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

Foucault (1977, p.113-138) discusses the idea of a ‘transdiscursive position’ -
those who are initiators of discursive practices, not just of individual texts.
Fundamental to this study, is the notion of cross-disciplinarity as a means to
make meaningful evaluations of a new order of object across domain-specific
boundaries. We have already seen in Christiane Paul’s essay ‘Fluid Borders: The
Aesthetic Evolution of Digital Sculpture’ (1999) that a new sense of disciplinary
boundary shifting and hybrid art forms have been part of the discourse
surrounding the activity of practitioners seeking to re-examine object making
using computer-based design and fabrication tools (see section 2.3). This
section of the review looks at the nature of how the use of design computing
might let us look again at the nature of a practice driven by these technologies.
If we suggest that this presents a new territory and the potential hybridity
between conventional subject domains we must explore specifically how this
might occur and what implications it might have.
2.8.1 Modes of knowledge production
In ‘The new production of knowledge’ published in 1994 Michael Gibbons and
his co-authors introduced the notion of mode 2 research, which is newly
emerging, context-driven, problem-focused and interdisciplinary knowledge
production. This he and his colleagues distinguished from traditional mode 1
research, which is academic, investigator-initiated and discipline-based
(Gibbons et al, 1994).
Gibbons, et al categorise three types of research beyond standard disciplinarity.
These are: ‘multi’, ‘inter’ and ‘trans’ disciplinarity. Multidisciplinary research is
characterised by the autonomy of the various disciplines involved whose
theoretical structures are not changed by the new work. This can be viewed as
cross-disciplinary cooperation within which the different disciplinary
perspectives are maintained. Interdisciplinary research is characterised by the
explicit formulation of discipline-transcending theoretical structures such as
terminology or a common methodology. This can be viewed as crossdisciplinary
cooperation within which a common framework is shared by the
different disciplines in relation to their individual themes. Transdisciplinary
research is based on a common theoretical understanding accompanied by a
mutual interpenetration of disciplinary epistemologies. This can be viewed as
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