Tangible participation

This rapport consists of a seminar paper from a 2012 CERTEC seminar with Per Linde from MEDEA/MU as invited opponent. It presents an exploration into program-based constructive de-sign research elaborating on the dynamics between a programme at large and its design experiments. As such it suggests ways for a programme to connect designerly actions suitable for the field with a take on the world; i.e. not only visions for and views on a design space to be explored, but also a take on knowledge construction tightly coupled to a will and motivation to participate in the field; in casu a pedagogical practice. Furthermore, the text introduces key notions such as Digital animism / væsen, Tangible participation, and Extended materiality, as well as give early descriptions of design artefacts and interventions in the pedagogical practice of Snoezelen

Tangible participation - Engaging designs and design engagements in pedagogical praxes

This dissertation contributes to three fields within design research: - Explorations of a design space related to aesthetics of Tangible Interaction, which have led to a set of design imaginations as well as perspectives on salient design qualities. - Views on and a designerly example of knowledge construction related to Research through Design as well as to programmatic approaches to design research. - Rich and reflected examples of how to co-develop design and pedagogy in the field of profound disabilities. Through the programme Tangible Participation the research seeks and expresses alternatives by critical questioning and imaginations of change. Such alternatives are articu¬lated in a set of designs making the possible present. These designs have been part of collaborative question¬ing and imaginations in a long-term engagement with pedagogical praxes. Through this engagement, design and pedagogy have co-developed; and from this, the programme has matured and collaborative ways of criticality has been developed. The matured programme presented in this dissertation entails seven designs built and used in the pedagogical praxes as well as evolved framings able to generatively address a design space: a tangible interaction designer’s palette, a sensuous perspective, a compositional principle and potentials of tangibles for participation

Ideation and ability

We present an approach and examples of design artefacts from on-going work on how children with profound disa-bilities can participate in formative design processes. It involves the pedagogical use of digitally interactive mul-tisensory environments. Rather than mimic participatory design from more symmetrical contexts, we address po-tentials in the situation at hand as well as the key issues of voice by proxy and thinking in deficits. Our design artefacts draw on the rich heritage of tangible design experiments cherishing the generative qualities embodied in human actions. The inspiring actions of the children take centre stage in cross disciplinary design efforts by means of a) long term involvement, where b) designerly understandings of qualities emerge through ‘questioning’ by series of truly interactive yet deliberately basic tangible design artefacts, c) staging extensive video coverage of the children’s action as the pivotal point of ideation, and d) an open mind-set thinking in potentials and working by wonderings rather than fixed judgments

Towards programmatic design research

The notion of design research entails research where design practice forms part of the knowledge production. Based on our characterization of the nature of design, we propose to conceptualize this kind of research as programmatic design research. Two ongoing PhD projects in interaction design are presented as examples of programmatic research processes, highlighting issues to do with the virtues and qualities of the processes, the interplay of optics and engagements in a hermeneutical dynamic, and the production of takeaways for the academic community

Visual Materiality : crafting a new viscosity

A re-materialisation of the visual in terms of viscosity is provided by this article. The argument is grounded in practical design processes from on-going research in the integration of archival material into AR/MR environments (Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality). This is an approach to emergent materiality not because new materials are invented but because existing visual, digital and traditional craft materials are re-configured. The archival material we use for this project is visual rather than textual, and it portrays moving bodies. The re-materialisation happens through experimentation with materials, affect and perception. Visual materialities, in this case viscosity, rely on a phenomenological approach to vision whereby design materials cannot be separated from the active perception of the designers, the participants and even the materials themselves. This article outlines the final iteration of the AffeXity project where glass was used as a design material to enhance viscous materiality. Viscosity is experienced as depth, layers, stickiness, reflections, motion, and an affective quality of dreaminess or the passage of time

Visual Materiality : crafting a new viscosity

A re-materialisation of the visual in terms of viscosity is provided by this article. The argument is grounded in practical design processes from on-going research in the integration of archival material into AR/MR environments (Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality). This is an approach to emergent materiality not because new materials are invented but because existing visual, digital and traditional craft materials are re-configured. The archival material we use for this project is visual rather than textual, and it portrays moving bodies. The re-materialisation happens through experimentation with materials, affect and perception. Visual materialities, in this case viscosity, rely on a phenomenological approach to vision whereby design materials cannot be separated from the active perception of the designers, the participants and even the materials themselves. This article outlines the final iteration of the AffeXity project where glass was used as a design material to enhance viscous materiality. Viscosity is experienced as depth, layers, stickiness, reflections, motion, and an affective quality of dreaminess or the passage of time

Visual Materiality : crafting a new viscosity

A re-materialisation of the visual in terms of viscosity is provided by this article. The argument is grounded in practical design processes from on-going research in the integration of archival material into AR/MR environments (Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality). This is an approach to emergent materiality not because new materials are invented but because existing visual, digital and traditional craft materials are re-configured. The archival material we use for this project is visual rather than textual, and it portrays moving bodies. The re-materialisation happens through experimentation with materials, affect and perception. Visual materialities, in this case viscosity, rely on a phenomenological approach to vision whereby design materials cannot be separated from the active perception of the designers, the participants and even the materials themselves. This article outlines the final iteration of the AffeXity project where glass was used as a design material to enhance viscous materiality. Viscosity is experienced as depth, layers, stickiness, reflections, motion, and an affective quality of dreaminess or the passage of time

Inclusion Through Design - Engaging Children with Disabilities in Development of Multi-Sensory Environments

This paper is based on outcomes from SID (http://sid.desiign.org), a three-year project where twenty-four children with profound intellectual disabilities visited three MSE centres. SID's aim was to develop and demonstrate the potentials of interactive design in and for MSE practices together with the children and the pedagogical staff. In the project, we developed artefacts that were designed to be part of and mediate the explorations rather than to become end products. The designs were explored by the children at the MSE centres and further developed depending on what the children did and what seemed relevant to them. There are few documented examples in the literature where children with profound developmental disabilities are involved as active participants in design activities. We present and discuss the participants' roles in SID's research and development process based on experiences and material from the project, with a hope that this paper can serve as an example of what such a development process might look like and as inspiration for future initiatives