Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Wolverhampton
Explorative Materiality and Knowledge: The Role of Creative Exploration and Artefacts in Design Research
Brief Description
The article developed from an invited keynote presentation at the international conference NordFo 2012: Making - International Conference on Materiality and Knowledge, Notodden, Norway, where Niedderer was one of three internationally renowned keynote speakers. The article explores the ontological, epistemological and methodological issues of design research. The comparison of the nature of design with the theoretical foundations of research in the traditional science and humanities disciplines highlights creativity and experience as two key characteristics of design. The article offers a framework for integrating the notions of creativity and experiential knowledge, and of academic rigour in design research.
Research Rationale
This article draws together ideas from Niedderer’s previous work on design research methodology (Niedderer 2007a,b, 2009a,b, 2012, Durling and Niedderer 2007) to construct a comprehensive, holistic framework for practice-based methodological inquiry. Its contribution is in integrating experiential and practice-based approaches seamlessly with conventional ‘scientific’ understandings of research conduct, thus strengthening the understanding of and approach to practice-led design research. The originality of this approach is that it does not prescribe any specific approach, but that it provides a flexible framework for building rigorous individual methodologies.
Strategies Undertaken
The article develops the methodological framework based on a review of research requirements, knowledge and characteristics of design practice. The theoretical development is underpinned and explained in practical terms by a case study of the author’s own work which serves to illustrate the balance and integration of theory and (creative) practice within the research process, and how this integration can enable a multi-layered contribution to the theoretical and practical advancement of the field.
