Niels Hendriks Copenhagen, 23.04.2015

Social Spaces I CUO Media, Art & Design Research

Multidisciplinary team consisting of

criminologist, philosopher, ergonomic expert, social scientists, literature scientist,

product designers, digital and game designers, jewel designer, video and

storytelling artist, etc.

15 research/service projects;10 phd

Related to educational programs on product design, digital design, film making,…

Affiliated with Centre for User Experience

Research (CUO) and LUCA

Social Spaces I CUO Context of working

City of Genk (vicinity of Aachen, Maastricht) Coal mines +1988 - Ford Factory +2014

C-mine,

Create new domains for employment in the creative sector

Expected unemployment rate of 20%

High youth unemployment - Ethnic variety Decentralized city structure

What is the role of an academic research and design institute in such a context?

Social Spaces I CUO Design of artefacts

(re)design of art- and design methods

Work in the domains of ‘Arts & Culture’, ‘Future Health’ & ‘Media & Entertainment’.

Exploration of the social character of design, art and media in our society

Central to our way of working: participatory

design/ Scandinavian tradition

Lowering the barrier to participate in design processes

“Situatedness”: to embed the design

process in the actual context

Working with persons with dementia Way of working tries to ameliorate the life of persons with dementia Research into methods on involving persons with dementia Creation of low tech digital and physical artefacts

Dementia Umbrella term – Aphasia, Amnesia, Agnosia, Appraxia; psychiatric & cognitive ailments. Very individual trajectory

PD & Dementia Traditional PD methods > Issues assume that the participants are cognitively able, can make use of visual and hands-on techniques; or require a high level ofabstraction ability.

Work so far Guidelines Challenges AtHome: rethinking participation was set up

AtHome PD as a situated action. Designer/researcher enters “the subjective world of the PwD” with an “understanding of the narratives inwhich they (the persons with dementia) are embedded” Script / Actors/ Props/ Stage

AtHome The way we define participation PD > work context. / Jones: too strong a focus on the visual and the verbal PD vs User Centered design?

AtHome From  group  to  individual,  generalisability  vs  transferrability.  Uniqueness  needs  individual  approach  Also  in  artefacts  >  generalisability  vs  transferrability  

AtHome Method stories as a way to share methodologies. Original Phd research – dedicated method for working with PwD <> uniqueness Method stories: story on the application of a method in working in a participatory way with PwD. Why > How.

Future research questions ? Suitability & transferrability of the situated action-approach > method stories ? Balancing power in PD? Materiality, temporality,…

Link with Give&Take-project

niels hendriks niel@itu.dk niels.hendriks@soc.kuleuven.be http://www.socialspaces.be http://www.dementialab.be Most recent paper Codesign with people living with cognitive or sensory impairments: a case for method stories and uniqueness