Tag Archives: prompt

Prompts

In the Project Brief 3 blog entry, I have suggested that use a concept from the readings, presentations, blog entries, video interviews to inform the design and production of the three sketches you are to make.

I refer to these concepts in this context as being ‘prompts’. A prompt is a sentence statement or a question that is used to guide a practice inquiry. This is a method that is often used in practice-based research at honours or postgraduate level. We witnessed this in Hannah’s presentation in the way that she used a concept as a starting point, a catalyst to frame and guide the production of a k-film.

In my own practice-based research, I adapted the concept of a ‘cultural probe’ (Gaver, Dunne & Pacenti 1999) into a prompt that could be used as a catalyst for each practice inquiry. In design research, a probe is often a carefully designed artefact. For example, in Gaver, Dunne and Pacenti’s project, the probe consists of an envelope that contains an ‘assortment of maps, postcards, cameras, and booklets’ (1999, p.22). These artefacts are designed to direct and initiate a conversation around unanticipated design ideas with the participants involved in their project (Gaver, Dunne & Pacenti 1999). In contrast to using a probe as a means to work with collaborators situated outside the project design team, I [use] the concept to induce ideas self–reflexively. I [do] this by formulating questions from the research prompts to provoke unexpected outcomes. This [is] a useful method for achieving Rosenberg’s centrifugal concept of moving beyond my own established body of knowledge. (as discussed in the ‘Video Sketching’ blog entry).

Often these prompts were open–ended and experimental. Schön’s concept of the ‘exploratory experiment’ provides an insight into how such probes are used:

When an action is undertaken only to see what follows, without accompanying predications or expectations, I call it exploratory…Exploratory experiment is the probing, playful activity by which we get a feel for things. (1987, p.70)

These prompts [are] created progressively as part of the iterative design and production process that was used…(in this case to produce three k-film sketches that present three different perspectives on the ANZAC topic and the use of Korsakow (multilinear narrative/nonnarrative) in relation to form.

References:

Gaver, B, Dunne, T & Pacenti, E 1999, ‘Design: cultural probes’, Interactions’, no. 6, pp.21–9.
(note access via RMIT Google Scholar)

Schön, DA 1983, The reflective practitioner, Basic Books, New York.

Links

http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects