Muscular Design by Anke Coumans

Muscular Design by Anke Coumans

(Practise-based research in visual art and design education)

Anke Coumans, lecturer and researcher Utrecht School of the Arts, Faculty of Arts and Design

Summary

Within the Bachelor of Arts educational programme research not only serves to prepare students for their MA studies, it is equally seen to enhance the design practice, resulting in better, well-balanced and more sound design solutions. This essay aims to put forward a didactic example of a research methodology for the purposes of conceptual research in graphic design.

The Dutch context

Higher arts education in the Netherlands does not yet allow for someone to be admitted to the degree of doctor in philosophy (PhD). Within the Dutch binary system of colleges of higher (vocational) education and universities, the art school would qualify not as a university but rather as a college of higher education. When an artist or designer wishes to take his PhD he is thus forced to turn to a university. This implies that his doctoral research will have to be set within the bounds of that very same academic context. This is in fact an undesirable state of affairs as it divests higher arts education of any recourse it may have in order to develop methods and criteria based on the characteristics of its own discipline which allows for a distinctive and unique form of research in which to obtain a doctorate. Colleges of higher education are now looking for ways to validate a form of full PhD research within the context of higher arts education.

In addition, there is a number of other recent developments that help stress the importance research in higher arts education.

The introduction of the Bachelor/Master structure (BaMa) through the Bologna Declaration;
Colleges of higher education are looking to join forces with the universities, a collaboration venture for instance resulting in common Master of Arts courses as well as managerial and administrative fusing;
It is now possible within higher arts education to request a fellowship or tutorage. This enables colleges to install a lecturer who can then supervise ongoing research activities. A lecturer is however not yet mandated to act as PhD supervisor.

Research in design practice

It is chiefly the BaMa structure which is pertinent to the context of the educational programme development as it is propounded in this essay. The MA as an advanced degree course sets new standards for the BA course programme content. Traditionally, Dutch art schools trained their students for vocational practice, something to which the MA courses at art schools today have added a new perspective. To my mind however, the embedding of research within the BA course programme is of the utmost importance to both MA degree courses as well as vocational practice. Practise-based research is not only relevant to the development of an equal counterpart to academic research, but also to the growth and success of the design process itself. This is where I concur with Brenda Laurel in her introduction to Design Research, methods and perspectives: How we make ourselves better in what we do, through research1. The theorem of this essay is that research helps create a more muscular and potent design practice.

But what types of research do we refer to here? Experience has taught us that, when writing about research within the context of the arts, it is vital to distinguish a number of research types2. Taking the design process as a starting point I shall adhere to the distinction between three types of research critical to the design process, in respective order:

1. conceptual research, defined as the material research of the subject in order to come to a well though out concept and design solution;
2. practical research, defined as research into the design options based on use of material and form so as to create a design solution;
3. editorial research, defined as meaning- and function-based research into the ways in which the concept is present in the design as seen from the perspective of the observer/user.
In this essay I intend to present a didactic model that systematises conceptual research. This model is based on the premise that design research is a hybrid form of all existing research methods devised by academia.

The visual essay3

In explorative design the designer – possibly in tandem with the client – takes stock of the current social set of circumstances he intends his designs to respond to (i.e. conceptual research). In design practice then, there is a need for forms of design that are able to present these types of research as systematic and convincing.

In this light the visual essay was developed within the Graphic Design field of study at the Utrecht School of the Arts. The visual essay can be considered the design alternative to the academic paper. In the visual essay however the designer is able to express himself in his own vocabulary, which is that of words and images. Much like an academic deduction requires a logical and convincing line of reasoning so too must the design solution be presented with a certain rationale. But this in itself is nothing new. What is new on the other hand is the increased focus on the explorative and argumentative stages of the design process. The visual essay as a design genre at the Utrecht School of the Arts is currently making its way toward a fully developed and operational instrument that can lay bare research processes and inject them with a brand of visual retoric necessary to convince potential commercial clients. In this essay however I first and foremost intend to go into the research methods which are at the root of conceptual research. The representation in the visual essay is the logical outcome.

Research methods for the purposes of conceptual research in BA design courses At the Utrecht School of the Arts during each third year second semester programme a practice assignment is constructed by means of which we aim to teach our students the various research methods of the design process. Key to this idea is the notion that design is directly connected to social reality, that is, a design solution is always related to an improvement of a real and demonstrable part of that social reality. This specific part of social reality is then propounded as problematical for which possible solutions are put forward. Students can take their pick of any aspect of social reality they may want to explore, after which each student will be handed out a research protocol providing them with detailed, step-by-step information on how to carry out the research into their preferred field of choice. The specific type and sequence of the research methods described in this protocol moreover provide a clear course overview of description, analysis and position, which are at the heart of the visual essay. These three research steps have been taken from academic research domains. The method thus demonstrates how design research employs methods from a broad scope of scientific and academic domains. The three steps have been derived from the book Wetenschapsfilosofie in veelvoud, fundamenten voor onderzoek en professioneel handelen4 in which academic research is subdivided into six separate domains. Each of these domains covers a specific research subject and academic method. I shall now set forth each of these six domains, how they translate into research in design and how they can be positioned within the set of steps of description, analysis and position.

A) Situation description
1) The domain of facts
Within the domain of facts empirical research is carried out. The world is revealed and analysed in its objective and material truth. This empirical research gives us the information needed for analysis. Within this domain the designer is able to demonstrate that he has a clear understanding of what kinds of data can help to underscore the urgency of the problem at hand.

2) The domain of experience
In the domain of experience phenomenological research is conducted. Here the subject matter of research is not the world as it reveals itself to us through our senses but as it is perceived by experience. This type of research conjures up personal stories. We aim to touch at the heart of these stories by means of reduction. The designer is able to prove that he is capable of imagining himself in the research target group, that is those who experience a specific part of social reality as problematic, and that he knows how to work their stories into the situation profile.

B) Situation analysis
3) The domain of meanings
Within the domain of meanings hermeneutic and semiotic research is conducted. The object of research is the world as it manifests itself to us, which in its manifest form is conceived as a reference to something else. Focal point are the signs that people produce, consciously or unconsciously. This type of research generates interpretations.

4) The domain of rules
Within the domain of rules the subject of research comprises the codes, rules and systems of reality (rule systems). This is achieved by a reconstruction of reality. Unlike in empirical science, the only tool researchers in reconstructive research have is the personal affinity the rule system users have within their designated system of rules. Being a rule system user, the researcher may thus test the rules on himself.
In domains 3 and 4 the designer can demonstrate that he is able to read and interpret accordingly the relevant signs that exist within a specific social environment. What is more he is able to substantiate that he understands and has active recourse to the system that underpins social reality, allowing him to read and classify certain modes of expression independently. He has a grasp on the cultural aspect within the system.

C) Position with regards to social reality
5) The domain of concepts
Within the domain of concepts, texts and specific viewpoints (as well as the subject that generates them) are assessed by way of analysing the practical consequences and presuppositions. The research method is that of criticism. Reconstruction becomes deconstruction. The designer illustrates that he is well informed with respect to the various critical viewpoints regarding social reality and that he is able to place his own perspective within that framework.

6) The domain of interests
Lastly, in the domain of interests the context within which people attempt to advance their own point of view as the right point of view is explored and analysed. This vision is directly related to the paradigm containing a society’s most fundamental set of beliefs. As long as this paradigm holds true, research will want to deliver proof to its validity. Whose viewpoint or vision is either considered successful or goes unnoticed partly depends also on existing networks and balances of power. The designer shows his ability to position reality as a phenomenon of our times and that he has insight into how certain interests can either lessen or heighten the potential for change within this specific social environment.

Follow-up

We are working with students to find a suitable visual parallel that can be applied to the different types of research results which should then be set within each of these domains. Statistic data requires a different kind of visualisation than interview material, analysis results or critical feedback. We are also exploring narrative rhetorical structures through which we intend to express our information. It is part of the designer’s responsibilities to render these research data in an as appealing and efficient way possible. This is the stage where practical and editorial analysis takes shape.

Evaluation

The series of steps described here constitutes the methodical expansion of the conceptual research as it takes place in our third-year BA course. These methods, with which the student has familiarised himself in his BA course, can be explored and given further depth once the student enters the more research-oriented MA phase. Should the MA phase not be an option that is open to a student, the benefit of having worked with a method such as this can at least be advantageous within the design practice. Our aim is not to drain our students with possible academic models but rather to have them work and think at a more elementary and methodical level. It is in the end essentially about providing our students with a certain research method; one that strengthens and substantiates the design process.

1 “Simply put, designers who can harness the power of research will help design to become a more muscular discipline, acknowledging and
utilizing its implicit power in explicit ways” Design research, methods and perspectives, ed. Brenda Laurel The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts/London, England 2003 2 Most common here is the distinction made by Peter Dallow in his research for and into the arts. “Representing Creativeness, practice based approaches to research in creative arts” in: Art, Design and Communication in higher Education, 2 (April 2003)
3 For the issues surrounding the integration of theory in practice see: Anke Coumans, Practice-led Research in Higher Arts Education, On the Move, Sharing Experience on the Bologna Process in the Arts, Elia 2003. And: The Visual Essay in The Reflexive Zone, Utrecht 2004.
4 Victor van den Bersselaar, Wetenschapsfilosofie in veelvoud, fundamenten voor onderzoek en professioneel handelen, Coutinho, Bussum 2003.