PRESENCE & PARTICIPATIONIN THE TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURES

Lorenzo Davoli

DESIGNERS ATTENTION IS SHIFTING

from: New product and services

To:Infrastructures and their foundations

Societal needs are changing

Infrastructures need to serve

new functions

New Design competencies, tools and

processes

1 - PROLOGUE: Example of IoT infrastructure development

2 - TRANSFORMING INFRASTRUCTURE Enabling user led innovation and participation

3 - TRAJECTORYSketch of a possible methodology and process

4 - HACKING DELIVERY SERVICES Ongoing work on logistic infrastructure

1 - PROLOGUE:

www.satinportal.se

SATIN PROJECT

PROCESS

User Centered approach

Different interaction styles prototyped and tested and evaluated with users

Low Fi - Hi fi prototypes testing to what extent people could create functionalities with these interfaces.

Results: people able to use the interface but unable to make sense of and with it

Agent “based” interface test - physical mockup

Satin example of traditional top down infrastructure: Technological driven, efficiency and usability

Influence on the Design Space: The underlying infrastructures that generate it

Context provide meaningfulness: Existing diverse, local,specific practices and needs

New work practices from concrete to abstract to inform design of inf.

RADICAL INNOVATIONS REQUIRE NEW FOUNDATIONS:

TRANSFORMING INFRASTRUCTURES

Infrastructures are socio-technical fabric of societies, they

co-evolve together: from modern states to global markets

Post industrial society developing new contextual sensitivity and local flexibility needs.

New interactivity, change in location/activity relations,

increased awareness and consumers power.

Prevalent top down design approaches and standardization criteria unable to meet these needs

Industrial systems Inherently slow to change

INFRASTRUCTURES:

ALTERNATIVE FORM OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION ARE EMERGING:

Sustainable & Collaborative Services

Small scale & distributed

Flexible manufacturing techniques / information technology as enablers

Fulfill needs industrial system are not able to satisfy

Foundations for a more responsive and resilient infrastructure

Pictures:Hiriko Car, source: www.hiriko.com / Very Good & Proper, source: Domus Web “Generazione D2C” / Azienda Agricola Lago Scuro source: www.cascinalagoscuro.it / Smart Citizens Barcelona, source: www.smartcitizen.me /

Distributedsystems

FROM:

DESIGN ALTERNATIVE PRODUCT AND SERVICES

TO:

HOW TO OVERCOME SCALABILITY AND DIFFUSION CONSTRAINTS EXERTED BY THE INDUSTRIAL REGIME

THEY OPERATE WITHIN

STRATEGY: MAKING INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS RECEPTIVE RECEPTIVE/SUPPORTIVE TO BOTTOM UP INNOVATION

Top Down

Bottom Up

Engineering Qualities:Closed; Reliable; GeneralizedDesigned for Stability and Control;Slow to Change

Diverse; Distributed Socially Driven; Local; Flexible; Small Scale;Redundant..

What is a design practice that is not top down or bottom up ?

New Feedback loops

TRAJECTORY:

INVISIBILITY OF INFRASTRUCTURES

Naturalization/ Exclusion: G.Bowker & S.L. Star

Commoditization/Mean-end divide: A.Borgmann

Figuration/Configuration: L.Suchman

Transparency / Open Service Innovation: H.Chesborough

Public/Habits: J.Dewey

Black boxing/UnbundlingT.Hughes - B.Latour - D.Haraway

S.Graham & S.Marvin

& more...

IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY:FROM LITERATURE

}

Co.Design

Pictures:Green Button Etnography Source: http://blogs.parc.com/Debtoscope project Source http://slightchanges.com

IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD

System Design For Sustainability - PSS

Picture Left : Cape Town Sustainable Mobility project; source Ceschin 2012 “The introduction and scaling up of sustainable PSS “

IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD

Pictures:Le Montre Vert, Green watch-CIty Pulse project source http://www.fing.org/?La-Montre-verte-City-pulse-Green&lang=en/MIT SenseablecIty Lab “Trash Track” Project source http://senseable.mit.edu/ /MIT Senseablecity Lab, “Forage Tracking” project source http://senseable.mit.edu//

IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD

Participatory Sensing / Tracing Infrastructures

New infrastructure Informal Infrastructure Formal infrastructure

FormalizationSurface

Re-Configurations

Area of impact

regime / infrastructure

Niche Solutions

Reveal bottom up services to “formalize them”

- SDS/PSS - Co.Design

- SDS-PSS - Co.Design- P.Sensing

- SDS/PSS- P.Sensing

IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD

METHODOLOGICAL GAP: INFRASTRUCTURES AS CO.DESIGN MATERIAL

Standards and protocols driving formal institutions are often inaccessible to users and designers and therefore impossible to re-

adjust according to new needs.

Current method act only on their surface or fringes of existing regimes, limiting the

impact of their final designs.

To open up infrastructures for re-interpretation and design, certain interventions might be necessary

Will people come out with innovative/alternative ways of using infrastructures if given this material?

User led innovation require a transparency

1. 2.

Revealing

3. 4.

Tracing / Probing Staging Examples Analysis

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RE-

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PARTICIPATIONOPEN INNOVATION

IND. INFR.

EXPERIMENTS

Providesmaterial

to designUsers tools to expand

understanding of context, infrastructure and its interpretations

Co.DesignWorkshop and

prototyping

- LOCAL PSS

- OPEN INNOVATIONTOOLKIT/PLATFORMS

- SHOW ROOM CASES

Reflection and evaluation:

is people supportedusing infrastructure

differently?

METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK:

HACKING DELIVERY SERVICES

DELIVERY SYSTEMS & POSTAL SERVICES

Freight Delivery is a wicked problem: heterogeneity of actors/ needs lack of data

Postal Service as good example of Industrial infrastructure and logistic service

Global efficiency local impacts and generalizations

Designed and operates in the same way in every city

Back end inaccessible from user prospective

1. REVEALING 2. TRACING & PROBING

METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK:LOGISTIC AS AN EXAMPLE

Devices Visualizations atdifferent scales Field + Probes Interviews &

fieldwork practice

FIELD EXPLORATIONS

4 MAILS

4 MAILS

HIGHWAY NODE AIRPORT MAIN NODE

FROM A TO B

by Ruben Van Der Vleuten http://www.rubenvandervleuten.com/

A metasearch engine to share paths and the latent capacity of commercial vehicles?

Engaging explorations

Representation/Visualization are description and not sufficient to prescribe action

Single interpretation of these representations not enough > iterative design process + key stakeholders

Transparency of the formal infrastructure to be re-purposed and re-interpreted

Hacking as co.Design: learning, skill development and empowerment

REFLECTIONS ON THE TWO HACKS

Critical Practice

INTERVIEWS AND FIELD WITH LOCAL DELIVERY SERVICES

Follow delivery trucks and monitor theirtheir loads during the day

Interviews manager drivers employees of local branches of large delivery companies

Observing protocols and technology in use

EXAMPLE: EXPLORING P2P DELIVERIES

LOGISTIC FOR FLODA31

LOGISTIC FOR FLODA31

Small architecture firm

Small scale production

A lot of building activities on site

Current systems unable to serve their supply needs

GPS + GSM

Backup GPS tracker

2200 mAhBattery 6000 mAh

Battery Tilt TriggeredCamera

SMS GATEWAY

DELIVERY BOX

SERVER

UI

Send dataVia GSM Network Real Time

Location

User probes delivered / Infrastructure probe Shipped

RESULTS SO FAR....

INDUSTRIAL RATIONALITY?

INFRASTRUCTURES NATURALLY TEND TO EXLUDE ...

Closest node 40Km

PRESENCE & PARTICIPATIONIN THE TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURES

Lorenzo Davoli