Joanna Brassett, Founding Director, intO

Dr Jamie Brassett, Philosopher & Deputy Head of Research, Central Saint Martins/University of the Arts London

MA Integrated Design

Anhalt University of the Applied Arts, Dessau

Autumn–Spring 2019–2020

Brief

This project will focus upon design processes with a special focus upon Action Research, rather than seek to produce design outcomes in the usual sense of images, garments, products, services and so on. Action Research seeks to effect change in some way and it does so by introducing a small intervention in a well-defined context, to judge the success of that intervention and then to iterate a better version of the intervention using insights from the first.

The process we will use is as follows:

1. CONCERN: Pre-search to identify a Concern.i

2. MAPPING: Find a Context in which your Concern is manifest.

3. WATCHING: Make Observations in that Context.

4. NOTICING: What Insights do you get from the observations you make? How do these lead to ideas for making change?

5. INTERVENTION 1 DEVELOPMENT: Design the Intervention that needs to effect the change you have identified.

6. PROTOTYPE: Prototype of your intervention. What will people in your context need to experience in order to provide you with feedback on its success?

7. FEEDBACK: How will you gather Feedback from Key Actors (stakeholders etc.) in your context?

8. ITERATION: Re-design your Intervention taking the feedback into account.

9. REFINE, DELIVER & COMMUNICATE: Prepare work for Assessment.

10. REFINE, DELIVER & COMMUNICATE 2: Prepare work for Exhibition.

We will not provide either the concern or context for you; you will need to do this for yourselves.

i. Note: A ‘concern’ is a ‘call to action’ not a problem to be solved (Latour, Whitehead).