Abstract
The dissertation is entitled “Embodied knowledge in 4IR-oriented design practice –autoethnographic approaches to experiential future-directed ways of knowing and learning in selected case studies”. I position my argument in the context of a seeming devaluation of tacit, haptic ways of knowing and experiencing materiality in relation to 4IR-oriented design practices. However, the World Economic Forum (WEF Jobs Reports 2016 – 2023) and other leading experts in what has been termed the ‘future of work’ have warned against the assumption of prosocial, organisational skills as outmoded, and included skills such as critical thinking, cognitive flexibility, and problem solving in their lists of 4IR Key Competencies. While Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning in machines, and other digital disruptions are the most marketed aspects of 4IR (Schoeman, W. Moore, et. al.. 2018. 2017:17; Levin 2017:34), the WEF explains that, in future-proofing, it will be the very human capabilities of creativity, resilience and abstract thinking that will be in demand (2019). As this dissertation demonstrates, these human capabilities are paradigmatically acquired through experiential embodied ways of learning. These ways of learning must be explored and evaluated in order to capitalise on these future-forward learning opportunities, not prematurely ignored (Frayling 2015). This dissertation explores how Craft as embodied design Practice is at risk of being considered outdated and unnecessary but is actually a rich practice-based source of these very skills (Frayling 2015; Heick 2018). This dissertation explores a range of embodied “designerly ways of knowing” (Cross:2006) in the following studies:
• Niedderer, K. and K. Townsend (2014). Designing Craft Research: Joining emotion and knowledge.
• Seitamma-Hakkarainen, Groth, Huotilainen, Mäkelä, Hakkarainen (2014)
The Promise of Cognitive Neuroscience In Design Studies
• Groth. C (2015) Emotions in Risk Assessment and Decision-Making Processes During Craft Practice
• Groth, C. (2017). Making sense through hands: Design and craft practice analysed as embodied cognition
Since there are, as defined by Niedderer and Imani (2008) (in Schindler 2015) many kinds of tacit knowledge and differentiations can and must be made in terms of what these knowledges offer the knower, this dissertation aims to demonstrate that the haptic and the tacit – that is, the kinaesthetic and experiential dimensions of objects and the skilled practice of working with them - produce a multiplicity of embodied knowledges that could affect how design understanding might be adapted for sustainable future use, as demonstrated through the growth of work in relation to the neuroscience of embodied cognition (Seitamma-Hakkarainen et. al.: 2014) . In addition, this dissertation explores the use of craft practices in further future forward practices such as to ‘train’ certain kinds of Generative Artificial Intelligence and to improve the user-experience of Augmented Reality.