I still have to digest the most recent feedback, and perhaps try to take the opposite direction of the intended one. /…/
Presenter
a
I still have to digest the most recent feedback, and perhaps try to take the opposite direction of the intended one. /…/
Presenter
I not only pushed myself to present my project within the theme of reformulation, but gained a new understanding of what my work is producing and how much it has reformulated since I began and produced my first presentations.
The fact the feedback and the questions people posed to me were much more refined and sophisticated when compared to those I was given on the previous conference.
Maja Zander’s way of presenting, inviting people and enjoying the discussion through complete improvisation. Berlise Tarcan’s poetic inscriptions made of fabric and placed within a dialogue with Norway’s natural environment. Also, her exhibitions gave me the feeling of literally touching the colors through a soft envelope.
amplify the experience gathered during this conference
Presenter
Some selected presentations was very inspiring for me:
Discussions after the presentations, both with the presenters and with the audience was often interesting and helped me to get to know new people and with them discuss my work.
Enhanced clarity on how (practice-driven) theory and (theory-driven) practice come together in the research.
This is a very difficult question because the word “design” involves a very constructive mixture of feelings (sensations), knowledge (learning) and creation (production). Thus, I cannot say that my understanding of DDDr is complete yet – probably because I am still processing its modalities – but I consider myself closer to its core than before this event.
The first “eureka” moment was during the preparation of my presentation. It was the first time that I was about to talk about my PhD project publicly, and I wanted to show my journey in a structured way, so that the panelists and the audience understand my own steps. The second time that I felt how everything was suddenly making sense, was during the introductory lecture of Kathrin Wildner, as well as with Fabrizia Berlingieri’s text “DISMANTLING, REASSEMBLING, COMPOSING ANEW”. This is also why I have included their reflections on subjectivity in my presentation. The third “”aha”” moment was directly after my presentation: I had a flashback of my research progress starting from my extended abstract application in January, to the acceptance and the writing of my paper.
The most obvious evidence for the listed impacts is the serenity of my state of mind. In other words, I am now aware that no matter the obstacles, there is always a way to react accordingly. Not necessarily by finding suitable “”answers”” or “”solutions””, but rather by being able to justify his/her own position. If I comment the “improved evaluation sensitivity”, I think that I can start to sense some of the most typical issues that PhD candidates are dealing with. As this was the second time that I followed the CA2RE event, I was able to notice some common remarks. After a while, it made me realize similar “”risks”” even before the panelists pointing them out. I would add also how I was impressed by the panelists’ respectful, friendly and honest way of addressing challenging questions to the presenters.
Each CA2RE+ event helps me to get a bit closer what can be considered as DDDr. Encountering different interpretations and approaching from multiple perspectives were challenging yet promising for a research to identify and claim their own niches.
This event ensured and encouraged me to collaborate with people from different disciplines.
Again the trigger for me seemed to be having to organize my research in the categories given by Prominski and von Seggern. In stepping out of the research itself and sorting the body of work into these categories and then presenting the research through this lens. I think it also helped the audience follow the research goal and results. One of my critics commented something like ‘of course I have read a lot about the problem you are investigating as your research topic but I have never seen anyone attempt to do something to address this problem’, then I knew that I was able to communicate the goals and results clearly to persons unfamiliar with my research. So one could say, as a Final Stage research I was able to enter the area of reflecting on the work in order to see clearly what it was contributing to our practice.
In this reflective stage of my research I did find it necessary to do one last experiment which became a kind of container of all previous experiments while focusing the work on the scientific contribution. In this last ‘test’ the scientific contribution finally became clear: a technique of digital modeling – from the point of (digital) material properties so that the digital design object could provide feedback to influence the design because its material properties were able to connect to spatial influences, in other words the digital object being designed was not neutral but had agency due to its material and spatial interactions and these were communicated in an intuitive, (almost*) haptic interface. *the Sensor Models are still quite buggy and so this haptic interface is not smooth while still able to provide some sense of the object.
I am a practicing architect and I see this research impacting my future projects in their model-building investigative stage and I also want to find opportunity to teach this in Universities so that students have a way of working digitally from a standpoint of ‘live’ design objects whose material properties are attached/ engaged with space.
Preparing the presentation is a beneficial process of self-organizing for research; while, the discussion with panel profs is a reflection and thinking; both make me more clear about my research.
Feedback, questions and dialogue with panel members revealed weak points (e.g. focus, positioning, clarity for broader audience) and possible directions; discussions, other presentations, exhibition and workshop exposed a great variety of approaches and methodologies.
The position papers from the partner institutions were an excellent idea though the quality varied, and I particularly enjoyed the opening session where epistemological questions were discussed. My own panel was excellent and helped me sharpen my focus. Seeing other presentations gave me insight into the range of research being carried out internationally.
I am an early stage researcher and it was very useful to have this extremely rich overview of so many different works and approaches that undoubtedly will inspire my ongoing investigation at many levels. It was also possible to deepen the understanding of possibilities within design driven research in order to support the investigation’s discourse over methods.
The contact with many different lines of work gives a sense of security for developing my ongoing research. Its was very important for me to understand the amplitude of the works, from studies of the sun frequencies to the relationship with choreography, or a more technical analysis on architectural typologies and consequently HOW to built a doctoral discourse around them and also its graphical translation.
This was my second CA2RE paper presented and my third CA2RE conference. They serve to energise my research and take it in different directions, both through the very generous and targetted feedback on my papers, but also as importantly through attending other presentations, both similar and different to my research trajectory. It allows me to contextualise my research and position it within an international context of design research.