Workshop Agenda

We propose an in-person, full-afternoon workshop that will span across two 90-minute sessions, with a short break in between. The workshop will lean on research through design methodology, to foster a hands-on discussion interwoven with critical reflection. We will create a safe space for participants to share relevant lived experiences and expertise with each other, afford opportunities for hands-on ideation and prototyping, and facilitate reflexive group discussions aimed at synthesis.

Below we provide an overview and breakdown of workshop activities:

Introduction (15’): We will welcome participants, introduce the workshop aims and agenda, and give an overview of the activities for the afternoon.

Prototyping with forest stories (45’): We will gather in smaller groups where we’ll prototype technologies as a way of reflecting on human-forest interaction design and research. Taking the forest stories as a starting point, we’ll ask ourselves (and our hands, and the materials available): “What technologies might we design for that kind of situation, if any? What should these technologies do, to ‘get it right’?” Groups will be anchored thematically: in preparation for the workshop, organizers will cluster all forest stories thematically, creating up to 6 clusters that will become the workshop’s prototyping groups. As prototypes are being built, participants will reflect on roles technology should and/or should not play in forests, and discuss what frictions might emerge as these technologies are put into the world. This phase of the workshop will unfold as an intertwined process of making-reflecting where discussion takes place as people make things and discuss them as they are being made.

From prototypes to reflection (30’): As we consolidate the prototypes, we will also consolidate reflections into a synthesis that can be shared with the bigger group. By the time we get to the break, and as the output of this session, each group will be asked to synthesize the reflections they came to as they were prototyping, illustrated through the prototypes themselves, and situated in the forest stories that gave rise to them.

Break (45′): There will be a break for participants to freshen up and engage in informal conversations. During the break, participants will be encouraged (but not required) to casually begin speculating about ideas in anticipation of the following prototyping activity.

Crosspollination of stories, prototypes, and underlying ideas (45’): After the break, we’ll turn back to the bigger group. To get the conversation started, all prototyping groups will be asked present a synthesis of their reflections, trying to make them as tangible as possible by drawing on the prototypes and forest stories they produced/discussed. Groups will be given 5 minutes for their presentation.

Discussion: What might it mean for technology to ‘get it right’ in the forest? (30’): Presentations will be followed by an open-ended conversation cutting across the themes explored in the different prototyping clusters, centered around the questions of: “What might be ways for technology to ‘get it right’ in forests? And how might we design those technologies?”

What next & farewell (15’): We will end with a conversation on how to extend the discussion beyond the workshop, including if/where to potentially disseminate the design work made, and reflections raised, until that point.