Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA
Abstract Environmental issues such as climate change and toxic contamination have become a lived reality for communities globally, yet as a society we have been slow to address many of these challenges. While designers have begun partnering with interdisciplinary teams to take on large social issue...
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| Format: | Article |
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Informa UK Limited
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124905 |
| _version_ | 1826216022563094528 |
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| author | Perovich, Laura Jones Wylie, Sarah Bongiovanni, Roseann |
| author2 | Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| author_facet | Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Perovich, Laura Jones Wylie, Sarah Bongiovanni, Roseann |
| author_sort | Perovich, Laura Jones |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Abstract
Environmental issues such as climate change and toxic contamination have become a lived reality for communities globally, yet as a society we have been slow to address many of these challenges. While designers have begun partnering with interdisciplinary teams to take on large social issues, the process of design, the timescale of academic work, and the pressing needs of communities experiencing the brunt of these issues are frequently ill-aligned. In this paper, we examine a year-long exploratory collaboration between an environmental justice group in Chelsea, MA, a social scientist, and a design/technology scholar to develop approaches for studying water contamination in Chelsea’s industrialized waterway and design interventions that could lead to structural change. We expand on the benefits of a slow and processional approach to co-developing research and design questions, tie our process to a theoretical framework connecting transformation design and participatory action research and point toward other potentially valuable frameworks such as civic science. We provide practical examples that can serve as guideposts for others starting similar collaborations and discuss systems-based changes that can encourage highly interdisciplinary transformational collaborations. ©2018 Keywords: transformation design; co-production; participatory action research; community-based participatory research; environmental justice; citizen science; civic science; STS (science technology and society); advocacy; art and technology; art and environment |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:41:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/124905 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:41:04Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1249052022-10-03T07:35:09Z Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA Perovich, Laura Jones Wylie, Sarah Bongiovanni, Roseann Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology Abstract Environmental issues such as climate change and toxic contamination have become a lived reality for communities globally, yet as a society we have been slow to address many of these challenges. While designers have begun partnering with interdisciplinary teams to take on large social issues, the process of design, the timescale of academic work, and the pressing needs of communities experiencing the brunt of these issues are frequently ill-aligned. In this paper, we examine a year-long exploratory collaboration between an environmental justice group in Chelsea, MA, a social scientist, and a design/technology scholar to develop approaches for studying water contamination in Chelsea’s industrialized waterway and design interventions that could lead to structural change. We expand on the benefits of a slow and processional approach to co-developing research and design questions, tie our process to a theoretical framework connecting transformation design and participatory action research and point toward other potentially valuable frameworks such as civic science. We provide practical examples that can serve as guideposts for others starting similar collaborations and discuss systems-based changes that can encourage highly interdisciplinary transformational collaborations. ©2018 Keywords: transformation design; co-production; participatory action research; community-based participatory research; environmental justice; citizen science; civic science; STS (science technology and society); advocacy; art and technology; art and environment 2020-04-28T18:56:55Z 2020-04-28T18:56:55Z 2018-06-19 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2331-1983 2331-1983 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124905 Perovich, Laura J., Sara Wylie, and Roseann Bongiovanni, "Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA." Cogent Arts & Humanities (2018): no. 1483874 doi 10.1080/23311983.2018.1483874 ©2018 Author(s) 10.1080/23311983.2018.1483874 Cogent Arts & Humanities Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Informa UK Limited Taylor & Francis |
| spellingShingle | Perovich, Laura Jones Wylie, Sarah Bongiovanni, Roseann Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA |
| title | Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA |
| title_full | Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA |
| title_fullStr | Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA |
| title_short | Pokémon Go, pH, and projectors: applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in Chelsea, MA |
| title_sort | pokemon go ph and projectors applying transformation design and participatory action research to an environmental justice collaboration in chelsea ma |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124905 |
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