Will Stahl-Timmins wrote:
> I'm always encouraged to see that there are some papers that do have a
> positive view of the use of design practice in PhD work. (if you want
> to use the terms practice-led or practice-based, please do, although I
> gather both are somewhat out of favor...) I'm rather leaning towards a
> view that I've mercilessly plundered from Owain Pedgley and Paul
> Wormald - that design practice can and should be encouraged to take
> even quite a central role within PhD studies, but that the research
> that investigates this work, and the theoretical and methodological
> discussion surrounding it, forms the assessable, and formal, PhD
> thesis. (Pedgley & Wormald, 2007)
>
> Is this model really so different to a scientific PhD, which will
> often document a series of experiments? Our experimentation is just
> carried out on canvas or screen rather than in the laboratory.
In the final outcome Owain's work can be seen as very similar to other
kinds of engineering inquiry, but the artefacts of the research and
strategies for evaluating and refining the practical and theoretical
outcomes are quite different. I think that's how he sees it although it
took quite a while to work that out, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
best wishes from post RAE Britain (confidently confused home of the
pick-n-mix research league table)
Chris
...........................................o^o
Professor Chris Rust
Head of Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University, S1 2NU, UK
+44 114 225 6772
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www.chrisrust.net
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the
future of the human race. - H. G. Wells
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