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

With this contribution to CA²RE|CA²RE+DELFT, I wish to discuss if and how variations of phenomenological descriptions can contribute to the process of theory-creation based on the designer’s own lived experience with her craft, and discuss how transmission of knowledge might take other forms than written or spoken words.

Being a hybrid of both designer and researcher brings out questions of epistemological character: What do I know about doing? How am I aware of what I know? How do I share what I know with others? And can I claim my knowing to be theory? These fundamental questions play a central role in my PhD project, with which I have set out to investigate how Itten’s notion of colour harmony 1 and Böhme’s notion of atmosphere 2 may influence a colour design process respectively. I have concluded the first of four experiments: ‘Personal Colour’, which purpose is to bring out an awareness of one’s personal colour preferences in order to understand one’s biases when designing colour combinations for other people. Part of the experiment is conducted by myself in the studio, my findings are then tested with students and finally insights are compared to statements from professional colour designers collected in interviews. In this presentation I concentrate on how I have used a phenomenological approach to reflect my own design experiments in the studio.

Phenomenology is one of the twentieth century’s most dominant philosophical schools formed by great thinkers such as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. The philosophy is concerned with phenomena as they appear to us and has given us new knowledge of perception, consciousness, embodiment, intersubjectivity and much more. Phenomenology does not provide us with a fixed methodology that we can apply directly in design research but presents us to a certain state-of-mind enabling us to explore lived experiences in the life-world. Nevertheless, Max van Manen 3 has described a possible methodological phenomenological approach and simultaneously he warns us not to deviate from phenomenology’s goal of description into science’s goal of explanation. “As in poetry, it is inappropriate to ask for a conclusion or a summary of a phenomenological study. To summarize a poem in order to present the result would destroy the result because the poem itself is the result. The poem is the thing. So, phenomenology, not unlike poetry, is a poetizing project; it tries an incantative, evocative speaking, a primal telling, wherein we aim to involve the voice in an original singing of the world” 4.

I have experimented with various forms of phenomenological descriptions; written essays, video essays and artefacts. In this the first experiment ‘Personal Colour’, I have used the written essay as a reflection on the process of creating a personal colour palette, guided by van Manen’s procedure for phenomenological writing in which he suggests the following steps: A: Turning to the Nature of Lived Experience, B: Existential Investigation, C: Phenomenological Reflection and D: Phenomenological Writing 5. To write in a style that allows emotional expressions, personal observations, memories and existential reflections is much aligned with the actual action of designing colour combinations, filled with curiosity and joy and an ongoing conversation with the material. The writing process is not only scribbling down random thoughts, but a thorough investigation into the phenomenon of selecting personal colour, and in its own right as poetic practice it contains a rigour equal to that of a scientific investigation.

For this presentation I show two alternatives to the written phenomenological descriptions. The first is a phenomenological expression created as a short video essay and produced as a stop motion film based on images from the actual selection process with an excerpt of the written essay as voice-over. The content of the film is similar to the content of the written essay, but sound, moving images and aspect of time are now enriching elements in the communication of the experience to another person.

The second phenomenological description is the most abstract. In this I express myself not through words, but entirely through my medium as a designer: form and material. Where the phenomenon investigated in the film was the designing of the personal palette, the phenomenon investigated through the artefact is the experience of the actual personal palette. After creating the palette, I did two analyses to understand the nature of the palette. The first was based on Itten’s notion of harmony, providing me with a set of recommendations on to how to create a harmonic colour combination. Itten is easily followed methodically and offers me a vocabulary of concepts to describe the colour palette; ‘complementary’, ‘saturation’, ‘value’ etc. However, these words are not describing the actual expression of the palette. The second analysis was based on the philosophical concept of atmosphere. I was interested in experiencing and describing the colour palette, not through technical terms but through adjectives in order to grasp the atmosphere of the palette. I ‘turned to the nature of my lived experience’ of the palette and used the following words to describe the impression I got: formal, old, friendly, passive, dry, soft, feminine, quiet, reserved, serious and warm.

As part of the analysis, I wanted to communicate my findings not only through a list of words, but in a richer form equal to the phenomenological essay. I was guided by Andersen’s phenomenological method 6. Andersen has been inspired by van Manen’s procedure for phenomenological writing and has created five steps for what he calls a ‘phenomenological method for architectural investigation, description and design’: A: Experiencing an Architectural Phenomenon, B: Investigating the Architectural Phenomenon, C: Hermeneutical Reflection, D: Describing the Architectural Phenomenon, E: Architectural Phenomenological Re-Presentation. Andersen acknowledge drawing and form-giving as methods for investigation into a phenomenon and for description of the phenomenon. The idea of visual reflections as equal to written reflections are supported by Rheinberger’s ideas of ‘epistemic things’. Coming from the field of molecular biology with a classical scientific tradition and not art, it might seem almost paradoxical that Rheinberger points out how artefacts are embedded with knowledge 7.

The second phenomenological description I present is an artefact. Through an experimental process of engaging with the colours from the palette I created a series of relief-like artefacts. By adding form and light in a certain manner, the expression (formal, passive, dry, soft etc) is amplified: A graduation between light and dark versions of the specific colour brought forward by the curved paper, the exposition of the irregular texture of the brushstrokes, the vertical rhythm and variable width in the column like composition. These elements together describe the mood or atmosphere of the palette.

Several questions are interesting to explore. Can we as design-researchers accept and acknowledge artefacts as ‘epistemic things’ and phenomenological descriptions in various forms as means for investigation and communication in ‘Constructive design research’? Will these alternative forms of expressions be able to stand on their own or must they always be followed up by lingual explanations?

All content and photography by the author.

Link for video essay ‘Today I select favourite colours’: https://kolor.dk/today-i-select-favourite-colours-a-phenomenological-essay-and-film/