Traversing the Unknown in Research through Art and Design

Abstract

In the ongoing discussion about the nature of research through art and design, one defining factor has been acknowledged: The objective of this research is not the generalization of formal knowledge, but rather the pursuit of an entirely different way of knowing. This is developed through practice-centered research, necessarily subjective and complex, and in many ways unknown. The practitioner-researcher’s unique role in this research—a reliance on traversing unknowns—merits re-imagining. This paper examines diverse literature, as well as the author's own technical origami practice, to re-envision the work of the practitioner-researcher through the framework of fiction-building.