Reflection and documentation in practice-led design research

In the past, design support programmes for companies with little or no design experience have focused on match-making between designers and SMEs. In addition, it has been recognised that design support should be about the business and leadership role of design and about promoting design tools as well as design management methods. However, a sustainable introduction of new design knowledge involves a process of organisational learning on the side of the SME. How exactly companies absorb new design knowledge has been underinvestigated. There is also a lack of a tool to analyse or guide such a learning process. Based on the Absorptive Capacity and the Dynamic Capability constructs, this paper proposes a Design Management Absorption Model to measure the progression of new design knowledge absorption. This model, which connects the three streams of innovation, strategic management and design studies, makes a contribution to practitioners from national design support programmes, to the design practice working with SMEs as well as to companies themselves. It represents a blueprint and an instrument for the analysis of a learning journey to introduce design management capabilities in companies with little or no design experience

Collaborative Documentation for Behavioral Healthcare Providers: An Emerging Practice

This article considers the practice of collaborative documentation (CD) for behavioral healthcare providers; the legislative, technological, and philosophical milieu in which it developed; the attributed benefits for providers and clients; and the peer-reviewed research supporting its use. Collaborative documentation has emerged following significant legislative and technological changes in healthcare delivery and shifts toward client-centered healthcare practices including more shared decision-making between clients and practitioners

Massimiliano Balduzzi: Research in Physical Training for Performers

This essay begins the process of contextualizing and analyzing Massimiliano Balduzzi’s solo physical training practice by introducing six newly created video documents. It locates Balduzzi’s work in a wider historical and artistic context – touching upon the work of Konstantin Stanislavski, Jerzy Grotowski, and Eugenio Barba, as well as acrobatics, martial arts, and Balinese dance – while arguing that the documented physical training constitutes an original research contribution to the field of embodied technique. The essay has three main purposes: First, to give verbal articulation to some important aspects of Balduzzi’s practice, as he begins to teach more widely in New York City and beyond. Second, to test and develop a theoretical framework that conceives of embodied technique as a field of knowledge in which rigorously framed research can and does give rise to new knowledge in the form of new technique. Third, to explore the epistemological status of multimedia documentation through a focused case study. Each of these goals has the potential to expand and clarify current discussions of actor and performer training, movement analysis and documentation, and practice-as-research

The role of documentation in practice-led research

Practice-led research in the field of art and design usually involves a study of the interplay between a researcher-practitioner and her artistic work in process. This article seeks to illustrate that documentation of art practice can be a means to record that interplay and it can be used as relevant material in practice-led research. The article will present an account of documentation in practice-led research highlighting two principal aspects: phases of documentation and the role of documentation within the overall research process. The account will capture reflections of the author’s own practice-led research in fiber art, which investigates the relationship between materials and artistic expression, in the context of contemporary art

The Role of Documentation in Practice-Led Research

Practice-led research in the field of art and design usually involves a study of the interplay between a researcher-practitioner and her artistic work in process. This article seeks to illustrate that documentation of art practice can be a means to record that interplay and it can be used as relevant material in practice-led research. The article will present an account of documentation in practice-led research highlighting two principal aspects: phases of documentation and the role of documentation within the overall research process. The account will capture reflections of the author’s own practice-led research in fiber art, which investigates the relationship between materials and artistic expression, in the context of contemporary art

Re-enacting Early Video Art as a Research Tool for Media Art Histories

This paper will discuss re-enactment as a relevant tool for practice-based research to investigate pioneering video performances and video artworks from the 1970s and 1980s from a theoretical, art-historical and curatorial point of view. Since the early 2000s, the re-enactment of artists’ performance has been growing as an art practice internationally and has been investigated in several studies and exhibitions. In this paper, I will pro- pose that the re-enactment of early video artworks can open up critical analysis on the original work—its nature, form and content—as well as on collective and personal memory and mediation. Re-enactment becomes a research tool that investigates the nature of video which was at the time a relatively new medium. Re-enactment informs the research into the original piece, its documentation, the relationships between the artist and the body, the work and the viewer. It investigates the effects of analogue video on the viewer and the artist in comparison with the digital video employed in the re-enactment and its documentation. The paper will analyse case studies from the research projects REWIND, REWINDItalia and EWVA (European Women’s Video Art in the 70s and 80s)

Quality of tender documents: case studies from the UK

Tendering is one of the stages in construction procurement that requires extensive information and documents exchange. However, tender documents are not always clear in practice. The aim of this study was to ascertain the clarity and adequacy of tender documents used in practice. Access was negotiated into two UK construction firms and the whole tender process for two projects was shadowed for 6-7 weeks in each firm using an ethnographic approach. A significant amount of tender queries, amendments and addenda were recorded. This showed that quality of tender documentation is still a problem in construction despite the existence of standards like Co-ordinated Project Information (1987) and British Standard 1192 (1984 and 1990) that are meant to help in producing clear and consistent project information. Poor quality tender documents are a source of inaccurate estimates, claims and disputes on contracts. Six recommendations are presented to help in improving the quality of tender documentation. Further research is needed into the recommendations to help improve the quality of tender documents, perhaps in conjunction with an industry-wide investigation into the level of incorporation of CPI principles in practice