The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of people’s lives, and seems to have affected people’s wellbeing and relation to technology now, and in the future. Not only has it changed people’s lives and the way citizens live, work, exercise, craft and stay connected, the pandemic has also altered the way Human Computer Interaction (HCI) professionals can engage in face-to-face interactions and consequently participatory, human-centered design and research. Limitations in being close to others and having physical, visible and shared interactions pose a challenge as these aspects are typically considered critical for the accomplishment of a transparent, attractive and critical understanding of technology and respective civic and digital engagement for wellbeing. Consequently, the risk now observed is that citizens in the new ‘normal’ digital society, particularly vulnerable groups, are beingeven less connected, supported or heard. Drawing from a study with an expert panel of 20 selected HCI related professionals in The Netherlands that participated on-line (through focus groups, questionnaires and/or interviews) discussing co-creation for wellbeing in times of COVID-19 (N=20), and civic values for conditional data sharing (N=11), this paper presents issues encountered and potential new approaches to overcome participatory challenges in the ‘new’ digital society. This study further draws on project reporting and a ‘one week in the life of’ study in times of COVID-19 with a physical toolkit for remote data collection that was used with older adults (65+, N=13) and evaluated with professionals (N=6). Drawing on such projects and professional experiences, the paper discusses some opportunities of participatory approaches for the new ‘distant’ normal.
Booklet met bevinden van het project 'Samen zichtbaar duurzaam' dat zich richt op de vraag: “hoe maken we zichtbaar dat duurzame verandering mogelijk en wenselijk is?”Binnen en buiten de HvA zijn er hoge ambities om met verschillende benaderingen en praktijkgericht onderzoek duurzame verandering teweeg te brengen. Mede dankzij de betrokken lectoraten, Centres of Expertise en de Green Office worden er steeds meer zaadjes geplant en verbindingen gelegd rondom het thema Duurzaamheid. Toch gebeurt het nog veel dat men niet van elkaar af weet en worden best en worst practices niet met elkaar gedeeld. Dit project wil daar zichtbare verandering in brengen. Vanuit verschillende technische, digitale en creatieve kanten, en met studenten, docenten, onderzoekers en de praktijk wordt het thema duurzame verandering op zichtbare, creatieve, interactieve enspeelse wijze benaderd.Dit project is onderdeel van de Cross-overregeling. Deze zogenaamde cross-overregeling is een initiatief van het Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation (CoECI)en het Centre of Expertise City Net Zero (voorheen UT). De projecten die een financiële bijdrage hebben gekregen gaan over complexe uitdagingen uit de Metropoolregio Amsterdam, die vragen om een integrale benadering, met input vanuit verschillende disciplines. De regeling beoogt nieuwe samenwerkingen tussen verschillende disciplines en tussen onderwijs en onderzoek aan te jagen.
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This work explores the potential of doing collaborative data physicalization for discussing (un)sustainable practices. For this purpose, it draws on experiences from several data physicalization workshops during the period of 2018-2022, conducted in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, which were available to mostly inexpert groups of people, including almost a hundred primary school students. This paper particularly focuses on a recent held dataphys workshop with over 20 adult participants, such as including international students and climate activists. Based on learner reports (self-assessment questionnaires) (N=20), and observations, it was found that the process of making data physicalizations in workshop and educational settings can be beneficial for engaging in collaborative creative and critical discussion of (un)sustainable practices. Particularly, the participants positively indicated to have learned from the dataphys workshop on a 5-point Likert scale and agreed that it enabled (1) critical thinking, (2) data understanding, (3) creativity, (4) collaboration, and (5) awareness of (un)sustainable practices. This paper presents the workshop format, including ingredients such as live cartoon capturing, and challenges in realizing such value in the context of sustainability, such as including a wider public, the conscious use of data and materials, and discussable effective outcomes.
