Opacity, Transition, and Design Research
Abstract
Historically, design education was structured around projects as solvable within a foreseeable and knowable future. However, researchers operating in the landscape of transition design must contend with far less certain terrain. Challenges fall outside the scope of what has commonly been understood as the designer’s purview. Transition projects do not fit within the customary rhythms of political, economic, and governmental systems; they often require replete and complex coordination between actors in different systems; they are directed towards social, cultural, and psychological change; the location of practice is a living system that offers no reliable set of inflection points. Considering practice-based transition design research, this article outlines approaches taken, discusses challenges of conducting research, and proposes key considerations to address in future work.
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