Modelling Experiential Knowledge for Research

This paper addresses an issue in art and design research. The art and design community is not homogeneous, and there are artists who feel that research in art is very different from research in design, and deserves to be analysed separately. Likewise, there are designers who feel that design is distinctive and warrants a separate treatment. The fundamental issue in this paper is something that is common to both, and indeed, is also common to architecture and the performing arts, etc. Finding a term that includes these disciplines and satisfies those who occupy them is difficult. The area is sometimes referred to as ‘the creative and performing arts’ (UKCGE 2003), but the word ‘arts’ can be provocative to designers. Alternatively, ‘creative and cultural industries’1 may be making assumptions about how knowledge is applied and valued. This paper tries to find what is common to these areas rather than what is different between them. As a result, the paper uses the term ‘art and design’ to identify a broad range of creative practices that share, in this case, an interest in the role of experience in knowledge generation.