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 ART EDUCATION AUSTRALIA |
Design and Creative Practice Research: methodological approaches for 'material thinking' and exploration.This is a call for expressions of interest from researchers in all art and design fields who would like to collaborate on this initiative or contribute to an initial exploration of material thinking as a concept and as a way of framing some aspects of practice-based research. A website is under construction and contributions will be sought in the near future for an online publication of position statements and initial ideas with a view to developing a refereed publication, a conference and other initiatives. Please contact Nancy de Freitas, nancy.defreitas@aut.ac.nz if you are interested in further information on this project. Contact: This project is hosted by the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology. Design and Creative Practice Research: methodological approaches for 'material thinking' and exploration. The study of methods and research orientations appropriate to design, creative technologies and creative/cultural production is an evolving field of contemporary academic investigation. It is a topic which is also of growing importance to the development of rigorous practice in postgraduate courses, particularly those that value trans-disciplinary thinking. It would be fair to say that although studio methods and approaches are well understood in tacit form by practising artists and designers, the articulation of these methods and practices is done in divergent ways and not broadly understood or agreed across related disciplines. Design and creative technologies, creative and cultural industries and artistic practices are all characterised by the significance of material considerations in the emergent processes of experimentation, development, application and production. Research in these areas is usually practice-based or practice-led and the rapidly growing level of practice-led postgraduate research courses world-wide has led to an exciting new wave of contemporary academic interest in appropriate research methods for this type of work. In particular, the advancement of practice-led design research is dependent on a shared understanding of the range and significance of practice-based approaches and methods that are currently being differentiated and analysed in the academic discourses of a variety of fields and disciplines. This work on new methodological perspectives, related to the kinds of 'material thinking' that is characteristic of much design, technological and creative/artistic production will inevitably contribute to good practices at postgraduate level, enhanced collaborative opportunities and ultimately to a robust research discipline. For this development to take place, artists and designers need to take a bold, professional position in relation to the identification, naming and articulation of the generative and working practices that underpin their work. We are just beginning to examine and understand the methodological approaches that we use in our studios and those that we may develop in the future. University postgraduate programmes in art and design are currently providing the focus for an academic comparison and assessment of a variety of methodological orientations, allowing us to assess the relationship between these studio approaches and the philosophical and conceptual underpinnings of practice-led projects. This concept, 'material thinking', is put forward as a methodological approach or orientation in design and creative practice. It is a concept which may offer a fertile focus for the current task of defining and enlarging our research vocabulary. It may also offer new perspectives for understanding research in a wider context and may have something of value to contribute to other disciplines through trans-disciplinary collaboration. *The term 'material thinking' has been adopted from the book of the same name by Paul Carter, Melbourne University Press, 2004, with his permission. It is also a term used by Hegel, 'das materielles denken' (material thinking), which he refers to as "a contingent consciousness that is absorbed only in material stuff". His use of the term, and Marx's also, relates to dialectic and social criticism, but has something of a conceptual parallel with the way that Carter uses it and the way that we are thinking about practice-based research. Hegel, G.W.F. (1970). Phnomenologie des Geistes. Werke, Vol. 3. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp. |