SUPER STUDIO: CLARITY AND AMBIGUITY IN PROBES

Abstract

This article describes how Super Studio, an annual design class given at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, has used cultural probes not only to bring clarity to the research object, but also to shape a pre-design research space through leveraging several types of ambiguity. The research model strengthens the analysis and interpretation of data from probes, while fostering design projects that reflect the daily realities (and the desires) of the population studied. Further, it provides a specific means for reconfiguring data as design interventions through the exhibition format. As the article's case study illustrates, the fluidity of the Super Studio research model is useful to the practice of designers as they assimilate the research into the design language and then apply it concretely.