Complexity through combination: an account of knitwear design
Design is an iterative process of generation and modification of solution proposals. Once a proposal is evaluated as being satisfactory, it is documented and communicated to those who will fabricate it. This view of design admits the notion of partial instantiation, allowing a design to develop from an initial conceptual scheme through gradual or part-wise instantiation. In other words, designers tend to work on one part of the design at a time.
Due to partial instantiation, the entire design process can be perceived as a decision cascade in which early decisions, set the context for subsequent ones. Each of these decisions are made by invoking a schema or mental model which is descriptive of the key characteristics that the solution must exhibit and the range of values acceptable for those key characteristics (Bartlett; Cole and Kuhlthau). According to Logie (1989), schemas are integrated by mental images of pre-existing solutions that are integrated in a structural whole.
Using these schemes, designers manage to make three sorts of decisions:
Selection of the elements they will work with. These elements can be interesting traits observed in pre-existing artifacts or relations between two or more traits in pre-existing artifacts.
Adaptation of the selected elements to the specific task. Adaptations can imply the mutation of selected elements; the combination of them with elements of artifacts from the same domain; or the combination of them with elements of artifacts from a different domain.
Spatial arrangement of the selected and adapted elements. The basic arrangement mechanisms are translation; reflection; rotation; scaling; distortion; truncation; repetition
Relation to my research:
Given that complexity arises not just from the number of possible combinations of a set of simple elements, but also from interactions among these elements, designers require tools for managing these “sources of inspiration”. GAs can help designers to efficiently select, adapt and arrange elements from pre-existing solutions.
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