Abstract
This paper introduces a multi-disciplinary research-creation project that examines the embodied and social nature of textile design and making at different structural scales – from beaded accessories to architectural components. Bringing together anthropology, architecture, computer science, and textile craft, “Gesture and Form” seeks to develop effective and ethical pedagogies for teaching design and handcraft with new materials and technologies. Specifically, the project explores the potentialities and limitations of a head-worn augmented reality (AR) system that documents, encodes, and later guides making practices. The discussion first introduces different disciplinary frameworks for understanding and researching embodied knowledge, before sketching the multi-disciplinary research design, which loosely distinguishes “design research” (and creation) from “design anthropology.” We then dwell on the multiple challenges of the endeavor, from orchestrating and defining the activities of “design” and “research,” to asymmetries of technical expertise its communication, to the blurring of participant-observer positionalities.
Keywords
ethnography, architecture, computer science, embodied knowledge
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.417
Citation
Nicholas, C., Forren, J., and Reilly, D. (2022) Augmented: Design and ethnography in/of an architecture, computer science, and textile research-creative collective, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.417
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Augmented: Design and ethnography in/of an architecture, computer science, and textile research-creative collective
This paper introduces a multi-disciplinary research-creation project that examines the embodied and social nature of textile design and making at different structural scales – from beaded accessories to architectural components. Bringing together anthropology, architecture, computer science, and textile craft, “Gesture and Form” seeks to develop effective and ethical pedagogies for teaching design and handcraft with new materials and technologies. Specifically, the project explores the potentialities and limitations of a head-worn augmented reality (AR) system that documents, encodes, and later guides making practices. The discussion first introduces different disciplinary frameworks for understanding and researching embodied knowledge, before sketching the multi-disciplinary research design, which loosely distinguishes “design research” (and creation) from “design anthropology.” We then dwell on the multiple challenges of the endeavor, from orchestrating and defining the activities of “design” and “research,” to asymmetries of technical expertise its communication, to the blurring of participant-observer positionalities.