Thèses sur le sujet « Practice-Led Design Research »

The practice of communication design has developed from a visual-communication service industry into a multi-facetted profession, directly involved with the maintenance and creation of social and cultural capital. The ancestry of communication design has led to its continued perception as a neutral tool for the achievement of communication. This research project aims to investigate the possible contributions of communication design as a practice, if it were to re-align its goals towards supporting and facilitating the community within which it is practiced. This research project is about the communication designer and the communities within which they practice: clients; target markets; companies; managers; neighbourhood groups; groups in a particular place and time; communities of practitioners; and emergent or yet to emerge communities. The project investigates designer agency and the ways for a communication designer to work holistically within communities: being or becoming part of them; working through and with them toward the achievement of communication goals. As much as it is about communicating, it is also about community. It is about designers working as conduits, facilitating and enabling the communities of their practice to find expression. It is about a democratisation of communication design authorship and power. It is about the design process as an educational process - all parts and participants within a design projects' community learning and teaching simultaneously. The research project encompasses a series of component projects, across a range of different media, using a practice-led-research framework and a reflective practitioner methodology as the key investigative tool.

A new specialist design role is emerging in the construction industry. The primary task related to this role is focused on the control, development and sharing of geometric information with members of the design team in order to develop a design solution. Individuals engaged in this role can be described as a parametric designers. Parametric design involves the exploration of multiple solutions to architectural design problems using parametric models. In the past these models have been defined by computer programs, nowcommercially available parametric software provides a simpler means of creating these models. It is anticipated that the emergence of parametric designers will spread and a deeper understanding of the role is required. This thesis is aimed at establishing a detailed understanding of the tasks related to this new specialism and to develop a set of considerations that should be made when undertaking these tasks. The position of the parametric designer in architectural practice presents new opportunities in the design process this thesis also aims to capture these. Developments in this field of design are driven by practice. It is proposed that a generalised understanding of applied parametric design is primarily developed through the study of practical experience. Two bodies of work inform this study. First, a detailed analytical review of published work that focuses on the application of parametric technology and originatesfrompractice. This material concentrates on the documentation of case studies from a limited number of practices. Second, a series of case studies involving the author as participant and observer in the context of contemporary practice. This primary research of applied use of parametric tools is documented in detail and generalised findings are extracted. Analysis of the literature from practice and generalisations based on case studies is contrasted with a review of relevant design theory. Based on this, a series of strategies for the parametric designer are identified and discussed.

The increasing prevalence of digital fabrication technologies and the emergence of a novel materiality in contemporary craft practice have created the need to redefine the critical context of digital jewellery and wearable futures. Previous research in this area, such as that presented by Sarah Kettley (2007a) and Jayne Wallace (2007), has provided the foundations for further enquiry but has not been advanced significantly since its inception. The artistic research presented in this thesis focuses on how smart materials and microelectronic components could be used to create synergetic digital jewellery objects and wearable futures that reflect changes in the body of their wearer and their environment through dynamic responses. Laying the foundations for a theory of Interactive Craft through evaluating different aspects of creative practice that relate to responsive objects with a close relationship to the human body is at the centre of this enquiry. Through identifying four distinct categories of wearable object, the Taxonomy of the Wearable Object is formulated and clearly delineates the current existing conceptual, technological and material perspectives that govern the relationships between different types of wearable objects. A particular focus is placed on exploring the concept of Digital Enchantment and how it could be utilised to progress towards developing the Uncanny Object that appears to possess biological characteristics and apparent agency, yet is a fully artificial construct. The potential for the practical application of a design methodology guided by playful engagement with novel materials, microelectronics and digital fabrication technologies is analysed, taking into account Ingold’s concept of the textility of making (Ingold, 2011). Through exploring the notion of the Polymorphic Practitioner in the context of Alchemical Practice, a model for experiential knowledge generation through engaging in cross-disciplinary collaboration is developed. This is supported by a qualitative survey of European materials libraries, including accounts of site visits that evaluate the usefulness of materials libraries for creative practitioners invested in novel materiality as well as visually documenting a selection of the visited libraries’ most intriguing material holdings. Utilising a scientific testing protocol, a practical body of work that centres on conducting extensive experiments with smart materials is developed, with a particular focus on testing the compatibility and colour outcomes of chromic pigments in silicone. The resulting chromic silicone samples are collated, together with sourced smart materials, in a customised materials library. Investigational prototypes and the Microjewels collection of digital jewellery and wearable futures that responds to external and bodily stimuli whilst engaging the wearer through playful interaction are presented as another outcome of this body of research.

This research explores how human values and concerns are manifested and negotiated through the process of design. In undertaking this study, a variety of design interventions were explored to facilitate how values can be articulated and discussed amongst project stakeholders during the design process. These design interventions will be referred to as projects within the exegesis. In this exegesis, I will argue for the importance of a dialogic process among project stakeholders in the creation of a human-centred design practice in communication design. This exegesis explains the central argument of the research and how the research questions were investigated. It presents a journey of the discoveries, learnings and knowledge gained through an inquiry of the research questions. The total submission for this research consists of the exegesis, exhibition and oral presentation. Through each mode of delivery I will share and illuminate how the research questions were investigated.

A challenge ignited the research outlined in this thesis. Design is increasingly being framed (across academia and industry) as an integral method and strategy for social, cultural and economic innovation. How is this value to be communicated within the museum context, which is more commonly rooted in an object-centric tradition? Temporary exhibitions are a primary means of communication and engagement for museums. The presentation of contemporary design has followed traditions of display stemming from fine art practices, as well being influenced by those in commercial environments. Consequently the thesis argues that there is a prevailing tendency to display the outcomes of design activity, to celebrate aesthetics and functionality, and to concentrate on the personality and talent of the designer. A key concern underpinning this research is that many museum design exhibitions arguably struggle to reveal the complexity of design activity: the intellectual and material processes driving innovation. This arguably risks limiting broader interpretation, and stifles the opportunity to extend audience understanding of design. The aim of this thesis is to question and explore key concepts that constitute the communication and exhibition of design in the museum. Design, innovation, curating, exhibition, audience: in the dynamic, transitioning contexts of design and the museum, all concepts must be scrutinized. In order to navigate this territory, a core method of design inquiry is adopted: prototyping. In this research, prototyping actively puts concepts to work through a dialectical investigation. This involves actively engaging in design to examine the concepts of curatorial practice, the exhibition, and innovation, whilst concurrently exploring concepts of design and innovation through the process of curating exhibitions. This dual-focussed research approach that has been developed, can be described as a hermeneutic, practice-led methodology. Hermeneutics supports a belief in contextually situated, practical action as a basis for developing understanding and knowledge (Bolt, 2011; Heidegger, 1962). The method of exhibition-making is framed and employed as a practical prototyping process: curating exhibitions in order to reflect on the construction of design narratives from within. Prototyping becomes a way to reflexively explore, analyse and question the practice of framing, mediating and communicating design as innovation. Three iterative practical projects act as case studies for the thesis, situated in three concrete contexts: the industry sponsor – V&A Museum of Design Dundee; design in Higher Education; and a national innovation festival. Each can be seen as the exploration and delineation of a design space (Heape, 2007), with all three forming part of the wider design space that is the thesis as a whole. Through reflecting on the acts of evaluating, selecting, editing, juxtaposing, connecting, framing and presenting design practice through exhibition, the research has formulated a curatorial strategy that aims at attending to the complex nature, changing priorities and values of particular design contexts. The thesis names this approach ‘the constellation’: adapting this term from the work of critical theorist Theodor Adorno (1973). The constellation takes the form of a series of visualisations that draw on, combine and develop research on design theory, design processes, and prototyping, by a number of key design researchers (e.g. Buchanan, 1998, 1995a; Dorst, 2015a, 2008; Heape, 2007; Lim et al., 2008; Sanders and Stappers, 2014, 2008). Operating at two levels, the constellation is the manifestation of the reflexive research process, illuminating both design and curatorial practice. It makes an original contribution to knowledge in two ways: firstly as the visual delineation of a prototype curatorial strategy for researching, framing and communicating narratives of design; secondly it offers a conceptualisation of concept development in design practice, shown as the continuous exploration of a design space. This articulates how prototyping, as a key design method, can encourage innovation through the exploration and analysis of concepts at varying levels of detail, with the aim of developing new perspectives. This thesis also makes an original contribution on a methodological level by extending the practice and discourse of prototyping to the method of exhibition, framing it as a strategy for innovation in design research. This adds to current discourse surrounding practice-led research within art and design. It also contributes to nascent discourse in relation to curatorial practice for design, and the growing interest in the specificities of design curation, in the context of the museum.

This practice-led study explores different ways the subject of sustain-ability can be addressed within an Interactive Media Arts practice. The exploration encompasses three creative projects, Charmed, Distracted and e. Menura superba. Grounded in an ecological philosophy inspired by vegetarianism and the critical design philosophy of defuturing, the work shows how such a philosophical position can guide the redirection of practice. The concern for sustain-ability within my practice, and more generally the question of Interactive Media Arts and sustain-ability, I refer to as a problématique. The objective of this study is not one of finding an answer or a truth to an instrumentally posed question, but to explore the complexities of the problématique through a program of practice and intellectual investigation. The aim being to redirect my practice and to find a renewed raison d’être for practice through a process of opening up, encountering, and discovering otherwise unknown possibilities for practice. In the context of sustain-ability, this opening up of possibilities can be considered a form of futuring. A futuring I argue is only possible if the things we take for granted as integral aspects of our being, practices and life worlds, are revealed in ways that estrange them, rendering them visible in ways that allow questioning and change.

This doctoral thesis is a practice-led and corporate-grounded enquiry into the role of design research methods in a global technology company. The work aims to understand and communicate through a series of case studies how locally conducted participatory action research can be integrated into the processes of an in-house design team at the global NCR Corporation. It questions the current approaches taken in the design and development of consumer transaction technologies in the context of a global organisation and new markets. The thesis starts by introducing the reader to the global corporation in which the study is focused and author employed, the NCR Corporation. The contextual grounding of the corporate environment, its heritage, history and continued evolution will illustrate the dynamic yet traditional role design has played within the corporation. As a senior member of the Consumer Experience Design (Cx Design) team in the corporation the author is well placed to evaluate the role of design and how it can evolve. The immediate contextualisation is then followed by a broad examination of the literature in the field of design in a corporate culture, research methods and socially-led innovation. This will define the boundaries of interest and influence in the thesis. A participatory action research approach was taken to address the research questions. Informed by a series of hyperlocal and global community engagements framed and directed from within the corporate culture, the author defines an understanding of the levels of community engagement through design research. The resulting outputs are then applied within the context of the NCR Corporation where the impact and influence on such engagements can be understood. The author concludes that his contribution to new knowledge, the development of a Participatory Action Based Strategic Design Process, can be applied within a global technology company. The process adapts McNiff’s and Whitehead’s (2011) seven phases of action research reporting and Ravi Chhatpar’s strategic decision-making process. The thesis demonstrates the value and influence of design research methods in the design of consumer transaction technologies. The thesis provides an understanding of how design research methods have been applied in a corporate environment, how the insights are applied, and demonstrates how the research has influenced the author’s practice and therefore the wider Cx Design group.

This thesis positions practitioner research within the emerging discipline of fashion and disputes that practitioner knowledge of fashion is predominantly tacit. This research contributes to the understanding of practitioner knowledge and proposes an object based model of practitioner research as an alternative to existing practice-led methodologies. The thesis theorises fashion objects as a site of significant knowledge and argues their potential to record and communicate fashion knowledge and disseminate practice-led research.

This practice-led PhD research investigated alternate forms of articulation to relate stories of place-making, as narrative or object, and added threads to the complex meshwork and herstory of the Country. The research was conducted in ‘The Country’, of the north-eastern Goldfields and Yalgorup Lakes in Western Australia. These two non-urban sites provided unique experiences of the bush, local people’s stories and understandings of time. The research investigated the implications of non-urban spaces as studios in relation to the concepts of place, time and narrative. This research was, in part, experiential and drew on an absorbed embodied awareness of notions of the Country (a place). This was embedded in an ethical onto-epistemology, through the process of piecing together bricolages of seemingly unrelated fragments of methods, conceptual frameworks and materials in simple and complex ways. In making and thinking, gleaned, recycled and repurposed bits and pieces were gathered and utilised during nomadic wayfaring. The research drew on ideas pertaining to wayfaring and yarning, ‘mapping’ and experiencing the Country through the multi-faceted lenses of the bricoleuse, the geoscientist, the maker and the artsworker. Experiencing the materiality of the Country was a spatial, kinaesthetic and tactile engagement over long periods of time in the midst of the social, physical, material and biotic elements of specific ‘places’. Narratives and artworks emerged from piecing together pre-used fragments into textiles, then curated to form assemblages in built environments, and at the non-urban sites. Collective gatherings of people making, and sharing were facilitated as part of my practice. Yarning about and creatively mapping, these situated experiences in place, aimed to encourage connections and collaborative understanding between the city and the Country. This research contributes to the value and importance of using non-urban spaces both as sustainable sources of material for artwork and as studios. A bricoleuse’s approach to field-based/practice-led research contributes a relational, conceptual and methodological approach to creative arts, and to collaborative and interdisciplinary research frameworks.

This thesis, comprising of a written exegesis, solo exhibition and an artist book, emerged from research undertaken by an artist-researcher-teacher. For that reason, a/r/tography was the overarching methodology used, incorporating a bricolage of methods to address a multifaceted study undertaken in two settings: a primary school classroom and an artist’s studio. A/r/tography is a multilayered interdisciplinary Arts education research methodology that correlates well with my expertise as a primary Visual Arts specialist. The methodology allowed me to immerse myself in both teaching and the artmaking process, as ways of gaining a deeper understanding of Visual Arts pedagogy. The purpose of the study was to examine what the impact of making art with discarded materials had on raising environmental consciousness, from the viewpoint of an artist-researcher-teacher. Additionally, this research was positioned within the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) and Sustainability, a cross-curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum. The aim of this research was to show that Visual Arts is an effective way to embed Sustainability in the curriculum. In a two-phase study, the role of artmaking to facilitate shifts towards sustainability was investigated among 12-year-olds and myself in my creative praxis. In Phase One, 20 primary school students, from an area of high socio-economic advantage, participated in a 10-session Visual Arts program, using discarded materials to make and exhibit artworks with an environmental focus. Then, as an artist, I followed the same brief as the students, resulting in an exegesis and two creative components: an artist book incorporated into the exegetical writing and a solo exhibition at Edith Cowan University’s Spectrum Project Space in October 2014. This study showed that the creative reuse of discarded materials promoted reflexivity and raised sustainable awareness, leading to positive attitudinal and behavioural shifts in both the students and myself. The outcome of my creative component was a catalyst for shifts in the way I made art and the way I taught Visual Arts. By immersing myself in the artmaking process, I questioned unsustainable artmaking processes and moved towards reducing my own environmental footprint. The symbiotic nature of a/r/tography meant that new knowledge gained in the studio could be transferred to the classroom. The results of the research are presented through this exegetical writing and an exhibition, which included: returning to techniques that promoted reflexivity; exploring the ephemeral through photography; and demystifying the artmaking process through an artist book. The most significant finding of this study was that the physical act of artmaking enabled the students and me to re-examine our behaviours and to reconsider the value of discarded materials, which in turn triggered shifts in our awareness towards sustainability. Self-initiated behavioural shifts in the students included reusing materials and reducing consumption. Further, the students were able to make personal connections between their behaviours and their environmental footprints. This has implications for teachers integrating Sustainability. Arts-led education provides an alternative approach to teaching Sustainability across the curriculum. A set of recommendations arising from the research include: to provide support mechanisms to assist in-service teachers to implement Visual Arts-led Sustainability programs in primary schools; to introduce a/r/tography into pre-service teacher training; and for REmida WA to provide professional learning to support innovative, low-cost, multimodal in-service teacher training for Visual Arts-led Sustainability programs.

The principal focus of this thesis is the representation of a significant creative practice in relation to the design and installation of the Location-Based Game, SCOOT. This project demonstrates new understandings relating to the contingencies and potentials for transferring positive aspects of digital gameplay to everyday physical environments in an effort to reveal hidden histories and revitalise peoples’ interactions with their local urban spaces.

This study explores the idea of video games where the players are not just allowed to express themselves creatively, but are challenged to do so and are judged based on the quality of their creative expression. The outcome of the research is a series of six games which comment on this idea. The study also raises further questions regarding how current video games are constructed and designed in comparison with non-computer games, and invites a further evolution of the craft of video game design in a direction that focuses more on interpreting and reacting to what the player is doing.

This practice based, interaction design project explores how mobile, locative and social web technologies present new opportunities to help community members in need through collaborative online mapping of local support services and information sharing. In collaboration with community organisations, two social and locative media applications were produced. The underlying design principles were generalised to enable community agencies and individuals to apply them in development of further applications that aggregate information for social benefit.

While technology is often seen as a noisy, impatient and pervasive aspect of our lives, this practice-led research project investigated the counter proposition–that we might be able to evoke sensations of stillness through technology-mediated artworks. Investigations into stillness were informed by Buddhism, phenomenology, and experiences of meditation and the practice of archery. By combining visual art, performance, installation, video and interaction design, a series of experimental, interdisciplinary artworks were produced and exhibited to evoke a sense of stillness and to impel audiences to consider the form and nature of stillness in relation to time, space and motion.

This research project explores how interdisciplinary art practices can provide ways for questioning and envisaging alternative modes of coexistence between humans and the non-humans who together, make up the environment. As a practiceled project, it combines a body of creative work (50%) and this exegesis (50%). My interdisciplinary artistic practice appropriates methods and processes from science and engineering and merges them into artistic contexts for critical and poetic ends. By blending pseudo-scientific experimentation with creative strategies like visual fiction, humour, absurd public performance and scripted audience participation, my work engages with a range of debates around ecology. This exegesis details the interplay between critical theory relating to these debates, the work of other creative practitioners and my own evolving artistic practice. Through utilising methods and processes drawn from my prior career in water engineering, I present an interdisciplinary synthesis that seeks to promote improved understandings of the causes and consequences of our ecological actions and inactions.

This exegesis examines the theoretical concept of contemporary kitsch within a creative practice that incorporates sculptural and installation art. Kitsch is a distinct aesthetic style. Once designated to the rubbish bin of culture, kitsch was considered to be low class, bad taste cheap fakes and copies (Greenberg, 1961; Adorno & Horkheimer, 1991; Calinescu, 1987; Dorfles, 1969). I argue, however, that this is no longer the case. This research critically examines the way in which contemporary kitsch now plays a vital and positive role in social and individual aesthetic life. Although there are conflicting points of view and distinct variations between recent cultural commentators (Olalquiaga, 1992; Binkley, 2000; Attfield, 2006) on what kitsch is, there is a common sentiment that “the repetitive qualities of kitsch address . . . a general problem of modernity” (Binkley, p. 131). The research aligns the repetitive qualities to what sociologist Anthony Giddens (1991) refers to as “dissembeddedness” (1991) or “the undermining of personal horizons of social and cosmic security” (Binkley, 1991, p.131). The research investigates: how the sensory affect of sentimentality imbued in the kitsch experiences, possessions and material objects people covet and collect, offer a way of the individual moving from disembeddedness to a state of being re-embedded; and locates the ways in which the artist can facilitate the re-embedding experience. Through this lens it is demonstrated that kitsch has become firmly rooted in our “lifeworlds” (Habermas, 1971), as an aesthetic that reveals “how people make sense of the world through artefacts” (Attfield, 2006, p. 201) and everyday objects; that the sensory affect of sentimentality on connections to possessions and material objects that contemporary kitsch offers is shared across cultures and societies

This study is an investigation in and through media arts practice. It set out to develop a novel type of new media artistic praxis built upon concepts drawn from the disciplines of scientific and cultural ecology. The rationale for this research was based upon my observation as a practising new media artist that existing praxis in the new media domain appeared to operate largely without awareness of the ecological implications of those practices. The thesis begins by explaining key concepts of ecology, spanning the arts and the sciences. It then outlines the thinking of contemporary theorists who propose that the problem of ecology is a critical issue for the 21st century, suggesting that our well-documented ecological crisis is indicative of a more general crisis of human subjectivity. It then records an investigation into particular strategies for artistic praxis which might instigate an active engagement with this problem of ecology. The study employed a methodology based in action research to focus upon the development and analysis of three new artistic works, '#14', 'Public Relations' and 'transit_lounge'. These were used to explore diverse theories of ecology and to hone a series of pointers towards Ecosophical arts/new media praxis. This journey constitutes an emergent theory for new media space design. The thesis concludes with a toolkit of tactics and approaches that other arts/new media practitioners might employ to begin working on the problem of ecology.

博士
國立雲林科技大學
設計學研究所博士班
102
Abstract Recently, practice-led research has become a major trend in higher education in Europe, the U.S.A, and Australia. To enhance the art and design research abilities of college students in Taiwan, it is crucial to study the teaching content and methods of practice-led research. Therefore, this study aims to explore the application of practice-led research in art and design instruction through three sub-studies. The researcher adopts qualitative case study and action research, and attempts to explore the learning situations of college and graduate students under the instruction of practice-led research. Three sub-studies are involved: (a) Practice-led research in art instruction to 5 undergraduate art students, (b) Practice-led research in design instruction to 6 graduate students, and (c) practice-led research in art and design instruction to 42 undergraduate students. The objectives of this study are: (a) to inquire into the conceptions pertaining to art and design practice research; (b) to understand the 5 undergraduate students’ learning situations in integrating art creation and practice-led research as well as the influence of FTC( Form/ Theme/ Context) model (c) to understand the 6 graduate students’ learning situations and problems in conducting design practice-led research; (d) to explore the learning methods for improving practice-led research and examine their effectiveness; (e) to analyze students’ learning in both creation practice, and theory and writing, as well as combinations thereof; and (f) to analyze students’ learning situations in art and design practice-led research by using the FTCF( Form/ Theme/ Context/ Function) model. Firstly, in literature review, this study dealt with the meanings and types of art and design practice research as well as the related concepts. Secondly, three sub-studies were conducted. Adopting case study method, the first one explored the influence of using FTC model on individual student’s art quality, the whole effectiveness of applying FTC model, and reflections on teaching. The results show significant effectiveness in the quality of artworks. Adopting action research method, the second sub-study involved two cycles of design instruction. The first cycle indicated 2 problematic aspects: the linguistic components and research methods, and the use of the FTCF model. The second cycle showed that the students’ competency regarding the 2 aspects clearly improved. The potential in enhancing “linguistic and visual thinking,” “practice-led research and production,” and “design meta-cognition and creative problem-solving,” practice-led research can enrich the meaning of design work, and expand the knowledge dimensions of work through interpretation. Adopting case study method, the third sub-study found the problems related to learning and improvements for teaching methods, and creative uses of the FTCF model. Finally, the suggestions were discussed for future teaching and research of art and design practice-led research. Keywords: art and design practice research, art and design education in university, FTC model, FTCF model, practice-led research

abstract: Transformation Is... is an arts practice-led research in Dance and Design, embodying and materializing concepts of structure, leadership and agency and their role in bringing about desired social transformation. My personal experiences as a foreign student interested in transformative experiences gave origin to this arts practice-led research. An auto-ethnographic approach informed by grounded theory methods shaped this creative inquiry in which dance was looked at as data and rehearsals became research fields. Within the context of social choreography, a transformational leadership style was applied to promote agency using improvisational movement scores to shape individual and collective creative explorations. These explorations gave birth to a flexible and transformable dance installation that served as a metaphor for social structure. Transformation revealed itself in this research as a sequence of process and product oriented stages that resulted in a final performance piece in which a site-specific interactive installation was built before the audience's eyes. This work became a metaphor of how individual actions and interactions effect the construction of social reality and how inner-transformation and collaboration are key in the process of designing and building new egalitarian social structures.
Dissertation/Thesis
M.F.A. Dance 2014

We exist at an interesting point in time. Waste is exponentially increasing; resources are diminishing; yet we are accumulating more and more possessions. The world is inundated with stuff; it is everywhere—in our houses, our offices, on our streets and littering our environments. Stuff has become a problem. This is a conundrum for studio-based craft and design (SBCD), the lens of this project, which, like many design endeavours, has a preoccupation with the design and the making of products. This reality raises challenges around roles, responsibilities and ethical imperatives that drive SBCD in the 21st Century. If it is acknowledged that design (action) and craft (making) is responsible for authoring the construction, altering and interaction of our built environment, then perhaps both are powerful tools in how we shape our physical existence on this planet. SBCD, however, appears to be in crisis often marginalised as a vocation taught and practiced bound to past models that fail to sufficiently make links with salient issues of our time. As such, over the last several years many educational programs that have supported SBCD across Australia have been discontinued or amalgamated into larger homogenous programs; the last decade or so has also seen a swag of cultural organisations move to drop “craft” from their titles; and there appears to be a decline of professional craftspeople. , , This presents as another conundrum and raises the question of the value and relevancy around SBCD’s offering to a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. Yet SBCD has many worthy inherent attributes. It is a localised practice that supports a local ecology that further promotes high-level technical, material and creative skills. Because SBCD also focuses on an individual in a studio free from industrial constraints or imperatives, this gives a practitioner critical agency. But for SBCD to make a relevant and timely contribution to a world drowning in things will require a decoupling from existing modes of practice and a deeper understanding of design and its impact to social, cultural, political, economic, emotional, environmental, historical, ethical and technological imperatives—an exploration beyond lingering Modernist ideals of design as an aesthetic ‘form-giving’ pursuit. This is the motivation for this practice-led-research: To interrogate the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of practice and to seek and develop an alternate strategy for SBCD that squarely faces a question that essentially unravels the very core of what it does—why make more stuff? Through exploring a broader perspective of design and by focusing on universal issues that transcend any one discipline, this research considers that SBCD turn attention to dealing with that which already exists. This manifests with a focus on creative challenges and opportunities for design’s engagement with reuse and repair. Effectively, I use SBCD as an exploratory tool for inquiry into a) environmental concerns of waste and these links to design; b) as a strategy for giving alternative values to goods that have been discarded; c) and as a practice that engages with social, cultural and ethical concerns when presented with issues outside of domestic disciplinary concerns. Initially revolving around the sub-genre of furniture and objects, the practice that is presented here transforms into a much wider scope of what could define a model of SBCD within an Australian context. Through performing ‘micro-interventions’ into globalised flows of transient materiality, this research develops a case for SBCD. When recomposed within an ecology of practice, and by redirecting offerings that engage with issues beyond an object, SBCD has a relevant and worthy contribution to make to both the sustainment of the built environment and to material culture. This project is the beginnings of an alternative mode of practice.

IT. Oggi, lo studio della progettazione come strumento di ricerca è uno dei temi centrali del dibattito culturale anche nell’architettura del paesaggio, ed è quindi un campo aperto e in continua evoluzione. Come funziona il processo progettuale nell’architettura del paesaggio? La ricerca indaga sul tema sperimentando una lettura non convenzionale del processo progettuale (Reverse Reading) al fine di apportare nuovi contributi e ispirazioni al dibattito in corso. In che modo è possibile capire il funzionamento del processo progettuale partendo dal risultato del progetto? Quali implicazioni possono derivare dalla teoria e pratica applicando questo metodo al progetto di paesaggio? Partendo dal risultato (l’opera realizzata o la cui progettazione sia stata già completata) l’obiettivo è capire come il progetto sia stato pensato e scoprire le fasi, gli strumenti e le pratiche che ricoprono un ruolo fondamentale all’interno del percorso progettuale. Dalle ricerche effettuate non sono emersi studi che apertamente dichiarino di applicare un metodo di lettura inversa all’analisi e comprensione del processo nel progetto di paesaggio. È un campo quindi ancora poco battuto nella nostra materia e aperto a cooperazioni con discipline attigue che potrebbero in qualche modo contribuire all’avanzamento dello studio. Il lavoro della Exploratory Design Research si inserisce in questo spazio di ricerca ancora poco esplorato (knowledge gap) nell’ambito dell’architettura del paesaggio per testare il Reverse Reading applicandolo ad un caso studio, lo studio J&L Gibbons con sede a Londra. Un periodo di research in residence nello studio J&L Gibbons, ha permesso di ripercorrere il processo progettuale che caratterizza l’attività di questa pratica professionale, analizzando dieci progetti scelti tra quelli che si distinguono per gli aspetti innovativi del processo. Nella prima fase di ricerca è stato necessario codificare un sistema aperto in grado di guidare la lettura interpretativa dei dieci progetti analizzati. Il risultato è stata una tassonomia di pratiche e strumenti comunemente utilizzati nella progettazione del paesaggio. La fase successiva è stata quella della research in residence (Exploratory Design Research). I tre mesi dedicati a questo periodo di studio sono stati interessati dell’osservazione dei progetti e dall’analisi delle informazioni necessarie alla lettura del processo progettuale, sono state raccolte interviste ai progettisti e ai collaboratori coinvolti, i dati sono stati messi assieme e organizzati seguendo una logica che rendesse quanto più chiara la successione delle fasi progettuali e le peculiarità del processo (Fieldnotes). Parallelamente è avvenuta la codifica verticale dei dati che ha messo in luce la relazione esistente tra fasi progettuali, strumenti, pratiche, attori e fattori esterni. Queste relazioni sono state verificate continuamente attraverso un processo iterativo tra pensiero induttivo e deduttivo, scomponendo e ricomponendo le fasi del processo progettuale. Le informazioni sono state narrate in racconti (Design Tale) e graficizzate sotto forma di mappe sintetiche (Design Map). La codifica selettiva dei dati precedentemente raccolti e il confronto orizzontale delle mappe ha permesso di individuare le fasi decisive del processo progettuale, gli strumenti e le pratiche ricorrenti, quelle invece che si verificano eccezionalmente, gli attori che hanno recitato costantemente come ‘protagonisti’ e le ‘comparse’ che hanno avuto un ruolo decisivo nel progetto. La ricerca, attraverso l’esplorazione, il racconto e il confronto dei casi studio, ha messo in evidenza quali sono gli esiti dell’applicazione pratica del Reverse Reading sulla progettazione del paesaggio. La discussione dei risultati ha consentito di riflettere sull’attività dello studio J&L Gibbons, sul metodo sperimentato e sulle implicazioni che una ricerca simile ha nella teoria e nella pratica. L’applicazione di questa strategia di ricerca a studi simili potrebbe aprire a sviluppi futuri prospettando scenari in cui teoria, pratica e critica ricomincino a dialogare in uno scambio costante di sapere e conoscenze, nutrendo cultura e tecnica dell’architettura del paesaggio. EN. In this thesis the design process in landscape architecture is explored by studying it as a research tool. How does the design process work in landscape architecture? This is one of the central themes of the academic and professional debate in landscape architecture. However, learning from the process when it’s already complete is a challenging process. Is it possible to understand how the design process works starting from the design outcome? What implications can derive from the theory of landscape architecture by applying this method? The research arises from these considerations and applies a non-conventional Reverse Reading on the design process in order to achieve different contributions and to provide new inspirations to nurture the ongoing debate. The research aim is to understand how the project evolved starting from the design outcome, learning from the stages, the tools and the practices that played a strategic role within the design process. The literature research has revealed no study that openly declares to apply a "reverse” technique to analyze and to understand the design process in landscape architecture. Therefore, this is a field still open to possible interactions with other disciplines with the purpose to explore the potentials of non-conventional approaches applied on landscape architecture. The methodological framework is under the Design Research umbrella opened for cross-fertilization between the research for design and the research through designing methods. The Exploratory Design Research should provide an important input to fill the knowledge gap. The exploration on a professional practice is the research strategy to test the hypothesis investigating the common ground of theory and practice. J&L Gibbons landscape architects were chosen as the case study because of their innovative design thinking integrated with research and transferring of knowledge. The analysis of ten projects already planned was the strategy to generate evidence by collecting, testing and narrating the distinctive features that have affected the design process. In a first stage, it was necessary to codify an open-system able to drive the interpretative reading of the ten chosen projects. The achievement was a practice-tools taxonomy commonly used in landscape design. The three months, spent in London during the research in residence, were the occasion to deepen the case study and to collect useful data to read in reverse the design process. The interviews were structured following logic to make clear the succession of the project stages and the peculiarity of the process (Fieldnotes). At the same time, it was necessary to clarify the connection amongst the design stages, tools, practices, actors and external factors involved in the process. These relationships have been repeatedly tested and verified through an iterative process between inductive and deductive thinking, deconstructing and recomposing the design process stages. The ten projects are narrated (Design Tale) and outlined in synthetic maps (Design Map). The selective coding method and the comparison of the maps allowed to identify the key stages of the design process, the recurrent tools and practices, even the exceptional ones. At the same time, it was possible to recognize the actors and the extra ingredients which played a significant role in the project progression. Through the Exploratory Design Research, the study has highlighted the results of this application. This research allowed to reflect on J&L Gibbons’ professional activity, the Reverse Reading tested and the implications between theory and practice. Applying this research strategy to similar case studies could lead to new developments by suggesting future scenarios where theory, practice and critique could be able to dialogue in a constant exchange of knowledge, nurturing both culture and technique in landscape architecture.

The primary aim of this study in creative writing is research into an aspect of the writing process, namely the creation of spatial dynamics in a novel. This objective required the creation of an artefact. A novel titled Somersneeu was written in order to examine the very process of generating spatial dynamics in this novel in particular, as well as in the novel as such. Somersneeu was published by Human & Rousseau in 2010. Practice-based as well as practice-led research was fundamental to this study. An artistic creator registers intellectually whatever unfolds during the creative process and so new knowledge can simultaneously be created. The process of creating a work of art as well as the reflection thereon is fundamental to practice-led research. In other words, the creative process of an artefact like the novel Somersneeu is the source of a certain kind of knowledge that gradually emerges and can eventually be verbalised. Therefore a design concept for creating spatial dynamics may be articulated. It is a fact that a definite coherence exists between space and spatial dynamics. These two concepts are in reality inseparable and this cohesion is what is also being investigated in this study. Space actually consists of spatial dynamics since all the different facets of space, concrete as well as abstract, have definite and inseparable repercussions upon one another, causing a dynamic interaction among all facets of space. Apart from concrete or physical space, numerous abstractions of space take part in this interplay. These spatial abstractions are, for instance culture, identity, zeitgeist and the all-encompassing human psyche. The intense interplay among all the facets of space triggers spatial dynamics. This is the case in real life as well as in fiction. The above mentioned discussion of space and spatial dynamics is followed by an intense and heuristic view of the process of creating spatial dynamics. In order to create spatial dynamics in a novel, a novelist should have a strong sense of place. The essence of creating spatial dynamics in a novel consists mainly of the transformation of sense of place. The main aim of this study is then to present a design concept for the creation of spatial dynamics in a novel. This design concept may be used by other writers in order to create spatial dynamics in a novel. The novel Somersneeu as well as the questionnaire, reception documents and a list of publications of the writer are included as appendixes.
PhD (Afrikaans and Dutch), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014