Abstract
Dallas has been one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Yet, how do average people feel about living in the city? What are untold stories and dreams beyond gleaming office towers? To uncover and present these stories and dreams, I participated in a collaborative project “Faces of Dallas,” a contemporary choir concert featured in the 2019 Dallas Soluna International Music and Arts Festival. It involved 30 collaborators and over 1,000 respondents. The team conducted dialogues with people of the city through an online survey, in-depth interviews, and poetry contribution from local writers and students. Those voices were then woven into a complete creative program, which fused choral music, visual art and design, video, onsite installation, and direct dialogues. In this paper, I discuss lessons learned about participatory design to benefit the community and share how designers can apply their concept, strategy, creative, and design skills in non-commercial projects. The findings provide guidelines to consider by designers engaging in participatory design.
Presenters
Stephen ZhangAssistant Professor, Design Department, University of North Texas, College of Visual Arts and Communication, Texas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2020 Special Focus - Advocacy in Design: Engagement, Commitment, and Action
KEYWORDS
Participatory Design, Engagement, Action, Community, Collaboration, Performance, Concept, Process, Involvement
