During Dutch Design Week, at the CLICKNL DRIVE festival, October 24 2018, PACT was invited to give a short one hour workshop: Envisioning Things as Citizens in Near Future Cities.
We used elements of longer workshop format we did before at Border Sessions, Master Digital Design and at IDC conference. As it was only one hour, we specifically shaped the workshop combining an introduction of PACT research program with interaction in the groups to explore what might be the implications of autonomous services in near future cities.
We had a nice group of about 25 participants, divided in four groups for the interactive part, after the introduction. Every group discussed one of the situations from a Future Scenarios paper we recently presented at NordiCHI [https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3240273], with a focus on the interplay between human and non-human citizens and how this may affect future cities.
The participants, a mix of creative professionals and researchers,- were highly involved and interested in the topic. The use of simple examples of autonomous services for future cities made it possible to easily discuss relevant and challenging topics that we see as crucial in the design of human-nonhuman relationships. The workshop successfully enabled to move the discussion from a focus on the actual interplay between human-nonhuman entities, to a broader discussion about the societal impact of decisions we take about the future of our cities.
For more information : https://www.clicknl.nl/drive/envisioning-things-as-citizens-for-fostering-healthy-behaviours-in-near/
Photos by communicatie CLICKNL : https://www.flickr.com/photos/108619747@N08/sets/72157699822859742/