Poetic Expressions: Video and Artefact as Phenomenological Reflection in Constructive Design Research

With this contribution to CA²RE|CA²RE+DELFT, I wish to discuss if and how variations of phenomenological descriptions can contribute to the process of theory-creation based on the designer’s own lived experience with her craft, and discuss how transmission of knowledge might take other forms than written or spoken words. From my doctoral research ‘Exploring an experimental and material-based colour design practice’, I present two alternative examples of phenomenological descriptions; first a short video articulating my reflection on a design process and second, a series of relief-like artefacts expressing the analysis of a colour palette – not through words but through form and material. Can we as design-researchers accept and acknowledge artefacts as ‘epistemic things’ and phenomenological descriptions in various forms as means for investigation and communication in our research? Will these alternative forms of expressions be able to stand on their own or must they always be followed up by lingual explanations?

Keywords: personal colour, phenomenological description, epistemic things