Abstract
Examining the implications of a radical redefinition of the relationship between the senses and intelligence for practice based research inquiry and research through design, this paper is based on a central premise that fundamentally redefines the epistemology, pedagogy and the function of design and has far reaching consequences for our understanding of language, intelligence, meaning, the senses and subjectivity. This pragmatic and holistic approach to consciousness is used here as a tool to examine and re-conceptualize the purpose, methodology and evaluation of research. Considering the problems created by the deep-seated and enduring legacy of rationalist principles, the alternative it proposes is that rather than recognize the intelligence of perception we should be seeing that perception is intelligence. Investigating the implications of this new approach for concepts such as decision making, objectivity and the presumed end point of research, it argues that shifting any inquiry away from the unequivocal towards the ambiguous is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of this paradigm and it is not just another way of saying that anything goes, but rather that work must be judged against different criteria. Truth is contingent, beliefs change, there is nothing is set in stone. And it is this flexibility that gives us such a great opportunity. Set within landscape architecture, it has implications for other architecture, art and design disciplines, philosophy, aesthetics and education more generally.
Keywords
philosophy, perception, research methodology, pragmatism, ambiguity, landscape architecture
Citation
Moore, K. (2012) Propelling Design Inquiry into Areas of Ambiguity, in Israsena, P., Tangsantikul, J. and Durling, D. (eds.), Research: Uncertainty Contradiction Value - DRS International Conference 2012, 1-4 July, Bangkok, Thailand. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2012/researchpapers/94
Propelling Design Inquiry into Areas of Ambiguity
Examining the implications of a radical redefinition of the relationship between the senses and intelligence for practice based research inquiry and research through design, this paper is based on a central premise that fundamentally redefines the epistemology, pedagogy and the function of design and has far reaching consequences for our understanding of language, intelligence, meaning, the senses and subjectivity. This pragmatic and holistic approach to consciousness is used here as a tool to examine and re-conceptualize the purpose, methodology and evaluation of research. Considering the problems created by the deep-seated and enduring legacy of rationalist principles, the alternative it proposes is that rather than recognize the intelligence of perception we should be seeing that perception is intelligence. Investigating the implications of this new approach for concepts such as decision making, objectivity and the presumed end point of research, it argues that shifting any inquiry away from the unequivocal towards the ambiguous is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of this paradigm and it is not just another way of saying that anything goes, but rather that work must be judged against different criteria. Truth is contingent, beliefs change, there is nothing is set in stone. And it is this flexibility that gives us such a great opportunity. Set within landscape architecture, it has implications for other architecture, art and design disciplines, philosophy, aesthetics and education more generally.