7/29/2019 Co-Op Lab Challenge 2

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IDC LAB: COOPERATIVE

PUIC 3101 IDP 7539

Spring 2013

Parsons The New School for Design

School of Design Strategies

Integrated Design Program

CHALLENGE 2:A Focus Tool(learning how to question, analyze, focus, communicate and co-evolve ideas)

Objective: Identify a pressing problem/issue within a certain organization, community, or group.

Create a visualization that both poses relevant questions and communicates your concept of how

to answer these question using collaborative or participatory methods. Investigate how you could

use your visualization with other people to hone your understanding and generate new ideas.

Deliverables: 1) poster 2) 30-second pitch

The goal of Challenge 2 is to help you identify a theme, idea, concept, and process that connect

your design interests to a cooperative service, system, or solution (to be developed in Challenge

3). You may choose to build on the insights revealed in Challenge 1 (using your explorative tool) or

you may decide to go in a different direction (using research done in your studio, for instance).

To focus your idea, you must first open yourself up to possibilities. To do this, you will be asked to

generate ideas and questions that provoke thought, reveal opportunities, and begin to frame your

understanding of a particular issue. Good questions open doors to new ways of looking at a

challenge. They should evoke a sense of energy and optimism, where anything is possible.

Once you have examined what you know and dont know about your chosen issue, you will be

asked to visualize your understanding of how this issue manifests itself within a certain context or

community. Your visualization should clearly communicate you understanding while at the sametime inviting others to edit, amend, or suggest alternative interpretations and scenarios.

Next, you will devise and deploy a method, technique, or strategy for collaborating with members

of your chosen context or community, in order to test your assumptions, refine your visualization,

and generate new ideas. The emphasis in this exercise will be on having your community

collaborator(s) auto-diagnose their own problems while co-evolving solutions with you.

Finally, you will create a poster of your visualization refined by input from your community

collaborator(s) and use it to present your proposal for a cooperative design solution. The final

review for this challenge will involve an idea speed-dating session, in which you will have 30

seconds to pitch your proposal to classmates and form groups for Challenge 3.

DEADLINES:

Mar 7 [Week 6]:

Task B

Visualization of a

community issue

Mar 14 [Week 7]:

Task C

Strategy for co-

evolving concepts

Mar 21 [Week 8]:

Task D

Deploy and

document tool

FINAL REVIEW

Mar 21 [Week 8]:

Refined Poster

and 30-sec. pitch

7/29/2019 Co-Op Lab Challenge 2

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CHALLENGE SCHEDULE:

Feb 28

[Week 5]

Review collaborative tool

examples, introduce

CHALLENGE 2

CHALLENGE 2 Task B:

Identify a pressing problem/issue within a certain

organization, community, or group. Visualize your

understanding of the actors, structures, and forces

involved, and consider strategies for generating wider

knowledge.Mar 7

[Week 6]

Expert insight presentation,

studio time

Sections Meet Together:

Room TBD

CHALLENGE 2 Task C:

Develop a tool, technique, or method for collaborating with

your chosen organization, community, or group, to test

assumptions, focus questions, and generate solutions to

your chosen problem/issue.

Mar 14

[Week 7]

Studio time, skill workshop CHALLENGE 2 Task D:

Deploy your focus tool and document its setup, use, and

results. Create a poster for review, including evidence ofyour visualization, intervention, and refined understanding

of the central problems and opportunities for design.

Mar 21

[Week 8]

REVIEW CHALLENGE 2,

introduce collaborative

system examples, final

group formation

CHALLENGE 3 Task A:

Identify an example (case study) of a collaborative

system. Create a PDF (tabloid-sized, landscape) including

the name of your collaborative tool, at least one

representative image, and a short description of its users,

usage, and outcomes. Email me your document and print

it out for review next class.

READ: Whats Mine is Yours, by Rachel Botsman, Intro