Leonardo da Vinci is credited with saying, “Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.”
This seems to be self-evidently true, the most interesting design thinking often emerges from difficult situations where the designer’s freedom is constrained by circumstance. I would like to offer Lukas Brunner as a particularly pointful example of this. (more…)
The importance of revealing your practices in “practice-led” research
Originally posted to the PhD-Design email discussion list on 20 November 2008
image from Graham Whiteley’s PhD thesis
David Balkwill’s comments (in a previous message to PhD-Design) about students missing the point of their task, which is designing not drawing, is very relevant to research and doctoral studies. One of the key issues to be resolved in any “practice-led” project is how the quality and validity of the methods are to be made clear (more…)
A Tacit Understanding: The designer’s role in capturing and passing on the skilled knowledge of master craftsmen
Wood, N. Rust, C. Horne, G. (2009) A Tacit Understanding: The designer’s role in capturing and passing on the skilled knowledge of master craftsmen International Journal of Design (online) 3.3
Download full paper from The International Journal of Design
From 2007 to 2009 Nicola and Grace explored the practical application of methods and theories developed in Nicola’s doctoral research into transmitting craft knowledge (more…)
WOOD, N. RUST,C. (2003) Designing for Tacit Learning: an investigation of design strategies for multimedia supported learning in the crafts Proceeding of 5th European Academy of Design Conference, Barcelona, April 2003
Designing for Tacit Learning: an investigation of design strategies for multimedia supported learning in the crafts
Nicola Wood wrote this with support from me to describe the research from her MA at Sheffield Hallam University. This was the first step along the way to her PhD and subsequent research which has positioned her as an authority on learning and craft skills and an expert in designing learning materials that enable people to acquire expert skills. You can read her PhD thesis and other publications here and we are now (Feb 2009) working on a paper that describes her most recent work that has demonstrated that the theories developed in her MA and PhD can be integrated and work well in practice.
Download full paper from archive.org
Abstract
There is an increasing interest and activity in the design of interactive multimedia to support learning in all fields of education and training. However, most of the theory to support such developments is concerned with learning explicit knowledge and there is little guidance available to designers of material for learning in areas with an element of tacit knowledge such as craft skills.
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