Early steps for students / teachers toward a participatorydesign mentality

a communal sense is critical to making social change.

A recent goal of my teaching is to introduce students to aspects of participatory design.

In my design research class this past semester we talked a great deal about how the efficacy of design in creating social change is often subservient to American cultural norms that elevate independence and individuality.

Students quickly gathered that

Designers belong to communities–religious, familial, geographic, political–beyond the professional.

( Um ... who’s our community ? )

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The univers i ty in the context of the town

Some students don’ t even cross the r iver

Many students take the h ighway home

Act iv is ts meet at the town hal l every

Thursday n ight !

a communal sense is critical to making social change.

a

NS

EW

This was excellent, because I could meet people and tell them about the class ... coincidently I saw many neighbors and familiar faces .... the Clean Water Action people offered to distribute any communique my students wished to frame to everyone on their mailing list.

act iv is ts meet at

the town hal l every

Thursday n ight !

The students took on the challenge of framing their interests for an email.I primed the pump a bit with a viewing of “Transition 1.0”

The students took on the challenge of framing their interests for an email.I primed the pump a bit with a viewing of “Transition 1.0”

We are interested in :_ Village green spaces_ reducing carbon footprint_ bs detecting /greenwashing

Are you ?

Yes !

hello All

I'm writing on behalf of the students in my Design Research course here at SUNY New Paltz. Our topic this semester is what graphic designers can do to help spur people to mitigate and/or cope with the consequences of climate change. One realization the class has had is that in order to tackle the big problems you need to start with community. So our goal has grown to include working with community collaborators and community-building as a part of this project. And that's why I'm writing to you.

Students have divided themselves into three working groups:[1] community gardening and green spaceHere's the group's statement:We consider the New Paltz Gardens for Nutrition a place that upholds community, sustainability, health, and education. We would like to use our communicative, problem-solving, and artistic skills as graphic designers to help promote and renew the gardens. Most of all, we would like to hear from community members about what the garden needs most and where our skills would help most.

[2] educating about and creating incentives around reducing one's carbon footprintHere are some principles this group supports:Reducing one's carbon footprint should be fun, manageable, accessible, experiential and incre-mental; on a spectrum of individual to community actions; encouraging diy and local resources.

[3] what we've been calling BS-detecting (revealing myths and deceptions about climate change–and even community, for that matter).Here are some issues of concern for this group:Getting people to question their choices as opposed to just accepting conventional practic-es; offering criteria so that people are empowered to make environmentally friendly choices; educating people to follow through all phases of green lifestyle: so you're using a "green" lightbulb, but how do you dispose of it once its spent? Understand the reasoning, don't just go for green advertising hype.

I know from talking with people at the recent Transition 1.0 screening on campus and members of Climate Action Coalition that these concerns and interests are shared. My students and I wanted to propose meeting with interested community members during our class session on Tuesday March 6. We meet from 3:05-5:45. If you would like to visit that day to meet and talk with us about any of these topics, and could let me know (galperia@newpaltz.edu) by Thursday March 1, we would be delighted. I will confirm a meeting space once we know how many people are joining us. And if you're interested but can't make it, please let me know that, too.

The students and I look forward to starting a dialogue with you ...

best,Anne

Dan 1 :engineer /

farmer

Joe :community act iv is t

Laura : managesrecycl ing center

A dozen local residents joined our first meeting.

The agenda :_ welcome visitors / food and drink_ introductions and description of structure_ three student groups shared interests briefly ( pecha-kucha )_ we broke into small groups so community members and students could talk together_ folks presented back to the group_ we agreed to meet again

This was an especially meaningful event because it presented an opportunity for students and older people to share their interests. For their part older residents have little contact with college students even though they coexist in our neighbor-hood. Everyone found the meeting productive and engaging.

Ann :natura l is t

Dan 2 :pol i sc i prof

Rosalyn :ant i - f racking

act iv is t

Sy l , Mike , Mel issa , John

Tongwen, Darry l , Kimiko ( works for the EPA ) , Emi lyPresentat ions in lab

New Pal t z Gardens group and students

And then we had to get busy.

Moving forward, students and community members could meet together as they wished. I coached by continuing to introduce research methods on an as-needed basis :

mapping the village ( before 1st meeting ) secondary research interviewssurveysconversationphoto ethnography / day in the life

&

endless crits

A second formal meeting was held two weeks out

with community members

WHAT IS in YOUR

S OA P ?

An event was held at the end of the semester to show the prototypes. Along with our community members—and this term moving forward

includes the students—came another guest: the village mayor, Jason West. Final projects clustered in the original three areas; our communi-ty’s shared interests were apparent.

Lower-impact living :

Sylvester print materials educating men about more healthful body product optionsDarrell informational website about electro-trash http://talent.adweek.com/gallery/Electro-Trash/4167099

Monica web and print materials educat-ing people about homemade, green cleaning housecleaning solutions http://monicamarkiewicz.com/art-

work/2726334_Poster_Series_for_Alternative_Cleaning.html

toothpa

ste

sodium lauroyl sarcosinate

flavor

sodium flouride

sodium monoflurophosphate

ingredientspeg-32

tested on animals

cancer risk

reproductive & developmental toxicity risk

hydrogenated palm kernal oil

cancer, Neurotoxicity, Endocrine disruption, Persis-tence and bioaccumulation, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), ecotoxicology

irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), contamination concerns (ethylene oxide, 1,4-dioxane)

organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Ecotoxi-cology, Use restrictions

ingredients

isopentane

ammonium laureth sulfate

allergies/immunotoxicity, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), multiple, additive exposure sources, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), contami-nation concerns (butadiene)

contamination concerns (organochlorines, pcbs, benzo[a]pyrene)

dimethicone

cyclopentasiloxane

3

BS detection and “re-information”

John print materials educating college age students about the environmental impacts of hydrofracking

Melissa poster series questioning eco-style

Mike + Emily informational web and print materials educating college age students about gmo food plants

Green spaces

Rachel + Sara + Barbara lawn signage, handouts, seed packets for the Food, Not Lawns initiative

Claire + Ashley a redesign of existing informational materials and garden iconography for the New Paltz Community gardens

Anna + Jesse visualization of tree density around the village to help shade tree commis-sion planning

Anna + Jesse’s project raised the most interesting questions about co-design processes.

FoodLAWNSnot

FoodLAWNSnot

FOOD NOT LAWNS was originally founded in Eugene, Oregon in 1999 by a

small group of activists who had been cooking free meals in the park for several years and decided to start gardening too. Now we are a global community of avant gardeners, working together to grow and

share food, seeds, medicine, and knowledge.

How to Care:

1. Put seed in dirt

2. Wait until the risk of frost has

passed.

3. Continue doing what you’re doing.

4. Keep watering bean plants..

5. You can fertilize your plants �ve weeks after �rst sprout appears.

6. Watch for big delicious beans, pick, and enjoy!

providergreen bean

no dogs inside fence compostable wood lumber tools wheelbarrow

What additional expertise might be needed at the table and when ? How might designers and co-designers question their assumptions ?

Post-class analysis

+Students began to problemmatize the relationship between designers and users through the idea of community.

Students became more aware of the complexities of design practice.

Some projects could be further developed and have real benefit through workshops and community-based interventions.

The mayor, community groups and designers are staying in touch with each other; I am available to advise.

A local print shop will donate printing for local initiatives.

-Some projects, while socially proactive, veered away from community needs and/or implementation and were examples of moreabstracted problem-solving. At the same time they reflected a community ethos.

Our community members were already self-selected experts / amateurs: what would other New Paltz residents have contributed?

Sometimes the community members most involved might not have beem realistic in their goals; in retrospect we recognize the benefit of involving people with other bodies of knowledge.

( some ) Resources + Inspirationsall links good as of 9 August 2012

King, Stanley. Co-Design: A Process of Design Participation. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989

Papanek, Victor. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. New York: Pantheon Books, 1971. (The entire text sans images is at playpen.icomtek.csir.co.za/.../

Williamson, Jack. Community Design Management. Michigan: Design Michigan, 1995

Community Based Social Marketinghttp://www.cbsm.com/pages/guide/preface/ thanks to J. Nichols

The Psychology of Climate ChangeInformation http://cred.columbia.edu/thanks to J. Nichols

Spatial Information Design Labhttp://www.spatialinformationdesignlab.org/

Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Designhttp://backspace.com/notes/2008/02/an-introduction-to-information-design.php