R/EVOLVE/R

In August 2009 the exhibition "It's a small world" opened at The Danish Design Centre. The exhibition explored new tendencies within Danish design, crafts and architecture. Six multidisciplinary scenarios questioned the relevance of design in a changing world. Kollision was invited to exhibit within the scenario "It's your turn" focusing on participatory design approaches. Initially we were asked to exhibit some of our earlier participatory games, but the complexity of these would make no sense to a visitor spending a few minutes on each installation.

Consequently we decided to design a project, which in itself was involving and questioned the core of participatory design processes. The project R/EVOLVE/R is focusing on public decision-making processes. Basically citizen participation is based on the fact that the ones in power, either out of pure interest or to justify decisions already made, opens the process to the public. Most often it is assumed that when conducting participatory processes people are eager to take part, however, in our experience this assumption often runs contrary to reality. In R/EVOLVE/R we paradoxically wished to involve the participant in whether he or she wanted to get involved in public decision making processes, by asking visitors what it would take to get involved in shaping the future.

Through two touch displays the users’ answers were gathered and stored in a database. Subsequently, the data was visualized according to the nationality of the visitors allowing for a simplified view of the relation between nationality and the citizens’ willingness to participate.