Copyright (c) 2009 Sheffield Hallam University All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a Recent Events in Experiential Knowledge SIG en-us Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:28:13 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/5 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/5 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:30:00 PDT New "engines of discourse" (neural networks, algorithms and other forms of artificial intelligence, combined with the devices that record and interpret viewer actions) bring to the fore rhetorical concerns that challenge discipline-based notions of process and form. We shall focus here on the tradition of intermedial art practices to better understand the ever more complex question of how to inter-relate three aspects of digital communication: authorial "intent", the digital sign and its interactive exploration by a "spect-actor". We shall argue that the digital sign is an extension of intermedial thinking rooted in a pre-digital, photographic practice and esthetic. The writings of several French theorists on the subject of interactive digital design will provide a context for understanding examples of "virtual art-realities", whose specificity is staging relationships between objects and people. Keywords: Rhetoric; Discourse; Intermedia; Interactivity; Digital Sign; Esthetics; Artificial Intelligence; Behavior-based Art. Carol-Ann Braun http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/4 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/4 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:00:00 PDT Although several theoretical frameworks that aim to explain the emotional impact of product design have been introduced in design research literature, none of these frameworks clearly specifies the role of the product in these emotions. This paper reports a study that was designed to explore the variety of roles that products can play in emotional experiences. In a three staged experience sampling study, 29 participants produced 170 records of emotions experienced while interacting with products. Each case was examined in order to identify the antecedent event (the event triggering the emotion) and the mental object (what the emotion is about). The results indicated that several types of events involved in the user-product interaction can elicit an emotional experience: noticing a product; an event occurring during product usage; an entire usage episode; an external agent mentioning the product; and a change in the relationship between a user and a product . It was also found that the resulting emotional responses can be about (can be attributed to) several types of mental objects: a physical object, such as the particular product involved; the user or some other person; the actions of the user or the designer; the antecedent event itself. The results are used to identify and discuss eight distinct roles that products can play in the experience of emotions. In addition, examples are provided to illustrate how these roles can facilitate a structured approach to design for emotion. Keywords: Design and emotion, user-product interaction Erdem Demir http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/3 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/3 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:30:00 PDT How can scholars conduct rigorous research into the social activities that help constitute design practice? This paper considers this question through exploring how the interactive aspects of design may be fruitfully examined from the perspective of social psychology, especially through the approaches and methods of Symbolic Interactionism (SI) and Conversation Analysis (CA). The social activities of design refer to those situations wherein design is conducted in relation to face-to-face talk, or conversation. Since many aspects of design involve discussion, this paper argues that an SI-informed CA can offer an effective approach that may help us to better understand how communication and negotiation are central aspects of design. The author first outlines why social psychology is a significant perspective from which to study design through associating this perspective with the work of previous design researchers (Rittel, Schön). This is followed by an exploration of SI's concern with the relationship between social structure and personal agency. Through considering design-based talk through an SI- focused lens, we can see how participants in design negotiate both personal creativity and externally-imposed constraints. The concepts of creativity and constraint are discussed in more detail through analyses of excerpts of conversations from two design-education critiques. These analyses demonstrate how CA's methods can help scholars delineate the micro processes that link design practice to both personal opinion and wider social conditions. In summary, social psychology, SI, and CA are presented as distinctive, rigorous, and inter-related approaches that can help scholars of design practice to better understand the precise manner in which design is enacted through contexts of social interaction. Keywords: Conversation Analysis; Design Practice; Interaction; Social Psychology; Symbolic Interactionism. Arlene Oak http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/2 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/2 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:00:00 PDT This paper presents interim research findings of a project which seeks to elicit the skilled knowledge of master craftsmen through use of an expert learner (Horne) acting as intermediary between the craftsmen and a designer (Wood) creating a multimedia resource to support those wishing to learn the skill. It builds on previous research that evolved a set of principles for the design of multimedia learning materials (Wood & Rust 2003) and moved on to develop techniques for elicitation of expert knowledge from craft masters (Wood 2006). The skills involved in undertaking such craft practice involve a high degree of tacit knowledge which is internalised and frequently difficult for the craft expert to articulate. The expert learner has the ability to learn new skills with minimal instruction then articulate those skills before they become too internalised. The role of designer is to assist with this articulation and develop interpretation suitable for transmitting the knowledge to novice learners. This research focuses on the skills of traditional custom knife makers in Sheffield; Horne has worked alongside two traditional craftsmen, video recorded by Wood. Together they have collaborated to analyse the recordings and develop learning materials to disseminate the craft skill. These are currently being developed and tested using a small group of learners with some one-to-one teaching followed by self-directed development work using an on-line resource. The main finding for this stage of the research was that, as Horne had relatively recently acquired this knowledge, it had not become too internalised and she was able to rapidly adapt her understanding of it to improve transmission to the learners in a manner that had not been demonstrated by more experienced craft practitioners. The interactions between Horne and the learners were mediated by Wood, facilitating reciprocal reflection between the them and designing 'bridges' to help transmit the knowledge to future generations of learners. Keywords: Multimedia Design; On-Line Learning; Tacit Knowledge; Craft Skills; Knowledge Elicitation Nicola Wood http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/1 http://digitalcommons.shu.ac.uk/drs2008/session6/track_a/1 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:00:00 PDT This research investigates whether and how selected models from Knowledge Management (KM) can be used to devise a framework for building coherent and rigorous methodologies for research in the creative and practice-led disciplines (CPD).This research has arisen from methodological problems of research in art and design in the UK concerning how, and the extent to which, non-propositional and tacit kinds of knowledge (e.g. experiential, procedural) can be included and communicated within research. The proposed research builds on previous studies by the authors into the role and relationship of different kinds of knowledge in research (Niedderer, 2007a, 2007b), and into how knowledge management (KM) and creative disciplines provide complementary insights on how knowledge can be managed and transferred (Imani, 2007). The research investigates whether and how the SECI model (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka, 2000) can be used to develop a framework for managing different kinds of knowledge in research. Our research goes beyond existing approaches by offering a generic and flexible framework which researchers can use to better understand and build their own research methodologies and to integrate individual methods with regard to managing different kinds of knowledge. Kristina Niedderer