3132 research outputs found
Sort by
Tensions of Infrastructure Space: Revealing disconnections in an Eastern European special economic zone
Get PDFThis short paper presents the work-in-progress of research aimed at a meaningful transformation of a large-scale infrastructure space in Bulgaria. As part of an action research doctoral project, the paper explores the possibilities for the transformation of Trakia economic zone TEZ from an extractive operation into a space with local value. Starting from the ideological position that change is always possible, the research test how we can counteract the dominant global narrative of contemporary production from a local perspective.
The paper describes the historical development of the industrial zone, highlights how the complex-mix of actors design use and transform the spatial reality of TEZ, and presents three tensions that occur in the actual reality of TEZ. Those tensions are not isolated processes but are instead part of an ecosystem of ambitions, perceptions, and activities. Therefore, we need to employ a systemic understanding of tensions to produce long-lasting change. The presented questions in the paper seek to raise a debate about the nature of tensions, their conceptual frameworks, and possible action strategies for activating tensions thoughtfully
Synergetic Landscape
Get PDFThe gigamap is being developed in the Synergetic Landscapes unit of the Master of Architectural Design at the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University, UK. This gigamap is searching for synergy across an urban ecosystem. It relates different students designs of prototypes that are to support cross-species edible and habitable landscapes. That is engaged through DIY recipes that are encouraged through tokenisation via CO-DE|GT urban mobile application. Therefore, this work applies a systemic approach to urban environment performance for the future Post-Anthropocene communities and economies
Powers of Ten: Mapping systems-level gaps using the SX Canvas
No full textThe emergence of global policies and restrictions throughout the pandemic has only maximized the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment we live in and that we have experienced for decades; accelerating at the same time processes of cultural transformation and reinforcing the inequality gaps that have characterized developing countries, markedly conducted by neoliberal public policies.
Due to the multiplicity of critical scenarios that we face nowadays, it is essential for designers to accelerate the way we adopt and adapt thinking models and frameworks that allow us to visualize the interdependencies, causalities, and purposes presented within complex systems, to ideate potential interventions that enable systems-level changes.
Using the SX Canvas
During this workshop, participants use the Systemic Experience (SX) Canvas, a generative tool based on the soft systems methodology and designed to constantly ‘zoom in & zoom out’ of a wicked problem alternating both user and system-centric perspectives to understand an issue. This tool allows workshop attendees to strategically identify and visualize the elements, relationships, and the quality of interactions between a system and the experience of its actors, which generates dynamics with social, economic, cultural, and technological implications that could be considered to design intervention strategies through participatory processes amongst different kinds of stakeholders. In other words, the SX Canvas has been designed to accelerate the process of identifying the root causes behind a problem and potential leverage points by making explicit the relationships between both the system and its embedded human experiences. An example can be found at Utopías Líquidas (Spanish only).
Pre-work activity
Participants are asked to walk around their cities to locate and record (with video/photo) scenes of relevant systemic issues with both local and global implications. These visual records will be shared prior to the workshop to identify common topics that could be addressed during the session.
SX Canvas Mapping
Participants are split into small groups to map the elements and systemic experiences of a wicked problem selected by each group, using the SX Canvas’s sections:
Situation: Visual evidence that describes the situation of interest (e.g., a moment of a user journey, a process from the perspective of a user). Some questions during this sub-stage:
What moments are we observing? Why do we consider these moments as the most important? Do we recognize any pattern or similarity between the situation presented by another participant?
Is this situation too specific or can we consider it as part of a larger problem that is replicated in other contexts?
How relevant are these situations? How has it changed over time (e.g., considering the COVID-19 pandemic)? Do we have a way to represent this variation over time (e.g., comparing the situation with a photo from 2018 versus one from 2021)?
Circumstances: List of circumstances that contribute to producing the situation of interest (e.g., societal, or ecological issues). Some questions during this sub-stage:
What major events or moments are supporting this situation? Is there a concept or theory that has already classified these events (e.g., “social distancing”)?
What are the social, economic, and technological factors that are driving this situation to reproduce? Can we recognize some that are more difficult to change or have been happening for a long time in the same context?
Does the circumstance you noted change if we view it with a zoom-in or a zoom-out in space or time (e.g. from minutes to weeks, from individual to society)?
Actants: Network of actants involved or related to the described circumstances (e.g., institutions, users, employees). Some questions during this sub-stage
Which people and living beings are involved in the situations mentioned in the previous section?
How can we differentiate them by their level of influence and proximity to the main problem? Why? (e.g., friends are closer to the youth than the government since they have constant and direct communication with him).
Does the level of influence amongst actants change over time? Is there an actant that goes from the direct network to being part of the support network? (e.g., the friends abandon the young man and become just a community again)
Is there an actant that we are not considering? Is it possible that we are excluding someone because we are looking at the problem as external viewers? Is the existence of another network something that we can or have to investigate or validate?
Ideal relationships: Ideal/desired value exchange relationships/transactions between the actors and the mapped circumstances (e.g., emotions, transactions, etc.). Some questions during this sub-stage:
What is the ideal purpose that each of the listed actants should fulfil with each other? Can we represent this as a give-and-get interaction? (e.g., the police should give protection to the civilian population, the civilian population should offer respect to the regulation of public life)
What types of exchanges are most important to define the relationship between actants as “ideal”? Do we recognize various exchanges? Is there any more relevant and decisive than another? (e.g., economic transactions, material exchanges, supply & demand chain value, etc.)
Experiences: Reasons why the ideal relationships are not met, or, in other words, the gaps between the experience lived by the actants and the ideal relationship (e.g., pain points, needs, etc.). Some questions during this sub-stage:
What are the main reasons why the original purposes of the ideal exchange relationships between the actors are not fulfilled?
What is missing, is not fulfilled or is not achieved satisfactorily? Why? Is this gap decisive for expectations not being met? Is there any other influencing factor?
What criteria are we considering reassuring this is the gap that exists between the ideal and the real relationship? Is there something that we may be assuming or starting from some preconception?
Mental models and consequences: Implicit norms and consequences that are generated as a result of these experiences (e.g., mindsets, myths, etc.). Some questions during this sub-stage:
What are the implicit norms or mental models that we believe support and maintain the gaps that we have just described between how it should be and what the current experience is like?
What consequences, positive or negative, result from these norms? Is it possible to anticipate them or do we discover them until they affect the problem in the long term? How can we name them in a single word (e.g. “normalization”, “minimization”)?
How do these rules and consequences connect with the circumstances we mapped at the beginning of the activity?
Causal loop building
After using the SX Canvas to map their problem, participants are asked to identify patterns and dynamic interactions that could be connected to each other. Then, they will be required to map one causal loop that is embedded into their system map.
Exploring RSD10 themes
Breaks in scale: This workshop aims to offer practitioners an alternative method to easily integrate both macroscopic and microscopic perspectives into their projects. By using a framework that allows diverse stakeholders to discuss and confront their perception about a system and its embedded experiences, the SX Canvas represents an approachable option to generate system & user-centred visions and conversations while working with complex issues.
Collaboration and transdisciplinary working: We have tested the SX Canvas with stakeholders from the public and humanitarian sector that, despite their shared or common goals, had totally different backgrounds and levels of expertise compared to their peers. Using this framework as a conversational tool helps to set the stage for cross-disciplinary ways of working led by a design-driven process. Learnings and outcomes from this workshop will help participants identify opportunities to generate more efficiency and collaboration amongst their stakeholders and could be also considered for best practices as moderators in strategic design activities.
Workshop format
120 minutes | maximum of 15 participant
Education as a Transforming Practice: Preparing together for complex, sustainable futures
Get PDFOur current education systems do not adequately support students to learn how to deal with complex challenges and create together alternative practices aimed at sustainable futures. We have developed a design approach and repository for transforming practices (TP) in order to engage with the world in co-response-able ways. During the past 20 years, we have explored and transformed educational practices to enable situated self-directed and lifelong learning. In this paper, we explain our journey of transforming our education systems and how the five principles of TP have been guiding this process, i.e., complexity, situatedness, aesthetics, co-response-ability and co-development. We illustrate with examples from our own educational practices how TP can help transform current education systems into corresponding lifelong learning practices that support designers and participants in designing alternative complex, sustainable futures
Immunity Passports as Complex Systems: Applying systems approaches to explore needs, risks, and unintended consequences
Get PDFImplementing COVID-19 immunity certificates without careful consideration of user needs and human factors could put public health at risk, infringe on privacy and lead to societal inequalities. There are polarised and complex views among different stakeholders (including academic researchers, service providers and the public) about the feasibility and the ethical, safe, trusted and fair use of immunity certificates. Therefore, there is a clear need to understand the needs, unintended consequences, and risk of implementing immunity certificates before designing services around them. This understanding will prevent compromising human rights and civil liberties, and at the same time, help protect public health and return to normality. This paper presents the application of systems/service approaches as part of the IMMUNE project, a research project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). IMMUNE has investigated the design of services for immunity certificates in the UK. This research has generated recommendations meaningful to the post-pandemic systems/service design, emphasising the tensions and intertwinement of public health with everyday life
Storytelling for Systems Design: Embedding and communicating complex and intangible data through narratives
Get PDFOur research explores how storytelling can support complex systems thinking. In systems thinking, a major challenge is to communicate a large amount of data of complex systems and to give meaning to this data through expressing intangible aspects such as interpretation, intuition, purpose, mental bias, and uncertainty. This is key for systems thinkers to fully apprehend systems, but also for other stakeholders involved in the co-design process to easily access this complexity. There is a need for practical tools that embed in the systems design process the systems’ complexity associated with relevant intangible aspects. Narratives do have the potential to gather, embed, make understandable and memorable the complex and intangible data of systems. We propose several uses of systemic storytelling, an approach based on building parallel story arcs constructed on and/or connected by systems’ elements. Systemic storytelling combines logical analysis with an intuitive and empathetic comprehension of systems. This approach has benefits at several stages of the systems design process: to engage stakeholders and enable the sharing and capturing of their different perspectives, to effectively communicate systems insights, and to ideate on future systems. In this short paper, we describe the method principles and show three preliminary application examples
Troubling Care – A critical look at the systemic shift toward healthcare digitization
Get PDFAmid recognition that care is contentious and highly political, conscientious design in healthcare systems cannot simply work blindly toward what is thought to be ‘good care’. Systemic design must grapple with the inherent conflicting values in care. This paper works to ‘unsettle’ care by exploring the tensions amid the evolving landscape of the Norwegian healthcare system. We attempt to embody Haraway’s idea of “staying with the trouble” in a design process positioned within a systemic transition toward digitization in healthcare. Drawing on 14 months of fieldwork, we explore the contradictions and plurality of lived experiences in this context through textual and visual collages that intentionally juxtapose divergent values of care. This paper exposes an entanglement of troubles which include: knowing by measuring/experiencing through sensing; the situated view/the isolated view of the patient; and helping the dependent/coaching the independent. This research highlights that one important way of caring in systemic design might be to hold on to the troubles in the thick present, rather than reconciling or re-framing to solve emerging either/or tensions
Cross-sensory Photographs for Accessible Art Experiences
Get PDFIn an era where digital technologies can transform traditional art experiences to create accessible interactions, art institutions remain ocularcentric in nature. This preferred, established approach to the visual sense creates a barrier for those who are blind or visually impaired, preventing access to social inclusion, cultural participation and learning, emotional regulation, well-being, as well as many other intrinsic and extrinsic benefits that art can provide. In the last decade, the trend of cross-sensory art has been implemented into galleries to answer the call for more accessible cultural art interactions and accessibility. Incorporating more than one sensory modality to convey information, cross-sensory art produces other equivalent sensory responses, allowing visitors to connect with the art not just through vision but also through touch, sound, or scent. While this cross-sensory art approach has been applied to many forms of traditional art such as sculpture and paintings, it has been applied only rarely to the photographic medium. This MRP’s investigation covered photographic discourse, cross-sensory technology, participatory practices, and the neuroscience behind cross-sensory perception to explore the possibilities for an expanded sensorium in photography. The aim of this research is to provide photographers, artists, and cultural institutions with the knowledge to create and include multi-sensory and accessible photographic experiences into their works and exhibitions
Cybernetic Interaction: A Cybernetics-inspired exploration of audience participation
Get PDFCybernetic theory and interactivity have much in common, including human interrelationships between modern technology and how they define the whole interactive process. This thesis project explores the concepts of cybernetics and a possible way of engaging remote participants in interactive art. It leads to a contemplative future direction for cybernetics-inspired interactive artworks. By employing the methodology of Research Through Design (RTD), this thesis project develops a series of related supporting experiments and a social media-based interactive prototype that utilizes a machine learning model as a case study is developed to demonstrate the research and concludes with a discussion of identifying the interaction and the potential way of engaging participants. Overall this thesis describes an interactive tweeting experience not only focuses exclusively on the remote participants but also includes other audiences in a different site
Pre Braille Implementation into Early Education: Tactile Activities to Introduce Braille Concepts to Kindergartners
Get PDFThis study investigates the importance and affordances of implementing pre braille activities in a kindergarten classroom, regardless of whether students have sight or have sight loss. We question what tools and/or support are needed to conduct greater, inclusive-based lessons in the classroom, and how awareness about the braille writing system could be introduced.
Semi-structured interviews and co-creation sessions were the methods used to gather information, in addition to the traditional literature review. Sessions were conducted with thirteen participants. Through listening and learning from a community of experts, teachers and parents, noted areas of support and needs were incorporated into the design process and discovery of design opportunities. The designed objects foster inclusive teachings, collaboration, and communication between students with all abilities.
Our analysis shows a strong correlation between pre braille activities and kindergarten classroom teaching. Pre braille activities work to build two-handed coordination, finger sensitivity, light touch, dexterity and mobility, all important for reading braille, a tactile writing system.
We propose that integrating multiple modes of tactile engagement in the kindergarten classroom will increase interest in pre braille and the braille writing system. This is especially important for those who later need to learn formal braille. The designed objects, a pouch fostering multiple modes of tactile engagement and an activity prompt system, act as inspiration pieces, allowing students and teachers to co-create activities in the classroom