Undergraduate Course: Graphic Design 3B: 48-Hour Survival Guide (DESI10121)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Students will develop a rigorous first-hand understanding of ethnographic research techniques and utilize these methods to offer a dynamic and original alternative to existing library or internet research. This course provides students with a rich and varied approach to ethnographic design research techniques in preparation for a career path in Design. Incorporating these research skills with actual fieldwork allows students to originate and develop new approaches to information-gathering, analysis and reflection. This will allow the students to create a significant body of research and to understand studio prototyping as part of that exploratory process. |
| Course description |
Over the 10 weeks of this course students will make an alternative guide and map to a new experience or place. The focus of the research should be somewhere they have never been before or somewhere they do not feel familiar with. Their job in the first instance is to go to a new town, city or rural environment and live and document the experience for 48 hours.
This process must begin with a rigorous research proposal which outlines the intended area of research focus and rationale for this choice as well as a thorough plan of information gathering and approaches. At this point any interviews and permissions should be arranged.
Students should explore, experience and document their time in their chosen location. Everything they generate should be back-to-basics (absolutely no laptops, mobile phones, other technologies or traditional cameras), guerrilla-style documentation, sketchbook process and interviews : they can make use of polaroid, photo booths, collage, found materials, copy shops, drawings, paintings, sketchbook but no digital technology other than sound recording equipment. They should speak to people and enquire about their relationship with the place they have chosen. The course is designed to support a breadth of outcomes responding to mainly outward facing or socially engaged projects and as such first-hand research is a necessity in order to facilitate original thinking.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Employ a variety of ethnographic research techniques
- Develop studio prototyping as part of research.
- Communicate original research, analysis and initiatives in a range of well-structured, coherent and creative formats.
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Reading List
O¿Rourke, K. Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers
Harman, K. You are Here: personal geographies and other maps of the imagination
Kaye, N. Site-specific art: performance, place, and documentation
I Noble, I and Bestley, R. Visual Research: An Introduction to Research Methods in Graphic Design |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Understand the value of first-hand observation; analysis and field work documentation.
Gain new knowledge and opportunities.
Exercise autonomy and initiative in professional/equivalent activities. |
| Keywords | Ethnographic Research,Design Process,Experiential Design,Prototyping,Graphic Design |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Mike Inglis
Tel: (0131 6)51 5720
Email: mike.inglis@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Jane Thomson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5713
Email: jane.thomson@ed.ac.uk |
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