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Dear Kari, I work in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and have done for some 28 years, so perhaps you'll not mind if I object to your characterisation of AI as "... building new computer programs capable to do some novel trick." This is not fair and is so silly that it detracts from the point you are trying to make. A point I would agree with. AI is the science that investigates intelligent behaviour (in it's considerable variety) by seeking to [re]create it in the artificial. AI thus stands apart from, but is a close collaborating neighbour of the Cognitive Sciences that seek to investigate intelligent behaviour in the natural. Because digital computation is the artificial medium of choice in most AI research, AI is also a close collaborating neighbour to Computer Science, but not the same as. Computation, at least just computation, is not the only means of creating intelligent behaviour, building robots is too. Even building robots using Lego Technic is ... something I first did back in 1988. You're pointers to Phil Agre's two papers I whole heartedly support and recommend. Sadly Phil is no longer active in the internet communities that he did so much to pioneer. His writings still serve us well, however. Best regards, Tim ============= > PS. There is in fact a very illustrative example on "research through design" practiced by a research community over decades, and that is Artificial Intelligence research, where building new computer programs capable to do some novel trick has been always the major device for research. People have used artifacts as a way of elaborating their questions and answering them, and the scientific discussion took place around the artifacts. Phil Agre (an AI researcher that later become a social scientist) has written a couple of insightful pieces about that. Contentwise, I dare not suggest AI as the role model, but – mutatis mutandis – something a bit similar might happen in DR, and at least in HCI as well. > > <snip> > Agre, Phil: The Soul Gained and Lost: Artificial Intelligence as a Philosophical Project, Stanford Humanities Review 4(2), 1995, pages 1-19. http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/shr.html > Agre, Phil: Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI > in Geoffrey C. Bowker, Susan Leigh Star, William Turner, and Les Gasser, eds, Social Science, Technical Systems and Cooperative Work: Beyond the Great Divide, Erlbaum, 1997. > http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/critical.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------