• Exploring the Expressive Potential of Function

      Niedderer, Kristina (Gothenburg, Sweden: IASPIS/Craft in Dialogue, 2007)
      Niedderer’s chapter builds on her previous research, which was concerned with transforming the current understanding of function in design from a factor of constraint into a factor that can enable creativity, and applies it to contemporary craft practice. Niedderer argues that the crafts are particularly suited to explore the proposed new understanding of function. It benefits from doing so because this new idea of function transcends the visual, allowing for meaning to accrue through haptic and somatic (physical) experience of the object resulting in a concept of ‘expressive function’ which is itself arrived at through convivial human interaction rather than through solitary analysis.
    • The relationship between software skills and subject specific knowledge, theory and practice.

      Marshall, Lindsey; Austin, Marc (University of Wolverhampton, 2004)
      Previous research (Marshall & Austin, 2003) suggests that there is a need for theory to be integrated with practice in design subjects. There is current concern that the acquisition of software skills is taking priority over subject specific knowledge and skills. This is seen as a source of some tension between design education and industry, as many employers require graduates to have knowledge of software prior to employment. Integrating these skills into the curriculum alongside developing creativity and theoretical/contextual understanding is proving difficult for education. Although technology plays an integral role in the production of designed artefacts, it is an adjunct to the core content of courses which is an understanding of the knowledge and skills associated with design, their application to creative problem solving and contextual/ theoretical understanding of issues related to design and a broader field. There is national and international debate around this issue. Justice (1999) expresses concern about space in the curriculum, stating: ‘Before computers, faculty may have had a full semester to teach a beginning typography course. Now, they have a full semester to teach typography and the several software packages the students will use to complete the typography projects.’ (Justice, 1999, p.54)