Making Do-ing: On the Emergence of Representation and Meaning in Collaborative Design Work

• In Event: Roundtable Session 44
  In Roundtable Session: Drawing, Making, and Acting: Arts in Cultural Historical Research

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for investigating the meaning making practices of design teams by building on Vygotsky’s method of double stimulation. Design and design literacy are increasingly treated as important multidisciplinary skills in both learning and professional practice. At the same time, these practices also involve the development of new artifacts, representations and ideas, and thus present a significant opportunity for investigating the processes through which new meanings emerge in collaborative work. Design workshop activities with ambiguous representations and materials are discussed as complimentary to Vygotsky’s experimental method for investigating conceptual development. This paper contributes to sociocultural research methods and to our understanding of meaning making with material representations.

Author

• Rolf Steier, University of Oslo