The Codesign Symposium 2017 Reflections — Part II
Reflections on materiality, power and community
The Codesign Symposium was the second symposium exploring participatory design practice, held in Melbourne, Australia this year, organised by Peer Academy.
You can read my reflections on the first symposium here. You can also read Part III — Metaphor, Evocation & Nature’s Wisdom here.
I was particularly excited for this Symposium as I had the privilege of being involved from the very early design stages, as the Peer Academy team were true to their ethos by codesigning the symposium with a cohort of workshop hosts and participants.
This is one of the significant strengths of Codesign …
When people are involved in the design and development of an initiative, they have a greater buy-in and interest in the outcome.
And so it was on a warm October’s day that the second Codesign Symposium kicked off at the Monash University campus. I was delighted that the Welcome To Country was a thoughtful weaving of local indigenous perspective and protocol, with the intention of the symposium.
This was also followed up by a wonderful provocation by Lisa Grocott of Monash’s Design School
The structure of the Symposium was roughly:
- Opening
- Welcome to Country
- Provocation about practice (short talk)
- First Session (choice of workshops)
- Morning Tea
- Second Session (choice of workshops)
- Lunch
- Codesign Project Spotlight (short talk)
- Third Session (choice of workshops)
- Closing Reflection
Reflections
These are some insights I gained from the provocation talk, sessions I attended and the project spotlight. I hope they contribute to a broader discussion about priorities for the community of practice which is emerging.
Design Ethics as an emerging edge
Understanding that our role as Designers gives us both privilege and power should force us to reflect more deeply on our position and how we approach our design work, as it also comes with responsibility.
Lauren Weinstein ran an interesting session “Shifting the Power-play in Co-design: Exploring Practical Approaches”, which explored a framing of power relationships through a card game played in groups. People reflected on how being empowered and disempowered made them feel in the game, and we were encouraged to reflect on how we could develop and use methods which made our design practice or projects more equitable.
I was particularly interested in this session as I’d spent about 1.5 days of Workchops in New Zealand, designing and running a session on Power in the Design Process where we were able to go deep into this area.
I feel like this is an edge of Codesign Practice which needs to be elevated and more intensively addressed if we’re to ensure that Codesign is truly to have more equitable outcomes than other approaches.
Materiality needs to be explored further
I was really delighted to see and hear the Project Spotlight talk which was reflecting on a series of Codesign sessions that Monash Design faculty ran, which explored how custom developed participatory toolkits could be used to explore the foundations of a new Museum experience and Brand Identity.
The insights about how the materials affected the conversations that were possible, and how they were able to be joined, mixed and hacked, to invent new concepts was excellent in advance of my session using organic materials.
It feels like we’re just scratching the surface of the depth of research and insight that the likes of Liz Sanders have developed. Yet we also have a unique opportunity — to develop into methods and toolkits that are ‘of this place’. This concept and enquiry about 'Design of this place' is an active conversation in Aotearoa New Zealand, and I look forward to exploring it here in Australia, where a 70’000+ indigenous culture and environment full of endemic species and unique landscapes promises huge depth.
The Value of Codesign is nuanced
In the session I attended on this topic, I came away feeling like we’d touched on maybe 10% of the value I myself see or suspect, through a process which was about articulating a value based on what someone needed to hear and how they could best hear it.
I remember suggesting that Codesign wasn’t just a “what” or a “how”, but a “why” and a set of cultural values. Simply communicating value of Codesign in this What/How mode (probably the easiest sells), could act as a ‘Trojan Horse’ for the others, but I feel we need to have more dialogue about shared understanding of the “Why” as a community.
Liz Sanders proposed a framework for thinking about Codesign at Workchops:
At the time, I enjoyed having in depth conversations about exploring what it means to examine the Culture from which our mindsets, methods and techniques are created. Culture is an expression of worldview in my mind, so if we’re adopting other people’s methods, we’re also adopting part of their culture and worldview into our practice.
If Codesign is to achieve its promise designing more equitable services / products / policies, then we need to recognise that culture change is also part of our work. Thus part of our role as Designers is also to investigate and advocate for organisations using Codesign processes to understand the “Why” and address the values and barriers to the changes needed for Codesign to be integrated into their culture, beyond just a project’s boundaries.
Next steps
It feels like the Codesign Symposium is a format which is accessible and helps expand the reach and understanding of Codesign in the Public Purpose Sector. I hope these continue, and we’re able to develop shared context and experience as a broad network of people.
I also felt the need to take some of the conversations and practice development further than you ever could in this format, so I’m committing to exploring the following areas:
Impact Evaluation
Emma Blomkamp’s session on this topic was very popular, and with my history at Lifehack and Peer Academy working on Impact Evaluation for participatory initiatives, it seems like we have a shared interest in developing and sharing insights.
A coffee circle is brewing. Stay tuned!
Participatory Toolkits & Materiality
I was really excited to connect with several of the Monash Design school (MADA) about the work they’ve been doing in this space.
I’m going to follow up with them to talk more about how we can play together, and perhaps run some sandbox sessions to further explore this topic, and publish some insights.
Community of Practice
I’ve already been talking with the team at Peer Academy about their intentions to support a Community of Practice to emerge and spin out of the Symposiums.
I’m really keen to connect this discussion to the other work going on in Australia in this space, such as the Social Design Sydney community, the recent Public Sector Design Innovation sessions that Business Models Inc ran, the ongoing work by the likes of TACSI, and of course also to the strong Codesign community of practice in Aotearoa NZ.
I intend to support Peer Academy in this work of energising the community, through activities and relationship building.
If you enjoyed this, you can also read my reflection articles from the two Codesign Symposiums in 2017 here: Part I — Introducing Systems Practice and Part III — Metaphor, Evocation & Nature’s Wisdom.
If you’d like to find out more about any of this, please don’t hesitate to write a reply, or get in touch on Twitter or LinkedIn, and check out Peer Academy’s website.
Finally a huge thank you to Peer Academy and Monash for making this event happen!
