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MFA Design
UC Davis Department of Design
Spring 2022
glenda drew (chair)
Susan Avila
Tom Maiorana
James Housefield
I’m Trace — welcome to Deshonesty. This body of work explores how we capture and tell stories about design, and the effect those stories can have on us. Deshonesty is an evolving practice that can take many forms, most of which have yet to be invented. Here, you’ll find:
In accordance with Deshonesty’s ethos of transparency and inclusivity, I have made this thesis publicly available in its entirety — published here as a living, interactive collection of documents. With a broad audience in mind, I’ve also tried to keep the language slightly more accessible than you might find in standard academic fare. I’ll add to this work as it makes sense, and I’ll indicate any significant updates in the change log below.
Rather than a singular research paper with a beginning, middle, and end, Deshonesty is a universe of interrelated inquiries, each existing within its own little methodological galaxy. It can be read “cover to cover” like a traditional thesis, but it also rewards haphazard skimming and disorderly perusal. Enjoy at your own pace!
Public scholarship is important to me, and I warmly welcome your feedback and participation — I’ve made this thesis available to all under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You can do anything with this stuff except use it to sell things. (You wouldn’t get far with that anyway.) If you’d like to cite, critique, deploy, or build on anything I’ve done here, full citation info is provided below. I would love to hear about what you find useful (or perplexing) — please drop me a line!
Title: Deshonesty
Author: Tracy Manuel
Type: Master of Fine Arts thesis
University: University of California at Davis
Place: Davis, CA USA
Initially published: June, 2022
<aside> 🏆 2022 Savageau Award in Design UC Davis Department of Design Deshonesty (Hyperallergic, UCD Dateline)
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<aside> 🎤 Transformative Teaching 2022 — presentation + short paper Architecture Media Politics Society Documentation for Designers: media-based self-reflection tools for undergraduate students
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<aside> 🎤 DRS 2022 Bilbao — presentation + short paper Design Research Society Documenting new design ontologies
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<aside> 🏆 2021-22 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award UC Davis Graduate Studies Documentation for Designers
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<aside> 🏆 2021 Faculty Choice Poster Award UC Davis Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference Documentation for Designers
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November 18, 2022 8:55pm
Adding in details for presentation at Amps Transformative Teaching (paper forthcoming).