Design justice is a growing movement that seeks to ensure that the design of products, services, and spaces is equitable and inclusive. This movement recognizes that design has historically been used to exclude certain communities and perpetuate systemic injustices. By centering the needs and experiences of marginalized communities, design justice aims to create more just and equitable outcomes for all.  

In total, design justice offers 10 principles to guide design:

• Centre the voices of those who are directly impacted by the design process
• Acknowledge and challenge power imbalances within the design process
• Seek to undo and resist systemic inequalities and forms of oppression
• Frame design as a tool for collective liberation and social justice
• Honour and uplift traditional and indigenous knowledge and practices
• Engage in relationships that prioritize care, trust, and accountability
• Build sustainable, community-led solutions that do not exploit or extract from communities
• Work towards equitable distribution of resources and benefits
• Recognize the intersectional nature of identities and design solutions
• Practice reflection and self-critique throughout the design process

 

At its core, design justice is about using design as a tool for social change. It involves actively working to understand the experiences of minoritised communities and designing products, services, and spaces that support what matters to them. This includes considering factors such as accessibility, affordability, and cultural relevance. This is especially important when working with minoritised older adults, a group with expertise and knowledge as well as challenges and experiences that are too often treated in a homogenous way. In the Connecting Through Culture project, we’ve worked with co-researchers over time to build relationships and trust, including through creative lifecourse mapping activities that can recognise difference and take account of lived experience of structural inequalities  

Design justice also involves recognizing and challenging the ways in which design has been used to perpetuate systemic injustices. For example, certain design choices can reinforce discriminatory practices or exclude certain groups of people. For older adults, systemic ageism can lead to exclusion and marginalization. By actively challenging and dismantling ageist attitudes and practices, designers can help create a more inclusive and equitable society for older adults. In the Connecting Through Culture project, we’ve advocated for the existing capacities our co-researchers have in a number of ways – by granting the co-researchers opportunities to run their own creative workshops that showcase their talents and supporting others to learn; by ensuring that their voices are heard, not just within the co-design process, but at a range of events involving external partners, with funders, and the public, as well as through our co-researcher-produced films.  

Community engagement and participation is another key principle of design justice. When co-designing with older adults, it’s essential to involve them in the design process and actively seek their input and feedback. This enables us as a team to place their expertise and passions at the centre of the design process and also helps build trust and respect between designers and older adults. In the Connecting Through Culture project, we’ve attempted to build in opportunities for community to flourish around the project by: facilitating special interest groups – for co-researchers with shared passions (e.g., the Zoom poetry group), as well as by arranging community excursions to sites and events that are representative of different cultural interests, and by using social media channels.  

In conclusion, design justice principles can provide valuable guidance when co-designing with older adults. By centering their expertise and passions, challenging systemic injustices, and actively involving them in the design process, we have been more able to create ethical, effective, and inclusive processes and designs for older adults. Design justice is a theory that the Connecting Through Culture project has embedded within its practice, and we look forward to providing our own insights that can further inform its use with minoritized older adults.  

So, what is co-design? Well, co-design can take many forms. Typically, it concerns projects where designers, who hold professional expertise, collaboratively design with people who are “experts of their own experiences”. Yet, there are wild differences in approaches as well as what “collaboration” means. These are not limited to differences in the methods used to facilitate collaboration, but also concern fundamental differences in the dynamics of power held by designers and the experience-expert individuals they are collaborating with.  

The words ‘participation’ and ‘co-design’ are often used interchangeably, and while participatory design has a long and rich history (with its own debates around power and equity), the latter term implies a more equitable power relationship between designers and experience-experts. Where this fails to happen, it risks collaborative approaches being overly performative and co-design in name only (“more ‘faux design’ than co-design,” as described by one of our project partners). At their worst, this is incredibly extractive of individuals – in other words, designers prioritise what they can gain from engaging with experience experts. This happens when collaborations are insular, where they fail to properly support the individuals involved to exhibit their existing talents, build new capacities, feel agency within the design process or equity in designed outputs.  

In contrast, co-design approaches should invest in the individuals and collectives involved. The early goals of participatory design, for example, sought to involve individuals in the design of technologies as a means to their political empowerment beyond design alone. More recently some have spoken about co-design as a form of care, where designers must consider the needs, values and well-being of people involved [1, 2]. Within this, designers must be reflexive to consider how power, social relations and roles can adapt and change throughout a design process, as the individuals involved evolve. There must be recognition that involving individuals in co-design processes has the potential to change their daily lives and longer-term life trajectories. Hence, collaborations should not be viewed as transactional.  

‘Care-full design’ advocates for the consideration of the speed and scale of design processes. It may not be feasible for all experience-experts to have the confidence towards design straight away, and thus, there may need to be a period for capacity building and gaining familiarity with design activities. The concept of fuzzy-frontends to co-design, a period of time before formal design activities begin, is deemed essential to build social connections and trust between designers and experience-expert individuals, to support their creative confidence, and establish the resources they need to take part.  

Thus, the dominant idea of the “maverick” professional designer as the arbiter of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ design, while guiding participating individuals through the process is inappropriate for co-design. Instead, designers in such processes may serve their collaborators better as ‘facilitators’ rather than design decision makers. Here there is an emphasis on honouring the different forms of localised and embodied knowledge that experience-experts bring and making a commitment to long lasting community-led and controlled outcomes.  

This is not just a more ethical approach to collaboration, but also serves to benefit design outputs. For instance, fuzzy-front ending also recognises that sites for design, such as labs and hack spaces, are often far removed from the lives of some experience expert individuals (as well as the end users of technology). By spending time understanding the spaces, places, people and routines in their day to day lives, it enables us to garner a richer picture of how technology may affect and be affected by the real lives (e.g., daily routines, contexts, social relationships) of the people it is designed to serve. All of this is beneficial for creating technology ‘that fits’ within people’s lives.  

In the second of this two-part reflection on co-design, we will describe how these co-design ideals have manifested in practice through the CTC project.  

References
[1] Light, A. and Akama, Y., 2018. The nature of ‘obligation’in doing design with communities: Participation, politics and care. Tricky Design: The Ethics of Things, 131. Vancouver
[2] http://www.tecnoscienza.net/index.php/tsj/article/view/449

One project really resonated with Connecting through Culture. This is a collaboration between the Open University and SASS – Swansea Asylum Seeker Support. Marie Gillespie and Tom Cheesman spoke about how they wanted to find a way of sharing creative responses to living as an asylum seeker or refugee in the pandemic; connecting people through their smartphones. ‘Cov19: Chronicles from the Margins’ has received many and varied artworks; photos, paintings, poems, videos. These are presented on a public facing website cum gallery. And what started as local to Swansea, including digital skills development, grew to be truly international. The project acknowledges and draws on the huge expertise held by asylum seekers and refugees – in international migration, international law, local support etc. In academic terms it’s the co-production of knowledge about the lived experiences of those with precarious migration status during the pandemic. On another level it is an outpouring and connection between those who share painful experiences, and for those of us who haven’t been close to those experiences, a compassionate but stark window onto what’s going on for individuals living in our communities; as Marie described it ‘a collective mobilisation of everyday experience’.  

It was interesting to hear the very varied ways in which the idea of gatekeepers was represented – from Fidele talking about community leaders, through local government anti-racism practices that in the past emphasises reports rather than implementation, or relied on consulting with large organisations rather than at the grassroots, through to the ethics procedures at the Open University that put barriers in the way of the SASS collaboration being able to be agile and responsive. But what all the speakers had in common was the importance of getting to lived experience, involving and listening to what people say about their daily encounters, practices and emotions, and then building that understanding into projects and services. Charlotte Amoss from Cardiff Council spoke of ‘collaborative solutions…locally owned’. At Connecting through Culture our co-research is based on a lifecourse approach; and empowering the participation of minoritised older people in tech innovation; a sphere which has tended to overlook their experiences. It does feel that, 18 months in, the project has been breaking down some barriers.  

Initially these videos were going to be a small activity that emerged from the Connecting through Culture poetry group; motivated by the desire to record some co-researchers thoughts on ageing, to make videos of poems and simply to have fun being creative together. But it grew and grew through the enthusiasm of co-researchers until, supported by the Thinking Futures festival, we had 14 videos ready for screening.There wasn’t a specific brief other than to put out something into the world that the individuals involved would like to say and be heard. Some co-researchers made their own films and sent them in as finished articles for the screening, some short animations were made at two workshops held this autumn, but most of the videos were made as a collaboration between co-researchers and myself; with the co-researchers initiating the ideas and having final editorial say too. In between we negotiated, played and chatted our way through production. There was even tea and cake.  

So, at ten o clock I arrived at Screen 3 at the Watershed cinema to check that the file I had sent in earlier in the week would play smoothly. The projectionist started the first film and I was alone in the auditorium. All the films had been shot on phones, generally fairly old with cracked screens – and the projected quality was….mindblowing! Who needs fancy hardware when old phones can do this! Slowly people started to arrive – I wasn’t sure how many would come, but in the end 45 people settled down to watch. Some of the co-researchers had brought family and friends – their fan clubs – and had dressed up for the occasion. There was such a great atmosphere and between each video everyone clapped and, on occasion, whooped. Afterwards many stayed behind for a drink in the Watershed café – catching up, meeting new people, asking questions about the films, offering congratulations. What a fabulous morning – I went home re-inspired by the positive vibes.  

You’ll be able to see the films soon on our website. Several address ageing and ageism; the disservice that being defined as old brings. Others are a celebration of personal creative pleasures or the natural world around us. And there are also films to make us think: about Bristol’s dark past of slavery, about missing the help and companionship of a guide dog, and about hopes for the future.  

You’ll be able to see the films soon on our website. Several address ageing and ageism; the disservice that being defined as old brings. Others are a celebration of personal creative pleasures or the natural world around us. And there are also films to make us think: about Bristol’s dark past of slavery, about missing the help and companionship of a guide dog, and about hopes for the future.  

A few weeks ago, I attended two events targeted at creating an inclusive space for disabled people to connect with and experience the arts in a more intimate and satisfying way.  

The first, a dance in the Bristol Beacon called ‘Prehension Blooms’, was prefaced with a ‘touch tour’; an introduction to the performance in the form of allowing the audience to handle the costumes, the set and even the dancers to accommodate those with visual impairments. This was a really enlightening experience for me in multiple ways; at first, I thought about how difficult it must be for the visually impaired to navigate daily life, but then I considered the simplicity of the adjustments made to the performance to enrich the experience for them and it made me realise how simple so many improvements to our society could be while enhancing the lives of the visually impaired to such a high degree. I felt confused at why I hadn’t seen more events like this advertised or attended them myself as, to me, it is so important for everyone in society to be able to have such enriching cultural experiences. I felt that I really gained something from this type of introduction as well, especially to the dancer’s costumes, and it added so much depth being able to imagine the textural sensations which the dancers themselves were experiencing. This introduction also allowed me to glean much more meaning from the dance as well and get a much better understanding of the artistic technique and dynamic nature of the stage, props and dancers all collaborating.  

The second was a ‘lie in’ at the Bristol Arnolfini in an exhibition exploring human’s relationship with the natural world and the false dichotomy of the urban and natural . I really enjoyed this event, and I thought it was an interesting and unique way of experiencing a gallery show: something usually so rigid and formalised. There was something mollifying about the freedom to lie down and relax in a place which, to me, should always be so tranquil but is made overwhelming by the rigidity and pressure of rules and social expectation. With this exhibition the experience was particularly effective as much of the art was on the gallery floor, encouraging, in this context, a much closer examination and analysis of the artworks. I especially enjoyed the clay figures and me and my sister spotting our favourites; something I never would’ve experienced without this opportunity. The event made me think about how lucky I am to be the kind of able-bodied person whom society caters for and the ease with which I can experience art and culture and how fortunate I am for that.  

Additionally, though, these experiences emphasised to me the falsehood of so much regressive argument against progress today and throughout history: if something benefits one group in society, it benefits us all. These experiences welcomed those who would’ve otherwise had difficulty and allowed the inspiration of these pieces to reach a much wider, more diverse audience, both increasing their cultural impact and improving even my own experience, despite being able-bodied and not visually impaired, and allowing new connections and ways of thinking to form which would have been impossible otherwise. Increasing the accessibility of the arts through multi-sensory experiences creates a welcoming environment and enriches the experience for everyone.  

Helen and I had a fantastic time running a stall at WECIL’s (The West of England Centre for Inclusive Living) 2022 ‘Access All Areas’ event. WECIL are a Bristol-based user led organisation dedicated to supporting independent living to create a more inclusive society. As a community partner on our project, they have provided valuable support in recruiting older adults as co-researchers and advised us on how to ensure our research and co-design practices are inclusive to those involved.  

During the event we were joined by Elanora, one of our project co-researchers. Elanora shared a fascinating selection of albums and journals created during her involvement in the project, which document her love of arts and cultural activities across the City of Bristol and beyond (see photos). It was great to meet others at the event and tell them more about our Connecting Through Culture project, including representatives from Bristol City Council. We also enjoyed hearing about WECIL’s exciting 5-year strategy and the launch of their Business Support Services (check out Disability.Inc.!).  

The highlight of the day for us was the fantastic selection of talks. Penny Germon (Bristol City Council, Neighbourhoods and Communities) spoke about the impacts of the Cost of Living Crisis on disable people, and the community-led response in the form of the ‘Can Do Bristol’ campaign (website and volunteer opportunities available here). We also heard from two generations of disability rights campaigners, Jane Campbell and Ellen Clifford. Ellen spoke about how today’s cost of living crisis follows over a decade of government austerity measures in which welfare reform and cuts to health and social care have had a profoundly disproportionate impact on the lives and rights of disabled people.  

The talks brought home the importance of collective action in fighting for disabled people’s rights and building a fairer and more just society where diversity is valued.  

Our review was shaped in consultation with cultural practitioners and organisations through an event held in May 2022, which illuminated the sector’s interest in knowing more about the added value of cultural participation on social connectivity, its relationship to wellbeing, and the role of the digital in cultural participation. For more information visit our resources page.  

Hmm, jury out, then, or let’s just call him ‘Vince’.  

Initial impressions were ‘Wow, so many people of such a wide age range (from kids to families to Gen3) are actually interested enough in some 19th century Dutch painter to make the effort to come along to an exhibition solely devoted to him? Wow!’; and that it was very professionally put together. ‘Hmm – very high production values – budget in the millions? And they’re expecting to not only recoup on that but also pull in a profit? These guys are def real profis with some solid professional and financial back up!’  

Then: why Van Gogh? Let me fly-on-the-wall myself on their initial pitch: “we want to stage a major cultural event based around a cultural icon with worldwide pulling power to showcase 21st century media technologies and toe-dip whether there’s a viable financial model to build on for even more mega events going forward. I mean, just look at the Abba thing down at the purpose-built Arena where they’re running actual avatars of Abba! Way-to-go!” “So who’re you going to run?” “One: it has to be someone with that instant recognition factor; two: his/her/their life has to have a relatable social context so people can buy in to their lived experience; three: there has to be DRAMA and EXCITEMENT!” “The ‘tortured artist trope’ always goes down well, too…” “So, what, I mean who we got?” “Vincent Van Gogh – he ticks all the boxes!” “Did you say Van Goff or Van Go?” “Whatever – you give us the dosh, we tell’m how to pronounce it.”  

I enjoyed the inventiveness, the way they varied the offer, from informative traditional interpretation boards through simple projections onto a bust to the Japonisme mobile-inspired Japanese lady ‘of the floating world’ (Ukiyoe), all leading up to the grand finale, the aircraft-hanger- scale 3600 projection space. I did feel a bit sorry for Vince, quoted as writing, “I envy the Japanese the extreme sharpness that everything seems to have (…) they make a figure with a few confident strokes”. ‘Yes, the Japanese philosophy – no, the Japanese practice is to master your art, then throw it all away and just DO, whereupon it does itself. No need to be tortured about it. But in the West we are taught to separate out, to doubt… such a pity, really, to be always pulled away.  

I really liked some of the other of his quotes as well, so, cut the exhibition organisers some slack, he is a genuinely interesting painter, artist and individual whose self-knowledge of his own fate squeezed greatness out of him. For example: “What would life be, if we had no courage to attempt anything?”, or, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together”, or, “I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it”, or, “Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”  

Anyway – the aircraft, no, the space shuttle hanger: it’s BIG! It’s full of people surrendering to The Experience: teenagers, parents, kids, all ages lounging on deck chairs or benches. The walls, though high, do not extend high enough to hide the supporting structure of girders, probably, well, certainly on purpose: you are being welcomed into a staging post for the new era and that’s what they look like in the movies, so that’s what it looks like here. The construction, the immediate impression, the hushed, enraptured audience evoke – I think back to where I’ve just been: medieval Girona in Catalonia and its cathedral, the way that has been constructed over the centuries to evoke exactly those sorts of associations and feelings – yes, it’s a cathedral and we’re being invited to join in a religious experience! The music swells in corroboration: The Beyond has been brought to earth! Feel The Power! Join the Believers! Abandon Thyself to the Numinous! All Hail The Greatness of Art!  

The extra-human scale of the paintings brought to life did have the desired effect, but after a while I began to feel, well, oppressed? Bombarded with bombasticity? I left to do the VR tour. Join the metaverse! The dis – what’s the word I’m looking for? Discongruity? Disjunction? Dislocation? Something ‘dis‘ anyway between what my brain was telling me was happening (that I was travelling through a cartoon landscape on a gyroscooter) and what my body was telling me (no, you’re not, you’re standing still in a shed!) caused severe nausea which lasted for the next day or so.  

I disgorged myself into ‘the real world’. “I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process,” says Vincent Van Gogh. Ah yes, the other interesting thing is that the explanation for the way he used colour is that he really did see colours differently: he had a visual ‘impairment’. So his weakness was his strength and his strength his weakness.  

So, in the context of Connecting Through Culture: does the Van Gogh exhibition provide us with a model for one way of connecting people in general and Gen3 in particular through culture? I’d say ‘yes’: it merges culture and hi-end tech to provide a truly immersive and educational experience for all ages. It takes ‘the Art’ out of the gallery or museum and makes it accessible to a wide demographic. Looking at how they’ve done that gives some valuable pointers for how to set up cultural and artistic experiences which we can borrow from. After all, they’ve spent millions on it, so we don’t ned to do that, we can just cadge a few tips for our smaller scale efforts.  

Maybe not quite so bombastic.  

At the end of June I went to visit Pete. He was sitting in an untenanted shop in St Nicholas’ covered market – getting on with his day-to-day emails but welcoming in anyone who cared to spend some time looking at the artefacts and memories that are beginning to populate the walls and floor space. Pete has rummaged through the cellars below the corn exchange and brought up posters, signs and an old wooden trading counter as a start for a pop-up museum.  

I asked him about why he was there: “We are co-curating a museum here, a display, it’s about creating a space together….Some traders say there’s not a lot in here at the moment… but it’s more about trying to inspire people to talk about the place.” So Pete’s presence is vital; he encourages those who come in to bring photos, to write their memories of the market on cards which are pinned up, or to just chat for as long as they want and leave their memories for Pete to document and add to the display. For new and younger visitors Pete’s enthusiastic conversation causes them to look around with a fresh eye. Some of the market traders have been multiple times to see how things are evolving. “The people who work in the market have their own interest – they bring stuff; ‘you might be interested in this we found behind the filing cabinet’.” So even the artefacts on show are ‘pop-up’ – no-one has valued or displayed them before and everyone is welcome to handle them. Pete has been brought a ‘tatty plan’ that shows where and whom had each stand in the 70’s – not an aesthetically pleasing object but something that makes connections; between the personal stories, the businesses and this place.  

But what does the pop-up museum hope to achieve? The market managers gave him the space as it’s not good for business to have vacant shops and they hope for extra footfall. From the historical environment perspective Pete’s interest is in the intangible heritage of the place. As a researcher on Connecting through Culture as we Age one thing really stood out to me. The importance of older people to the success of what Pete refers to as the ‘market story shop’ – it is older people’s stories that are it’s lifeblood. And Pete’s intention isn’t simply to record for posterity, it is to cast new light on a historic building so that when change happens – and the market has seen many drastic changes to its fabric and use – they are made in consideration of the huge value of the human relationships that the market embodies. “We’re interested in that near past that doesn’t get the same level of value as a Grade 2* listed building – the human connections about a place. …We want to highlight how rich a place it is in terms of memories and stories”. Pete says that by understanding the connections with a place we learn how to not throw away the baby with the bathwater when it comes to urban development. Pete nods at the famous ‘nail’ outside, and the Rolling Stones concert in the 60’s held in the Corn Exchange, but he also mentions the recent run on rubber ducks at the toy shop, the discounts for nurses from the BRI and the Chataway Café where traders met up to chew the fat in the 80’s. “It’s about not destroying what’s there…it’s getting more appreciation for this place rather than taking it for granted”. ”We’ll end up producing a booklet about the market – not a long story about building but about the people who have created the place we see today.”  

You can find the pop-up museum in the covered market opposite Treasure Island Sweets on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until the end of Summer 2022 – there’s no fixed end date, just when it gets too cold for Pete to work there.  

The project has just entered it’s next phase; developing ‘demonstrator’ projects . These will be products and services that aim to support connection through culture for older people, the crux of this project. The 18 co-researchers have begun working with 26 creative professionals from a range of digital and artistic backgrounds and together they have become 44 co-designers. This co-design phase starts with three workshops run by Pervasive Media Studio at the Watershed in Bristol – to introduce co-researchers and creatives, to brainstorm, to loosen up those co-design muscles, to coalesce teams to take ideas forward into prototyping.  

This is a challenge for sure. The co-designers are a large and incredibly diverse group, themselves with varying experiences of co-design and with a wide range of accessibility needs including different languages, mobility, sight and hearing. But crucially this project depends on every person being included in order to hear and act on the voices which are rarely heard – designing products with and for those who are often not visible.  

So the challenge got me thinking more about what is really at the heart of co-design and what ‘inclusion’ really means. It goes beyond language and physical issues. Co-design is an emotional process that asks everyone to give of themselves. In a word successful co-design is down to relationships – those inter-personal interactions, understandings and generosity around the table (even if it’s a virtual table). It’s relationships that make it possible to participate, that ‘include’; everyone feeling that they have the space and are valued, and that open our eyes to what is really needed in terms of ‘accessibility’. It’s relationships that bridge gaps of experience and identity. It’s relationships that let someone throw an idea into the mix and not feel it belongs to them, allowing for the group to take that idea and transform it. And it’s others responses that help each person articulate ideas, evolve, and critique with no judgement.  

This sounds all too simplistic perhaps, and not useful. Yet, as we have worked with and got to know the older co-researchers over the last year, we have witnessed how deeply emotional connections influence their involvement and how necessary it is for some of them to feel their contribution is valued before they speak up and share their thoughts and ideas. So thinking about relationships can be useful when it comes to preparing for co-design. As a team we have needed to think through: how can we show others they are valued so that they can participate comfortably and openly? How can we prepare ourselves to take on other’s ideas and share our own in a democratic way?  

One answer is to get all the ‘little arrangements’ right – taxis, food, interpreters, answering calls quickly, etc. Another is to be open ourselves as a research team – sharing our findings and asking for feedback. But perhaps it’s also a personal matter – giving ourselves to those relationships, maybe becoming friends but certainly understanding supporters. Of course this then throws up so many questions about boundaries – but that’s for another day, another blog…