The research has the overall aim of investigating the intersection between Design – for Services and for Social Innovation especially – and ‘Audience Development’ (AD), as in the EU-preferred term for indicating the mindset, tools and actions adopted by cultural institutions to grow their existing and new audiences. Three main theoretical references have motivated and informed such investigation. These are (1) Schön’s understanding of designers as reflective practitioners endowed with a broad ‘repertorie’ of ‘ways of seeing’ the world and its challenges and opportunities; (2) Manzini’s consideration of all individuals as ‘diffuse designers’ (because all endowed with the “designerly” faculties of critical sense, creativity and practical sense), his recognition that nowadays’ complex and hyperconnected world is asking increasing numbers of non-professional designers to become indeed competent in (re)designing their everyday life, and his reframing of the role of professional designers as producers, rather than direct users, of ‘design knowledge’; (3) Dorst’s consideration of cultural heritage – in its threefold interpretation of bodies of knowledge, “high” culture and values system – as an endless well of ‘ways of seeing’ (i.e. universal themes, metaphors) for enriching one’s ‘intellectual capital’ (i.e. repertoire), and hence for boosting one’s capability to design. The entanglement of these conceptualisations has led to understand cultural participation as a major leverage for turning people, as diffuse designers, into diffuse competent designers. Hence, the idea that a design-driven approach to AD can result in a culture-driven approach to the fostering of diffuse design capacity, that is, that developing audiences by design can be considered and practiced as a way of developing diffuse competent designers by culture (Section 1). Based on this initial vision, AD has been analysed in terms of language, methodology, ecosystem of reference and main open issues (Section 2). In parallel, the recent interest by AD researchers in design thinking and service design has also been examined, and their understanding has been expanded beyond the employment of a ‘beginner mind’s aptitude’, a pure ‘outside-in’ interpretation of audience-centredness, and a pure experiential kind of innovation (Section 3). The analysis phase has allowed to identify the AD asset of ‘participation/co-design’ as particularly discussed and central in most AD-related EU-funded projects, as well as particularly suitable for Design to address. Therefore, once reflected upon the similar evolution that the “participatory turn” had in both Culture and Design, a multidisciplinary study on the main modalities of cultural participation has been conducted (Section 4), which led to the identification of two fundamental kinds: inviting to produce new (amatorial) cultural products (i.e. audience as artists; productive participation), and inviting to produce new sense – i.e. meanings – around existing, typically authored, cultural products (i.e. audience as interpreters, dialogic participation). It was therefore decided to focus on this latter modality because (a) coherent with the idea of using culture for expanding people’s repertoire of ways of seeing, thus growing not simply audiences but diffuse design capacity, and (b) more suitable for both most audiences and cultural organisations and yet way less recognised and practiced with respect to “productive participation”. Based on the introduction of a series of concepts – “audiencing as codesigning”, cultural products as ‘boundary objects’ and “inclusive deepening” –a framework for ‘dialogic’ cultural participation has been outlined, it consisting of five steps – invite, capture, compare, amplify, learn/renew. Finally, focusing on the library and theatre sectors, with the support of two cultural experts per field, the outlined framework has been applied for ideating possible scenarios for “dialogic” library and theatre services (Section 5), for a total of four scenarios. The whole research path and the final outcomes have been shared and discussed with an AD expert so to assess the relevance of a designerly – ‘visioning’ – approach to AD (Section 6).
La ricerca è stata condotta con l’obiettivo complessivo di indagare l’intersezione fra Design – dei Servizi e per l’Innovazione Sociale in particolare – e ‘Audience Development’ (AD), neo disciplina che studia l’approccio, gli strumenti e le azioni attraverso cui le organizzazioni culturali consolidano, ampliano e diversificano il proprio pubblico. Tre sono stati i principali riferimenti teorici che hanno motivato e orientato tale indagine, ovvero: (1) l’interpretazione data da Schön della figura del designer come ‘reflective practitioner’ dotato di un ampio ‘repertorio’ di ‘modi di vedere’ il mondo e le sue sfide/oppotunità; (2) l’interpretazione data da Manzini di tutti gli individui come ‘designer diffusi’ (in quanto necessariamente dotati di senso critico, creatività e senso pratico), la sua teoria secondo cui la complessità del mondo attuale sta portando un numero crescente di persone a (dover) diventare ‘competenti’ nel (ri)progettare la propria vita quotidiana, e la sua riformulazione del ruolo dei designer professionisti come produttori, invece che utilizzatori, di ‘design knowledge’; (3) l’invito di Dorst a considerare il patrimonio culturale, nella sua accezione più ampia, come risorsa inesauribile di ‘modi di vedere’ (i.e. sotto forma di temi universali, metafore) per arricchire il proprio ‘capitale intellettivo’ (i.e. ‘repertorio’), e quindi potenziare la propria capacità progettuale. La combinazione di queste concettualizzazioni ha portato a comprendere la partecipazione culturale come leva fondamentale per promuovere la capacità progettuale delle persone. Da cui, l’idea che lo sviluppo dei pubblici con approccio design-driven possa coincidere con lo sviluppo, “culture-driven”, di capacità progettuale diffusa (Sezione 1). Sulla base di questa visione iniziale, si è passati ad analizzare l’AD in termini di linguaggio, metodologia, ecosistema operante e principali questioni aperte (Sezione 2). In parallelo, è stato preso in esame il recente interesse dell’AD verso design thinking e service design, e se ne è estesa la comprensione oltre l’adozione di un approccio ‘beginner’s mind’ e oltre il perseguimento un’innovazione puramente ‘outside-in’ e di tipo esperienziale (Section 3). La fase di analisi ha permesso di identificare l’area ‘partecipazione/co-design’ come particolarmente discussa e centrale nei programmi di ricerca UE incentrati sull’AD, nonché particolarmente adatta ad essere affrontata con un approccio design-driven. Di conseguenza, una volta riflettuto sulla comune evoluzione del tema della partecipazione di pubblici e utenti negli ambiti culturale e progettuale, si è passato a uno studio multidisciplinare delle modalità di partecipazione culturale (Sezione 4), identificandone due fondamentali: l’invito a produrre nuovi prodotti culturali (amatoriali) in prima persona (i.e. pubblico come artista; partecipazione produttiva) e l’invito a produrre nuovo senso/significato attorno ai prodotti culturali esistenti (tipicamente autoriali) (i.e. pubblico come interprete; partecipazione dialogica). Fra le due, si è optato per la seconda modalità poiché (a) coerente con l’idea iniziale di utilizzare la cultura per ampliare il ‘repertorio’ di ‘modi di vedere’ delle persone, e quindi di sviluppare non solo pubblico ma capacità progettuale diffusa; (b) più adatta alla maggior parte sia dei pubblici che delle organizzazioni culturali, eppure decisamente meno riconosciuta e praticata rispetto alla prima modalità. A partire dalla formulazione di una serie di concetti – “audiencing as codesigning”, prodotti culturali come ‘boundary objects’ e approccio di “inclusive deepening” – la modalità di “partecipazione culturale dialogica” è stata tradotta in un framework operativo composto da cinque fasi – invitare, catturare, comparare, amplificare, imparare/rinnovare. Per concludere, scegliendo come focus i settori bibliotecario e teatrale, con il supporto di due esperti per ciascun settore, il framework progettato è stato applicato nell’ideazione di possibili scenari di servizi bibliotecari e performance “dialogici”, per un totale di quattro scenari. L’intera ricerca e i suoi esiti sono stati condivisi e discussi con un esperto di AD, con l’obiettivo principale di evidenziare i contributi specifici di un approccio design-driven all’AD (Section 6).
Framing dialogic cultural participation. A design approach to audience development
Demarchi, Valentina
2019/2020
Abstract
The research has the overall aim of investigating the intersection between Design – for Services and for Social Innovation especially – and ‘Audience Development’ (AD), as in the EU-preferred term for indicating the mindset, tools and actions adopted by cultural institutions to grow their existing and new audiences. Three main theoretical references have motivated and informed such investigation. These are (1) Schön’s understanding of designers as reflective practitioners endowed with a broad ‘repertorie’ of ‘ways of seeing’ the world and its challenges and opportunities; (2) Manzini’s consideration of all individuals as ‘diffuse designers’ (because all endowed with the “designerly” faculties of critical sense, creativity and practical sense), his recognition that nowadays’ complex and hyperconnected world is asking increasing numbers of non-professional designers to become indeed competent in (re)designing their everyday life, and his reframing of the role of professional designers as producers, rather than direct users, of ‘design knowledge’; (3) Dorst’s consideration of cultural heritage – in its threefold interpretation of bodies of knowledge, “high” culture and values system – as an endless well of ‘ways of seeing’ (i.e. universal themes, metaphors) for enriching one’s ‘intellectual capital’ (i.e. repertoire), and hence for boosting one’s capability to design. The entanglement of these conceptualisations has led to understand cultural participation as a major leverage for turning people, as diffuse designers, into diffuse competent designers. Hence, the idea that a design-driven approach to AD can result in a culture-driven approach to the fostering of diffuse design capacity, that is, that developing audiences by design can be considered and practiced as a way of developing diffuse competent designers by culture (Section 1). Based on this initial vision, AD has been analysed in terms of language, methodology, ecosystem of reference and main open issues (Section 2). In parallel, the recent interest by AD researchers in design thinking and service design has also been examined, and their understanding has been expanded beyond the employment of a ‘beginner mind’s aptitude’, a pure ‘outside-in’ interpretation of audience-centredness, and a pure experiential kind of innovation (Section 3). The analysis phase has allowed to identify the AD asset of ‘participation/co-design’ as particularly discussed and central in most AD-related EU-funded projects, as well as particularly suitable for Design to address. Therefore, once reflected upon the similar evolution that the “participatory turn” had in both Culture and Design, a multidisciplinary study on the main modalities of cultural participation has been conducted (Section 4), which led to the identification of two fundamental kinds: inviting to produce new (amatorial) cultural products (i.e. audience as artists; productive participation), and inviting to produce new sense – i.e. meanings – around existing, typically authored, cultural products (i.e. audience as interpreters, dialogic participation). It was therefore decided to focus on this latter modality because (a) coherent with the idea of using culture for expanding people’s repertoire of ways of seeing, thus growing not simply audiences but diffuse design capacity, and (b) more suitable for both most audiences and cultural organisations and yet way less recognised and practiced with respect to “productive participation”. Based on the introduction of a series of concepts – “audiencing as codesigning”, cultural products as ‘boundary objects’ and “inclusive deepening” –a framework for ‘dialogic’ cultural participation has been outlined, it consisting of five steps – invite, capture, compare, amplify, learn/renew. Finally, focusing on the library and theatre sectors, with the support of two cultural experts per field, the outlined framework has been applied for ideating possible scenarios for “dialogic” library and theatre services (Section 5), for a total of four scenarios. The whole research path and the final outcomes have been shared and discussed with an AD expert so to assess the relevance of a designerly – ‘visioning’ – approach to AD (Section 6).| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/173252