Putting something into play - reflections on the use of video in design education

Abstract

In design, video is typically used as a tool for presentation, instruction, or observation. The use of video for creation and discovery as part of the design process is new terrain. This article explores how video as a tool for creation facilitates artistic expression and critical thinking in design education, and consequently how it “puts something into play”. This study reports the experiences of product design students during a course that introduced them to the potential of the video medium. One of the videos produced during this course is analyzed through an initial description of the video, further explored by semi-structured interviews with the participating students. The research question asks how video as a tool of creation can put things into play in design education. One unpredicted outcome was that the projects incorporated the element of play on multiple levels. The disclosed element of play is further explored through aesthetic theory, with particular reference to Hans Georg Gadamer`s idea of art as play in his book Truth and Method [1]. It seems clear that the use of video as a sketching tool to explore a design task encourages an experimental approach, and testing of ideas in real-life situations with real people. The findings suggest that the unexpected effects of putting something into play support discovery of things not already known.