Drawing diagrams in the sand : Reconciling tensions between innovative knowledge production for design practice versus peer-reviewed publication

My contribution to the conference theme of Knowledges Revisited/Students Perspective looks back at my research-based practice as a designer with 30 plus years of experience who has entered academia as a novice scholar after age 50. Only by reflecting on one's own transformation journey (Mezirow; Mertens, 2017) can one offer insights that may help build creative knowledge bridges as a cultural interface between practice, research, and social change. I identify three areas of tension in the interstitial spaces between basic and applied research, and use these to re-visit my scholarship and re-interpret my research context and aims for better fit with society's needs for sustainable development and decolonization.

One approach that seems promising is to use cognitive justice as a lens by which to approach research planning. Rooted in decolonial thought and attributed to development scholar Shiv Visvanathan (1997; 2005; 2021), cognitive justice promotes the recognition of a plurality of knowledge systems, and opens the door to incorporation of Indigenous ways of thinking (Yunkaporta, 2019) developed on the foundation of Nakata's Cultural Interface theory (Nakata, 1998; 2007) which seeks to reconcile incommensurable knowledge systems through identifying commonalities and points of overlap as a means to build bridges for innovation and creativity (Yunkaporta, 2009). I develop this thinking further in my reflective paper which seeks to reconcile the conflicts and tensions of practical knowledge production for innovation and design with the requirements and restrictions of publishing within the academy. Thus, I also respond to Gaver et al.'s call (2022) to "more openly embrace the potential for design research to be radically emergent and reflect this in the way we report and evaluate our work".