Sharp edges, blunt objects, clean slices. Exploring design research methods

Abstract

Design Inquiry is perhaps always needing to run with scissors, that design-centred capacity and ability to work with materials, means and methods to develop research that is context specific, abstract and conceptual. This is important for collaborative and transdisciplinary inquiry in, on and through design as well as situations in which a diversity and mix of professional design expertise and design-academic analysis are included. This paper concerns the ongoing need for clarification, articulation and implementation, as well as critique, concerning how research methods and design practices may be better connected, placed and understood. Design research that is qualitative in nature needs to consider methods and means, that is epistemological challenges and opportunities, if it is to move beyond framing, using and reflecting on knowledge making as more than a blunt version of inquiry. We include a performative activity to enact a shared methodological experience of Running with Scissors.