Tag Archives: theory

Joe Moran: Excerpt from “Interdisciplinarity”

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This book is about interdisciplinary research on a broader scale. The introduction traces a history of disciplines and follows up by a “defence of interdisciplinarity.” It’s a great read at about 18 pages.
Here’s the pdf of the introduction: joe_moran

Here are my notes in reading this introduction:

11/17/11
Joe Moran, Interdisciplinarity, Routlege….

  • Two meanings of discipline: body of knowledge, and obedience/order (2)
  • hierarchical in nature, from latin disciplina,  meaning taking orders from an elder
  • the term “discipline” is “caught up in questions about the relationship between knowledge and power.” (2)
  • funny Roberta Frank on “fields” as cows and mud, versus “discipline” as enshrined, clean… (3)
  • Classical division —Aristotle’s order: theology/mathematics/physics, then ethics/politics, and finally the arts/engineering/poetics (4); assigning of value — more and less esteemed disciplines
  • Modern era: universities and states
  • Late Middle Age — universities of Salerno, Bologna, Paris, Oxford and Cambridge replace medieval schools; discipline starts to mean profession, such as medicine, law and theology (5)
  • However until 18 C. there was a core curriculum of liberal arts
  • trivium (logic, grammar, rhetoric)
  • quadrivium  (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music)
  • University from latin universitias, meaning “universal” or “whole”
  • The Enlightenment (17, 18 c) pushed disciplines — reason-driven, all about instituting methodologies; this agreed with the overlapping scientific revolution (16, 17c) Copernicus, Newton, Gallileo, etc
  • Parallel tendencies to be holistic and  yet subdivide into disciplines — through encyclopedias (7)
  • Giambattista VIco (18 c) early promoter of interdisciplinary (7)
  • Kant (18 c) privileges reason through philosphy
  • Early duality between specialized and liberal arts education (10)
  • Comte argues for applying scientific method to other areas of knowledge (11)
  • Neitzsche critical (and lamenting) of the scientific man as superior to the philosopher (19 c) (12)
  • Industrialized and technologized society demanded specializations (13)
  • Our question: Where and since when do Ph. D. programs in design exist?
  • Clark argues disciplines are discursive in that they promote certain languages and modes of thought, and exclude others (14)
  • Epistemology — the study of knowledge
  • Interdisciplinarity is about addressing problems that cannot be answered within existing disciplines (15)
  • Interdisciplinarity is ” any form of dialogue or interaction between two or more disciplines;  the level, type, purpose and effect of this interaction remain to be examined” (16)
  • Roland Barthes (1977: 155) “it begins effectively when the solidarity of the old disciplines breaks down…in the interests of a new object and a new language neither of which has  a place in the field of sciences that were to be brought peacefully together”….mutation
  • politics of teaching (17)
  • intellectually promiscuous (17)

steven heller: the education of a graphic designer

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A collection of useful essays.

Heller, Steven, The Education of a Graphic Designer. Second Edition. New York: Allworth Press, 2005.

Katherine McCoy, Education in an Adolescent Profession, essay from the book:

Design is increasingly in demand in fields of computer science, interactive media, and other disciplines. But we “must retain and enhance graphic design’s core value as a cultural activity. Designers can offer a compensating balance to the coolness and abstractions of technology.” (13)

 

 

Interdisciplinary Conversations: Challenging Habits of Thought

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Another book by a Stanford professor that we should look at for institutional change, Here’s some of it on Google Books.

 

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Strober, Myra, Interdisciplinary Conversations: Challenging Habits of Thought. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010.

“The difficult task of faculty and administrators is to retain the benefits of disciplinary specialization while at the same time fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.” (2)

Recognizing funding as a big obstacle, she focuses on other issues: “disciplinary habits of mind, disciplinary cultures and interpersonal dynamics. It is also about what faculty and administrators can do to overcome these barriers to create productive interdisciplinary conversations.” (2)

“…it turns out that talking across disciplines is as difficult as talking to someone from another culture.” (4)

“To be interdisciplinary one must first be proficient in a discipline” (12)

For a brief history of disciplines, see page 13. Some of the earliest universities were in Italy, France and England, 11th and 12th Century. To be a discipline, a body of knowledge must have identity (departments across universities) and exchange (a market for new doctorates.) (15). What makes graphic design a discipline? Let’s look into that.

Interdisciplinarity is “a form of inquiry that integrates knowledge and modes of thinking from two or more disciplines…to produce a cognitive or practical advancement (eg. explain a phenomenon, create a product, answer a question, etc). By Veronica Boix Mansilla (15)