Dear Ken, and all,
A couple of years ago, I remember have thrown at you the idea of a "A
Companion to Design Research". Such book would address most of the
issues this thread and other ongoing threads in this discussion list.
The encyclopedia format of it could encompass several design fields. I'm
a particular fan of "A Companion to Aesthetics", if you care to take a
look at it you would know what I mean.
Embarking in a project like this would make us think properly about
mapping this field at the university level.
Deciding which entries should be part of it, would be a valuable work,
not to mention writing the entries.
If there are of you interested in doing it, I'm in for some entries or
for being part of the editorial team. It would be a great topic of
discussion in this list. So if you are interested, please step forward.
Discussing a project like this in an open forum might be very interesting.
Eduardo
Eduardo Corte-Real
Doctor Arch
Scientific Board President
IADE - Creative University Lisbon
On 02-11-2011 15:34, Ken Friedman wrote:
> Rosan,
>
> Perhaps it is time for some serious talk. You’ve moved from the
> strong conviction that you understood Victor’s challenge to the new
> position that perhaps Victor needs to do this himself. Even so, you’ll
> be glad to help Victor set up a Zotero group.
>
> There are two problems with your advice to Victor.
>
> First, Victor is simply asking us to do the kind of work we do at
> universities. The problem is that you’ve never quite understood what
> we do at universities – and you’ve never understood the difference
> between the research training at an art and design school and the work
> we do at university faculties. This makes your advice about funding for
> design and funding for universities simplistic and sententious.
>
> Developing serious literature reviews and doing good bibliographic
> notes does not require funding. It takes time, thinking, and the
> willingness to work.
>
> The second problem is that time is definitely scarce and we don’t
> have as many experienced and competent people as the field requires. On
> way for people to develop the experience and competence they need is
> through the serious work on critical literature reviews and
> bibliographic essays that Victor suggestion, and the serious annotated
> bibliographies that support them.
>
> Time becomes even more scarce when people waste their time on Zotero
> reading lists. Doctoral students will not develop the experience or
> competence they need if they take your advice, and researchers won’t
> improve their skills or deepen their knowledge by working on Zotero.
> Software does not do this, whether it's a beta version or an advanced
> release. People must do their own thinking and writing.
>
> The challenge is not book lists. It is conceptual mapping. Conceptual
> mapping requires reading, thinking, and writing. Research is the wrong
> line of work for people who imagine that time is too scarce for reading.
> If you simply want book lists, you don’t need Zotero. It's easy to
> extract thematic reading lists from the references that appear at the
> end of the document. Anyone who reads journals or serious books knows
> how to do this.
>
> But I’m not speaking for Victor here. I’m stating my own views.
> Should Victor need help setting up a group on Zotero, I am certain
> he’ll call on you for advice.
>
> Ken
>
> Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
> Professor | Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology
> | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] | Ph: +61
> 39214 6078 | Faculty
>
>
> On Wed, 2 Nov 2011 10:22:30 +0100, Rosan Chow wrote:
>
> Hi Victor,
>
> I understand what your wishes are, but I think you need to write it
> yourself. I am not being cynical but realistic. You know who are capable
> of taking on your challenge and you also know how busy they are and how
> difficult the funding situation is generally and for Design
> particularly; and the situation of the University.
>
> There is so much to do and yours is one of them and in my observation,
> we do not have enough experienced and competent people nor a favorable
> academic climate to do all these. But, we have many more energetic young
> people whom we can engage and free platform like Zotero which we can
> experiment.
>
> The Zotero Research Through Design group library is a start and it will
> evolve. In software developer language, it is not 1.0 yet.
>
> If you like, I can help you set up a group at Zotero and get people
> together and transfer your library.
>
> Until then...
>
> Rosan
>
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