Poetic Expressions Video and artefact as phenomenological reflection in constructive design research

Being an experienced designer, the obvious choice of research methodology for my PhD is ‘Constructive Design Research’ which is characterised by the researcher using design methods, experiments and artefacts as drivers for knowledge production 1. I engage in design processes, not as an objective observer looking from the outside and in, but as a designer, deeply involved with all my expertise and emotional reactions. As a consequence of personal involvement, part of the research documentation shifts from a third-person perspective referring to the designer as she to a first-person perspective referring to the designer as I. This position triggers a sceptical view on the design-researcher’s unconscious actions and biases, but also enables a rich insight into real designing experiences. Ingold 2 has problematised the separation between theory of a discipline and its methods and argues that to build a theory of a practice we must study with

the practice. In line with Ingold’s thinking I have become a researcher in my own practice placing myself between two positions: that of the designer designing and that of the researcher researching the designing. This in-between

position is conflict-ridden as the design-researcher must be ‘accountable’ to both the field of design and the field of research 3, meaning that she must do both design on a high level and research on a high level. How do we protect design driven research and not just go for the “…more convenient positions on either side: to choose between theory or practice…” 4?