ABSTRACT
The ‘Emergent Objects Design and Performance’ research cluster provides a platform for the inter-disciplinary exploration of the relationship between design and performance. The proposal for the cluster identified that although various disciplines within the spectrum of design have developed knowledge and theories within their areas, there is a perceived need for a more overarching concept of designing that is cross-disciplinary. Ideas on and examples of working practices, collaboration, theoretical frameworks and common key terms were exchanged in order to begin mapping the basis for researching the design/performance relationship. One of the cluster’s points of convergence is that play sets the foundation for fruitful relationships between design and performance. Mock-ups and stand-ins provide means of modelling and investigating the way objects perform in space. Basic to the work of the cluster is the translation of performance knowledge into terms understandable to people working in design and vice versa.
