Design Research Through Practice

6. Showroom

Research Meets Design and Art

Some constructive design researchers turn to art and design rather than the sciences or even the social sciences in search for methodology. The foundational work comes from London, where a group of researchers built a research program in the 1990s based on movements like situationism, Dada, surrealism, Italian controdesign, and critical theory. Recent work has sought inspiration from places like contemporary photography, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s late philosophy, and Bruno Latour’s writings. In this work, which we call Showroom following Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby’s book Design Noir, scientific research practices are redefined radically. For instance, instead of seeing articles as the main way to communicate, ...