What Crumpling a Polychronic Materials map can reveal … is a reflection on the Research Through Design Conference that was held at Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK in 2015. It focuses on the issues involved in offering a design methodology as a collaborative experience within the environs of a research through design conference. In considering the use of an interactive research exercise, such as crumpling maps of materials and time to communicate tacit knowledge and the process of designing, this reflection explores some of the constraints involved both in communicating in conferences and the process of research through design itself.