“You can always find a needle in a haystack, if you have the time
of patience and a nostalgia for the lost needle. There’s little
chance on the contrary of finding a straw of hay in the hay of the
stable. […] I know of no other figure of hope than this straw that
sparkles alone in the indifferent, the mixed, the ordinary, the
disorderedness of the stable.
[…]
My hope does not lie in that straight route, a monotonous and
dismal method which newness has fled from the beginning; my
hope is the interrupted path, broken, drawn at random, at every
halt…”
—Michel Serres, Rome
This seminar seeks to apply and practice with a general framework for approaching research methods as technics. Upon completing this course, participants should be able to better situate their own method(s) within those applied by fellow researchers or practitioners in their own field as well as those in other fields who share the same object of research. The skills developed here will be particularly useful, not only for one’s own dissertation, but also for writing for and applying to academic conferences or journals, as well as peer-reviewing and situating the methods employed by other researchers. The language of instruction and of semester work will be in English.
The course will be organized around bi-weekly discussions and in-class exercises. Participants will read a selection of published studies or scientific articles applying different research methods employed in architecture and urbanism. Particular attention will be given to the way in which methods are employed to ‘process’, in a formalized and systematic way, a ‘reservoir’ of data (or accounts, axioms, texts, etc.). Rather than focus on methodology—the conventions by which particular methods are to be adopted and employed—the seminar will address how the methods are applied in different research contexts as technical tools of discovery. The seminar will also be devoted to short in-class exercises by which participants will practice communicating in writing about different aspects of their research project, which are often required for writing abstracts or grant applications (e.g. problematic or object of research, state of the art, methods, social or scientific relevance).
Semester Work
Coursework consists primarily of bi-weekly readings of scientific articles proposed by the instructor and of in-class exercises. The exercises will be conducted mostly in class, with advance preparation sometimes requested of the participants.
This seminar is a companion course to Technics and Invention: Research Methods in Architecture and Urbanism. Although participation in this lecture course is not obligatory, the two are complimentary, with weekly lecture topics corresponding to the methods covered in the seminar course. Each course will alternate weeks and be held in the evenings. Language of discussion and semester work will be in English.
