This suitcase was submitted for my doctorate in design and management at RMIT University. The work explored ways to use design tools and methods to foster collaborative practices in organizational contexts. This thesis-as-suitcase is however not a simple container but a complex system that incorporates textual and non-textual content complementing and amplifying each other using metaphors as converging points. The suitcase and the travel-related artefacts it contains embody the metaphor of journey with the meta-understanding that the notion of metaphor itself is linked to the idea of travelling. The thesis-as-suitcase metaphorically carries readers from one place to another, so they can appreciate the journey that I undertook in the last few years of my doctorate journey; experience my proposition and create new ones; and travel in the space between ideas and artefacts.

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In the thesis-as-suitcase non-textual elements offered me the chance to convey concepts on sensorial, emotional, and intellectual levels that a traditional format could not communicate. These non-textual artefacts represented embodied conceptual arguments that could transfer ideas and sensations when physically handled. Thanks to the inclusion of non-textual elements the reader is in the position to unfold and clarify concepts on different levels; expand the thesis content beyond that which words can describe/define; and appreciate the tools described in the thesis by touching, experiencing and playing with them as well as reading about them.

 

In the thesis-as-suitcase non-textual elements range in their typology and in how they contribute to the research process. These object types and their purposes include:

• illustration-objects – to show the reader how the tools discussed in the thesis look, feel and operate;

• trigger-objects – to elicit readers' responses and create communication via interactive activities with both researcher and future readers;

• CDs – to expand the thesis content by adding new appendix-like material;

• found objects – included in anomalous contexts and linked with ambiguous material to foster curiosity and wondrous experiences;

• game-like elements – with related tasks asking readers to play so they can reiterate issues discussed in the text;

• sculptural elements – to amplify the thesis content and the experiences described in the text;

• gifts to the reader – to generate a sense of bonding with the researcher and with future readers;

• enabling-items – to assist readers in navigating through the thesis; and

• ambiguous objects – that due to their ambiguity are left for readers to make sense.