Design research and visual analysis

Design research has been built on the method and contextual paradigms that have been the traditions of a range of other research areas. This situation creates distinct issues and challenges for the researcher and the research community. Particularly in methods available for the visual analysis of product shape, it was sensed that the existing ones were not enough to provide information that was significant to design concerns. For the analysis of artefacts, there is a plethora of methods readily available. However it is our experience that, as borrowed investigative tools, these do not supply design-relevant information on consumer products. We discuss the need for a new way that effectively considers products as design artefacts while focusing exclusively on their outward appearance.Peer reviewe

Supervision in an alternative paradigm

Original article can be found at: http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue6/content.htmIn this paper we express our framing of supervision as preparation and training for professional practice as a researcher, rather than the culmination of tertiary education. Instead of discussing the supervisory activity, performance and best practice, we focus on the uniqueness of practice as a researcher in the creative arts as being constituted by an emerging and novel research paradigm. We develop the theoretical framework of Guba and Lincoln, contrasting their use of the term ‘paradigm’ with that of Kuhn. We identify research in the creative arts as being a so-called ‘alternative paradigm’ but having its own unique characteristics. However, we claim that these characteristics are not discretionary but related to generic characteristics of research. By developing Guba and Lincoln’s model, we argue that the characteristics of research in the creative arts cannot simply be translated or inferred from the characteristics of research in cognate disciplines, but must be derived from the worldview and values of the arts community. This involves identifying both generic and discipline-specific characteristics. We claim that the discipline-specific characteristics reflect the values that are found in professional practice, and the generic characteristics reflect the values that are found in academic research across disciplines. As a result of establishing criteria for the evaluation of activities as research in a novel paradigm such as the creative arts, we present a critical framework for thesis production that facilitates the inclusion of the researcher’s own creative work in the doctoral study. A number of issues arising from the experience of the authors as supervisors and examiners are discussed. Finally, a template for a seven-chapter thesis in the creative arts is proposed, which addresses common problems such as weaknesses in the single-case study approach and researcher bias in participant-observation studies.Peer reviewe

Inferring a collective concept of research from the actions of the art and design research community

This article examines output types as manifestations of different concepts of research. We compare the UK academic scene to that of Brazil, identifying the former as responding ‘bottom-up’ to researcher needs and the latter determining ‘top-down’ what researchers can do. Taking the UK model as indicative of what researchers think they need, we undertook a detailed analysis of the output types used in RAE2008 across all subjects in order to see which types were used and by whom. We also undertook a further analysis of the use of traditional, text-based formats in art and design, and the use of non-traditional, non-textual output types in other subjects. We conclude that both the journal format and the exhibition format are expressive of the understanding each community has of the meaning of research as an activity. This is further reinforced by the national structures within which research is undertaken and evaluatedPeer reviewedSubmitted Versio

An international collaboration for the development of a research training course in an emergent academic discipline

Proceedings of INTED2010 Conference. 8-10 March 2010, Valencia, Spain.In professional areas such as the creative and performing arts and design, the academic model of research has not been clearly articulated. This means that often the values held in advanced professional practice run counter to the traditional models of knowledge and research that are adopted in academia. As a result, there is a problem in accounting for research in these areas in ways that will be recognised and valued by both communities. There is an ongoing debate about the best way of dealing with and reflecting these professional values in academic research. This debate has substantiated an emergent type of research that is called ‘Practice-based Research’ (PbR). PbR introduces the claim that creative practice has an instrumental role in academic research in areas such as design and urban planning. This role is different from the one of experimentation in traditional empirical research, and different from the one of practice in professional creative practice. This paper describes the development and delivery of a research methods training course in the department of spatial planning and design (Stedenbouw) at the Technical University Delft (TU Delft, Netherlands) that engages directly with these fundamental problems. The course, Research and Design Methods, has served as a testing ground for many ideas stemming from the cooperation between TU Delft and the University of Hertfordshire (UH, UK). As part of the international knowledge transfer initiative, a member of staff from TU Delft has been working at the UH for a year. One of the outcomes of this collaboration is the design and delivery of a new course at TU Delft, which tackles the relationship between academic research and planning and design, through a dialogue between different views on the activities of the urban planner and the designer. There are challenges that arise when structuring a course within an area for which the epistemological, ontological and methodological questions are still under discussion by the community. The broad aim was to offer insight into non-traditional academic research tools and methods for different areas of urban design and planning within a broader academic context. This included the analysis of different academic traditions that were relevant for urban planning and design. We define research as a systematic investigation of a subject that leads to the production of explicit knowledge, and adds to the existing body of knowledge about the subject. In the paper, we analyse the way in which research and practice are problematized in the TU Delft course and claim that PbR manifests the differences between the worldviews of academic research and professional practice, with their different aims and values. As a result, training and expertise in the professional values of creative practice is insufficient for academic research. There is therefore a need for specific research training that addresses these differences. This need for discipline specific research training has been recognized in the Bologna Process and the TU Delft course represents one such training programme.otherPeer reviewe

A pedagogical proposal in an area of epistemological uncertainty

IV Projetar 2009: PROJETO COMO INVESTIGAÇÃO: ENSINO, PESQUISA E PRÁTICA FAU-UPM SÃO PAULO BRASIL, Outubro 2009In professional areas in which there is an element of design practice, such as architecture and urbanism, the academic model of knowledge has not been clearly articulated. This means that often the values held in professional practice run counter to the traditional models of knowledge and research that are adopted. As a result there is a problem in accounting for research in these areas in ways that will be recognised and valued by both communities. There is an ongoing debate about the best way of dealing with and reflecting these values that are, from the academic viewpoint, non-traditional. The debate has substantiated an emergent type of research that is specific to areas of design practice that is called ‘Practice-based Research’ (PbR). PbR claims that design practice has an instrumental role in research in areas such as design and urban planning. This role is different from the role of experimentation in traditional empirical research, and different from the role of practice in professional design practice. This paper describes the development and delivery of a research methods training course in the department of spatial planning and design (Stedenbouw) at the Technical University Delft (TU Delft, Netherlands) that builds on research by the ‘Non-traditional Knowledge and Communication’ project (NtKC) at the University of Hertfordshire (UK). The paper will analyse the way in which research and practice are problematized in the TU Delft course. We claim that the problem of PbR manifests the differences between the worldviews of academic research and professional practice, with their differing aims and values. As a result, training and expertise in the professional values of design practice is insufficient for academic research, leading to a need for specific training as a researcher that recognises these differences. This need has been accepted at an institutional level in many universities in Europe, and the TU Delft course represents one such training programme

Double-Mode Stellar Pulsations

The status of the hydrodynamical modelling of nonlinear multi-mode stellar pulsations is discussed. The hydrodynamical modelling of steady double-mode (DM) pulsations has been a long-standing quest that is finally being concluded. Recent progress has been made thanks to the introduction of turbulent convection in the numerical hydrodynamical codes which provide detailed results for individual models. An overview of the modal selection problem in the HR diagram can be obtained in the form of bifurcation diagrams with the help of simple nonresonant amplitude equations that capture the DM phenomenon.Comment: 34 pages, to appear as a chapter in Nonlinear Stellar Pulsation in the Astrophysics and Space Science Library (ASSL), Editors: M. Takeuti & D. Sasselov (prints double column with pstops '2:[email protected](22.0cm,-2cm)[email protected](22.0cm,11.0cm)' in.ps out.ps

Nonlinear Analysis of Irregular Variables

The Fourier spectral techniques that are common in Astronomy for analyzing periodic or multi-periodic light-curves lose their usefulness when they are applied to unsteady light-curves. We review some of the novel techniques that have been developed for analyzing irregular stellar light or radial velocity variations, and we describe what useful physical and astronomical information can be gained from their use.Comment: 31 pages, to appear as a chapter in `Nonlinear Stellar Pulsation' in the Astrophysics and Space Science Library (ASSL), Editors: M. Takeuti & D. Sasselo

Structural instability in an autophosphorylating kinase switch

We analyse a simple kinase model that exhibits bistability when there is no protein turnover, and show analytically that the property of being bistable is not necessarily conserved when degradation and synthesis of the kinase are taken into account

Chaos in cosmological Hamiltonians

This paper summarises a numerical investigation which aimed to identify and characterise regular and chaotic behaviour in time-dependent Hamiltonians H(r,p,t) = p^2/2 + U(r,t), with U=R(t)V(r) or U=V[R(t)r], where V(r) is a polynomial in x, y, and/or z, and R = const * t^p is a time-dependent scale factor. When p is not too negative, one can distinguish between regular and chaotic behaviour by determining whether an orbit segment exhibits a sensitive dependence on initial conditions. However, chaotic segments in these potentials differ from chaotic segments in time-independent potentials in that a small initial perturbation will usually exhibit a sub- or super-exponential growth in time. Although not periodic, regular segments typically exhibit simpler shapes, topologies, and Fourier spectra than do chaotic segments. This distinction between regular and chaotic behaviour is not absolute since a single orbit segment can seemingly change from regular to chaotic and visa versa. All these observed phenomena can be understood in terms of a simple theoretical model.Comment: 16 pages LaTeX, including 5 figures, no macros require

Feedback cooling of a cantilever's fundamental mode below 5 mK

We cool the fundamental mechanical mode of an ultrasoft silicon cantilever from a base temperature of 2.2 K to 2.9 +/- 0.3 mK using active optomechanical feedback. The lowest observed mode temperature is consistent with limits determined by the properties of the cantilever and by the measurement noise. For high feedback gain, the driven cantilever motion is found to suppress or "squash" the optical interferometer intensity noise below the shot noise level.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure