FROM DYSTOPIAN TO MICRO–UTOPIAN DESIGN · DXT · RUBBER BAND IDEATION TOOL · DXT ·
DXT
INSPIRED BY AUGUSTO BOAL'S THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED, THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE THEATRE (DXT) IDEATION TOOL USES A PARTICIPATORY DESIGN APPROACH TO PROMOTE MICRO-UTOPIAN IDEATION AND INNOVATION. DXT ENCOURAGES PARTICIPANTS TO EXPLORE DESIGN PROBLEMS MORE PROFOUNDLY THROUGH DYSTOPIAN NARRATIVES, SPECULATIVE FICTION, AND AI-GENERATED IMAGERY.
RULES1. Team of four to ten elements.
2. One conductor-designer for each group, and the remaining elements are the agonist designers. Although the team collaborates at every step, both roles alternate as leaders guiding the team in completing each one of the 9 steps.
3. The conductor-designers must control the tasks’ time.
4. The goal is to lay down a discussion around a dystopian fiction and create a set of AI-generated images.
5. The conductor designer starts the process and begins the dialogue with the agonist designers.
6. In their turn, the agonist designers confront the conductor designer’s ideas with new versions of the dystopian images.
7. In the end, after exploring a dystopian fiction, the group must either propose design solutions to address the problem that sparked the discussion or continue speculating.
Note: The process is facilitated by a MIRO board that teams can duplicate to organize and display their dystopian imagery.
STEP 110’The group selects the problem to tackle according to threats to the earth’s ecology, societal needs, and a selected human or non-human context.
STEP 210’The conductor-designer creates and presents to the agonist-designers a dystopian image based on the tackled problem (AI image based on text-to-image generation).
STEP 310’The agonist-designers manipulate the created image, deepening the dystopia. Each agonist-designer creates a new version of the AI image or a different one, but from the perspective of the conductor-designer (thinking the same way they did).
STEP 410’The AI images are displayed together in a grid. The conductor-designer interferes in each image created by the agonist-designers with keywords of their thoughts, identifying critical problems and possible solutions.
STEP 510’The agonist-designers incorporate the ideas of the conductor-designer into their images by creating new versions.
STEP 610’All the images are presented to the agonist-designers through a specific sequence (GIF animation) thought up by the conductor-designer.
STEP 710’Each agonist-designer writes a comment for each of the other agonist-designers' images.
STEP 8
10’
Everyone in the group reads the comments of the others. The group selects the most representative dystopian image. Final group discussion about the most relevant problems and possible solutions for designing products, services, spaces, or experiences.
STEP 9GROUP PITCH
Show one of the most representative dystopian images. Focus on the design problems and possible solutions. Share ideas for design products, services, spaces, or experiences.
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Research financed with National Funds through FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology,
within the scope of the projects: UIDB/00112/2020, UIDB/00711/2020. Images developed in DXT workshops at IADE Universidade Europeia, HdM Stuttgart, and Cumulus Budapest.