The disclosive space as an object of study for practice based research in design

Abstract

The generation of an artefact or a series of artefacts lies at the heart of most practice based research projects in design (1). This is entirely appropriate given that it coincides with the way that design is practiced as a profession. But does it entail that the object of study of practice based research in design should be the emerging artefact? My argument in this paper is that it may not be of benefit to either the practitioner/researcher or to the domain as a whole to conceive of their task as researchers as one where they are required to validate the artefact(s) as a significant contribution to the domain.