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
60 Park Street • Fitzroy North • Melbourne • Australia • 3068
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