Silent witness, using video to record and transmit tacit knowledge in creative practices.

Over the last ten years, the duration of my ongoing practice-led design research work, video recording has developed from an expensive luxury to being ubiquitous. Whilst this opens up many opportunities for documenting and disseminating research projects, there are also potential drawbacks.

I am a multimedia designer who makes extensive use of video both as an observational tool and as a means of helping covey tacit / experiential knowledge in creative practices. In this paper I discuss the use of video for such purposes, drawing on my own experiences and the research of others who use video in research.

It builds on methods developed undertaking my own practice-led research described in output 1: Wood N, Rust C & Horne G (2009). A tacit understanding: the designer's role in capturing and passing on the skilled knowledge of master craftsmen. International Journal of Design, 3(3). It also builds on two earlier articles: Wood N (2010). A good record? The use of video in practice-led design research. Reflections 13, Sint Lucas School of Architecture, Brussels. ISSN 1784-7052. Wood N (2008). Unlocking the knowledge of others: knowledge elicitation in practice-led design research. Reflections 7, Sint Lucas School of Architecture, Brussels. ISSN 1784-7052.

In my continuing research I have been working with a craftsmen, Ulrik Hjort Lassen a doctoral student at the Department of Conservation, Gothenburg University, who has been undertaking research into traditional methods for scribing the timbers for traditional wooden buildings. The methods described in these papers have formed the theoretical basis for Lassen’s research, developed and testing a multimedia learning resources to provide ‘bridges’ for new learners to this knowledge, the successful outcome of which validates the principles developed in my own research and demonstrates transferability of this technique.