John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

4.5.8 Summary of public exhibition and symposium results
The researcher developed a curatorial framework for a themed public exhibition
exploring art and design practice using computer-based design and fabrication
tools. A number of the participants from the exhibition were also invited to
present at a symposium. These events offered opportunities to capture data
from practitioners that use computer-based design and fabrication tools from
across the 3D disciplines of art and design. They also allowed the researcher to
survey existing works, explore future trends, gather audience and peer
responses and engage the broader community of interest around the field of
enquiry. The critical, contextual review suggested the introduction of new
technologies can disrupt and therefore change the way practitioners perform
tasks. The exhibition and symposium granted the researcher primary access to
diverse practitioners with established digital practices. This afforded the
opportunity to make comparisons and gather insights into key aspects of their
relationships with the tools they use and the objects they create. This
contributed to a general theoretical understanding of the adoption of these
technologies by practitioners and allowed for the construction of an indicative
snapshot of the field of enquiry at the present time.
4.6 Development of analytical models
These models were developed out of and incorporated back into the critical
review of designed objects. They were also used to frame the work conducted
throughout the study in a broader context.
4.6.1 Technology adoption models
The researcher applied the phasing developed from the Apple Classrooms of
Tomorrow (ACOT) project (see section 3.6.1) as an indication of the level to
which computer-based design and fabrication technologies have been integrated
within a given practitioner’s practice. This model is an evolutionary model
divided into five phases, i.e. Entry, Adoption, Adaptation, Appropriation and
Invention. This model has been used as a method of analysis in the critical
review of one hundred and forty-eight designed objects produced by a wide
array of practitioners (see section 4.2.1). These were applied as three indicative
stages: ‘Entry-Adoption’, ‘Adaptation’ and ‘Appropriation-Invention’. In
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