RESEARCH VECTORS IN DESIGN AND ARTS. An inductive approach to mapping academic design research experiences

A general definition of research is systematic inquiry, the goal of which is creation of knowledge. By its very nature of systematic investigation to establish facts from observations of the natural world, scientific research fuels technological and social progress. If we consider design as a natural human ability that demonstrates a concern to advance societal innovation and is characterized by particular forms of knowledge, design itself as a discipline presents a rich focus for research and “designerly ways of knowing” that includes a rich tradition of academic streams of discourse that have been developed and debated since the second half of the twentieth century in the design research literature. Furthermore because of its nature, the discipline of design is often referred to as an “applied science” that manifests through products, processes, services, and systems and functions in the broader framework of cultural production as a whole. In this context, questions that pertain to the relationships between design as a source of knowledge creation and design as a professional practice can often become tangled. In this regard, isolating the unique questions, methods and outcomes that result from design when it is treated as an academic practice and therefore a form of “science” itself can be less than obvious. What happens when design is considered as a form of applied science that constructs its own research? How does this process manifest? What is the picture we can start sketching from this “self-reliance” of design? The discussion on design research is very rich and this paper is not aimed to give a comprehensive review of the literature on the topic, else it is presenting a recently-launched initiative whose primary objective is the analysis and the dissemination of research in the field of design treated as a discipline.