units

TAD4523

Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture

Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

To find units available for enrolment in the current year, you must make sure you use the indexes and browse unit tool in the current edition of the Handbook.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Art, Design and Architecture
Organisational UnitDepartment of Design
OfferedCaulfield First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)Dr Bradley Haylock (Design); Ms Kate Tregloan (Interior Architecture)

Synopsis

The unit examines methodological approaches to design research, from the scientifically oriented to the phenomenological, the discursive and the poetic. Attention is given to the way in which the terms of an investigation inevitably shape the material which is discovered. The range of topics may include techniques in information gathering and efficient management of bibliographic resources, postmodern theory, difference studies, post-structural writing and deconstruction. The unit ponders the relationship of studio research (i.e. designing innovative objects or spaces or interfaces) to conventional research.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

  1. be aware of current discourses in a range of disciplines which bear on contemporary design
  2. be able to pursue critical arguments with a sense of their relativity
  3. assess the bias of an investigative method, considering gender, class and ethnicity
  4. understand methodology as a critique of method and be able to practice criticism in their chosen field
  5. be ready to explain the basis of designs or art or craft objects not merely as the outcome of practical constraints but the expression of cultural values.

Assessment

Class paper (2000 words): 30%
Class paper (4000 words) : 70%

Chief examiner(s)

Contact hours

12 hours per week including, 2 hours of lectures and seminars and 10 independent study hours

Prerequisites

Six credit points in any level 3 theory (TAD) unit

Prohibitions