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October 26, 2005
GRC October 05
This (link below) is the talk I gave at the recent Graduate Research conference at RMIT . . .
I'm really just putting this here for my own archive. It won't make a lot of sense without the images (if anyone's really interested I can send you a CD with the powerpoint on it?).
The feedback from the panel was interesting, and I'd wanted to respond to that quickly while it was fresh in my mind, but unfortunately it's been a couple of weeks until I've had time to sit down and think about this! Anyway, stuff the panel said ...
Dave:
Will the monstrous dissapear? Or perhaps I'll end up with something that isn't monstrous at all? I become so used to it I don't even recognise 'what' it is?
Cameron:
Picking up on my sudden concern for 'narcissism'... what I 'fear' is going on ... a proposal: the monstrous is a metaphor not for 'design', but for 'research OF design'... and research OF design THROUGH design . . .
[Coming from industry, disillusioned, back into academia (this is quite common) ó romance... a part of doing this is to undertake 'research': undertaking something that doesn't 'fit' with my practice, or the way I work (or have worked). Being forced to take on methods that are arcane and beaurocratic BUT it's about trapping the knowledge that comes from going into that extraordinary world.]
. . . and that what I should be revealing is that Design Research is monstrous, but that the monstrous is productive... interms of reinvigorating creative direction, and in giving you some knowledge about 'what' it is that you're doing and 'how' you do it . . .
Try out "Practice based research is a Vampire", "... is a Zombie", "... is an Alien", "... is a Blob" etc (suggestion regarding conference papers/ and crossing over into the rewriting of the manifesto)... that it's a nasty bolted together thing. As research it's a productive thing to give to other practitioners. Test monstrosity as Design Research.
Suggests that I go and talk (formally) to practioners who have reached "crisis" point, or who are entering research... critical of my not collaborating with others, but says not to worry [want to talk about National Grid project here]... but to realise that my situation is not unique.
Dave:
POints out that there probably isn't a big gap between my practice as a designer and as a teacher
... 3/4 of what's here is indecision, stumbling, and doubt ó but people can relate to that. It's through this process that you avoid making what you expect.
Laurene:
I never talked about my blog... but that it's become an important 'part' of my research... writing, but also very much 'making'.
My reaction to Modernism... do I expect my own students to make perfect finished work? Not practicing what I preach...
Seth:
Saw a really strong sense of Narrative... the way I integrate my material, combining of video and text etc... my feeling like I need an 'outcome' or an artefact, but that what's interesting about my presentation is the 'process'. . . or me trying to understand that process. Despite my saying that I don't 'have' anything Seth thought my maps that used the photos of my body were quite beautiful objects in themselves . . . and that they seemed a good way to try an pull all this stuff together.
... that Frankenstein's monster 'consumes' him, and that the monster doesn't really 'work'... connects with my own experience... or narrative.
... mentions Tufte's "Envisioning Information" (title?)... the romantic/modernist thing?
... a theatre group in Sydney called 'Monstrous Bodies' [check them out ñ performance]... mentions that I state that I hate performance art but that my stuff is totally performative.
... Design Research as a narrative process?
Cameron:
What I'm saying is "Monsters and Maps", but that Narrative is a fantastic insight... and that I do it so well that he's missed it before. That THIS is my design work... created the ability to tell funny and insightful stories in a multimedia domain that are revealing of practice and research. ó and so I should put a lot more 'store' into these presentations, that there is 'something' HERE.
Seth:
a connection with self reflective documentary practice ... where you integrate your personal journey into the process
... that it's also interesting that I'm at a 'Fine Arts' school as a Designer, and that I've taken on aspects of that environment
Dave:
The multiple endings of 'Waynes World', the Scooby Doo ending etc... in terms of narrative, looking at modes of 'telling' [link to 'genre']...
... at the end of his Masters, thought he had nothing and was freaking out... a dairy full of unfinished thoughts, felt lost... needed to step out of that, to step away [maybe installing yourself into a narrative is a way of doing this, of 'seeing' your practice?]
Cameron:
That these are not read as narcissistic, but are insightful and enjoyable presentations . . .
Laurene:
That these are the 'work'?
Cameron:
Not narcissistic because it's not me... it's a charicature... but that there's enough f me to create a kind of empathy. My presentations are like a Woody Allen film! Woody Allen always insists that it's never 'him'. The fact that I do that about Design Research makes it a fantastic advocate for Design Research ñ shows 'others' that it's horrific and painful, but also kind of fun and revealing, and that you become this character that isn't actually you . . .
Posted by Luke Wood at 11:34 AM
October 09, 2005
Nothing to see here
I'm working flat out on my talk for the next Graduate Research Conference at RMIT, and I'm probably not going to get a chance to post anything of much value to my research here this week. I would like, however, to divert peoples attention, to The National Grid. I'm going to attempt to talk about this project in relation to my topic at the conference. The logo (above) is obviously linked to the monstrous, and is illustrative of an attempt to pull the focus of the research "out" from the artefact, to my practice specifically, and the location of that practice within the discpline or tradition of graphic design more generally.
Posted by Luke Wood at 07:40 PM
October 02, 2005
Genre
I've only thought about 'Genre' today. This map is obviously the previous 'Maps of Practice' stuck on the 'John Speed' map that I'd used earlier with me and Anna. I'd actually done this last week but hadn't had time to stick it on here . . . and I didn't really know what to say about it anyway? Had a chat with Jonty about it Auckland last weekend . . . he said he thought the maps were good in that they gave the monster a graphic design context, but that he thought by introducing the maps I was confusing the topic . . . or making it too big, wide again maybe? He also said he thought I was mixing up my metaphors, and then we got talking about that a little ñ 'mixing metaphors'.
I thought about that again today when Tim was playing some jazz record and I could hear hints of Surf Guitar in it!? It wasn't really 'there' necessarily, more me imposing my interests on something I'm unfamiliar with in an attempt to understand it (generative metaphor!) . . . and I suddenly thought perhaps 'Genre' was really important to my topic. I'm really interested in historical moments where genres have mutated into new ones. My interest in surf guitar has come from my listening to rockabilly over the last couple of years, and coming across people like Link Wray, who kind of represent a mutation in the genre. A momentary monstrosity ñ familiar but unfamiliar, right but wrong, difficult to categorise . . .
In this map I'm seeking to put things together that shouldn't go together. I didn't follow any of my manifestoes in particular, but it could be the Frankenstein one. A genre is a pattern . . . by disrupting the pattern by overlaying, or 'drawing in', other (unrelated) patterns, can you introduce a mutation into the genre? Location and dislocation . . . it's hard to pin down. The monster resists dissection table analysis . . . you only 'see' it on the move, maybe you only see it afterwards . . . out of the corner of your eye ñ you're never sure you saw anything anyway?
Obviously the map on the left is my head, and the right my feet. No man is an island they say . . .
Posted by Luke Wood at 04:13 PM | Comments (2)