New Methodologies in Art and Design Research: The Object as Discourse

Abstract

of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland, in September 1996. Introduction: Is Design Research of Second or Third Order Quality? Should researchers in art and design adopt and adapt methodologies developed in other academic disciplines, or should they concentrate on developing original methodologies which recognize the distinctive quality of discovery in art and design? Although the answer to this question is complicated by the broad spectrum of subjects currently being pursued under the aegis of art and design research (a by thesis' in, say, design history on an aspect of costume obviously will employ very different methodologies than a by 2 in ceramics which explores the development of new glazes in the key area of action research by project3 and, in particular, in those projects in which the end product is an artifact which, in effect, embodies the essential research, the need to develop and to legitimize original research methodologies seem essential. While it is well documented that much original research in the various spectrum of disciplines follows a similar path, a variety of factors seem to be threatening the self-confidence of some students pursuing action research by project. The most important of these obstacles seems to be the academic blueprint inherent in the qualification, its demand for originality, for methodological rigor in the production of explicit data, for a defense of the reliability and validity of the research methodologies employed, for transparency of method, replicability of results, and the transmissibility of the final outcome of the research project. These requirements, of supreme importance to the legitimacy of the qualification in academia, can clash with artists', craftspersons', or designers' suspicions about what might be termed the demystification of in creative work. In addition to this ideological conflict, action researchers by in art and design face the familiar problems of finding suitably qualified and sympathetic research supervisors, and of negotiating the economic and political discrepancies between the entrenched research cultures of universities and those of colleges of art and design in which the idea of research continues to remain vague and contentious. The danger in all of this is that perplexed researchers in art and design will opt to play it safe and, rather than risking the 1 The research degree Ph.D. by thesis is a conventional written of 80,000 words. 2 The research degree Ph.D. by project consists of a major element of practical research supported by a minor element of related text of between 25,000 and 40,000 words. 3 Action research is research in which the process of making or designing an artifact constitutes the methodology.