Hi Terry,
while I appreciate your efforts to collect and draw together the
ideas in this discussion, I resist my desire to play ball. Instead,
perhaps I might 'challenge' you to elaborate on what you mean by to
'know' (your emphasis) in the context of feelings. This goes to the
heart of thinking about how/what kinds of knowledge might be produced
through design space(s) and how this might be judged/evaluated (as
better?).
I suppose in the asking, I am saying that your statement doesn't fit
with how I design because I am attempting to represent each design
act as an assemblage, confluence or coming together of local and
particular events, people, circumstances, random thoughts,
interruptions in my life. So necessarily, I am saying the act of
designing is unstable and unpredictable, and thus resists definition,
contingent as it is on particular temporal spaces. But I do like the
'dramatic' words you use, such as amazing, imagine, scenarios,
opportunities.
best wishes, teena
>Hi Teena, Fil, David, Lubomir, Kieth, Glenn, GK, Gavin, Elizabeth and all,
>
>From my experience, I feel one of the most amazing talents that enables
>design activity is:
>
>'the ability to imagine lots of possible design scenarios and use my
>feelings to 'know' which opportunities are likely to be better'
>
>Does this fit with how you design?
>
>Best wishes,
>
>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 teena
>clerke
>Sent: Tuesday, 1 July 2008 8:38 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Working across multiple design sectors (was A simple
>definition of 'Design'?)
>
>Hi Fil et al,
>
>but I seek not harmony (at risk of misrepresenting Chris Alexander's meaning
>with which I am unfamiliar), or analogy, rather, ways to describe the
>material conditions of the life in which I practice design (experienced
>synchronously, as part of, entwined with, in synergy to, not separated from,
>the other aspects of my life) in terms other than either distress or
>eustress (with thanks to Glenn for the explanation).
>
>I suggest that this kind of storytelling is not 'reflection' as you
>described it ('the kind of free association, letting diverse experience
>blend with your struggle. A prelude to discovering an analogy.'). In this
>story, there is no 'letting' happening, no 'prelude to discovery'
>constructed and no 'analogy' sought, but an intention to represent that
>particular design experience, complete with the 'excess' in my telling of
>it. Taussig (1993) suggests that the value of any story (as a mimesis or
>copy/imitation/representation of perception/experience) lies in the 'excess'
>- the bits that people 'add' (why are they there, what motivates them, how
>do they function, whose interests do they serve and for what purpose?) as
>well as how they are structured as narratives. Indeed I have a purpose, but
>it is not reflection.
>
>And while you notice similarity in our accounts, I notice difference in
>representation - as follows:
>
>>
>>Your account, Teena, of all those ancillary activities sounds:
>>
>>a. just like what I do when I'm trying to solve a hard
>>programming/design/engineering problem;
>>
>>b. surprisingly similar to the typical examples of setting up the
>>conditions for analogical reasoning to occur spontaneously in your
>>brain; and
>>
>>c. consistent with the tasks that 'creativity researchers' have
>>considered in their work.
>>
>
>
>My point is, I am not certain my story represents the other parts of my life
>as 'ancilliary activities', but more probably foregrounds their importance
>in my design processes. Interestingly, you provide quite a different account
>in your post to Lubomir as follows:
>
>>
>>I have, in the past, been asked by other designers how I teach design,
>>for e.g., and told them, and they're surprised to hear it was in line
>>with how they taught design.
> >
>>"You must be a font designer, like me," they say.
>>
>>"Uh, no; I'm an engineer." I reply.
>
>I really like this story, with its excess and movement. In the reading, I
>might ask, why did you tell this story to Lubomir, what purpose does it
>serve, how does it perform your intention in this context? And further, how
>does it compare to the bullet points in the post to me? Why have you used
>such differently structured narratives in your responses to each of us? This
>is interesting to me.
>
>cheers, teena
>
>Taussig, Michael, 1993, 'Mimesis and alterity: a particular history of the
>senses', Routledge, New York
>
>
>
>
>>Hi all, see embedded comments.
>>
>>teena clerke wrote:
>>>Hi Glenn,
>>>
>>>in picking up on your post, substituting 'task', 'challenge' or
>>>'puzzle' for 'problem', still seems to construct the design space
>>>as a site of struggle in some way - which might also seem contrary
>>>to the idea of design as collaboration (or is collaboration also
>>>seen as a site of struggle, challenge, puzzle?).
>>
>>Chris Alexander suggested the 'seeking of harmony' for such an
>>activity, I think.
>>
>>>
>>>In thinking through what this might mean while walking my children
>>>to school, I wonder what might happen if we trouble this perhaps
>>>adversarial construction to allow for a 'collection' of words
>>>('working across multiple design sectors') rather than a single
>>>(problematic) term, that provide for descriptions of the design
>>>space as other than problem/task/challenge? Words like synchronic,
>>>serendipitous, synergous, might open a broader space for discussion
>>>about certain phases of the design process that disrupt the binary
>>>of 'smooth/problematic' temporal narratives of how it works in
>>>design - I prepare my children's school lunch, wonder what I might
>>>cook for dinner, worry about the (lack of) thesis writing, and
>>>think through a tricky wine label design I have been working on for
>>>six months. I go hear the Dalai Lama speak and lunch with a
>>>self-described 'housewife who sits in the corner' from Warren, who
>>>is also the ex-Mayor of Nyngan, and from a family of fifth
>>>generation Merino sheep farmers who recently switched to wine
>>>production and exporting - she pragmatically suggests a way
>>>forward, while I am 'inspired' to produce an entirely different
>>>illustration than the one that remains problematic for me and the
>>>client. What are these sites? Do they arise from my struggle alone?
>>>Do they emerge from synchronous random events that are not about
>>>design and also not about struggle? Or is this simply another site
>>>of struggle? (after all, I did go hear the Dalai Lama speak). Are
>>>they then legitimate sites/spaces for design work? Can the
>>>housewife/ex-mayor be a collaborator in my design work? Is there
>>>space in this collaboration for other (future) work?
>>
>>This sounds like 'reflection' to me - the kind of free association,
>>letting diverse experience blend with your struggle. A prelude to
>>discovering an analogy.
>>
>>There's also recent work that suggests the white matter of the brain
>>does the heavy lifting during 'problem solving' (sorry, they're
>>term, not mine) in conditions where the solver lacks a canned
>>analytic technique to follow. And the solution gets kicked upstairs
>>to the cortex once it's found. The result is a moment of sudden
>>realization when a solution appears whole, as if from nothing.
>>
>>Your account, Teena, of all those ancillary activities sounds:
>>
>>a. just like what I do when I'm trying to solve a hard
>>programming/design/engineering problem;
>>
>>b. surprisingly similar to the typical examples of setting up the
>>conditions for analogical reasoning to occur spontaneously in your
>>brain; and
>>
>>c. consistent with the tasks that 'creativity researchers' have
>>considered in their work.
>>
>>The guy who's work in this area appears the most popular in this
>>part of the world is R. Keith Sawyer (e.g.
>>http://news-info.wustl.edu/sb/page/normal/46.html).
>>
>>>
>>>Can we conceive of a productive and 'collaborative' space as a
>>>coming together (is this merely unproblematised collaboration?) of
> >>things/ideas/views/perceptions, that produces other things
> >>(ideas/processes/partnerships/products), or from which other things
>>>might emerge, not in a strictly linear, sequential or temporal
>>>manner, but, as Deleuze and Guttarri (1975, previously referenced)
>>>suggest, rhizomic, and/or as Patti Lather (2007) suggests
>>>'polytemporal', in that working on a current issue/job/outcome that
>>>already is, I might also predict that which is yet to come (a line
>>>of flight predicting a future thought/enterprise/process). Am I not
>>>collaborating with myself in a polytemporal space which
>>>specifically focuses on possibilities rather than resolutions? Not
>>>sure.
>>
>>How exactly the brain does this, I don't know. I don't even know if
>>someone else, like Sawyer does know. We will eventually.
>>
>>Till then, what you've written sounds like a perfectly reasonable
>>potential model, for at least some people's processes.
>>
>>Cheers.
>>Fil
>>
>>>
>>>cheers, teena
>>>
>>>Lather, Patti, 2007, 'Getting Lost', State University of New York
>>>Press, Albany
>>>
>>
>>--
>>Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
>>Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
>>Ryerson University
>>350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada
>>Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
>>Fax: 416/979-5265
>>Email: [log in to unmask]
>>http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
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