TDN4101 - Design research methods - 2019

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.

Upon 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.

100% in-semester assessment

12 hours per week including 2 contact hours plus 10 hours of independent study.

See also Unit timetable information