ACTIVISTIC DESIGN INTERVENTIONS

What are “activistic design interventions”?

As a designer / Visual Design Thinker I’ve been working with researcher Christine Dedding for a decade on topics like participation, inclusion and equality. Christine was recently installed as Professor Participation, Diversity and Equity at Amsterdam UMC. What connects us is that we want to move from observation of people’s issues towards making public servants and policy-makers aware of real-life situations so they can serve these people better to improve their lives. In short: we want Christine’s insights from Qualitative research to create positive impact and real-life improvements. This resulted in what we call “activistic design interventions” - projects that raise awareness, show different perspectives and present possible alternatives.
A previous publication on digital inclusion, the Fabeltjeskrant, was received as somewhat patronizing by public servants and policy-makers. So for our latest collaboration, we took a different approach: a retrospective from the future. The Smart Future Newspaper...

The Smart Future newspaper

In my work, I often create credible, attractive future scenarios for organizations like Erasmus MC, KLM. As a teacher, I’ve seen how future visions, for instance presented in formats like a newspaper, make abstract ideas more vivid, relatable and immersive.
In the Smart Future newspaper, I took the opportunity to implement an idea I’ve had for years: combining this publication with colored glasses -blue and red- that let readers switch between a social (red) and systemic (blue) perspective. Based on a research which showed AI shows more empathy to patients compared tot medical doctors, I made the robots red and the humans (that believe in systems) blue.
Christine’s recent installation as Professor of Participation, Diversity and Equity marked the launch of this newspaper. It presents a timeline from 2038 back to 1837, when the first “computer” and program were created, and is filled with visualizations and stories of a more relaxed, symbiotic world where machines express emotions and support people in everyday life.

Our presentation @ Evoluon

During the Dutch Design Week we present an immersive, credible, positive future vision on the symbiotic co-evolution of people and technology. In our latest co-creation, Christine and Jochem developed a positive publication on digital inclusion, with a storyline from the future showing the perspectives of warm, social robots in red and system-obsessed people in blue. This “Smart Future Newspaper” was translated into an installation to inspire public, designers and policy makers to take their role for a more equal (digital) society.
We are working on a workshop to transfer how we design and use these "activistic design interventions" aimed to create exchange of perspectives, awareness and empathy. We advocate this "activistic" professional design approach to reduce, mitigate or at least address societal inequalities.