Semester 2, Week 6
User-Designer Interaction, Discursive Dissonance, Theatrics
Creating Discourse
Still stuck in a bit of a rut, I focused on writing my dissertation. This week, I pulled out Discursive Design by Tharp and Tharp, in hopes to find some inspiration, or new perspectives for my project. This greatly informed my "Notes for Further Research".
1. 6 Steps to Reflection
Steps towards Reflection
Tharp and Tharp propose 6 steps to consider when building a discursive design project. These steps are experienced from the audience's POV. Namely, they are:
1. Encounter — The audience comes into contact with the discursive object for the first time.
This initial moment is crucial for setting the stage for engagement.
2. Inspect — The
audience examines the object, noticing its form, materials, and other sensory details. This step
draws them in for further engagement.
3. Recognise — The audience identifies familiar
elements, symbols, or references in the object that help them understand its context.
4.
Decipher — The audience begins to analyze and make sense of the object’s message, piecing
together its meaning.
5. Interpret — The audience applies their own perspectives and
experiences to the object, developing a more personal understanding of its message.
6.
Reflection — The final step, where the audience contemplates the object’s discourse,
potentially leading to deeper insights, discussions, or changes in perspective.
I then reflect on the chart I created 2 weeks ago, and how the audience is meant to experience the
whole experience. Similarly, how do they encounter the project, and what are the cues for them to
understand the story? Notably, the writers place importance on portraying the project as discursive.
The challenge of designing a decipherable
object relies heavily upon product framing as
well as product semantics, wherein designers
use aesthetic treatments or other devices as readable,
communicative components. This could
include project titles, packaging content, website
descriptions, gallery synopses, and so on. Just as
the information from or the experience of the
encounter can influence the attention given, so too
can it play a role—positive or negative—in
deciphering the object.
Being caught up in the mechanics and logistics of the experience shouldn't take away from the
importance of its presentation. In fact, that is likely where the first impression comes from, and
where the audience decides if they want to engage further. Once they do engage with the project,
perhaps it is about asking the right questions to lead them to the desired reflection.
2. Theatrics and Dissonance
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie | A Song Re-performed by Hao Kexin
Tharp and Tharp also propose the analogy of designer as playwright. By bringing in the idea of
theatre, we also bring in discussions around characters, context and plot. For a discursive project,
it might be necessary to embrace the suspension of belief, similarly to audiences watching a play.
Artifice is then a carefully crafted tool for world-building. How far from reality do we go, and
what does that dissonance do for the audience?
Above, I shared a video of
Kexin's performance "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" again. She performs an 80s disco song that she discovered was written, produced, and consumed by mostly men, through the male gaze of female performers. As simple as it seems, the video taps on a familiar world, but creates a character that is far from familiar through language, sound, imagery, resulting in a humorous yet thought-provoking outcome with lots to talk about.
I am then reminded of Brenda Laurel's "Computer as Theatre", where she describes the qualitative elements of a dramatic structure, and recontextualises them in a HCI context. If I were to personify the AI oracles that I have created, what kind of character would they play? How does it think? How would it communicate?
Starting A Script
I started a little script to figure out a flow of content and how my character would speak. I'm thinking this can be presented through a performative video, or an animation (depending on how much content and time I have in the future). I also wonder how to incorporate my experiments into this narrative. Seems like I'm not out of my rut yet but that's okay. I'll figure out it soon.