I don't know how familiar research scientists are with the history of
their research
fields.
From my undergraduate experience I can say that physics is taught in a
very historical
way. The theories and laws are often named after their discoverers, and
that historical context is often explained. Physics education often start
with Newtonian mechanics, move on to thermodynamics, then to quantum and
then relativity - roughly echoing their historical order of discovery. The
subject becomes much easier to understand when you can imagine a
progression of scientists scratching their heads about some new phenomena
that doesn't fit their model. Aristotle perhaps doesn't come up too often,
but Newton, Hook, Laplace etc do. Ptolemy at a push?
Everyone knows what you are learning in your physics lectures is not a
true history
of science, but a narrative that radically simplifies what was a very
convoluted path to discovery. But it works well as an explanatory tool as
well as to inculcate disciplinary norms.
Maybe design could benefit from a history that puts the Bauhaus and others in
a historical arc for the purpose of making contemporary design a
legible concept?
Perhaps such a thing already exists?
Jimmy
On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 12:12 PM, Richard Herriott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I took a look at the Ulm School of Design´s curriculum outline and I
> dearly wish we could teach something like it today. It seems very
> unfortunate that students get to pass through an education system with as
> little exposure to theory and empirically-generated knowledge as they do.
> We don´t though if the Ulm teachers clutched their heads and bemoaned the
> students´reluctance to read up on topology and economics, for example.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Herriott
>
> Design School Kolding
>
> ________________________________
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in Design <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of
> [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: 09 January 2018 23:50:27
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: History, the bauhaus, etc. (sorry folks, forgot to get rid of
> our logo and the long tail)
>
> Hi Don,
>
> To discover if something is of value, I find it useful to study it.
>
> When you say that researchers:
> > are expected to know the literature of past work from the very
> > recent past (say, the past 5 years, plus a few critical significant
> works).
>
> …I have found in my work in information design that the past five years of
> research has offered little that the last 500 years of practical research
> had not already discovered, published and successfully applied. As an
> example, I would cite cognitive psychology’s recent ‘discovery' of
> chunking.
>
> This returns us to the issues raised in my last post. The sad fact that
> contemporary researchers are taught to ignore the accumulated craft
> traditions of the past because they have no place in today’s universities.
>
> As an aside, I would suggest the the Bauhaus basic design course—which has
> been at the heart of most teaching in art and design for the art hundred
> years—has not served us well in this respect. But to reform it one needs to
> understand it and provide a critique of its limitations. Only then can one
> reevaluate it within a broader and much older tradition of practical design
> know-how. Simply pointing to its contemporary irrelevance is to miss the
> point.
>
> I find myself in awe of past achievements and in a state of nervousness
> about the future. As I see it, none of us (outside science fiction) get to
> go where no person has gone before.
>
> David
> --
>
>
> blog: http://communication.org.au/blo <http://communication.org.au/blo>g/
> web: http://communication.org.au <http://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 (03) 9005 5903
> Skype: davidsless
>
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>
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>
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