Accessing culture in isolation
King’s College London
Keio University Tokyo
2020-21
Role:
Designer - Researcher
Methods:
User research
Digital ethnography
Facilitation
Prototyping
Co-design
King’s College London
Keio University Tokyo
2020-21
Role:
Designer - Researcher
Methods:
User research
Digital ethnography
Facilitation
Prototyping
Co-design
How can digital cultural engagement improve the lives of marginalised, vulnerable and/or hard-to-reach publics in times of crisis? As theatres, museums and galleries closed their doors in London and Tokyo during the widespread Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020, our King’s Rapid Response-funded project ‘Accessing Cultural Experiences’ aimed to answer this question.
To build an understanding of the user experiences of publics unable to engage in-person with museums in London and Tokyo during the pandemic, I worked with Stephanie Janes (King’s College London) and Chihiro Sato (Keio University Tokyo to plan, convene and facilitate a six-part design sprint over 2 months (which we called a design stroll) for participants including cultural producers, elders, publics, students and institutions, including National Gallery X, V&A, British Museum, Tate, Royal Opera House, Age UK and Spiral Japan. As the pandemic raged on, we collaborated across a wide range of digital platforms, exploring how technological environments could address social isolation and loneliness in collaboration with marginalized groups. Participants co-designed 12 workable prototypes that used existing, everyday and repurposed technologies to address social isolation and foster connectedness.
Details on our process can be found in this publication: Braybrooke, K. & Janes, S. & Sato, C. 2021, ‘Care-full design sprints, online? Addressing gaps in cultural access and inclusion during Covid-19 with vulnerable communities in London and Tokyo’, In C&T ’21: 10th International Conference on Communities & Technologies [free download].
To build an understanding of the user experiences of publics unable to engage in-person with museums in London and Tokyo during the pandemic, I worked with Stephanie Janes (King’s College London) and Chihiro Sato (Keio University Tokyo to plan, convene and facilitate a six-part design sprint over 2 months (which we called a design stroll) for participants including cultural producers, elders, publics, students and institutions, including National Gallery X, V&A, British Museum, Tate, Royal Opera House, Age UK and Spiral Japan. As the pandemic raged on, we collaborated across a wide range of digital platforms, exploring how technological environments could address social isolation and loneliness in collaboration with marginalized groups. Participants co-designed 12 workable prototypes that used existing, everyday and repurposed technologies to address social isolation and foster connectedness.
Details on our process can be found in this publication: Braybrooke, K. & Janes, S. & Sato, C. 2021, ‘Care-full design sprints, online? Addressing gaps in cultural access and inclusion during Covid-19 with vulnerable communities in London and Tokyo’, In C&T ’21: 10th International Conference on Communities & Technologies [free download].
