2007) "Design Research and its
Meaning to the Methodological Development of the
Discipline", in: Design Research Now - Essays and
Selected Projects, Birkhäuser, Basel 2007
- Findeli, Alain (2008) "Research through Design
and Transdisciplinarity: A Tentative Contribution
to the Methodology of Design Research", in:
Proceedings of Focused, Swiss Design Network
Symposium 2008, Berne, Switzerland, p67-91
And, furthermore, there are attempts at a
theoretical foundation and thus integration of
this distinction about / for / through. The
foundation is based upon the (2nd order
cybernetics) reflection of different observer
positions towards the subject matter during the
process of inquiry / design. The source is:
- Glanville, Ranulph (1997) "A Ship without a
Rudder", in: Glanville, Ranulph and de Zeeuw,
Gerard, eds. Problems of Excavating Cybernetics
and Systems; BKS+, Southsea, 1997
My most recent publication:
- Chow, Rosan; Jonas, Wolfgang (2008) "Beyond Dualisms in Methodology
- An Integrative Design Research Medium "MAPS"
and some Reflections", in: Proceedings of
undisciplined, DRS conference, Sheffield 2008
presents the current state of our attempt at the
systemic integration of Design / Design Research
/ Research before the background of these
cybernetic considerations.
Best wishes,
Jonas
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