Fringe Festival In Vitro

Having attended the Emerging Technologies workshop as a documentarian, I seek to make sense of how technology may be used to shape the interactions between people, by studying the captured affect of the workshop. The quantitative, qualitative and photographic documentation and analysis of the participants' engagement with the activities will evidence the emotional atmosphere of the workshop.

A theorised limitation of the workshop was that participants, who have not practiced empathising with others or inanimate artefacts in an exploratory research setting, may find it difficult to engage with the activities. To evaluate this theory, I embedded a sports scientists, with no prior experience of participating in design research, into the workshop. The sports scientist was observed to be actively engaged with the workshop activities and enthusiastic to connect with the fellow participants. This observation was confirmed by the sports scientist, post-workshop, who acknowledged that they understood and appreciated the speculative and collective nature of the workshop activities when exploring ideational concepts such as the reimagining of digital cities. Similarly, the sports scientist indicated that the workshop has inspired them to discover how design research methods may be utilised in their field of work.

While it was predicted that the facilitators of the workshops would model behaviours, through demonstrating the selection, embodiment and making of a technology, Robbie and Mathias chose to exclusively offer participants a verbal description of the activities prior to their commencement. This provided the participants with the self governance to embed individual interests and research methods into the activity. Most participants enjoyed the playful freedom that was offered to them however, some participants found the boundless potential of the activity outcomes unsettling. One participant sought out the workshop facilitator to validate their technology embodiment during the exploratory activity. The workshop facilitator firstly encouraged the participant to share what their chosen technology was and how they believed it to see the world. The workshop facilitator then prompted further consideration of the selected technology prior to reassuring the participant by demonstrating what their chosen technology was and how they ascertained its perspective. This activity modelling emerged exclusively in response to the participants’ engagement with the workshop, ensuring that optimal creativity and interpretation materialised from the ambiguous tasks.

The photographs taken in vivo capture how the presence of constructive materials and exploratory activities shaped the experience of the participants. The method of photodocumentation explored the framing of affective subject matter through people and interactions.

The prominent emotions captured throughout the workshop were curiosity, concentration and joy. These sentiments were communicated through the facial expressions and body language expressed by the participants. The presence of curiosity was noted from when participants first entered the workshop space to see an array of making materials laid out before them. This curiosity was then fostered by the workshop facilitators, as they withheld the activity plan from the participants, cultivating an intrigue as to how one activity may evolve into another. The retention of a workshop schedule, by the Robbie and Mathias, allowed participants to deeply immerse themselves in an immediate activity without the distraction of anticipating future events. This was successfully evidenced through the facilitators struggling to draw specific exercises to a close as the participants were so intensely engaged with the workshop activities. Concentration was notably captured during the first speed dating activity, as the acting participant exhibited a considered and empathetic embodiment of a technology. Furthermore, the observing participant demonstrated attentiveness in response, as they interpreted what the portrayed technology may be. This mutual focus between participants inspired an atmosphere of respect, as the workshop members established that all contributions were worthy of appreciation. As the workshop was designed from a methodology of play, instances of joy frequently erupted throughout the activities. The lively and accessible nature of the workshop activities welcomed the exploration of emotional reactions in response to the tasks and participant outcomes. This was notably evidenced during the presentation of the mutual friends, where a participant had developed a hanging light switch to represent safety however, this component was ironically misinterpreted as a hanging noose. The humours feedback provided the designer with a palatable insight as to how their communication of the technology was lost in cultural subtleties. Additionally, the presence of fun and playfulness released the participants from the archetypal design workshop constraints of generating literal design solutions, to instead developing highly speculative and insightful design outcomes.

The documentation of comfort finding in arbitrary objects throughout the workshop suggests that reassurance, in unfamiliar settings, may be found from engaging with artefacts of recognisable presences (such as an object's form or texture). Furthermore, this brings into question whether individuals, such as the workshop participants and facilitators, may instinctively embed memories and emotions into inanimate artefacts. This dormant connection to material relics may then only be aroused when presented with an accessible encounter in a fostering environment. For example, the workshop facilitator's interest in embracing the tennis ball emerged when presented with an opportunity to interact with an array of materials (the encounter) during a formal introduction to a playful and experimental design workshop (the environment).

Participant interconnectedness was generated from the workshop activities and was captured through a communal engagement with the tasks, instances of storytelling and shared physical interactions. As all participants had volunteered to attend the event for educational purposes, a common intention of seeking to learn from the workshop facilitators, activities and fellow participants was established. This intent translated to a demonstration of sincere engagement with the workshop, allowing the event to be mutually beneficial to both the workshop facilitators and participants. Instances of storytelling was present during the workshop as both a method used by the workshop facilitators and as a organically occurring phenomenon between participants. The workshop facilitators prompted the participants to use storytelling to empathise with existing and speculative technology presences. Similarly, the workshop participants used material and symbolic prompts to share memories and build rapport with one another. This facilitated rapid relationship building between all members of the workshop, offering participants with a sense of belonging to and within the workshop. Shared physical interactions emerged when the technology couples were prompted to construct a mutual friend. Contact was frequently made during the structural assembly of the technology couple's artefacts and when multiple participants reached for a single material. These instances of connection prompted blithe emotional reactions and acknowledging spoken dialogues, enhancing the participant's awareness for one another during the workshop.

The frequency of empathetic encounters was recorded and relatively ranked throughout the workshop. It was correctly hypothesised that the participants would develop a rapport for the technologies embodied and generated throughout the workshop however, empathy towards digital cities was not discernably observed from the participants.

The first quarter of the workshop captured a moderate to low level of shared empathy from the workshop members. It is proposed that this may have been a result of the workshop introduction formalities and any anticipation felt by the workshop members towards the evening's activities. A highlight of empathy from the first quarter was when Robbie shared the story of the finding of a penguin egg. This narrative communicated the productive potential of compassion and interconnectedness, which encouraged the workshop participants to empathise with the protagonist.

The second quarter of the workshop, when the speed dating activity occurred, was when the most communal empathy was captured.

The third quarter of the workshop captured a low level of shared empathy between workshop participants. It is suggested that minimal empathetic encounters occurred as participants were engrossed with creatively constructing the mutual friend, in comparison to reflectively considering what this artefact may feel or how others may experience the artefact.

The final quarter of the workshop captured a moderate to high level of empathy as the workshop participants speculated what attributes their made mutual friend may posses. As the participants collectively presented who their mutual friend is and how they interrelate with their embodied technology, empathy was generated for the personified and speculated technology.

Mapping of where behaviour and attention centralise throughout the workshop.

One way eye contact was mapped by a green line, from the participant towards their direction of interest.

Shared eye contact was mapped by a green line between engaged participants.

The space occupied by the workshop participants was mapped through a back, rectangular box.

The mapping of behaviours demonstrated that physical activity increases the engagement of participants in the commissioned tasks. However, increased physical activity results in workshop members being geographically decentralised, compromising the communality of the participants. Consequently, the focus of the participants then shifts from one another to activity processes and outcomes.

The process of documentation and analysing the Emerging Technologies workshop has been incredibly beneficial towards making sense of the Close to Home project.

The emotional expression, familiarity and relationship building captured through the photodocumentation of the workshop, highlighted the potential for playful physical prompts to deliver communal interconnectedness. This observation was validated by the participants, as they reflected to acknowledge their allure towards materials and technologies with active and engaging presences. As the Close to Home project seeks to utilise an interactive, physical artefact to stimulate storytelling between those aging in place and their supporting community, the insights gathered from the emerging technologies workshop will prove invaluable when validating the research outcome and designing user interaction.

From evaluating when empathy was most prevalent, it was discerned that participants exhibited compassion when provided with an opportunity and motive to embody the perspective of another. The opportunity, provided by the speed dating workshop activity, generated an emotional environment where compassion was collectively sought, the motive. The characteristics and values identified by the participants, through empathetic embodiment, proved to be highly introspective. The intuitive and revealing personal alignment with the technologies embodied and generated, confirms the potential for an introspective analysis to be conducted through provocative physical presences. This theory forms the foundation for the Close to Home project, as those aging in place will communicate with their support community through their interactions they have with their home. From continuing to engage with empathetic research practices, I endeavour to produce works which consider and reflect the unique experiences of those aging in place and their support community. Additionally, as I prepare to enter my career as a design researcher, generating empathy to acknowledge and foster an environment of understanding towards a design intervention's audience will be central to my design research methodology.

It was rewarding to ascertain that the workshop activities were beneficial and accessible to all participants committed to evolving their knowledge and perspectives. This highlighted the workshop’s invaluable potential for design research to be utilised as a generative tool for engaging with people. The bringing of people into design, as a social process, will see enhanced design outcomes delivered, as the design audience will be empowered to communicate their insights when the value of their personal agency is realised and acknowledged. Moving forwards, as I professionally establish myself as a design researcher, I will seek to facilitate workshops which are welcoming to all participants who are passionate and obliging to metamorphose their ways of knowing. The emerging technologies workshop has evidenced that by engaging workshop members in open-ended, playful activities, participation is optimised and insightful outcomes are yielded. Therefore, interpretative, highly-accessible activities will be utilised in future workshop environments to prompt the development of provocative and speculative results.

As an opportunity to further the Emerging Technologies workshop, it is suggested that empathy may have been generated towards cities by a supplementary collective dialogue activity. It is proposed that this may have been delivered through all embodied and speculative technologies communicating with one another in a communal setting, alike how various technologies communicate with one another within a digital city. Participants may then have been ostracised from the embedded communication channels to observe the mass technological dialogue. This may have prompted the participants to consider how their individualistic perspective of an embodied / speculative technology may be expanded to a communal level.