Hi David,
Thank you for your reply and questions. You make me think - and work!
You say,
' What is a play, a script, a piece of choreography but a set of
instructions for doing something?
I agree. I suggest that makes the writing of a play, a script or a piece of
choreography a design activity - distinct from creating a painting
(different from a cartoon), doing improve, acting live, and other acts of
art that depend directly on the artist without creating a plan.
You say that ' Design research, such as my own, into the philosophy of
design is not necessarily about improving outcomes, nor is critical research
of the kind done by Victor Margolin.'
I claimed that at heart all design research has an underlying focus on
'predicting behavioural outcomes to improve them'. I suggest that this is
true of both your research and Viktor's although some research may appear to
be less directly connected. Point me to a research paper that you feel this
is not true for and lets test it.
You say ' There is a vast area of human activity which falls outside the
category of things that are potentially predictable'. I suggest 1) that in
the areas in which designers work, this is much rarer than designers claim,
and 2) where designers design in areas where behavioural outcomes are truly
unpredictable then they lay themselves open to legal action against them
(on what basis would they justify that their designs were any good/optimal/
satisfied the brief?). Again, the test is to look at some examples. It is
true that one cannot exactly predict the behaviour of some indeterminate
systems. One can, however, predict a lot about them, and, systems that are
totally unknown in terms of their behavioural outcomes are usually not
terribly useful. Please give examples and we can work through them to test
them.
All the best,
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David
Sless
Sent: Thursday, 5 August 2010 9:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: types of design research
Hi Terry,
As ever, your procrustean approach to definition cuts out too much of value
and fails to include other things of great value.
Consider the following:
> The purpose of any design activity is to create a design - a set of
> instructions to make or do something. This is the difference between
design
> activity and art activity.
Not so. What is a play, a script, a piece of choreography but a set of
instructions for doing something?
> the purpose of all design research
> is focused around improving this ability to predict the behavioural
outcomes
> that result from any design being implemented.
Not so. Design research, such as my own, into the philosophy of design is
not necessarily about improving outcomes, nor is critical research of the
kind done by Victor Margolin.
There is a vast area of human activity which falls outside the category of
things that are potentially predictable, and are more properly located in a
category of things which are none-predictable. Attempts at prediction in
these areas is not possible. BTW, this is true of many natural systems in
which knowing all the starting conditions cannot be used to predict
outcomes. The swing of a pendulum under two forces is a simple example.
Having said all of the above, I would agree with your project to improve
predictability where this is possible. I also incline to your view that
creativity has been overvalued. Indeed I would argue that some aspects of
creativity in design are unsustainable. But that is another thread
altogether.
From a wintery and wet Melbourne,
Warm Regards,
David
--
blog: www.communication.org.au/dsblog
web: http://www.communication.org.au
Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
CEO . Communication Research Institute .
. helping people communicate with people .
Mobile: +61 (0)412 356 795
Phone: +61 (0)3 9489 8640
Skype: davidsless
|