In this seminar we learnt about research and why research is very important to us as designers. We did this because for our sense of place project we have to do Secondary and Primary research, to get the best outcomes for my sketchbook.
What is Research?
Research is a way of looking, a close enquiry.
Why should we research?
We should research to find:
Original Ideas
Context
Knowledge
Roots
Expansion
After this
we were asked to work in pairs and each choose an object of are choice, but we
had to keep it a secret. We then had to write down 10 questions to ask each
other to try and work out, what object they had chosen. Like the game 20 questions, however we had to write them down first instead of thinking of the questions on the spot. The questions that I decided to ask were quite simple, but quite hard too as they were:
1. Is it a living being?
2. Can you get it in different colours?
3. Does it come in different sizes?
4. Can you buy it from the shop?
5. Does it move?
6. Can you touch it?
7. Is it in the room?
8. Does it live outside?
9. Does it grow?
10. Do you have to water it?
After I had asked the 10 questions I thought that the object could either be a tree or a flower, so I decided to go with a flower. Unfortunately it was a tree, but I was quite happy that it was one of my two choices of answers that I had thought of. When it was my turn the answers that my partner had chosen were also very simple and did fit well with the chosen object, which I had chosen as I had chosen a Tiger. My partner guessed this object the first time around. I found that in the future I needed to make sure that the object that I had chosen was quite harder and not too obvious. This is because my object was quite an easy object to guess. However I did think that this task was quite fun and very productive.
Once we had done the 10 questions with our partner we then looked at Parallax, which is a subject stays the same, but appears to be different when the Image has an altered perspective. Once we had done this we then looked at research pointers to help us understand what we need to do to help us research.
Research pointers that we given were:
- Research is a fluid process, which means that the research we produce should flow in an understandable way.
- Major problems that are created don't have be solved, as we could look at the problem in totally different way that might help us to research into other areas.
- It is a close enquiry, this means that you should look around the place that you live and talk to different people as this will allow you to create new research ideas.
- Look at the response that you get from different people, as this will given you lots of inspiration to look into different areas that you can research.
- Finally look into creating a timeline or plan that will help to guide you through your research and the area that you need to cover. This will also help with your time management skills.
After we had look at research pointers we the did the 20 questions again, however this time we had to have the questions prepared to ask, as we wasn't allowed to write them down before we had asked our partner the question. This time I decided to choose a Cactus, as my first object that I had chosen before was quite easy. I thought that these way was a lot easier than before because you could think on the spot and didn't have to have the question pre written, which I found a lot harder.
Even though I thought this way was a lot easier it was still hard to guess my partners object, as the questions that I asked were:
1. Is it Living? 11. Does it use light?
2. Is it Food? 12. Can you carry it?
3. Is it in this room? 13. Does it get warm?
4. Can you get it in different colours? 14. Is it a vent?
5. Can you get it in different sizes? 15. Is it a machine?
6. Do we use it? 16. Do people use it?
7. Does it use power? 17. Do you have to use a plug socket for it to
8. Is it a Laptop? work?
9. Can we talk through it? 18. Does it have a screen?
10. Is it a Mobile Phone? 19. Does it have a Keyboard?
20. Is it a Computer?
The answer to my partner's object was a computer.
I found that this seminar was very useful because it was a lot easier to play the game of 20 questions when you had think of the question on the spot, which I am going to take inspiration from for my research, as I will be able to look at areas that just appear in my head and will somehow fit within my project. I will also be able to looking into experimentation and look at research differently to find new ways to research new ideas for my Primary and Secondary research within the project 'A Sense of Place'.
