Materializing: Do-It-Yourself

[Mix and match exercises] to make emotions visible and tangible

New to Materializing? Go here first.

What is it for?

It is a mobile workshop activity where participants make objects that represent their feelings. This tool involves light facilitation that lets participants pick and choose what and in what ways they want to reflect on their experience.

Impact

This tool enables participants to articulate how they feel about an experience through the process of making and provides a structure and framework for reflecting and capturing insights.

Participants’ State of Mind

reflective, creative

Level of Complexity (1–5)

3

Time for Participation

15 mins to 90 mins

Emotion-Centered Design

Use Cases

The following illustrates Materializing in action and more specifically, how D.I.Y. style workshops can be practiced. Both use cases featured here are in the context of a design conference.

1. Materializing: Conference Attendee’s Learning Experience (Better World by Design, 2017)
2. Materializing: Conference Attendee’s Learning Experience (hosted by Parsons, The New School)

1. Materializing: Conference Attendee’s Learning Experience

(at Better World by Design)
Making visible and tangible people’s learnings and take-aways from attending a three-day conference.

Project
Physical Emotion Booth, Matter–Mind Studio

First, participants fill in the blank space on the story card, while reflecting on their learnings and feelings; second, they create an object to represent the emotional experience; third, facilitators take photos of their creations to document their ‘physical emotion.’

Image Description: A diagram with four parts with line-drawn illustrations for each part: 1. Write Storycard, 2. Make Objects, 3. Photograph Storycard and Object in Photobooth, 4. Write and Mail a ‘Postcard to Your Future Self.’ Matter-Mind Studio’s Physical Emotion Booth at BWxD Conference at RISD. Illustration by Matter–Mind Studio.

Image Description: Five participants sit at a table full of colorful materials for making. Some are writing, one person is making an abstract object, and another is tearing a piece of tape. Matter-Mind Studio’s Physical Emotion Booth at BWxD Conference at RISD. Photos by BWxD Team.

2. Materializing: Conference Attendee’s Learning Experience

(at Parsons, The New School)
Making visible and tangible people’s learnings and take-aways from attending a conference for Ph.D. candidates.

Project
Reflection Room, THRIVING / a co-design lab by Lisa Grocott. Research Assistants: Siri-Betts Sonstegard and Myriam Diatta, and Researcher Lisa Grocott.

A collection of playmobiles, mad-lib poems, blank diagrams, ambiguous objects and paper, and stickers are provided for participants to materialize their emotional experiences.

Image Description: A photograph taken from above of a table wrapped with printed instructions for a workshop. Thriving Lab: “Reflection Room” workshop for Ph.D. Candidates. Photo by Myriam Diatta

Image Description: Three images of deep box lids filled with playmobiles, abstract background images, colorful paper cutouts, little speech-bubble stickers, and hand-written text. Text is illegible. Thriving Lab: “Reflection Room” workshop for Ph.D. Candidates. Photo by Myriam Diatta

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