Method of the symposium – provocations
The INTERACTIONS WITH CAREV IN THE CITY symposium will discuss the imaginative possibilities of cultural research into AVs and how this influences the development of AV and CAREV technology as an introduction to semiotics, communications, and embodiment with CAREVs; animations will be displayed to provoke discussion with panellists. Living with machines in the public realm will be discussed through a display of animations. The symposium also includes a participatory process of design, where ideas are initiated through breakout room software and through collaboration in teams about how we communicate with machines. This will be a short breakout process, which will lead into the analysis of communicating with CAREVs in the public realm through the lens of current driving practices, imagining the future CAREV environment. The social and technical history of indicator lights will be presented, with a specific focus on embodiment, leading to a discussion of semaphores and the communications unit developed as an experiment for the PhD research. The method for the project is to obtain data through interdisciplinary dialogue and the display of architectural multimedia. This methodology has been specifically designed for this research; it synthesises interdisciplinary discussions through formalised processes to create new data that is not otherwise available.
Expanding and improving on the success of Symposium 2, a mixture of the interview method, design-based learning processes and provocation will be utilised in Symposium 3.
The interview method allows for facilitation of the subject with panellists before, during and after the symposium in a semi-structured manner, through the arrangement of the literature review and supporting material provided through the website.
The design-based learning process is employed due to the iterative sequential steps involved in the method, including context immersion, developing criteria, generating alternatives, selecting preferences, prototypes, and testing and evaluating the architectural multimedia provided in the lead up to the symposium.
An important step in the method is using provocations to solve problems that are perhaps beyond the norm, to extract principles and then move towards a realistic solution to the question.
These three processes are interlaced into the overall symposium method and are part of the experimentation stage of the research. Each panellist will participate based on their field of knowledge. During the process they will maintain a mindful attitude to other disciplines and their input into the process. ‘Role swapping’ will be encouraged, and focus teams with a mixture of interests established. Underpinning the approach is an attempt to agree on the appropriate scope of collaborative effort and then communicate effectively, listening and understanding, presenting ideas, and providing feedback. The entire process will be viewed by multiple other parties and a question-and-answer session will be provided for full participation of the audience in the process.
The proceedings will be recorded for the purposes of this research only. A registration and voluntary consent process will be agreed by all participants as part of the method, with full details provided on the website.
