1 — Approaching the Process

Several other key decisions were made early on regarding the nature of the project we hoped to form.

COLLABORATION

In the past, the designers in residence pursued separate projects. Our group decided early on that we were interested in taking on a large collaborative project rather than smaller individual ones. Furthermore we all decided to partially abandon the ideas we initially proposed during our submission in favor of exploring a shared project proposal.

FOCUS

We also agreed that we’d like to focus on a project that operates at a local level, but has the ability to be implemented in many different communities.

APPROACH

We will identify problem-spaces and reframe them as opportunities for experiments, exploration, and design interventions.

OUTCOMES

Our preference is to seek a tangible outcome that is primarily analogue. We are open to larger product ecosystems, so long as they maintain a high level of accessibility and simplicity. Additionally the entire process will be open-source, so the design itself isn’t the only result, instead it is the first example of a single way to implement the outcome. Lastly, we believe that what we create should be more than a prototype or plan — we plan to implement our work.

RESEARCH

We will conduct preliminary research, but we will also view the creation and implementation of the designed outcome as an act of research in it’s own way — favoring experiential research to library research.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion we think how we go about the project is a key part of the outcome and we are eager to work collaboratively towards a shared goal.