Guest Blog: James Perkins - Design and Deduction

James Doherty in Eventide

I go through the same process every time I make a new design. I begin with an empty space. Then I do my best imitation of Sherlock Holmes, and from this, a design emerges.

Perhaps I should explain myself. Sherlock Holmes once explained his process of deduction by remarking that ‘once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however unlikely, must be the truth’. I’m paraphrasing slightly, but so was he – Arthur Conan Doyle, a doctor as well as an author, was probably drawing on his scientific background when he came up with the idea, because it owes a lot to null theory, the basis of all scientific research.

In null theory, rather than seeking to prove a fact (apparently this is difficult to do), you work to disprove every possible alternative fact (apparently this is easier). Rather than proving a positive, you hem in the truth by disproving one thing after another until the space left for the truth to inhabit is so small, there could only be one thing in there. This is how scientific research is conducted; it’s how Sherlock Holmes solves crimes; and it’s how I make my work.