V.t.h. Design-Led Research - Recently Updated Pages

Publications and Conference Papers

Vth — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:01:15 CDT

AN UN-NATURAL WORLD: THE DESIGNER AS TOURIST - Dancing with Disorder, EAD07, Izmir, April 2007 [download pdf]
AN ECOLOGY FOR DESIGN - International Design Conference, Florida, January 2008 (Now published in the
Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal, Vol.3, Iss.1, pp.41-54) [download pdf]
CO-DESIGNING A SUSTAINABLE CULTURE OF LIFE - Changing the Change, Turino, July 2008 [download pdf]
DESIGNING A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE UN-NATURAL WORLD - Undisciplined, Sheffield, July 2008 [download pdf]
DESIGN WITH A THOUSAND FACES - Interdisciplinary Social Science, Prato, July 2008 (submitted for publication in the International Journal for Interdisciplinary Social Sciences) [download pdf]

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Undisciplined

Vth — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:59:13 CDT

DESIGNING A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE UN-NATURAL WORLD - Undisciplined, Sheffield, July 2008
see paper attached (If you have comments or feedback on this paper please start a thread below)

Abstract:

The analogy of designer as tourist in the un-natural world is used as an aid for thinking my way into the nature of design research. An exploration of how the design researcher, like a tourist, travels widely through the un-natural world of thought, theory and concept. If we are to design a travel guide for the un-natural world then what would this guide book look like, why do we need it and how could it work? The paper will propose that a ‘travel guide to the un-natural world’ in the form of a design-led methodology is needed for research into sustainable development and is useful not only for the design discipline but for the research community at large. These premises have been derived from the aptitude of the design process and the creative methods it employs to deal with the complex messiness of issues such as sustainability. Such a design-led methodology would be useful for the wider research community due to the integrative abilities of the design process and the trans-disciplinary scope of the tour through the un-natural world. Design-led methodology will be explored using examples from field work in Tumut (rural New South Wales, Australia)

Key words:

Design research, design-led methods, metadesign, sustainability.

The Un-Natural world is formed out of our patterns of understanding, they coagulate into a landscape that could be thought of in similar terms as our natural world; where disciplines could be seen as nations with defined boarders, their own language and culture. Following this analogy the landscape of each nation could be seen as the theories, thoughts and processes that give each discipline form. The tourist in the un-natural world travels widely, adding a wide variety of different disciplines to their path. The design researcher’s route through the un-natural world could be likened to the tourist. The tourist as traveler can be accused of engaging in a superficial tour through the un-natural world, however this is not always the case, there is great potential for the tourist to weave routes throughout the un-natural world in a meaningful way that aids in the development of a global conversation; trans-disciplinary paths to form pan-disciplinary discourse. The tourist is in need of a travel guide in which to avoid getting lost and in order to make the most out of their travels.
If the ‘Un-Natural World’ is an analogy for the spherical landscape of thought, theory and concept then the ‘Travel Guide’ is the methodology through which to explore that theoretical landscape. This analogy is employed to aid the conception of ‘design as research’ (Frayling 1993, Glanville 1999, Downton 2004) by considering the design researcher as ‘a tourist in the un-natural world’ (Hocking, 2007) and as defining a path for discovering the nature of design research. This paper will ask the question - if we are to design a ‘travel guide’ for the design researcher as ‘tourist’ travelling through the ‘un-natural world’ then what would this guide book look like, why do we need it and how could it work?
Many methodologies as guide books for travellers outline only local travel. Where disciplines are countries in the un-natural world these guide books chart travel within the boarders of their discipline. Often other disciplines use these guide books and translate them for travel within their own discipline; like design has done with anthropology, appropriating ethnographic methodology for use within the discipline of design. What a design-led travel guide would attempt to do is create a guide book that would enable travel throughout the un-natural world, across all the disciplines and knowledge groups; from individual, to local, to specialist, to strategic, to holistic knowledges (Brown 2007).
There are many instances of design-led methods. Such instances include ‘cultural probes’ such as those explored by Gaver et al.(1999), ‘game format’ such as those utilised by Mazé et al from the Swedish Interactive Institute (2003) and ‘scenario building’ such as those employed by Manzini et al (2003). However, what would a design-led methodology, as ‘travel guide’, look like with all of these methods imbedded within it. The paper will explore this question by considering what the contents of such a travel guide might be; like the itinerary, getting started, places to go, things to do, sources of travel information, orientation, getting there and away, potential hazards, a glossary and maps. In this paper I will reflect on what form is needed to create an effective ‘travel guide to the un-natural world’.
In designing such a travel guide the identity of the author is a central part of the guide’s construction. The author not only uses other people’s information on the best way to travel but also has explored the travel routes themselves in the process of designing the guide; a designerly act of ‘thinking by doing’. In this way I will use examples from my Tumut fieldwork project (Tumut is a town in southern New South Wales, Australia). The Tumut project aims firstly to explore design-led methods as imbedded in the design process towards developing sustainability and secondly for the purpose of constructing a guide for design-led methodology. The self exploration in the process of designing the guide is able to give a personal view on the best way to design your own trip. Identity is central to the design-led itinerary and the transparency of the guide’s identity allows the user to develop their itinerary in accordance with their own identity and circumstances. This means the travel guide is not prescriptive or deterministic but allows the user to make informed decisions when setting out on their own trip (in a similar way I believe including a first person view in this paper is key to the centrality of identity in the process of design which is fundamental to our methodology and thus needs to be imbedded in the articulation of our ideas). This paper will also reflect on the users of design-led methods (including creative methods generally) and the potential users of this travel guide.

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Links References

Vth — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:27:30 CDT

Design Research

Design Plus Research Conference, 2008, Milanhttp://pcsiwa12.rett.polimi.it/~phddi/uk/01/dpr00/intro.htm
Cross, Nigel., 1990, The nature and nurture of design ability, Design Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 127-140
Cross, Nigel., 1999, “Natural intelligence in design”, Design Studies, vol.20, no. 1, pp.25-39
Cross, Nigel., 2001. Designerly Ways of Knowing: Design Discipline Versus Design Science, Design Issues, 17 (3), 49-55
Findeli, A., 1994, Ethics, Aesthetics, and Design, Design Issues,Vol. 10, No. 2. (Summer), pp. 49-68.
Manzini Ezio (2000) Design Research: Reasons and Possibilities; The Production of a Design Knowledge taking time in the age of real-time, see Proceedings of the Politecnico di Milano Conference, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, May 18-20, pp.13-15.http://pcsiwa12.rett.polimi.it/~phddi/uk/01/dpr00/rtf/013.zip
Saikaly, Fatina, 2006, Approaches to Design Research: Towards the Designerly Way in: Proceedings to the EAD06 Conference,http://ead.verhaag.net/fullpapers/ead06_id187_2.pdf

Design Research Community

PHD-Design list: To Join click on 'Join or Leave PHD-Design' - https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=PHD-DESIGN
Design Research News: To Join the e-newsletter click on 'Join or Leave Design Research'- https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=DESIGN-RESEARCH
Design Philosophy: Online journal http://www.desphilosophy.com/dpp/dpp_journal/journal.html
General Research Network: like social networking software for researchers http://www.academia.edu/, https://www.researchgate.net

Design/Practice-led Research

Special Issue:Design Issues, Vol. 15, No. 2, Design Research (Summer, 1999)
Findeli, Alain., Brouillet, Denis., Martin, Sohie., Molneau, Christophe. & Tarrago, Richard., 2008, Research Through Design and Transdiciplinarity: A Tentative Contribution to the Methodology of Design Research, In the proceedings of ‘Focused’, Swiss Design Network Symposium, Bern, 30-31 May, pp.67-91, http://5-10-20.ch/~sdn/SDN08_pdf_conference%20papers/04_Findeli.pdf

Sustainable Design Projects

The Sharing Solution:http://www.sharingsolution.com/
The IOBYproject in New York:http://www.ioby.org/
Ezio Manzini's work:www.sustainable-everyday.net
Collection of Links http://nordicdogs.com/links/
Attainable Utopias online: Set up by John Wood and others http://attainable-utopias.org/tiki/tiki-index.php

Sustainability Related References

Natural Capitalism - Creating the New Industrial Revolution: Online resource http://www.natcap.org/
(also see Hawken P., Lovins A.B., and Lovins H. (1999) Natural Capital, Little Brown, London.)

History of Creative-Based Research pre-post Enlightenment

Williams, Raymond (1981)CultureFontana (Glasgow)
Wolff, Janet (1981)The Social Production of ArtMacmillan (London)
Zolberg, Vera (1990)Constructing a Sociology of the ArtsCambridge UP (Cambridge, NY)
Copeland, Alexandra (1996) “The Arts Grow Cold”Australia Art Monthly95, November, 19-26
Sullivan, G. (2005). Art practice as research: Inquiry in the visual arts. Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE. (http://books.google.com/books?id=fB90twO3v-wC&printsec=frontcover)

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Enabling Design for Sustainable Futures

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:24:07 CDT

[coming soon]

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Work in Progress

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:23:33 CDT

I'm in the process of updating my progress so just a few quick notes and more will come soon...

Fieldwork: I am finishing of my Tumut fieldwork. I displayed the visual scenarios for the final phase in Tumut on Friday the 17th of April and have sent of the information booklets to those that couldn't make it. Looking forward to getting more feedback. Now I will analyse the feedback and start writing up the results.

Publications: My paper 'An Ecology for Design' has now been published (Hocking, Viveka Turnbull, 2009, An Ecology for Design: From the Natural, Through the Artificial, To the Un-Natural, Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal, Vol.3 Iss.1, pp.41-54.)

[more coming soon]

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Phase 4 Feedback

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:20:46 CDT

Download the Booklet and familiarise yourself with the three scenarios.

A: B: C:
(A) Activate! - Guidebook, (B) The Multi-Makers - Co-creation, (C) The Exchange - Time Bank
A, B & C above show the 3 visualised scenarios which illustrate possible ways of facilitating public creativity for increasing sustainable wellbeing.

Below are 7 questions to get your feedback in order to compile a common vision. Fill in your responses in the 'Start a New Thread' box at the bottom of the page. In the 'subject' put where you are from, if you don't live in Tumut say if you have any connections with the community of Tumut. In the 'Message' put the question number and your responce to each question. Answer each question as best you can and feel free to skip the ones you have no comments for.

Q1. Which scenario do you like the best? and why?
This question is asking for a personal response. Pick the scenario that appeals to you most. Choose one or more of the following.

(A) Activate! Guidebook
(B) The Multi-Makers. Co-Creation
(C) The Exchange. Time Bank

Q2. Which scenario do you think is most appropriate for Tumut? and why?
This question is asking you to respond as a representative of your community. This may be the same or different to question 1. Choose one or more of the following.

(A) Activate! Guidebook
(B) The Multi-Makers. Co-Creation
(C) The Exchange. Time Bank
(D) A combination of A, B or C (explain)

Q3. How would you facilitate public creativity in your community?
This question is asking if the above scenarios give you any other ideas; give examples.

Q4. What would you like to see happen next? This question is asking what you see as the next step for these scenarios of sustainable wellbeing for
Tumut’s Future. For example is it about creating more scenarios, continuing the conversations started from these scenarios, finding out which one of these
scenarios the community likes best or something else? Explain your answer.

Q5. How would you get the rest of the community involved in further developing a scenario like the ones presented here? This question is asking how to engage more people in this kind of project so as to increase a sense of community ownership.

Q6. What is the value (if any) of these Scenarios for Tumut’s Future? Give your thoughts and opinions.

Q7. Do you have any other feedback? Please express any other thoughts, comments, ideas and/or opinions you may have.

Fill in your responses in the 'Start a New Thread' box at the bottom of the page.
In the 'Subject' put where you are from, if you don't live in Tumut say if you have any connections with the community of Tumut.
In the 'Message' put the question number and your responce to each question.

For more information or if you have any other comments or suggestions contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Thank you for your feedback

Phase 4

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:20:02 CDT

Phase 4 Scenarios of Sustainable Wellbeing
[Give your feedback] [download poster pdf] [download booklet pdf]

Friday afternoon on the 17th of April I displayed posters in Tumut of the Visualised Scenarios created from Phase 3. I handed out booklets and got people to fill in feedback forms.

For more information on these scenarios download the booklet and/or the poster

Please give your feedback by going to Phase 4 Feedback page and adding your responses to the questions in the 'Start New Thread' box at the bottom of the page.

[more information coming soon]

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Phase 3

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:19:42 CDT

Phase 3 All Fun and Games

The games in this phase aim to allow participants to play with the concept of 'diversify cohesively' (generated from phase 2) in order to work up scenarios for possible futures. The game play consists of two parts; Larry the story tree creature and the storyscape game.
Find Guidebook for Storyscape Game attached.Find Results attached.

Larry the story tree creature:

This is the first part of phase 3. Larry is a large beanbag creature created as a three dimensional interactive object. The aim of this object is to collect stories about Tumut; what people in Tumut do in their everyday lives for work rest and play. Participants are given green leaf shaped pieces of paper to write one sentence telling Larry something about life in Tumut eg. about the different places people work, or the different things people do on the weekend, or the different everyday chores people do. These leaves are put on Larry to foliate him with stories. These then form the current stories in Tumut and become one of the cards in the storyscape game. Larry was designed to see how a 3D object may help engage participants compared to the 2D activity packs in the previous phase. Larry is meant to encourage a fun and playful experience. Larry may be childlike in appearance but is intended to encourage the child in all of us to engage in a playful way to foliate Larry with current stories of the town and community.

Storyscape game:

This game consits of cards and a board (storyscape) , players are story-makers and they score points for making new stories and making links between stories. The person who can make and link the most stories wins! Larry the story tree creature collects current stories about Tumut which forms one set of cards in the Storyscape Game.

Cards: 4 different kinds of cards; current stories from larry, new story cards which prompts the creation of future stories for tumut, link cards which suggests links between stories. Each card shows the player what they can do on their turn.

Board: A large grid board, small pieces of coloured paper and pens. The board will end up looking like a mind-map with current stories and new stories linked together to create a storyscape. The different coloured paper corresponds to one of the sets of cards above: current story (pail green), new story (pail blue) or link (white stickers) . The player can then put a current story or new story on the board by writing it on the corresponding coloured paper and in one of the grid squares on the board. The player can also make links between stories by writing the type of link on the white sticker and sticking it between the stories on the board to link the stories together.

The results of this phase helped to design Phase 4

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Phase 2

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:19:29 CDT

Phase 2 Cultivating a Concept

Returning to Tumut with new project packs designed from the responses from phase 1. These Packs with project details and creative activities where distributed around Tumut.

Tumut community members were given a pack and asked to fill it out as a household or by themselves or with friends. There were many different activities in the packs and people where asked to choose the activities they wanted to do. Not all the activities need to be completed and households could share which activities each of them engaged in. Then they were asked to refold them into the reply paid envelop and put them in the post.

Results: Diversify Cohesively (Concept formulated from Phase 2)

From this result phase 3 was designed.

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Phase 1

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:19:19 CDT

Phase 1 Creative Methods

This phase consisted of introducing interested Tumut community members to this project. Packs where distributed with information on the project and a creative questionare asking people about their creativity and their ideas about Tumut.

People in Tumut where asked to fill out the creative questionares and return them. Ideas emerging from these questionares and discussions with community members.

Some ideas about Tumut as discovered from phase 1:

A need to create a better balance bettween industry and culture in an industry dominated town.
A need to maintain a diversity of ages in the demographics of a town which is aging.
A general apreciation of the seasonal weather expressed through four destinct seasons in the region
A segnificant time commitment to family and sporting activities

From these ideas Phase 2 was designed.

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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FieldWork

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:19:09 CDT

Project Tumut aims to test fun and creative methods for their ability to facilitate participants of a community (ie Tumut) to design sustainable possibilities for the future of their town.
The project has gone through a number of phases each phase helping to create the next phase. Phase 1 was an introductory phase and the outcome helped create the next phase. Phase 2 aimed to generate a concept through creative activity packs which participants filled out and sent back. The outcome of phase 2 was the concept 'to diversify cohesively'. This concept was then used to create the games for Phase 3. The aim of this game was to get participants to play with the idea of 'diversifying cohesively'. The outcome of phase 3 can be downloaded as a pdf (see below). These results have help create the possible future scenarios in the form of visualisions in phase 4. These visualisations will be displayed to the community of Tumut on the 17th of April at the Tumut Shire Councile, in the Gundagai roomm from 4-6:30pm. All of the Tumut Community is invited and those who attend will be asked to give their feedback on the visual scenarios that have been created and what they would like to see as the next step in the process. The feedback from phase 4 will determine what happens next, a common vision will be formulated from the feedback and this will determine the final outcome of the project.

Phase 1 Creative Methods
Phase 2 Cultivating a Concept
Phase 3 All Fun and Games [download pdf of results]
Phase 4 Scenarios of Sustainable Wellbeing [download pdf of: poster, booklet or give your feedback]

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Interdisciplinary Social Science

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:18:32 CDT

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Design With a Thousand Faces: Design-Led Methods for the Social Science Research Community, Interdisciplinary Social Science Conference, 22-25th July 2008, Prato, Italy
Find paper attached

Abstract:

Design as a profession emerged out of the industrial revolution. However, the word ‘design’ has been around much longer and describes a human activity that we all do and have done for some time. This paper starts from the premise that although design may have many 'faces' there is an overriding commonality in a process concerned primarily with generating 'what could be' rather than 'what is'. This commonality has the potential to form a 'common ground' between disciplines. Hence, design-led methods could be further developed into an integrated research design for an interdisciplinary method that effectively enables all types of participants and researchers alike. This paper will examine design-led methods for the social sciences by looking at; the social science influence on design research methods, the evolution within design of 'design-led' research methods (such as cultural probes, game format and scenario building) and the influence of these creative and playful methods on the social sciences. The paper will assess the potential for further developing design-led methods for the social science research community and will conclude by considering what, if any, role the Design discipline may have in contributing to ‘design’ in other fields.

A Thousand Faces

Design is a primarily creative activity; a process that bridges thought and action that creates something new. Design is not principally about making however is integral for creating the new from which the new is able to be made a reality in our everyday lives. The activity of design is about asking the question ‘what could be’. Design has found a vital role in the industrialised world where the production of our everyday lives has been compartmentalised into separate steps: specifying > making > marketing > buying and using. The activity of design then becomes a profession of Design (industrial, graphic, landscape, etc.) able to give the industrialised process new ideas as the specifications for mechanised production to make for market. However, this does not remove the activity of design from its generic form, the creative process of translating thoughts into action. This activity has many different faces, existing in many different fields, whenever a practice engages in the creative process of ‘what could be?’ (eg. scientific research design, planing an educational workshop or deciding what to wear in the morning). This design activity includes skills such as, collection, selection, assimilation, translation and transformation. For example writing an academic paper has a large creative component which could be seen as a design process. As writers we must collect the research we might use, select the most appropriate information we will use, assimilate this information into our argument, translate our thoughts into written form and transform these ideas into a structure of an academic paper. Across the disciplines the creative components of our practices may not be considered often, or even considered as the creative process of design. More often than not creative processes in the different disciplines are not articulated, they are the silent (or even secret) part of our practices. Even in the Design field much of our creative processes are not articulated; Designers learn to design through doing and thus the process is not transparent but wrapped up in the tacit knowledge. This enigmatic quality of design means it is difficult to share these designerly abilities between fields. This elusive quality of the design activity has also been seen, in a time of reason, as being without rigour, validity, reliability or objectivity. The reason for design being dismissed thus, I believe, is wound up in much older traditions of creative practice; ‘cult of personality’ and ‘creative genius’. These traditions suggest that creativity cannot be taught, it is an innate gift presiding in those individuals exhibiting high levels of creative skill. This notion may have its uses in maintaining power and privilege for such professions, however, in the scientific era of reason it has largely locked out creative practices. The activity of design could be said to be un-scientific since the practice acquires a completely different paradigm to the scientific method. However, this designerly approach is not clearly articulated and hence is easy to dismiss. In dismissing a creative practice such as design we risk missing out on developing, sharing and utilising these creative skills and the different perspective they are able to uncover.

This paper aims to open up for discussion the question of – what, if any, role could the field of Design have in contributing to the activity of design in other disciplines. In particular I am interested in design-led research (emerging out of the discipline of Design in resent times) and the alternate research paradigm it offers.

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Changing the Change

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:17:59 CDT

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CO-DESIGNING A SUSTAINABLE CULTURE OF LIFE - Changing the Change, Turino, July 2008
see paper attached (If you have comments or feedback on this paper please start a thread below)

Co-Designing a Sustainable Culture of Life
Design tools: designing research methods for sustainable change
Viveka Turnbull Hocking[1],

Abstract

This paper is a reflection on research into a methodological tool for change towards a sustainable future. The paper’s purpose is to communicate this metadesign project in order to open up the ideas for discussion. The project’s sustainable context will be explored, as well as the role of design and in particular design research within this context by setting up the system in which design operated and the need for developing a co-design model. The paper will then outline the design-led method developed for fieldwork in Tumut ,which initiated the process of desinging the method for the co-design model. The paper will conclude by considering how the model might be further developed into a comprehensive design research method.

1. Introduction

Our culture of life has become un-sustainable; humanity (especially of developed nations) has formed interconnecting systems – natural[2], artificial[3] and un-natural[4] – supporting our everyday practices which now jeopardizes our future and the habitability of our world. We need tools for change, methods for co-designing a sustainable culture of life. The discipline of Design has an important role to play in developing sustainable change.
The word ‘sustainability’ is distinctly ambiguous; it has come to mean a kind of change (or transformation) for the better. When considering sustainability in terms of a kind of change for the better ambiguity is revealed in a series of question arising from contemplation of this statement; what kind of change?, what is better?, for whom?, who chooses?, how can it be achieved?. These are the questions the research community involved in sustainability is trying to determine. This contemporary struggle to determine the nature of the sustainability question is fundamentally a question about our design for the future; what do we want our future to look like and how do we transform our current present into a changed present? It is a question not just for the specialists, but for all people, since it requires a fundamental change in all of our everyday practices towards a sustainable culture of life. The why part of this question has been well documented; why do we need fundamental change for the better? Prominent scientific pieces from Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ to the Brundland report on ‘Our Common Future’ and a myriad of others (scientists, social scientists, design theorists, etc) have outlined why we need to change towards a sustainable future. They warn of a looming environmental and social crisis; climate change, food security, water wars, to name a few. The discipline of Design had a part to play in the creation of the materialistic culture of more which has contributed to the looming crisis we now face. The discipline of design now has a role to play in transforming our culture of life towards something more sustainable. Design’s role in this transformation should not only be in developing sustainable artifacts but also in providing tools for developing sustainable change. Design can revise its practices to change the way it constructs our artificial environment of making ecologically friendly stuff; doing more with less, lowering energy and material intensity, recycling, reusing, multiple uses, multiple users and so on. Perhaps Design research can also offer the wider research community aid in grappling with the question of ‘what kind of sustainable future?’ by sharing the design process’s aptitude for what next.
If we see design as a kind of research (Frayling 1993, Glanville 1999, Downton 2004) “concerned with how things ought to be” (Simon 1969, 4) then from the methodology of design I propose we can develop tools for a sustainable kind of change for the better. The ensuing method form both design-led research and research-led design. In designing this method I am using what already exists within the discipline of design; a design methodology, a design process and instances of design methods. By putting them together in a coherent fashion that articulates design as a kind of research we should be able to grapple with the systemic messiness of sustainability. The development of a design guide for research, I believe, is important in terms of our own field’s ability to see design as a legitimate form of research and for other fields to gain access to methods that generate a different perspective particularly equipped to deal with questions about the future.
Design for sustainable change requires a fundamental shift in the practice of everyday life. This kind of change has not yet gained the momentum needed to divert our socio-environmental crisis. We need new models of designing for change that enables co-design by all actors in the system of the everyday. In order to develop such a model for co-designing sustainable everyday practices we need tools that ‘enable design to operate within change and influence its direction’[5]. Such tools are already emerging from within the design field in the form of design-led methods such as cultural probes (examples of which include projects by Gaver et.al., 1999, Ivey et.al, 2007 and Hielsher et.al, 2007), game format (such as the Interactive Institute project Underdogs & Superheroes, Mazé and Jacobs, 2003) and scenario building (such as the Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios of Urban Life project, Manzini and Jégou, 2003). These existing design-led methods form the foundation from which the method for a co-design model can be developed.

[1] Australian National University (AUSTRALIA), Fenner school of Environment and Society, PhD Student, viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

[2] By ‘natural’ I am referring to the physical earth systems including biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere; all those things making up our world that exist despite us.

[3] By ‘artificial’ I am referring to the system of artifacts constructed by humans to facilitate their everyday lives; all those things that exist because of us.

[4] By ‘un-natural’ I am referring to the system of thought, theory and concept that make up our world of ideas, knowledge and understanding; all those things that exist within our minds. (Hocking, 2007)

[5] This is a core statement in the ‘Change the Change’ conference outline.

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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An Ecology for Design

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:17:46 CDT

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An Ecology for Design: From the Natural, through the Artificial, to the Un-Natural,
Hocking, Viveka Turnbull, 2009, An Ecology for Design: From the Natural, Through the Artificial, To the Un-Natural, Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal, Vol.3 Iss.1, pp.41-54.
Find paper attached.

Abstract

The term ‘ecology’ used as a metaphor was picked up by the discipline of Design in the late 1980’s with theorists such as Branzi, Manzini, Pantzar and Krippendorff’s exploration of ‘the ecology of the artificial’. This ecological metaphor played an important part in the re-assessment of Design’s role in line with social and environmental issues. As evident in the Munich Design Charter of 1990, an ecological model was used to initiate a debate over the fundamental role Design plays in developing our future. However, during the ensuing decade and a half, understanding of ‘ecology’ and notions of sustainability have changed considerably. This paper aims to re-visit the ecological metaphor, to see if ‘ecology’ is still a useful context for understanding how Design can play a role in sustainable change. The paper will start with a brief exploration of what ‘ecology’ has come to mean. It will go on to show how ‘ecology’ has been used by the field of Design, particularly as a metaphor in the phrase ‘ecology of the artificial’. It concluds by proposing a context for Design that might be more effective in conceptualising how the field can be of significant value in sustainable change.

Introduction:

This paper emerges out of my exploration into ‘ecology of the artificial’, as a phrase prominent in the move towards a systems approach for Design[1] and a process of engaging in sustainable change. The phrase took the interprive model of ecology and used it as a metaphore for understanding our artifacts as a complex interconnecting system of relationships and lead to a deeper understanding of Design’s socio-environmental responsibilities. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the use of ‘ecology’ in Design in order to consider a context for Design in sustainability. The key question at the heart of this discussion is:
How can Design play a role in sustainable change?
‘Ecology’ is a key concept as a field of study, a metaphor and a movement in considering Design’s place in the ‘natural’[2], ‘artificial’[3] and ‘un-natural’[4] system of everyday life.

Marked by the 2008 Design conference Changing the Change, Torino, Italy, the field acknowledges that work still needs to be done in re-contextualising Design towards more sustainable practices. The conference highlighted the part Design has played in manifesting the un-sustainable nature of our world.

…despite the good intentions of many, design still continues to be far more "part of the problem" than "part of the solution"; serving more to accelerate unsustainable processes rather than promoting new ways of being and doing to help individuals and communities live better, reduce their ecological footprint and regenerate the social fabric. (Manzini, 2008, p.iii)

The conference showcased the research being done to change the direction of Design towards more sustainable practices.

If indeed design wants to be "part of the solution" it must, perhaps first and foremost, develop a new research culture and new research practices: an open research, sensitive to present contexts, that leads to a better understanding of the great changes underway and of what should be done to re-orient them towards sustainability. (Manzini, 2008, p.iii)

During the conference was voiced a suggestion that there should come a time when we stop talking about Sustainable Design as if it is something different and just talk about Design, where the context of good design[5] is one immersed in all the contingencies of sustainability. As a field this context needs to be considered as one through which we can contribute to sustainable change rather than proliferating unsustainable processes. In this way, the discussion of ‘how Design can play a role in sustainable change’ can be continued.

Socio-environmental responsibility is a conversation initiated in the 1960’s with warnings from Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), the 70’s with Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World (1971), and the 80’s with the Bruntland Report’s Our Common Future (1987) and the appearance of the phrase ‘ecology of the artificial’ in the Design literature. The delegates at the Changing the Change conference noted with some frustration ‘we are still just talking about it’ four decades on. We still have not seen the momentum needed to make significant changes in our everyday lives. In order to ‘design now’ for sustainable change we need to continue the conversation into a context for ‘how Design can play a role’. It is in the discourse of ‘how’ that Design will most effectively be able to initiate a contribution of significant value ‘now’.
I will start this conversation with the notion of ‘ecology’; what it means, how and why it has been used in order to evaluate the phrase ‘ecology of the artificial’ for Design. The function of this critique is to aid the process of considering a more effective context for our discussion into ‘how Design can play a role in sustainable change’.

[1] The capital ‘D’ for Design is used for the discipline, field and profession and the lower-case ‘d’ for the activity of design.

[2] Here I use ‘natural’ to mean that which exist despite us; including our biological selves, our fellow plants and animals and our physical environment – soil, climate, water, etc.

[3] By ‘artificial’ I mean that which exists because of us; Herbert Simon calls ‘the man-made’, the physical manifestations of human activity – cities, .buildings, objects, graphics and so on.

[4] For the purposes of my work I use ‘un-natural’ to mean that which exists in our minds as thought, theory and concept; since in order to understand the chaotic complexity of our natural world we construct un-natural order in the form of patterns of understanding.

[5] The lower-case ‘d’ for design is used to mean the activity of design rather than the capital ‘D’ for Design which is used for the field, practice and discipline of Design.

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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Dancing with Disorder

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:17:33 CDT

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AN UN-NATURAL WORLD: THE DESIGNER AS TOURIST - Dancing with Disorder, EAD07, Izmir, April 2007
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Abstract

This paper examines the design researcher through exploring the notion of how design research resembles tourism. The paper characterises the theoretical plane as the Un-Natural World and tells an allegory of the Tourists Journey within it. The aim of this allegory is to show the nature, role and potential of design research within discourse and for the everyday. The paper first looks at the nature of discourse as the formation of patterns, then describes the Un-Natural World, outlines the different kinds of Designer as Tourists and the wellbeing they seek. The paper looks at the Tourist Journey as the process of design research and returning home as solidifying research into the artefact. The paper concludes with a recommendation for not just an ecology of the natural or an ecology of the artificial but also the ecology of the theoretical, suggesting that the design researcher, who spend most of their time travelling through the Un-Natural World, is in a good position to be the guide; to build an outline of the ecology of the theoretical in order to unite the disciplines in a discourse aimed at preventing disaster.

Introduction:

Design research is about dancing with disorder, a formation of patterns out of a dynamic array of possibilities. As Glanville suggests in Researching Design and Designing Research, patterns are a human construction (1999:85). To construct patterns of understanding is to create an artificial order out of the natural world, transforming the world out of the natural to form an Un-Natural World. This concept of the Un-Natural World has no physicality, it is the pattern created out of the process of knowing and knowledge; Quine’s web of belief or Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizomatic network.

This paper considers how, in this virtual landscape of the Un-Natural World, the Designer is a Tourist. We book our tickets to somewhere, guidebook in hand, adding new destinations along the way, and return with something; souvenirs, tales, increased understanding of the diversity of our world, and an ability to reassess the scaffolding of our own constructed world. This allegory explores the Designer as Tourist, a Tourist aided by poly-lingual abilities and a constructivist world view that can enable an ease of travel through many different nations and cultures. The Designer as Tourist, travelling and exploring abroad, can integrate ideas from a vast variety of sources to form an interconnected understanding. This integrative approach has the potential to more effectively deal with the complex issues we face and aid in designing a more sustainable future.

Not all Designers have enough time as Tourists to travel widely or explore fully in order to gain an enriched interconnected understanding. Some are only able to get away for a short time, reliant on their guide and guide book for a swift and enriching trip. When the Designer as Tourist travels to another context, sometimes we seek solace in the similarities until we become adventurous enough to immerse ourselves in the differences. Those that are dependent on their guide book or tourist guide do not see past what is interpreted for them and miss those enriching experiences to be found off the tourist trails. Others are able to take the time to explore and discover their own routes for a unique perspective on the Un-Natural World. The Designer as Tourist who is able to immerse themselves in ‘The Journey’ is in a good position to re-write the guide book, enabling others an insight into unique perspectives of the Un-Natural World. The design researcher is the fulltime Designer as Tourist. The researcher travels, explores, notices, converses, assimilates, discerns and on returning home recounts their travel stories for the design world. It is the design researcher that has the time to find new routes through the Un-Natural World and is in a good position to take on the role of tourist guide.

Being a Tourist is about getting away, exploring the new, different and universal, in search of wellbeing. The Designer as Tourist is also motivated by wellbeing, a wellbeing that can be translated into designs for a habitable world. In the contemporary world the notions of wellbeing and sustaining habitability are of critical importance with the potential of looming disasters from climate change and social crises becoming ever more present. This drives the need for the Designer to travel widely through the Un-Natural World in order to find new ways of designing to avert possible disasters.

This paper will examine how design research resembles Tourism and explores its potential to fulfil the needs of the contemporary world.

For more information contact Viveka email: viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au

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V.T.H Design-Led Research Home

Vth — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:16:58 CDT

Welcome to my work
I am a PhD student in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University (ANU).

My Research

Can design-led methods enable the design of sustainability from within the system of everyday life?
I am developing a design-led methodology for sustainability research. I am working towards building creative capacity and making visual design more accessible to researchers. My work aims to address issues of sustainability in a creative and fun way while enabling communities to engage in the design process for their future. For more details see the papers I have written so far Papers

My Current Research Projects

I have been doing fieldwork in Tumut, rural NSW, developing design-led methodology for addressing sustainability. I implemented a series of four phases where by participants of the Tumut community where asked to engage in a design process of developing a vision of sustainable wellbeing for Tumut's future. The project culminated in a display of the visual scenarios developed through the participatory process. For more details see Fieldwork

My Thesis

To see where I am up to in my PhD research project see work in progress

This wiki gives an overview of my work so please contribute to the discussion by adding your responces in the 'Start New Thread' box at the bottom of each page

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Viveka Turnbull Hocking

Contact Me:

Email
viveka.hocking@anu.edu.au
Mail
PO Box 1066,
Jindabyne,
NSW 2627
Australia