Erik Bohemia

Designer as integrator: reality or rhetoric?

The literature suggests that internal and external product integration are key elements that facilitate a successful product development outcome. It also suggests that the industrial designer is well placed to be an integrating force within organizations. However, do organizations use industrial designers as integrators of various functions or do they use industrial designers for other reasons? The results from a survey conducted with Australian manufacturing organizations indicate that these organizations perceive the role as ‘an integrator of various functions’ as being the least important role performed by industrial designers. This suggests that the necessity of industrial designers to perform in the role of integrator may reflect rhetoric generated from within the design literature rather than organizational reality.

Globally Networked Collaborative Learning in Industrial Design

Abstract This article explores project-based cross-cultural and cross-institutional learning. Using Web 2.0 technologies, this project involved more than 240 students and eighteen academic staff from seven international universities. The focus of this article relates to a project-based learning activity named The Gift. At each institution the students formed small local project teams that were paired with teams of students from one of the other collaborating universities. The findings suggest that the majority of students perceived this activity facilitated their learning, especially in the development of virtual teamwork and communication skills. The article discusses findings related to peer learning in relation to information and communication technologies and cross-cultural communication. It concludes by evaluating the validity of underlying assumptions.

Distributed collaboration in design education: practising designer and client roles

Changes in industry require new forms of design education that better prepare students for the realities of concurrent engineering, increased involvement of suppliers in agile manufacturing, and the digitisation and virtualisation of collaboration. This article outlines these challenges for virtual design collaboration and reports first experiences of a distributed design studio (DDS) established between three European universities. In the DDS, students were taught core skills for virtual collaboration and could practice designer-client interaction in an experiential learning environment. The results of a course evaluation (during, at the end and one year after) show that students positively evaluated their own skill development. Student and staff feedback indicated that the embodiment phase proved to be more challenging and the evidence showed it coincided with reduced communication. Overall, the studio format can be seen as a suitable and realistic environment for practicing the relevant skills for virtual teamwork and designer-client communication. As a teaching initiative across institutions, it also served as personal development for staff.

Proceedings of the 3rd international conference for design education researchers: volume 1

Driven by a need to examine the trajectory of architectural education and staffing, this paper questions academic recruitment and education strategy in relation to the 2015 Royal institute of British Architects (RIBA) education forum in the UK. Interviews with key academics actively challenging the future of higher education models were undertaken; London School of Architecture, AA Little Architect scheme and Free School of Architecture showcase detailed and reactionary approaches to the changing relationship between education, industry and the marketplace. An international survey was conducted gathering data from academics, the findings of which indicate a lack of clarity and consistency in the transition from architectural education into academia. The paper analyses the context of the results and proposes improvements to recruitment and staffing strategies both inside and outside of the traditional university framework. This research contributes to the wider discussion around future development and employment in arts education. If the discipline lies in the hands of the educators, then the future of the discipline lies in the hands of the future educators. To be truly forward thinking about the direction of practice we must first address our approach to academic recruitment, with a specific focus on early career academics.

Structure and Play: Rethinking Regulation in the Higher Education Sector

This paper explores possible tactics for academics working within a context of increasing regulation and constraint. One suggested tactic is to move outside of a creativity–conformity binary. Rather than understanding creativity and conformity as separable, where one is seen as excluding the other, the authors consider the potential of examining the relationships between them. The theme of ‘structure and play’ illustrates the argument. In the first part of the paper, using various examples from art and design – fields generally associated with creativity – the authors explore the interrelatedness of creativity and conformity. For example, how might design styles, which are generally understood as creative outcomes, constrain creativity and lead to conformity within the design field? Is fashion producing creativity or conformity? Conversely, the ways in which conformity provides the conditions for creativity are also examined. For example, the conformity imposed by the state on artists in the former communist bloc contributed to a thriving underground arts movement which challenged conformity and state regulation. Continuing the theme of ‘structure and play’, the authors recount a story from an Australian university which foregrounds the ongoing renegotiation of power relations in the academy. This account illustrates how programmatic government in a university, with its aim of regulating conduct, can contribute to unanticipated outcomes. The authors propose that a Foucauldian view of distributed power is useful for academics operating in a context of increasing regulation, as it brings into view sites where power might begin to be renegotiated.

Insights on how metacognition influences knowledge application in product design education

An empirical study investigating creativity relevant factors that impact on knowledge application within the context of Product Design Education has been undertaken in the form of survey. The principal creativity relevant factor is identified as metacognition, which is related to creative thinking. Different kinds of knowledge applied in Product Design students’ final year design projects (FYDPs) have been assembled and arranged into three categories. Possible ways of categorising knowledge according to the influences of metacognition are proposed that may inform design education practices.

Exploring articulations of design activism

Discussions on design activism generously embrace the activist ethos of designers, but are inconsistent in articulating how design activism makes a difference in relation to the various socially engaged design approaches generated. Committed to critically and transformationally engage with progressive socio-economic and political problems, the activist designer creates forms and situations within social processes. By mapping the fields of knowledge and concepts on which design activism draws, the paper attempts to bring an understanding of what informs Design Activism actions beyond the neoliberal paradigm. Drawing on the emerging discussions on design activism, the paper brings together articulations of design activism from scholars and design collectives to foreground the foundation for a more coherent understanding of design activism and a constructive dialogue within its community.