Professor Ashley Hall

Co-designing across divides GoGlobal 2016

Ashley Hall Professor of Design Innovation ashley.hall@rca.ac.uk

Ashley Hall Professor of Design Innovation ashley.hall@rca.ac.uk

…with Diplomat designing furniture and products for over 15 years…

Bringing together staff and students from over 20 countries and disciplines to work with commercial partners on cutting edge design and research projects

…to leading commercial design projects for IDE…

...from future aircraft cabins for Airbus in 2030…

RCA Lead Academic Partner for Stakeholder Engagement in British Driverless Car Trial

Circular Make Spaces in Redistributed Manufacturing

Huawei Partner with the RCA to Create New Identity Design Directions

…PhDinprac,cebasedcollabora,vedesignprojects

Designing across divides 5 case studies

GoGlobal programme aims •  Postgraduate international cross cultural

collaborations between industry and academia

•  Explore themes of integration of product innovation with production, policy, social and economic factors

•  Connect policy to implementation

GoGlobal Project 2005  China Product Urbanisation 2006 -7 Thailand Massclusivity 2007 China Post consumerism 2008 Japan Future of Food 2009 Ghana eArtisans 2010 China Rural-Urban 2011 India Craftology 2012 Korea Social city software 2013 Australia Sports Innovation 2014 Israel-Palestine Peace of Design 2015 Russia City sustainability 2016 South Africa Design at bottom of pyramid

World Map Irradiance

World Map Irradiance + Tropics

World Map Rich-Poor Gap

World Map Rich-Poor Gap + Tropics

World Map Life Expectancy

World Map Life Expectancy + Tropics

GoGlobal Thailand 2006 Massclusivity

IDE + Thai Creative Design Centre

Divide – Design to Craft

6 days after joining IDE Ashley sent to Thailand

GoGlobal Thailand 2006

Output: Designed, manufactured and sold 10-100 of each of 10 products Took 1.5 years to complete the project after the student phase.

GG Thailand what we learnt: Design can enhance craft Exemplar projects good for promotion Proven through manufactured products We are not a factory, overambitious delivery and academic fitness for purpose

GoGlobal Ghana 2009 e-Artisans

IDE + Kwame Nkruma University of Science & Technology

Divide – Local to Global

60 students, 10 days, 26 prototypes

GoGlobal Ghana products: Woven shoe, Ananse, Flower Vase, Paawopaa collectable toy, Adinkra game, Calabash speaker and Water filter

30 IDE & 30 KNUST students in collaborative interdisciplinary design teams

Cultural transfer in product design Cultural transfer too strong: Products not culturally ‘accessible’ to an export market Cultural transfer too weak: Generic products Lack of regional identity

Solution: Found 3 sorts of cultural transfer: Balance generated by interaction between Ghanain and RCA students to moderate cultural design features

1. Cultural transfer – Material Culture (Material, techniques, processes etc.)

Product & Factors: Ahoma Woven Shoe – Craft techniques, materials, customisation Calabash Vase – material resource, craft skills, provenance

2. Cultural transfer – Behavioural (Patterns of cultural and social behaviour, emotions)

Product & Factors: Adinkra Game – Based on traditional symbols, game playing Pawopaa collectable toy – goods carrying, grasscutter, hand craft production,

3. Cultural transfer – Philosophical (Ideas, concepts, beliefs etc.)

Product & Factors: Ananse Toy – traditional spider story, carved figure, narrative construction, re-telling and sharing via digital methods.

GG Ghana what we learnt: Great entrepreneurial environment Kumasi: City of artisans and makers Too early for technology penetration Too early for global websales trust Needed longer term financial support for local development

GoGlobal India 2011 Craftology

IDE + National Institute of Design Ahmedabad

Divide – Craft to Economy

GoGlobal India 2011 Craftology, Futurecraft DNA, Slum project bag, Solar powered lathe, Future Craft City Ahmedabad, Thalikala spice plate

GG India what we learnt: Huge scale of craft activity Massive number of hand crafted products compares to other large countries (eg China) Protecting craft identities is crucial (via GI’s) Potential for craft to uplift from poverty

Foroba Yelen

2011 Divide – Darkness & Light

FOROBA YELEN: Portable Solar Lighting and Sustainable Strategies for Remote Malian Villages

Ashley HALL Royal College of Art & Imperial College London, UK Boukary KONATE Cinzana Connect Villages Association, Mali Amrita KULKARNI Royal College of Art & Imperial College London, UK

About Mali

Zinzana Gare, Bamassoubougou and Soanagola

Co-design - be prepared to be misunderstood

You can get anything and everything here!

Welding the light frames

making movie…

Making the lights movie [30 sec]

The completed lights Specification: 65 amp deep charge gel battery 30 watt x 2 CFL lamps Charge controller 50 watt solar panel Can be transported by Donkey or motorbike Unit on left uses local lamps Unit on right uses Philips donated components and LED street lamp.

Colours, finishes and materials

ceremony movie…

Mask ceremony movie [30 sec]

Malian&CFA GB£ Note:Initial'material'cost'excluding'own'labour'and'overheads'(assumed'free'from'villagers) 314,685'''''''''' £449.55

This'was'the'cost'for'making'two'lights'divided'by'two

Rental'per'use 4,000'''''''''''''' £5.71 Figure'from'Boukary

Assuming'rentals'per'month 15

Max'30'rentals'per'month'at'one'recharge'per'day

Total'rental'income'per'month £85.71Based'on'assumed'rentals'x'rental'fee

Maintainance'assumed'at'£5'a'month £5.00

Replacement'lamps,'batteries,'structral'repairs'(welding)'and'etc.

Total'monthly'income'(rental'Mmaintainace) 56,500'''''''''''' £80.71

Malian&CFA GB£

700 1

Malian'CFA'to'GB£'conversion'rate'on'project'completion'date

Conversions

Total&No.&of&months&to&make&a&new&light

Foroba&Yelen:&Lights&rental&incomes

5.57

Challenges

•  Communications and co-design. •  Reluctance of the Women’s group to speak out openly. •  Materials: very little timber and steel expensive •  Menders not makers, no drill bits in 3rd largest city (Segou). •  Sourcing lighting components. Two options:

1. Expensive low quality local parts 2. ‘Best western’ imported components

•  The information legacy

Conclusions

Working in London remotely via digital platforms was useful and began to tie the partners together. The co-design process even though it was more difficult to engage it built bonds. Activity so far shows use of the lights for activities ranging from funerals to traditional feasts, ceremonies, agriculture and mask dances helping slow rural urban migration. The assumptions of a co-design model and the ability levels amongst various project partners’ need to be assessed in advance as far as possible. Locally relevant design features may well be opposite to those desirable in western markets The success of using imported ‘best western’ components over locally sourced lighting components

GoGlobal Israel-Palestine 2014

Peace of Design

IDE + Shenkar College of Engineering and Design Partners: Ehete, Parent’s Cirlce, BASR, Ahoti, Kibbutz Harduf,

Uhm El Fahem, Al Basma, Husan School, Lakiya

Divides – Religion, geography, politics, economics

West Bank– Parents Circle Embroiderers

Experience

Uhm El Fahem – Arabic Ceramics

GG Israel-Palestine what we learnt: Power of co-design Value of follow on partners Immense complexity of local relations Design can break the barriers of mistrust Build on longer term projects

Cultural transfer

Baboon and Young, Picasso Bronze 1951

Jake and Dinos Chapman’s the Family Collection, Tate Modern

Moroso furniture pieces designed in Europe and some made in Senegal

Romanticising the exotic?

Favela Chair by Edra Design Campana Brothers

Cultural Extraction?

Liberating differences

•  Rehnberger’s car copying project exploring a method of illustrating cultural differences

•  Originals right and copies made in Thailand on the left

Secret design by Cairn Young

Secret design by Cairn Young

Umar Husen receiving the designs

Luhar culture-form analysis

Codesign

Benefits: Buy-in for solutions Better fit Education and up-skilling (both ways) More creative inputs

Misconceptions:

We have to agree with all the co-designers decisions It dumbs down the design We loose freedom to be creative

Co-designing:

-  Do they actually want it in the first place? -  Do they have the time to engage? -  Do they need some skills training and support? -  How deep do they want to go?

Co-designing with your entrepreneur:

-  Don’t all talk at once -  Learn the power of listening -  Slow down -  Ask permissions for all recordings -  Run small creative workshops to show elements

of work in progress that can build to new ideas -  Don’t promise what you can’t deliver -  Know your skillset

Co-designing with your entrepreneur:

-  Often fuzzy and never as clean or simple as

expected

-  Multi-dimensional

-  Do not equate with right and wrong or good and bad

- Accepting them holds us back

The falseness of divides:

Questions

h7p://rca.academia.edu/AshleyHall/About