This practice-led design study expands the image of the designer-researcher pursuing an individually framed project and employing self-reflective methods. By inviting other practitioners to explore shared modes of ‘thinking through making,’ the author illustrates what happens when the boundaries of one’s creative practice are socially and materially reconfigured.

The result is a novel approach to investigating how individuals and things become entangled in collaborative and distributed design situations, providing adequate tools to navigate this entangled space from within and maintain analytical clarity.

Thinking with People and Pots offers a mind-opening perspective for anyone aiming to integrate practice and research. Through the lens of three pottery-based design experiments staged to provoke unanticipated forms of sociomaterial negotiation, the study invites readers to interrogate established research methods and second-guess preconceived ideas about practice.