Staging imaginative places for participatory prototyping

Abstract

When we stage participatory prototyping, we arrange constraints and possibilities and envision a place of co-creation for designers and users. We argue that the activity of participatory prototyping can benefit from unfolding in imaginative places that are radically distant from the places of current practice. Our work with participatory prototyping indicates that a radicalisation towards an imaginative place of co-creation provides participants with an extended space for imagining future practices. Departing from the Scandinavian participatory prototyping heritage, our research is an inquiry into staging the places of participatory prototyping. Staging imaginative places is carried out by a careful selection and coordination of anchoring elements that maintain references to current practice and elements of transcendence that afford the imaginative place. As such, we supplement the qualities of the prototype and the process of prototyping with a concern for the place in which prototyping unfolds. We present two cases of participatory prototyping sessions that outline our work with staging imaginative places for participatory prototyping.

Keywords:

• participatory design
• participatory prototyping
• imaginative places

Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by Center for Interactive Spaces, ISIS Katrinebjerg, and we thank our colleagues there for their support. In particular, we thank Karen Johanne Kortbek, Kaspar Rosengreen Nielsen, and Louise Aagaard for their dedicated work in the Wisdom Well project. Finally, we are indebted to the pupils, teachers, and researchers who have participated with enthusiasm in the prototyping sessions.