Chapter Outline
Intro: Methods of interdisciplinarity
How to find interdisciplinary work? Being ready. Being willing to let go of control. Step into the unknown equipped with the right tools. Have respect and trust for the others in your group.
Inside your mind:
Venn Diagram
Mind Map
Flow Chart
Notes (how to look up other knowledge, take notes, make charts)
Working with others:
How to make a welcoming atmosphere for conversations (Ryan’s dinners)
Structured talks
Listening
Role play
Testing in stages
Staying neutral
Observing
Good failure
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Chapter 1
METHOD
“Design is now too important to be left to designers”
(Tim Brown, Change by Design, p. 37″
Interdisciplinary work starts from within. In order to include other knowledge or other people in your process, you have to be willing to try new ways of making design. Here we will discuss mind maps, flow charts and venn diagrams as helpful means of seeing how disciplines can come together. We will then look at larger efforts in interdisciplinary work, where experts from different fields come together to produce new knowledge. How do diverse groups work well together? We will look at how making a welcoming atmosphere, choosing the right structure, listening well and role playing can help.
Venn Diagram — finding overlaps
A Venn diagram is useful when you think about the spaces where two disciplines come together to form a singular problem, need, or outcome. For example, in a freshmen design elective, students at MICA were asked to rethink hospital walls and come up with graphic patterns that would cheer up a doctor’s visit. A Venn diagram illustrated how two opposing kinds of imagery could come together to create these patterns.
(Follow up with completed images from this assignment)
Mind Map
Mind maps are great for thinking through an idea and finding associations with it. They can show us how ideas or words connect. In an assignment at OSU, Students paired up and picked a profession out of a hat. They had to mind map the strengths they held in their profession separately then list the strengths they held together. From there they had to define a collaboration between the two professions, highlighting their combined strengths.
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Random notes:
Example: At Hartford Art School’s Design Global Change, Natacha Poggio partners up with engineers, educators and aid professionals to construct meaningful, service-oriented projects for her students. What are some of her strategies?
Example: In an intense study abroad program, Nancy Froehlich led six OSU students and as many Indian crafters to produce a line of scarves. Nurturing trust and sharing control of the process were essential to this project.