Community Empowerment
Asynchronous Session
Democratic Futures: A Collaborative, Co-designed, Interdisciplinary Educational Project for Speculating the Future of Voting View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jodie Silsby, Ian Jackson
Democratic Futures is an innovative educational design project which interrogates questions around the future of democracy. Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton and the Parliamentary Archives, of the UK Houses of Parliament challenged design students to develop speculative strategies which investigate the validity, reliability and authenticity of political content and information. Students were initially exposed to archival materials related to the seminal 1872 Ballot Act, which legislated individuals voting in secret for the first time in local or government elections. The project and associated workshops were then conducted to promote articulate ideas, information and debates around voting now, but also the wider implications for voting in the future.
Transformative Immersive Design: Shifting Perspectives through Disruptive Storytelling View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eleonora D'ascenzi, Giuseppe Lotti, Irene Fiesoli
Nowadays, in the face of countless current challenges, there is a need to stimulate society toward a critical attitude that can address contemporary complexity. In this context, design, and especially storytelling design, can play a fundamental role: designing transformative experiences capable of generating positive behavioral changes. Design, and especially, communication design, through its provocative nature can indeed question our assumptions, beliefs and perspectives, exposing us to new ideas, alternative viewpoints or unknown scenarios, encouraging critical thinking and open-mindedness. Indeed, design can help overcome preconceived ideas, paving the way for personal growth and transformation by disrupting existing paradigms and by embracing unconventional thinking. Such a reversal of perspective can be made possible through collaboration with other disciplines that may be far apart, such as, specifically, social sciences, immersive technologies, and performing arts. Thus drawing on a plurality of methodologies and tools, far from schematic and rigid impositions, we could adopt a transdisciplinary, or even "in-disciplinary," approach, which applied to the context of transformative immersive design is enabled to challenge conventions, break boundaries and imagine innovative solutions, giving full expression to a strongly cultural, formative and innovative approach.
Conservating Traditional Heritage in the Digital Age: A Virtual Reality Approach to Preserving Folk Culture
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Siu Kiu San John
Over the past decade, an increase in young people’s engagement with social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has led to a concerning trend: a growing disregard for their own folk cultures. This cultural disconnect has resulted in widening generation gaps and frequent intergenerational miscommunications, thereby posing a threat to the preservation of traditional cultures. The presented experimental research represents an innovative project aimed at documenting and preserving folk culture using Virtual Reality (VR) technology. This is accomplished by digitally recreating cultural artifacts and symbolic objects within a virtual environment and narrating stories in a spatial context. Our theoretical framework is informed by the concept of ‘narrating space and spatializing narrative’ proposed by Ryan (2015) and Ryan, Foote, and Azaryahu (2016). The Mid-Autumn Festival, a widely celebrated event in many Asian countries, serves as a case study to illustrate this concept. Our VR project conveys folk culture by integrating text, images, symbolic objects, and audio-visual elements within a narrative space. At the heart of our project are ten photogrammetry-scanned 3D models of symbolic objects from the real world, providing users with an immersive educational experience. Our VR application employs a narrative structure featuring chronological and thematic storylines, ensuring a coherent user journey. By adopting this spatial narrative approach, our aim extends beyond preserving the cultural richness of the Mid-Autumn Festival. In conclusion, the VR application offers a platform through which folk cultures from around the world can be preserved, celebrated, and shared with a wider audience.
Environmental Graphics Reflect Cultures Creating a Sense of Place and Belonging: An Immersive Study in Valencia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Terry Londy
Environmental graphic design, recently adopted as experiential graphic design by SEGD, is the process of planning and shaping a space to elicit a response, creating a connection to the occupant. During the 1970s the term “EGD” began to define the trade, but the practice has roots in elements that can be traced hundreds, even thousands of years ago. Two primary substantial elements of EGD are communication and storytelling. Those elements are seen in Paleolithic cave drawings and Egyptian hieroglyphs that use storytelling and iconography to define spaces communicating events of local history. Places of worship historically used murals to tell biblical stories to communicate important events, crossing language barriers, evoking emotion, and developing a strong connection to the space and devotion to the religion. The trade has since evolved to be an integral element of the customer experience in retail, a reflection of the employee culture in the workplace, an elevation of the patient experience in healthcare, and a community connection to public murals. Valencia has a rich history that uses experiential graphic design to inform and connect to the local community and visitors by: Public art that uses storytelling to educate and create a sense of place; Historic cathedrals that utilize murals to create a connection and inform. During a summer teaching session, the communities below were studied and photo-documented seeking to uncover the unique cultures, and how EGD helps visitors to connect to them - La Roquetta, Russafa, El Cabañal, Benimaclet, El Carmen, Ciutat Vella.
