Dear list members,
As an inexperienced researcher, I would like to add my voice to this opinion
about intellectual history and mapping of texts. (I am not so sure I agree
with your point about gendering of texts - will have to think a bit more on
that). Developing a complex, contextualised understanding of a field's
literature and the relationships between texts is very difficult for new
researchers. It is much easier when you have been following the subject as
new voices have added to the literature.
This type of mapping is very valuable, both as a product and a process,
which I presume is why it is required, in a limited range, within a PhD
literature review. In some ways what you are talking about is comparable to
the difference between a literature review (map) and a bibliography (list).
I am not sure that it would be possible to map the ideas and texts within a
whole field such as design, but I'd love to see someone's attempt -
preferably in a diagram rather than a thesis, please!
Toni Roberts
Hatchling Studio
+61 (0)413 455 414
www.hatchlingstudio.com.au
-----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 Victor
Margolin
Sent: Thursday, 30 June 2011 12:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: literacy
Dear colleagues;
Much has been written on this list since my initial post a few days ago
about literature and literacy. Ken amplified some of my points by discussing
a field's need for a literature and the importance of knowing the literature
and building on it. The discussion has moved to websites and programs to
keep track of high volumes of reading material. The point I wish to return
to is the function of core reading material in a field's development. In
that spirit, I would like to distinguish between a list of resources and an
intellectual history that locates texts in a framework of when they were
written, what they responded to, how they addressed what came before them,
what effect they had on what came after them, what other texts they relate
to, when and where were these other texts produced. It is this intellectual
history of design studies and design research that a good PhD program should
provide so that a student can locate her or his own thinking within a
trajectory, as I mentioned in my initial post. As to the gendering of texts,
by first locating them within an intellectual history, one can expose the
gender implications and patterns within which they exist. There are
particular moments when women began to publish texts on design history or
design and these moments have increased as many more women have entered the
fields of design and design research. I am not a big fan of lists if the
material on the lists has no context, no relation between the texts. The
basic point of my initial post was to argue for a mapping of texts and
issues as a way to orient old and new researchers so that thought in the
design research field can develop as it has in other fields where such
mapping has occurred. The point is not to collect resources but rather to
know where and when they originated and why.
Victor Margolin
Professsor Emeritus of Design History
University of Illinois, Chicago
Department of Art History
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