Abstract
This paper explores how design research that includes experimental design practice, can utilize the researcher’s background as a practitioner, and make the practice central to the research. The aim of this paper is to make a case that practical experiment in a research context is a fruitful way to produce knowledge that supports the interplay between designer, material and technique in design practice. The research reported in the paper experimentally explores how a ceramist can utilize his approach to designing in the use of 3D digital media as a design tool, and what that use of digital media can add in a qualitative sense in interplay with the ceramic material. The investigation explores themes such as movements and metamorphosis. The paper suggests a method of research that the author has named Method of Branching Experiments. Subsequently, the method is exemplified by the author’s experiments. The method is characterized by an explorative approach based on own design practice in interplay with techniques and materials, and by relying on a cluster of parallel and interdependent experiments within a defined frame rather than single experiments. The method has shown how new questions derived from an introductory experiment have influenced the process of exploration, by suggesting new parallel experiments. The new questions do not change the direction of the original experiment, but rather clarify and specify it, allowing the process to branch off in a variety of directions, and to be fuelled by spontaneous curiosity. Furthermore the method has shown how the parallel experiments have contributed unpredictable solutions to other experiments. Thus the notion of parallel interdependent experiments can be seen as a dynamic system in which a number of unpredictable and surprising relationships can emerge and be exemplary for what can be done and how, within the context of the original research question.
Keywords
Research method; design practice; experiments; ceramics; 3D digital media
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2009.107
Citation
Hansen, F.T.(2009) A Search for Unpredictable Relationships, in Niedderer, K., Reilly, L., Roworth-Stokes, S., Smith, C. (eds.), EKSIG 2009: Experiential Knowledge, Method & Methodology, 19 June 2009, London, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2009.107
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
A Search for Unpredictable Relationships
This paper explores how design research that includes experimental design practice, can utilize the researcher’s background as a practitioner, and make the practice central to the research. The aim of this paper is to make a case that practical experiment in a research context is a fruitful way to produce knowledge that supports the interplay between designer, material and technique in design practice. The research reported in the paper experimentally explores how a ceramist can utilize his approach to designing in the use of 3D digital media as a design tool, and what that use of digital media can add in a qualitative sense in interplay with the ceramic material. The investigation explores themes such as movements and metamorphosis. The paper suggests a method of research that the author has named Method of Branching Experiments. Subsequently, the method is exemplified by the author’s experiments. The method is characterized by an explorative approach based on own design practice in interplay with techniques and materials, and by relying on a cluster of parallel and interdependent experiments within a defined frame rather than single experiments. The method has shown how new questions derived from an introductory experiment have influenced the process of exploration, by suggesting new parallel experiments. The new questions do not change the direction of the original experiment, but rather clarify and specify it, allowing the process to branch off in a variety of directions, and to be fuelled by spontaneous curiosity. Furthermore the method has shown how the parallel experiments have contributed unpredictable solutions to other experiments. Thus the notion of parallel interdependent experiments can be seen as a dynamic system in which a number of unpredictable and surprising relationships can emerge and be exemplary for what can be done and how, within the context of the original research question.