DMDN371

Here you can find the schedule of the remaining course period. Be aware that this can change!!

The learning objectives of this course are to provide a fundamental understanding of the different aspects of knowledge that design through theory can generate in both a theoretical and practical way. Through developing a solid research based foundation for creative practice, students will develop a critical perspective through an analytical reflection. 

This brings forth a broad conceptual, formal and technical overview which includes a critical engagement with the main intellectual paradigms in the field of study.  LIVE theory will enable the students to gain familiarity with key thinkers and to provide a critical and reflective  stance that triggers an understanding of the intellectual debate in academic (and more broadly theoretical) circles by underpinning the creative work and provide context in which the design form is embedded. 

Part of the course is practice-based which involves a deeper comprehension and in-depth understanding of the role and status of research in relation to the context of theory and design. Students will develop the ability to bring research and design processes into resolution in an appropriate way and exercise a high degree of independent thought and learner autonomy in the implementation of individual research. Therefore students will use and learn supportive design research methods.  

Assignments include producing a substantial piece of writing to underpin and contextualize the self-directed project from a theoretical perspective in support of the creative practice as demonstrated in the project work.  Students will learn the significance of a hypothesis development which creates the ability to evolve a sufficient variety of intellectual perspectives to be able not only to analyze a situation or problem creatively but also to critical question the underlying assumptions of any proposition or assignment. 

The course will teach you to promote how LIVE theory frames, develops and presents new design concepts for a rapidly changing environment. 

Charles Eames speaks of Core Skills of Design in Designing Interactions (2007):

1. To synthesize a solution from all of the relevant constraints, understanding everything will make a difference to the result

2. To frame, or reframe, the problem and objective

3. To create and envision alternatives

4. To select from those alternatives, knowing intuitively how to choose the best approach

5. To visualize and protoype the intended solution