Final Project Introduction and Kick-off

For the final project of the Digital Prototyping course, the overall goal is to “generate knowledge in and through a speculative design approach, utilizing digital materials and prototyping techniques around a theme of Sustainable Development.”

The project should be sincere and thoughtful about sustainability, and has the “potential” to positively contribute to society. We are required to work in relation to one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the project, we must implement Discursive design strategies (Tharp & Tharp) <<Discursive Design: refers to inquiry that takes materials, media and articulations of designing as its core concern. Here the focus is on how research moves into the speculative.>> to remind and increase awareness, inform, and offer a new understanding to the concept trajectory.

Because the design should be a speculative approach, instead of creating a design to solve a problem, we must bring something up that incites thought and conversation, provides information so the audience can see how the problem really affects them.

The project should also have an element of fun and lightness, instead of inflicting a feeling of doom. The goal is to provoke a reaction from people!

The goal this week is to dig deeper into one particular development goal, and throughout the weeks, raise awareness about an everyday practice and suggest alternative social future, etcetera. Also develop a user-group, establish to whom this awareness is targeted towards. The outcome can be provocative, even controversial.

What are we creating?

Design an object(s), scenarios, stories, graphic design, logo, text, props. And communicate those via video, logos, copy, design guide, we can even create something big. The object should be discursive, and not functional (Heyer, C.).

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For the kick-off week, which I couldn’t participate during private matters, the group settled together and discussed, those who were not present were able to take part in decision-making thanks to the group trying to be inclusive when it came to settling a development goal (though it was determined later on in the group contract that those who are present get to decide and move forward with ideas). The group decided on a development goal then proceeded to create a mood-board with resources.

By the end of this session (the only one this week), we’ve chosen a goal after pondering on SDG goals 15, 12, and 9. The final decision was chosen to be Goal 14, Preserving Life under the Sea. The reasons why we chose this goal was:

• It’s the least explored area
• There is a massive amount of unknown materials, creatures, and infrastructure hidden under water
• Should focus on making the implicit things under the sea explicit
• Water as a source: this topic relates to the drinking water problem, not so much this specific SDG (more Goal 6)

We also asked some speculative questions :

• What would happen if we privatized the sea?
• People buy pieces of the moon, why not the corals?
• Tied to nature through privatization: people seem to care about their small gardens but not about the rainforests, and the ocean.

Brainstorming prior to supervision next week:

The issues life under water is facing that we have noted down :

1. The adverse effects of overfishing
2. Growing ocean acidification
3. Worsening coastal eutrophication (= the excessive loading of water with nutrients, dissolved substances containing the elements P, N and Si needed by organisms for growth ). In the Baltic Sea, algal blooms and a dead sea floor are becoming increasingly common.
4. Global trends point to continued deterioration of coastal waters due to pollution and eutrophication. Without concerted efforts, coastal eutrophication is expected to increase in 20% of large marine ecosystems by 2050.
5. By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans. Plastic waste imagery is very much used in the media and social media.

“Unfortunately, much of the world’s oceans are not part of any one country’s territorial waters. More than 40 per cent of the planet’s surface (80 million square miles – seven times the area of the whole African continent) is ocean that belongs to everyone and no one – and hence is largely unregulated. While fishing, environmental, tourist and defense policies all unite to seek to protect and manage the sea close to a nation’s shoreline, beyond a notional 12 to 200-mile limits it is largely a free-for-all. This is where the fish, dolphins and plankton are taking the hit. No one is setting the global rules and few are agreeing on a better way.” (source)

My role:

Contributing to the mood board and noting down issues prevalent in the oceans, brainstormed possible objectives and discover what contextual aspects might be interesting.

My key-take aways, reflection on my practice: This week was heavy on Design research, it is a necessary ingredient for creating, developing, and delivering a successful product. Designers need solid design research to guide their decisions about the product’s interaction framework, feature set, and overall appropriateness for its users (source). That’s why this part (desk research), the early steps in a design process, is so important.