Set Margins

A user-friendly manual to research methods in art and design practices This volume presents the Circle of Doing Research: a model to get you started in art and design research. Conceived within the contextual setting of the art school, it is holistic, multidisciplinary and prioritizes practice. It consists of six actions. The basis of the circle is formed by the following: research by making, research of context and participatory research, where information, prototypes, encounters and experiences are gathered and produced. The remaining three actions are concerned with documenting research, publicizing research and reflecting on research. The Circle of Doing Research is an open, accessible and non-linear model. Each action can be an entry point, whether you want to start with material experiments, conversations with others, or in the library. All actions are connected and inform each other which encourages a process of iteration and constant reflection. The Circle can be enriched with methods, sources and focal points according to specific disciplines and needs. The book contains research trajectories of art and design students throughout, illustrating the rich possibilities to be uncovered in the unfolding of a research project. This illuminating model can be useful to all, from those beginning to learn about research in art and design to more advanced practitioners.

On the conditions and limits of critical thinking for design culture under capitalism Design schools increasingly urge students to address social, political and environmental issues in their work. But who can afford to work in this way after graduation? In a dynamic style that draws from multiple contributors, Who Can Afford to Be Critical? discusses the limits that affordability, class and labor impose upon the educational promise of holding a "critical" practice. Why do we tend to ignore the material and socioeconomic constraints that bind us as designers, claiming instead that we can be powerful agents of change? Instead of focusing on the dream of ethical work under capitalism, could we instead focus first on designers' own working conditions, as one immediate site for collective action? Over the course of four chapters, this publication delves into the modes of precarity in critical graphic work and possible paths toward emancipation from that position.