Ways of Seeing Design Research: A Polyphonic Speculation

Green, David Philip and Lindley, Joseph and Encinas, Enrique and Dore, Mayane and Benjamin, Jesse and Bofylatos, Spyros (2023) Ways of Seeing Design Research: A Polyphonic Speculation. In: Nordes 2023 :. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

We present six speculative designs that all explore the challenge of representing the broad corpus of Design Research in the form of an interactive data repository. We describe the development of the ideas, identify common themes, and highlight two related challenges: (i) The challenge of reflecting the diversity of Design Research in a repository; (ii) The challenge of capturing context(s) during the Design Research process. We argue that these challenges constitute a ‘causality dilemma’ that is inhibiting the Design Research movement. We offer insights into potential responses to the dilemma, signpost opportunities for future work and reflect on the value of ‘polyphonic speculation’ – dialogue between design researchers speculating through design on a common topic – as a design tool for probing complex challenges.