Many design and creative practice researchers collaborate across a wide range of academic disciplines, with our skill sets being highly valued in the physical as well as social sciences. One of the key challenges we face is understanding how our unique knowledge and skills can contribute to projects in disciplines we sometimes cannot even pronounce. As was shared by Prof Marnie Hughes-Warrington in her keynote lecture at the symposium, when this is done well, we know that projects can be extremely innovative and our skillsets are highly valued. The structures and frameworks for valuing creative practice and design research as part of wider research enquiry may still be in their infancy, but hold great potential for future collaborations.
As part of the recent DDCA symposium, our emerging leaders group were engaged in a networking activity that explored how design and creative practice researchers might collaborate to contribute to unexpected contexts. Our emerging leaders were assembled into small groups across that broke down disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and followed a process that led to them designing a future collaboration between themselves that could address one of 4 abstract contexts: A Children’s Hospital, the Arkaroola Dark Sky Sanctuary, the National Institute for Forest Products Innovation, and a Space Mission to Mars.
Despite only having 30 minutes to work together, the final output from this process was a series of “movie trailer pitches” that were shared with the wider DDCA audience. As you will see in the examples below, sitting together and looking at how we might contribute our disciplinary expertise and skills outside of traditional arts funding can be a compelling proposition.
When reading these, imagine yourself in a cinema with the lights down low, popcorn in your hand, and a big movie trailer voice reading these out to you.
Context: A Children’s Hospital
In a world where hospitals are unfamiliar and often traumatic clinical spaces, our collaborative team of researchers will facilitate storytelling workshops to explore the experience of young people with diabetes. This will change the world by creating a safe space for young people with diabetes to connect and feel part of a community. This is the story of The Connecting Project.
Context: Arkaroola Dark Sky Sanctuary
In a world where everybody is a star gazer, our collaborative team of researchers will bring together a group of dedicated scientists, astronomers and first nations artists to unravel the mysteries of the universe and illuminate stories from the dark sky sanctuary. This will change the world by deepening our understanding of the cosmos. This is the story of Dark Sky Stories.
Context: Arkaroola Dark Sky Sanctuary
In a world where we are often blind and deaf to those around us, our collaborative team of researchers will build a guided sound and story experience in VR. This will change the world by catalysing a foundational cultural shift in how we find, see and hear each other. This is the story of Arkaroola Dark Sky Sanctuary Soundwalk.
Context: National Institute for Forest Products Innovation
In a world where we are losing biodiversity through unsustainable and exploitative forestry, our team of researchers will create an immersive experience of forest kinship. This will change the world by improving our relationship with nature. This is the story of Forest Kinship.
Context: A Space Mission to Mars
In a world where enthusiastic youth have a dream of a better climate future, our collaborative team of researchers will design a fictional future with a decolonial model for environmental management on Mars, and invite collaborative, interactive, public processes to explore sustainable solutions. This will change the world by showing that when young people take power, they can learn from the rights and wrongs of the past, an design a better future. This is the story of Simulation Mars for Speculative Futures.
Dr Aaron Davis is a Lecturer in Architecture with a teaching and research focus on co-design and community engagement processes, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the intersection between social and environmental sustainability. Aaron is a member of the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments. Aaron is recognised as a leader in development and delivery of highly engaging co-design approaches, and is currently working with the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Health, SAHMRI, CSIRO, the Australian Health Design Council, as well as a wide variety of architecture, engineering, and construction firms across Australia.