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``` [Forwarded with permission and slightly reformatted. I'll assume that interested people will subscribe directly, so I won't routinely send out future issues. The editor of the Design Studies journal refused even to send my "Notes on the New Design Space" to referees, but it's a good journal anyway.]
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Date: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 9:12 AM
From: "David Durling"
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DRS_NEWS :: :: The digital newsletter :::::: :: ::: :::: of the :: :: ::: :: Design Research Society :: :: :: ::: :: :: :: :: Volume 5, Number 11, November 2000 :::::: :: :::::
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CONTENTS- Editor's space- Summary of Foundations and Methods of Design Research - Sharon Poggenpohl o Design Studies * o Calls for Papers * o Announcements * o Cyber News * o Questions, questions * o The Design Research Society: information * o Electronic Services of the DRS * o Contributing to DRS_NEWS|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EDITOR'S SPACE
A very warm welcome to all those who are receiving DRS_NEWS for the first time. This newsletter, which is nearing five years of publication, is now being distributed directly to about 3,500 researchers around the world. Indirectly, it is also forwarded to other newsgroups, so it is by far the largest readership of its kind.
To the more than 1,000 individuals who have joined in the past month, I hope that you enjoy this edition, and that you will contribute items for inclusion in the future (or simply just read it), and that if you like it you will tell your colleagues or students about it.
For those new to this publication, it is sent through the mailbase.ac.uk system. I edit the newsletter, and Martin Woolley - who is the listowner - does all the background work in maintaining the mail list up to date. Though the newsletter is distributed by the Design Research Society, it is a newsletter available free of charge to anyone who wants it.
Colleagues may receive this newsletter by signing up at:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/drs/join.html
More details of DRS (and back copies of this newsletter) may be found at:
http://www.drs.org.uk
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SUMMARY OF FOUNDATIONS AND METHODS OF DESIGN RESEARCH from the conference Doctoral Education in Design: Foundations for the Future, 8-12 July 2000, La Clusaz, France.
This summary contains 3 parts:
1) a brief remembrance of the various presenters and their central idea; 2) counterpoints to the various perspectives formally presented; 3) concluding remarks concerning structure and language.
The central ideas of the presenters
Kei Sato opened the session with an overview of the necessity of integrating method with philosophical viewpoint, i.e., methods do not exist in a vacuum, but have philosophical underpinnings that need to be brought to awareness.
Sharon Poggenpohl discussed question formation and investigation as a method for focusing PhD research, giving examples of question generation, change and refinement. The social construction of knowledge was an underlying theme in the presentation.
John Gero reviewed three basic research approaches: empirical, conjectural and axiomatic, giving examples for them. When pressed for a difficulty ranking, the author indicated that axiomatic research was least used and most difficult; empirical research was best established and often used; and conjectural research took the middle position.
Birger Sevaldson presented a holistic approach to research in which both the depth and breadth of investigation was subject to negotiation. He consciously seduced the audience with a digitally animated presentation of scientific flow diagrams.
Norman Sheehan told the participants aboriginal stories to demonstrate the relationship between perception and culture in the making of meaning. This focus on context and its meaning dimensions served as a cautionary note to doctoral programs with international participants.
Christena Nippert-Eng discussed the structure of a course in observation for design students that used fish and primates as opportunities to develop observational research skills to underpin a user-centered design approach.
Pirkko Anttila gave an integrated big-picture view of the ways in which we might position ourselves with regard to design research. The diagrammatic description was complemented with brief examples of design work that fit within various positions on the diagram.
Fergus Carnegie used a famous academic hoax, Sokalled Language Theory, to remind us to be careful about importing theory and method from other disciplines. The hoax was a foil for discussion of city planning activity.
Michael Biggs continued in a cautionary mode, reminding us that objectivity is impossible. He questioned: the benefits of scientific method, objectivity and knowledge, objectivity in aesthetics, and the PhD examination itself.
All the presenters contributed to a multi-faceted perspective on foundation and methods of design research. Those presenters who focused on notions of foundation for design research were more open-ended. Those who focused on method found it impossible to discuss method without having a clear vision of what is the subject under consideration, whether one is supporting or attacking, consequently these presentations were more specific. The methods discussed were modest, pluralistic and holistic. None of the presentations on method were dogmatic, perhaps in part because designers are pragmatic people who will abandon methods that fail to serve their purposes.
Counterpoints to the presentations
While I detected a resistance to structure on the part of some members of the audience in their questioning strategies, no one came out against method. (All doctoral candidates and advisors would benefit from reading Paul Feyerabend's classic Against Method.) There is a tendency to reify freedom. Because PhDs have much freedom and freedom can be paralytic, structuring a process is important, but this must be done consciously and reflectively rather than automatically.
The gap between design research and practice troubled many participants. Practitioners need actionable research and this sometimes requires careful mining of research material to bridge the distance between academic research and design performance in the world. This process is not well understood, but requires insight and understanding of both the research findings and their possible contribution and use in a specific situation. Much sociological and psychological research is directed to either policy concerns in the former or clinical use in the later. In the current "scientific" agenda of these disciplines, not much research translates easily to design action. This presents a situation in which designers must formulate research agendas that serve their own purposes.
Borrowing methods and procedures from other fields was viewed as questionable, yet inevitable, in this early stage of design research. Trying on methods, if not done mindlessly, can over time enhance research sophistication and spawn new or at least more tailored methods for design research. In contrast to borrowing methods and the inherent problems of mismatch, are those who continue special pleading that "design is different," i.e., special, unique. If we are to take our place among the larger research community, we need to develop knowledge that is contributory to others - yet is marked by design's particular interests. (Clive Dilnot spoke of this problem at the Ohio State conference.)
Some participants were concerned about how doctoral students were changed by the process of their education. Change is inevitable, enlargement of understanding, acquisition of particular research techniques, indepth investigation of particular domains of knowledge, the nature of the research community in which one matures, and much more color the doctoral experience. The change needs to be based on ethical responsibility from faculty who have a disciplined relationship to a perspective on design, an awareness of change in the world and the doctoral student's needs, balanced by an aware student who is actively making choices regarding their education and experience.
The largely textual nature of the dissemination of research was brought into question. Some participants stressed the importance of visualization, rather than reliance on text. What is at issue here is communication skill in general. The technological environment in which we work offers much control of the development of information. We need to question old patterns based on old technology that priviledged the word (industrially and economically) and to seek out more appropriate means to communicate information. If one lacks linguistic skill, visualization, while easier, cannot necessarily substitute for words. The real issue is what can be said, what can be shown, how words and images can be synthesized into efficient, elegant, meaningful communication. (See Nelson Goodman, Ludwig Wittgenstein, W.T. Mitchell, James Elkins, and many other philosophers who have examined language in the broadest sense.) This, in fact, is an interesting design research topic.
The participants seems split between those who thought there was too little and those who thought there was too much focus on objects in design research. While there was general recognition that design is an agency for change, some participants limited design to the realm of physical objects, while others included processes and digitally invisible action, for example, in the realm of "object." Yet others were focused on the process itself.
There was general agreement that design was undertheorized and decades behind in developing itself as a discipline. Publishing design research, being active in the design research community, and doing research itself is the road to theory and disciplinary development.
Remarks on structure and language
The questions that the audience asked following the presentations tended to be very broad and often tangential to the paper under discussion. This diffused the focus from the paper (this didn't serve the author) and provided interesting, but off the topic discussion. This suggests two changes for subsequent conferences.
1) The format of papers is wrong. A workshop may better serve the interests of the participants as they want to participate. The trick is to find an interactive structure that is controllable and responsive.
2) If papers continue to be given, participants need ground rules for asking questions. The problem of asking questions (as I discussed in my paper) is not trivial. Many participants used the forum to exercise their egos or their pet ideas. The audience and the presenters were generous in their attention and civility. Egos and pet ideas can happen in some other forum that is more exploratory and informal. There was ample opportunity for this during breaks, meals, etc., which serves to highlight the inexperience of the participants.
Language problems were seriously evident. There was a tendency, right from the first day, to include everything in "design." If design is everything, it is nothing. On another level, some people used "design" as a noun, while others used it as a verb. A few authors/presenters clarified their use - this was appreciated. Establishing a few key terms might be useful at the start of a conference.
Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl
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DESIGN STUDIES, VOLUME 21, ISSUE 6, NOVEMBER 2000
pp 539-567 Unexpected discoveries and S-invention of design requirements: important vehicles for a design process M. Suwa, J. Gero, T. Purcell
pp 569-588 Sketching and direct CAD modelling in automotive design M. Tovey, J. Owen
pp 589-606 The myths of imagery T. Liddament
pp III-IV Index
Visit the journal at http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/jnlnr/03021
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CALLS FOR PAPERS- 16-17 January 2001: Invitation to conference on Nordic design research, at the Department of Art History, Lund University, Biskopsgatan 5, Lund.
The participation in the conference is free, but please give the conference secretary a hint of your interest to come! The conference language will be Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. In December will a website be opened for the conference, and there will also be an internet forum for further discussions on that site.
Conference secretary: Helena Cybinski, tel +46-222 09 45, fax +46-222 42 04, email: helena.cybinski@arthist.lu.se- 23-26 October 2001: Second CALL FOR PAPERS The Second Asia-Pacific Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT-2001) Maebashi TERRSA, Maebashi City, Japan
http://kis.maebashi-it.ac.jp/iat01
Paper Submission Deadline: March 20, 2001
The Asia-Pacific Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT) is a high-quality, high-impact biennial agent conference series. The second meeting in this conference series follows the success of IAT'99 held in Hong Kong in 1999 (http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/IAT99). IAT-2001 will primarily focus on
(1) the state-of-the-art in the development of intelligent agents and (2) the theoretical and computational foundations of intelligent agent technology.
The aim of IAT-2001 is to bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse fields, such as computer science, information technology, business, education, human factors, systems engineering, and robotics.- 9 April 2001: CADE Postgraduate Forum 2001
The CADE Postgraduate Forum 2001 will take place on Monday 9th April 2001 at Glasgow School of Art, immediately prior to the start of the full CADE 2001 Conference. This is to ensure that attendees at the Postgraduate Forum are also able, if they wish, to participate fully in the Conference, which runs from 10th - 12th April.
A web page (very much under construction) for the Postgraduate Forum can be found at
http://www.gsa.ac.uk/cade/pgforum/
For further information about the Postgraduate Forum, please contact Maddy Sclater at m.sclater@hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk- 17-19 MAY 2001: CALL FOR PAPERS-MUDD DESIGN WORKSHOP III: "SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF ENGINEERING DESIGN" HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE,
THE MISSION - MUDD DESIGN WORKSHOP III will identify and articulate 4-6 key social and societal issues that engineering design educators and their social science colleagues should address, including. * - design as a social process - social and political issues in design - social issues in design for a hopeful future in a diverse, global society - instrumental approaches and methods for "optimizing" designs - ethics and design-a natural confluence? - miscellaneous/other issues in engineering design educationTwo-page abstracts to be submitted by 15 December 2000 submitted electronically to:
holly_hauck@hmc.edu.- 9-11 April 2001: Call for Papers First International Conference on Human Aspects of the Information Society , Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
The Conference will be of interest to researchers in information science, social sciences, psychology, information and communication technologies, education and learning, media, culture and business.
For more information, e-mail the conference organizer at
maureen.dickson@northumbria.ac.uk
or visit the conference website at
http://is.northumbria.ac.uk/imri- 3-5 April 2001: Eurographics conference Call for Participation is now available:
http://www.eguk.org.uk/- 15-17 November 2001: Microsoft Office's Brad Weed to Present at IDSA/Microsoft DesignAbout: Interactive Edges, Microsoft Conference Center, Redmond, Washington
Don't miss this opportunity to join Brad and other recognized experts, such as Dr. Brenda Laurel, Bill Buxton, David Bodanis, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for the second annual DesignAbout symposium.
www.idsa.org- 20-22 June 2001: Call for Papers TECHNOLOGY, PEDAGOGY AND INNOVATION 8th Annual EDINEB International Conference EDHEC School of Management, Nice, France
The EDINEB 2001 International Conference is designed as a learning platform for innovation across the boundaries between management education, knowledge creation, technology or business. Our aim is to spark new ways of understanding how these boundaries can be transformed into opportunities for collaborative learning and high performance.
http://www.edineb.net/- 27-30 May 2001: The 2001 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC2001) COEX Center, Seoul, Korea
CEC2001 is now inviting special session proposals. Further details can be found on
http://cec2001.kaist.ac.kr.- 4-8 December, 2000: Call for Participation in the WAP Workshop Design and Usability Evaluations of WAP-Enabled Web sites and Mobile Internet Devices at OZCHI 2000, Sydney, Australia
http://www.cmis.csiro.au/ozchi2000/- 27-29 June 2001: Second international conferences on pleasure-based human factors in design, Singapore. The conference will address pleasure-based design of products, interefaces and environments.
For further details email MingPo.Tham@motorola.com- 25-28 July 2001: EVA Scotland will be held in Glasgow and offers of papers are now invited. Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts Conference, Exhibition & Workshops
Please see the EVA Web Pages for further information: http://www.vasari.co.uk >- 20-22 August 2001: Eighth ISPE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCURRENT ENGINEERING: RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS Anaheim, California, USA FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
ISPE/CE2001, Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications, is a major forum for the international scientific exchange of multi-disciplinary and inter-organizational aspects of concurrent engineering (CE). The focus is on the use of integrated enterprise processes, collaborative work, information sharing, co-locating resources, and integrated frameworks and tools. This conference addresses research and applications issues of CE. This information is available at Web page:
http://BAT710.UNIV-LYON1.FR/ligim/CE2000/CE2001-CFP.HTML
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ANNOUNCEMENTS- 27-28TH NOVEMBER 2000: Textiles and digital technology, a conference about digital technology related to textile design and production at the Radisson Sas Koldingfjord Hotel, DK - Kolding organizer: Designskolen Kolding, Denmark
http://www.designskolenkolding.dk/textile_conference/- 12-14 December 2000: CAPS'3 : 3rd International Conference on Human-System Learning Web Based Learning, Wireless Based Learning & Web Mining
http://europia.org/CAPS
http://www.europia.fr/CAPS- 8-9 November 2000: IFFTI 3rd Annual Conference Fashion Directions : Visioning the Future, London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes Street, London, W1
A major global conference is being hosted in London for professionals within the fields of fashion education, design, textile manufacture, retail, technology and journalism, to discuss how traditional structures and relationships within the international fashion industry can be reformulated to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
For further information on attending the conference please contact Sarah Wilshaw
email s.wilshaw@lcf.linst.ac.uk- 14-15 November 2000: Design and the emerging e-commerce environment conference. Further details are on the web pages at
http://www.caad.ed.ac.uk/events/e-commerce/
and http://europia.org/DEECE/.- Knowledge and Information Systems: An International Journal
http://kais.mines.edu/~kais/
Please note Volume 2, Number 4 (November 2000)- 12-15 November 2000: The 2000 IEEE International Conference on Management of Innovation and Technology (ICMIT 2000) will be held on November 12 - November 15, 2000 in Orchard Hotel, Singapore. The response to our Call for Papers has been overwhelming. Over 100 papers have been selected for the conference. Some panel discussions are being arranged. Check here for the preliminary conference programme.
http://www.ise.nus.edu.sg/icmit/FP.html- Europia Conferences eia8: What makes this conference unique is the interaction of different disciplines (building informatics, hydroinformatics, design education, etc.) regarding their approach, methods and techniques for the application of advanced technologies to architecture, civil engineering, building engineering, urban planning and policy analysis. Specifics of disciplines are not the subject of the conference but serve as cases. Cross-platform discussions and interactions help to enhance scope of these technologies beyond their existing application limits.
http://europia.org/eia8- Exploit Interactive issue 7 is now available at the URL
http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/- Journal of Visual Art Practice: Call for Papers ISSN: 1470-2029 3nos/vol
The Journal of Visual Art Practice (JVAP) is a new refereed journal publishing scholarly research and informed commentary on various aspects of visual art practice seen from a broadly educational perspective. It welcomes contributions from art educators, scholars, art practitioners and others concerned with contemporary art practice seen from such a perspective. The journal will seek to represent the full spectrum of intellectual positions and modes of educational practice have developed out of, or in reaction to, the traditional notions of fine art practice.
Editorial Address: Iain Biggs, Faculty of Art, Media and Design, University of the West of England Bower Ashton Campus Clanage Road, Bristol BS3 2JT Iain.Biggs@uwe.ac.uk +44 (0) 117 966 0222 ext. 4767
To subscribe to the Journal of Visual Art Practice / to order a free sample copy please contact: Intellect, FAE, Earl Richards Road North, Exeter EX2 6AS, UK Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 1392 475110 Email: journals@intellect-net.com
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CYBER NEWS: snippets from the networks- The current list administrator plans to shut down the Visual-L list due to lack of traffic and numerous bad email addresses.
To keep this resource open, I have volunteered to start and maintain a new list on a different server to support the same purposes as the original Visual-L list. The new list is
chi-visual@acm.org.
To subscribe to the new list, send email to listserv@acm.org with the single line in the body of the message:
subscribe chi-visual
replacing
Remember that all administrative commands need to be sent to listserv@acm.org
Frank Marchak Visual Interaction Design Column Editor, SIGCHI Bulletin
fmarchak@veridicalresearch.com- The Centre for Sustainable Design are organising an Envirornmental Law Update (Electronics) with PERA on 29th November 2000
www.cfsd.org.uk/etmuel/pera_envevent1.html- EXCHANGE 2000 Online Exhibition @ Digital Cafe, Watershed Media Centre, Bristol. An exhibition of websites by artists in Europe and America showing current work in progress. Working collaboratively or as single practitioners, they have produced sites which display an example of the diversity of creative practice now evident across the internet.
http://www.media.uwe.ac.uk/exchange2000/exhibition- Darney Willis is a multimedia artist and teaches in and produces digital multimedia for the Art Dept. at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Arkansas, USA. A URL to some research he once did on using enhancing visual elements in web-site designing.
http://acjournal.org/holdings/vol3/Iss1/curtain.html
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QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS- Chris Rush writes:
I am working within the field of cost modelling during the conceptual stages of product design. I am researching methods of capturing assumptions, uncertainty, risks, and complexity during this process in order to improve cost modelling and prediction capability. I would be interested to hear from others who have an interest in this subject so that we could exchange ideas.
c.rush@cranfield.ac.uk
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/sims/cim/people/rush.htm- Jason S. Wrench writes:
Survey participation requested
Attention all graduate students:
For those of you who don't know me, my name Jason Wrench, a
doctoral student at West Virginia University. I am
examining the communicative behaviors of graduate student
with their academic advisors. I really need your help on
this project by filling out a simple survey. The survey
only takes about 20 minutes to complete and is completely
anonymous. Please take the time to fill out my survey at
the link below. Also, if you wouldn't mind, please forward
this message to your friends, colleagues, and other graduate
students as well. If you have any questions about the
survey, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at
Thanks for your participation and PLEASE forward,
jswrenc@wvu.edu
http://www.as.wvu.edu/~jwrench/advisor
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DESIGN RESEARCH SOCIETY
The Design Research Society is the multi-disciplinary international learned society for the design research community. DRS was founded in 1967, and since then has established a record of significant achievements in contributing to design knowledge.
DRS has facilitated an international design research network in 35 countries comprising members who maintain contact through the publications and activities of the Society. Members are drawn from diverse backgrounds, not only from the traditional areas of design, ranging from fine art to engineering, but also from subjects like psychology and computer science.
Our interests include:- recognising design as a creative act common to many disciplines- understanding research and its relationship with education and practice- advancing the theory and practice of design
We realise these by:- encouraging the development of scholarship and knowledge in design- contributing to the development of doctoral education and research training- sharing knowledge across the boundaries of design disciplines- facilitating networks to exchange and communicate ideas, experience and research findings among members- disseminating research findings- promoting awareness of design research- organising and sponsoring conferences, and publishing proceedings- encouraging communications between members internationally- responding to consultative documents- collaborating with other bodies- lobbying on behalf of members' research interests- recognising excellence in design research through awards- sponsoring email discussion groups and a monthly emailed newsletter
Membership of DRS provides:- regular communications about research activities worldwide- reduced subscription to Design Studies, the international journal for design research in engineering, architecture, products and systems. Design Studies is published by Elsevier in cooperation with DRS- reduced fees to DRS sponsored events- representation of the design research community and members' interests- a means of identifying and contacting other members- an opportunity to contribute to the international design research community
For further details and an application form, contact the membership secretary:
Professor Robert Jerrard, School of Design Research, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England, Corporation Street, Birmingham, UK B4 7DX
email: bob.jerrard@uce.ac.uk
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ELECTRONIC SERVICES OF THE DESIGN RESEARCH SOCIETY- DRS_NEWS is the electronic newsletter of the Design Research Society. It communicates news about research throughout the world. It is mailed automatically at the beginning of each month and is free. You may subscribe at the following site:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/design-research/join.html- DRS is a discussion list open for unmoderated discussion on all matters related to design research. You may subscribe at the following site:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/drs/join.html- PHD-DESIGN is a discussion list open for unmoderated discussion on all matters related to the PhD in design. You may subscribe at the following site:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/phd-design/join.html- Full information about the Design Research Society may be found at:
http://www.drs.org.uk
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CONTRIBUTIONS
Information to the editor (email only):
Dr. David Durling, Director, Advanced Research Institute, School of Art & Design, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2XN, UK.
d.durling@staffs.ac.uk
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