karen louise smith

I was in a panel today as part of the design research series at KMDI. The paper (in progress that) I presented is titled: ‘Cloudtags and talk back: Sketches from critical and digital design research practice.’ With this paper, I am interested in asserting two key ideas. First, I consider Schon’s idea of talk back in the design studio. Schon describes talk back as something communicated from the design materials to the designer. I feel this idea can be extended by considering participatory media and web 2.0 technologies where user generated content and contributions are prominent. Second, I discuss how the cloudtag’s status in the design process is fluid. Tagclouds can be a rough sketch or a 'final' design artefact. This panel and the design research series in general, grew out of a reading group. It was interesting to hear the four divergent directions we have taken with papers originating from a common body of literature.

This semester, I have been involved in the design research series at KMDI. Here is the abstract for the series of talks:

"Epistemologically, what do designers ‘know’? Are there ‘designerly ways of knowing’ distinct from the recognised scientific and other scholarly ways of knowing? Speakers from different disciplines will take these questions as their point of departure to explore what, for them, constitutes a legitimate knowledge claim. And, since research in knowledge media design is typically trans-disciplinary, we will also explore ways of fostering communication across disciplinary boundaries and bridging traditional epistemological divides."

The series has been successful so far and I’m looking forward to the speakers in future weeks, including Nigel Cross.