Drifting by Intention by Peter Gall Krogh & Ilpo Koskinen

Author:Peter Gall Krogh & Ilpo Koskinen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030378967
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Beyond providing a means to distinguish methods of experimentation in design research, the above typology also depicts a spectrum of methods that have a strong or light foothold in the wider world of science and technology. Accumulative, comparative and expansive experimentation have a strong foothold within technological research, which usually builds on the idea that knowledge comes from controlled experiments. Serial and comparative experimentation are more typical to the social sciences.

In many ways, we see design experiments as turns in conversation. They start form a base in literature, run through iterations that take researchers from knowledge to society and back, and finally end up adding something to existing knowledge. Things designers create during this process are boundary objects that help people to find a common language, but they are also more than that. They are heuristic devices that observations made lead during the process often lead researchers to question their theoretical assumptions. Their conceptual outcomes are obviously not models in any formal sense; they do not build on clear axioms. Rather, they are like physical, virtual, spatial and processual descriptions of theory that match the intuitive ideas of the original theory. We believe this is what the logician and philosopher Patrick Suppes (1960: 9) might have said about them in his philosophical treatment of models in empirical science if he had talked about design. In design, we tend to think, this is a permanent state: We find it hard to believe that design, a discipline built on things that exists, one day would be able to find a true axiomatic or even paradigmatic base.

In this chapter we have first described the typology of drifting native to design experimentation. We have then showed how drifting in design, knowledge interests, and research contributions happens at a more detailed level. The ability to describe the ways in which they drift, we think, will help the constructive design researcher to collaborate better with other disciplines. This ability gives them flexibility to adopt different perspectives, see similarities between seemingly diverging ideas, and find ways to create solutions that are acceptable to several stakeholders. Drifting in a sense becomes a useful negotiation tactic when there are divergent and even conflicting perspectives on issues in the studio, product development department, or in research. The ability of designers to articulate their visions in terms of physical and virtual things also gives them ways to bypass ingrained patterns of argumentation. The danger to avoid, we think, is to leave products on their own without a narrative that gives people tools to talk about them. The typology of methods presented here also helps to track and plan the ways in which design experiments happen. It finally contributes a visual way to make sense of the epistemological ground of research practices in design, but also artistically inclined and aesthetic practices.

References

Bang, A. L. (2011). Emotional value of applied textiles. Kolding: Kolding School of Design.

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