Dr. Jennifer Roberts-Smith, GI faculty member and professor of Communication Arts, will be giving a talk for the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on October 29th, at 5:30p,m (CT). See the full details of her talk, "Performative Relationality in Design Research", at this link, or jump to the registration page, here.
Performative Relationality in Design Research
Abstract:
The
argument
has
been
made
that
prototyping
always
has
a
performative
element.
It
has
also
been
said
that
an
interesting
approach
to
the
design
of
human-computer
interfaces
is
to
think
of
them
as
a
form
of
theatre.
These
are
both
useful
perspectives
to
take.
However,
the
relationship
between
performance
and
design
research
presents
a
much
richer
area
for
exploration.
In
community-driven
projects,
for
example,
performativity
can
help
a
research
process
respond
to
emerging
relationships
among
collaborators.
In
this
talk,
I
will
discuss
how
“performative
relationality”
has
been
emerging
as
a
new
design
research
method
in
Theatre
for
Relationality
and
Design
for
Peace.
In
these
two
projects,
the
design
research
experience
has
itself
been
prototypical
and
iterative,
prioritizing
equality
of
relationship
among
research
participants
though
the
process
of
producing
reusable
knowledge.
“Performative
relationality”
draws
on
pre-established
research
protocols
as
needed,
but
its
emergent,
“grounded”
approach
to
research
experience
design
makes
existing
methods
responsive
to
the
changing
contingencies
of
complex
collaborative
projects.
Bio:
Dr.
Jennifer
Roberts-Smith
(Associate
Professor,
Theatre
and
Performance,
University
of
Waterloo)
is
an
award-winning
artist-researcher,
whose
collaborative,
transdisciplinary
work
explores
performance,
digital
media,
history,
education,
and
social
justice.
She
has
been
instrumental
in
securing
the
place
of
performance-informed
scholarship
in
the
digital
humanities,
including
through
the
design
of
virtual
historical
reconstructions,
pedagogical
games,
and
justice-oriented
digital
pedagogical
environments.
JRS
is
currently
a
co-director
of
the
qCollaborative
(the
critical
feminist
design
research
lab
housed
in
the
University
of
Waterloo’s
Games
Institute),
as
well
as
the
SSHRC-funded
Theatre
for
Relationality
and
Design
for
Peace
projects.
She
is
also
creative
director
and
virtual
reality
development
cluster
lead
for
the
Digital
Oral
Histories
for
Reconciliation
(DOHR)
project.
Recent
publications
have
focused
methods
for
design
research
that
deepen
interdisciplinary
understanding
(Prototyping
Across
the
Disciplines,
forthcoming
in
2020)
and
take
a
relational
approach
(“Relational
Presence”,
JITP
2020,
“Theatre
for
Relationality:
a
Relational
Approach
to
Design
Research”,
forthcoming
in
2021).
Her
work
has
been
supported
by
SSHRC,
MITACS,
the
Canada
Council
for
the
Arts,
the
government
of
Ontario,
and
the
Stratford
Shakespeare
Festival.
https://uwaterloo.ca/communication-arts/people-profiles/jennifer-roberts-smith
Note: the information above is from the original event page.