Affiliation: KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture, Campus Sint-Lucas, Belgium
Ghent 2019
CA²RE dates 4-7 October 2019,
CA²RE+GHENT Erasmus+ project event dates 2-7 October 2019
The immediate impact on participants
CA²RE theme: PRACTICE & DESIGN DRIVEN RESEARCH
CA²RE+ Project Step: OBSERVATION
The PhD presentations to review panels at the CA²RE+GHENT event are an observation in its own right of the following circles of observation as intense processes of interaction and presentation.
This interacting and communicating operates within an integrated set of concentric circles of observation.
The first circle of observation, the inner one, is occupied by the PhD candidate, who performs research actions and observes his/her research actions.
The second circle of observation consists of the panel members, who observe the actions and observations of the PhD candidate at their home institutions, and by discussing these, also observe/calibrate their own evaluation.
The third circle of observation consists of the panel members (academia) at the doctoral presentations, performed during the CA2RE+ events. These panel members observe the candidate’s actions and observations, and contribute to the observations of the panel that is present at the PhD candidate’s presentations.
The fourth circle of observation consists of the evaluators who witness the candidate’s doctoral presentations, who observe the candidate’s actions and observations, and the candidate’s actions and observations, and hence contribute to the calibration of the doctoral process through ongoing discussions at the formal and informal moments of the CA²RE events.
The fifth circle of observation consists of reporters, who observe the aforementioned four circles, and who contribute to the transmission of the observations ongoing in the previous circles of observation, doing so both inwards (loops of feedback into the different circles of observation) and outwards, i.e. transferring new knowledge to our target groups (see: FOLLOW-UP section).
Due to the integrated nature of these circles of observation an integrated system of calibration and validation is established between all the stakeholders (circles) of the observation system. This is key to come to a validation principle wherein knowledge production is understood, accepted and transmitted.
Additional to the installing of these circles of observation, it is important (1) to clearly circumscribe and apply the role of each circle of observation in this system as explained above by clearly communicating their roles at the outset of the event, (2) to develop ways of activating the interplay between all the circles of observation in order to (3) make sure that each circle of observation within this system knows the role of the other circles of observation, engages with them empathically and thus calibrates the observations within academic rigor.
The CA²RE+GHENT event makes these 5 circles of observation explicit, install and test them in order to evaluate them at the end of the event. By doing so the CA²RE+GHENT event aims at shaping the format for the subsequent CA²RE events.
GHENT Research Culture
The GHENT event is coloured by the research focuses on the relations between the drawing and the space, and on radical materiality, where the key CA²RE+ persons are active.
