2020 Session Research Methods Ricardo Sosa, PhD www.designcomputing.org

1. CTEC810 TransD Research Methods
Week 3
Nau Mai, Welcome
Course: https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz

2. Feedback on working titles and abstracts
• Length
• Clarity
• Precision
• Completeness
• Originality
• Keywords
• Persuasiveness
• Feedforward: next steps…

3. Forum: Working titles, keywords, and research questions
a) Sustainability of Materials used in Art Installation Practice
• Achieving/Exploring Sustainability
• Sustainability within/through/in
• Sustainability through Recycling Materials used in
• Establishing Sustainable Methods in Art Installation Practice
• Investigating Sustainable Materials and Design Methods
• [I am mainly looking into how sustainability can be achieved in the make-up of an installation
(material use) and how that also effects other aspects such as time and cost of the
installation.]
• Some RQ's I was looking into were:
• What is sustainability? Why is it important? For society/world, as a designer.
• What methods are other designers using in this space?
• What aspects of my practice are sustainable? What aspects aren't?
• Are there sustainable substitutes for those that aren't?
• If there aren't, what possible solutions could there be?
• How does sustainable methods or materials effect cost/time to create an installation?

4. a) Sustainability of Materials used in Art Installation Practice
• Clarity of key terms:
1. Physical Art Installation Practice
2. Sustainability
3. Indicators, variables, metrics, issues, “aspects”
• Clarity of approach:
1. Relevance of: precedents, existing alternatives, emerging practices, new methods
2. Implications of: exploring, achieving, establishing, investigating… or something else?
3. Means and ends: contributions?

6. • DiSalvo, C., Boehner, K., Knouf, N. A., & Sengers, P. (2009, April). Nourishing the ground
for sustainable HCI: considerations from ecologically engaged art. In Proceedings of the
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 385-394).
• Jackson, S. J., & Kang, L. (2014, April). Breakdown, obsolescence and reuse: HCI and the
art of repair. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing
systems (pp. 449-458).
• Weintraub, L. (2012). To life!: eco art in pursuit of a sustainable planet. Univ of California
Press.
• Guy, S., Henshaw, V., & Heidrich, O. (2015). Climate change, adaptation and eco-art in
Singapore. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 58(1), 39-54.
• Walker, S. (2013). Imagination’s promise: Practice-based design research for
sustainability. The handbook of design for sustainability, 446-465.
• Leerberg, M., Riisberg, V., & Boutrup, J. (2010). Design responsibility and sustainable
design as reflective practice: An educational challenge. Sustainable Development, 18(5),
306-317.
• Phillips, P. (2015). Artistic practices and ecoaesthetics in post-sustainable worlds. An
introduction to sustainability and aesthetics: The arts and design for the environment,
55-68.
• Walker, S., Dogan, C., & Marchand, A. (2009, April). Research through Design: The
Development of Sustainable Material Cultures. In 8th European Academy of Design
Conference Proceedings,[Online] Avaliable: http://ead09. rgu. ac. uk/Papers/183. pdf
[31 July 2012].
• Maher, R., Maher, M., Mann, S., & McAlpine, C. A. (2018). Integrating design thinking
with sustainability science: a Research through Design approach. Sustainability science,
13(6), 1565-1587.
• Walker, S. (2011). The Spirit of Design: Objects. Environment and Meaning.
• Walker, S., & Giard, J. (Eds.). (2013). The handbook of design for sustainability. A&C
Black.

8. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lica/about/people/stuart-walker

9. Forum: Working titles, keywords, and research questions
b) Biomimicry in Architecture
• Biomimicry: Can the biological characteristics of natural life and the built environment offer
new solutions for more appropriate, bio-eco architectural designs?
• What are the potentials of Bio-inspired architecture that can contribute to better quality of
buildings?
• Biomimicry-future innovations inspired by nature
• Biomimicry as the answer for sustainability in architecture
• Principle tools and guidelines to influence more sustainable design for the future of the built
environment
• Some RQ's I was looking into were:
• To investigate the architectural contribution to biomimicry
• Principles of biomimicry that aid in sustainable design
• Potentials and Limitations of these principles
• SWOT Analysis of biomimicry as a concept in architecture
• Future scope for biomimicry inspired buildings...do they evolve/do they remain/do they become part of
an ecosystem/response to their surroundings

10. b) Biomimicry in Architecture
• Background:
1. Biomimicry in Architecture: principles & guidelines, approaches & cases
2. Assessment of biomimicry for sustainability
• Clarity of approach:
1. Practice (case)
2. Evaluation (cases)
3. Analysis, assessment (metrics)

16. Forum: Working titles, keywords, and research questions
c) VR visualisations of architectural spaces
• How does VR facilitate/challenge visualisations in architectural spaces
• Does VR enhance/hinder architectural rendering.
• How does VR benefit rendering in architectural spaces.
• My Research Questions/Ideas are based around a few thoughts.
• Is the loss of fidelity in VR made up by the immersion factor.
• Is the extra effort of implementing VR into this pipeline worth it.
• Can you still create photo realistic scenes in VR.
• If so, how accessible are those scenes.

19. Chapter 5
This chapter presents and discusses the creative tool
“Storeoboard”, and how the implementation enables the use
of stereoscopic 3D depth planes. It discusses the functionality
of this tool, and how it supports artists with their fast, fluid
and flexible creative workflow for drawing stereoscopic
storyboards via 2D pen input. This chapter continues by
presenting a thorough evaluation of this technique through
individual user studies, focus groups and finally a discussion
regarding the deployment of the tool on the full-length, 3D
Lumière award winning feature film “40 Below and Falling”.

23. Literature reviews, precedents, grounding
• Why do a lit review? What for?
• From description to analysis
• Identifying gaps, opportunities
• Locating tensions, contradictions
• Evaluation of reported findings
• Examination of methodologies
• Getting a sense of theoretical grounds
• “Seeing what others don’t”

24. Research contributions
• Reviews (meta, systematic, exploratory…)
• Frameworks and models
• Experiences
• Insights
• Evidence
• Change
• Theory formulation
• Theory evaluation
• Replication
• Validation

25. References and citations
• All research outputs include references
• Some distinguish cited references vs bibliography
• Number of times cited gives an indication* of quality
• Primary vs secondary sources: beware!
• Key sources by scanning the references across papers
• Navigate the literature by following references/citations
• Set up alerts (keywords), follow authors
• Use reference managers (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley…)
• Discover gaps between disciplines or specialist groups

27. Show list of references analysed for the Design Briefs papers

28. Weekly homework
• Refine your search, broaden scope and narrow down
• Select five (5) different journal papers
• Analyse and comment on:
• References and citations
• Types of findings and contributions, implications
• Audiences, purposes, venues
• Diversity of questions and methods