Helen O'Neil
Executive Director, Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and Member of the Australian Design Alliance
Friday, 3 September 2010 - Opera House, Sydney

This past year has seen designers, artists, architects and planners discussing a rare opportunity to put creativity at the heart of Australia's industry and sustainability policy making. The industry associations have been discussing how to make design an integral part of research and development in innovation policy.

Economists and business have a new focus on innovation and creativity as the pathway to prosperity and profits. At last (it seems) the values and capacities of artists, architects and designers are recognised - not as some luxury add-on, as nice-to-haves-if-affordable - but as the very drivers of growth and sustainability.

Public sector policymakers and non-profit businesses are also developing a new language about capacity to renew, innovate and create so as to realise the benefits of creative thinking and creative skills - the sorts of capabilities that employers across the economy want and that are part of the designer's everyday tool kit.

However as with any new idea entering the world of political and business rhetoric there is a danger that a great concept can descend into empty jargon and spin.

So it was important for this group of professional associations to talk today about real policy change - how to bring design skills, design thinking and the creative capacity of design professionals into manufacturing, service industries, communication services, and policy making - as well as identifying ways to effectively support Australia's considerable cluster of creative industries.

This requires finding common ground across an extraordinarily wide range of professions and industries, firmly anchored on a shared understanding of creativity through design as a way of managing and making new processes, products, experiences.

So designers are needed in business enterprises large and small.

But my task today is to argue that beyond this, we need to think about creating a base of new knowledge about design. Design Practice is vitally important but Design Research must also be fostered, funded and connected to the innovation system as:

• a rich exploration of design itself to make it better;
• a concerted effort to study, debate and build on the outcomes to date
• continuing experimentation and modelling of how to use design in the new information economy.

The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences is a membership association which works towards greater recognition of people, projects and organisations working in these areas. Alongside professional practitioner groups (some of who are also members of the Design Alliance) its members include many universities and faculties which undertake design research, and peak bodies from the creative arts and those like the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools who are deeply committed to bring Australian creativity and design to innovation. Some of Australia's leading design researchers are at this AdA launch today.

We see the need to develop the design disciplines themselves within our research institutions as we move designers into non-traditional businesses. The Centre for Research Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation at Queensland University of Technology has documented that already, designers work right across the Australian economy, in industry and public sector organisations. However with such a diffused group, their voice can be lost in the sometimes ferocious contest for attention in national policy making.

Design research centres in the universities are an essential exploratory ground for learning how to work in the new economy, and in reforming our service delivery. They are a focus point.

Because of their close connection to training and education they can quickly transfer new knowledge often more effectively than Government Departments and individual businesses.

This knowledge transfer, the Council believes, is the key to the transformation in Australian culture, industry and public sector. Observe, identify, learn, analyse and debate, process creatively and transfer.

What is design research doing in Australia today?

Some Australian states have already recognised the importance of design to their future. So we see universities and researchers working in teams in Queensland and Victoria tackling the problems of the contemporary world specifically focussed on utilising designers' skills. I don't want to particularly single out particular researchers and universities, but I must mention the Design Research Institute at RMIT University - also a member of the Council - because of its close engagement with Design Victoria over five or more years, and because of its insistence on trans disciplinary teams in tackling the complex problems before this country.

"The Institute (and I am quoting here) develops and funds a new transdisciplinary approach to design research in a terrain at the intersection of education, research and industry. It aims to:

• build a transdisciplinary design research capability and a community and to
• become internationally renowned for transdisciplinary research and expertise.

Transdisciplinary teams of researchers are formed from a diverse range of disciplines including aeronautical and chemical engineering, architecture, fashion, business and applied communications.

The research teams address new urban environments, creating healthy and supportive workplaces, constructing interactive spatial maps and archives, designing performance-enhancing sports garments and examining the role of art in public and private places"

So - welcome to the emerging world of Design Research.

The search for new knowledge of course is not concentrated in one city or institutions, and within the Council's membership I can also point to some strong work at Swinburne, and Melbourne University and several others right around the country.

The Council recently reviewed research projects funded through Australian Research Council grants in recent years.

We think there should be more design research funding, but already we see endorsement of design as a priority and area of quality research in health, education and planning areas.

Even in the technology and traditional science areas of research we noticed that the applicants for grants are beginning to use the language of design, while in Linkage grants - those that bring together industry partners with university based researchers - there is interest in exploring the development of useful, compelling applications which will draw on broadband distribution.

I should also mention, with thanks to the Council's design mapping committee and Ken Friedman in particular, that there is very important work on transferring design thinking, and design theory to business management. The Dean of UTS Business School Professor Roy Green has said he wants to incorporate design thinking in the MBA as a concrete way of helping business innovate and manage in a complex world.

Through the discussion which has led to the Australian Design Alliance, it was clear that there is a gap in national policy making, compared to the state level. And because of the importance of the national government in funding research and the universities this gap must impact our research quantity and overall quality.

There is some important national activity in the new Creative Industries Innovation Centre based at the University of Technology, Sydney and established as part of the Labor Party's arts policy platform for the 2007 election. It is working on a series of programs which can link design creatives with manufacturers and services industries, as well as beginning their core work of business advice to companies and partnerships which have arts, media and design creativity as their core work.

But we would like to see new programs to brief and educate business about the potential of design knowledge to their growth and development, perhaps through the Enterprise Connect programs.

We want more investment in research communications and dissemination so that Australia can benefit from and integrate its new knowledge into its economy and society.

We should be considering specific mention of design in our national research priorities, so that there is attention to the contribution of these disciplines to the so-called "wicked problems" the highly complex, interrelated, challenges facing us in the 21st century.

Then we might find we can deliver on the promise of the benefits of innovation and creativity.

It is hard work remaking business models and policy delivery systems that served us well in the past, but are rapidly dating. I come from a media background, so know these issues are more than urgent. But the information economy will demand creative response in every area.

Design research will help us get through that work. Because of its close connection to the arts and human creativity, it is very likely to enrich our life experience as well.

Here today we are calling attention to the gap in the national innovation system, and asking Australian government and national business to work on this as an urgent issue.

The states, the creative industries themselves and the researchers, all of which have already begun work on the challenges of a world where problem solving involves so many complexities and uncertainties, need our support, our investment and long term commitment.

 

Download the media release [PDF 458 kB]

See also: Australian Design Alliance

 

For more information, please contact:

Executive Director

Council of the Humanties, Arts and Social Sciences

Phone: +61 2 6201 2132

director [at] chass.org.au