Design documentaries result from PhD research at the RCA that I completed in May 2007. Below is the abstract of the thesis. You can download the complete thesis (34 Mb). My company STBY intends to publish a small run of the thesis this Summer. If you are interested in receiving a copy, please show your interest by sending me an email.
Design documentaries: Using documentary film to inspire design
Abstract
Design is nowadays a thoroughly multidisciplinary discipline. It is called upon ever more in society and industry to address problems and create opportunities. As a result design touches on many aspects of our everyday lives, and knowledge about how people live is an important asset in design processes. This knowledge comes from many sources, to which this research aims to add one more: design documentaries.
This research brings four disciplines together: cultural studies, documentary film, user research and design. It focuses on developing a new method for discovery research, using video. In design processes discovery research is used from the start, to get access to knowledge about how people live. But that is not its only role. Ideally, it also inspires design processes. Video has been used to support both roles since the 1980s, but has never moved much beyond registering discovery research activities.
For the first time, this research adds documentary film to the multidisciplinary mix in design in a fundamental way. With more than a hundred years of experience in portraying everyday life, documentary film brings many inspiring ideas and techniques to discovery research for design. This research investigates specific aspects of documentary film history and specific film techniques, to draw out the significance and relevance of documentary film to design.
Documentary film has a strong connection to reality, and developed a rich film language. The films that inspire this research in particular present the perspectives of people behind and in front of the camera in conversation with each other, and invite viewers to join and continue these conversations.
These three notions – reality, language and conversation – have become the foundation of design documentaries, a new method for discovery research in design. Design documentaries emerged from an exploratory filmmaking practice, inspired by documentary film ideas and techniques.
As a method, design documentaries are not prescriptive. They are a tactic researchers and designers can adapt, rather than a strategy they can adopt. Design documentaries invite researchers and designers to engage with video and everyday life creatively, to inform and inspire design processes.
