Lane Myer -Four Mythical Approaches to an Investigation

Lane Myer on “Four Mythical Approaches to a Project. Or Investigation” (November 08)

1. You Start. You hope to Finish.
No need to identify a Middle. You just work.

2. You Start with a feeling of LOTS OF TIME. Then suddenly you feel TIME IS RUNNING OUT and you push to “finish”.
Again, there is no middle. It is more about a feeling of time as a substance you have to push through, and then it is gone/over.

3. There is a Beginning. Middle. An end.
They are discrete doors you pass through and you do not or cannot cycle back into the earlier steps. It is a linear sequence of clear-cut steps.

4. Like #3, but with a Cyclical Method that allows constant investigation from beginning to middle to end to new beginning.



These “Four Mythical Approaches” can each be visualized as follows:

1. Start ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finish

2. LLLOOOOOTTTTTTSSSSSS OF TIMEEEEE ----TIMEEE RUNNNINGG OUTT.

3. Begin. Middle. End.

4. Research Phase-----Development Phase-------Presentation Phase------Research anew
It is a cycle you never leave for life.

Investigate:
Question, research, explore

Develop:
Form an opinion,
Sketch,
Make connections.

Understand/conclusions:
Communicate with others in a context.
Presentation – not as icing on cake but response to question: does this segment of research satisfy you with what’s at hand?

Visualize this process constantly to help the cycle of question/opinion/point of view.

So. This process is active and external to the mind. At every step you need to visualize the investigation, the connections developed, and the best way to communicate to others.

It is a mistake for people to think the Start to Finish process is going to take place all in their mind and then suddenly find external form. In fact, it is a disaster to work this way.

Discovery is fun. Ask: What do you need to do to make the next discovery and get the question advanced?

Use the right tool.

In this way you have a path that never ends, but which is constantly communicating to yourself and to others.

This is about the process of doing and communicating. It does end up accomplishing a lot, but a primary need to focus on the end mission of “Accomplish” can get in the way. Method #4 takes the panic out.” It is not possible to do it all in your head. You must have a process for dealing with the middle in the best, fun way.

For more inspiration watch the movie about Robert Irwin, "The Nature of Questions".
“ I want to make the edges go away.”

What We're About

If a toaster is “clearly” an appliance, and a refrigerator the largest one, where does that leave an elevator, electric wheelchair, cell phone, hand drill or vibrator? Are appliances in some way “female” and domestic, while "tools" are just re-labeled "masculine" appliances? If the category of appliances did begin in the 1880s as a way to domesticate the new power source of electricity, what analogies and opportunities can we draw today in our connected world? This studio is concerned with how designers can reconceptualize this product typology.

We have been asking questions like:

• What social, cultural, and historical conditions gave rise to the appliance as we think we know it?
• How can designers use this conceptual insight to redefine the parameters of their participations?
• What are goals for the "new"? To be better? Higher tech? Ecological? Stylish? Subversive? Spiritual? Instructive? Or maybe, eliminated?
• What happens when we consider behavior and context more than form? That is, when the focus shifts from designing for the appliance as a stand-alone object, to seeing it perform as an actor in a larger narrative of use? What will appliances look like when they move almost entirely from noun to verb?
• How are these insights and objectives interpreted into: expression, design approaches, materials, manufacturing, marketing and use?
• To what degree are Industrial Designers responsible for the creation and neglect of this arena.