Many of the motives constraining design practice do not, on the face of it, have intentional causes. Practices of design can be fashioned, for instance, by an economically indifferent government, by cultural constraints upon reasoning, by technological advance, by the vicissitudes of fashion and a myriad of other functions. In order for entities such as 'government policy' to be given a causal role in a designer's practice some inferences about how such an agency might find its way into the designer's activity, without necessarily implying their self-conscious deployment by the designer, need to be found. This is the role of the investigator. This paper represents design research as the anticipation of motives assigned to practice in art and design.