The Prototype Project

Summer is coming up soon. Once CYO 2011 is over, it’s time to pull out the Techno Tarot Deck. This time in Berlin

Part 1: Definitions

I seldom start out knowing what the questions are in launching upon a big project, but trust myself to notice them when they reveal themselves.  In setting up the Tarot cards I let intuition  drive the process, and this intuition is a synthesis of many different observations or insights that come from different disciplines. Some scientifically grounded, others less scientifically sound. Now that I have had some time to let the events of the past weeks settle down, I am teasing out the different threads by exploring concepts or ideas I heard myself describing to the games players.

In the Pttp we are exploring narratives with the purpose of identifying ones prevalent in technology-intensive contexts and which ones may arise as a result of more widespread access to manufacturing technology in a networked world. Lee Bryant in the presentation at Reboot last year, spoke of the need for 21st century narratives;

What is not clear to me yet is whether to should focus on unveiling different narratives we carry within ourselves and which for different reasons have not gained foothold, or mythopoeia (or the act of creating new mythologies), or both. Perhaps they are intimately related?
On second thought perhaps it is worth asking what the stuff of narratives is; where do they come from and if it proves possible, how to consciously create new narratives that gain foothold?

Am currently in Amsterdam after the Mozilla #Drumbeat festival. Hanging out at the Fablab in the Waag working on Pttp and thinking about what went on in Barcelona last week.

In addition to Evan and I getting a bucket of bleach poured on our heads outside a skate bar on Friday night, I was involved in organising the festival. It will take another couple of weeks to digest everything that happened: the experience was intense on many levels. But it went well and everyone´s hard work ahead of the event paid off.

I also managed to design, make and test the first  PTTP research tool (with a little help from Julie Zhu, Matteo Uguzzoni and Enric Senabre Hidalgo) : The Testfest Tarot card game.  I wanted some way of finding out what people associate with certain terms and concepts that are central to the Pttp as well as to generate creative ideas or novel narratives that involve different combinations of roles, tools, ( or their components), forms of collaboration, prototypes, communication, and documentation. And I wanted it to be open-ended enough to encourage real conversations.

While I knew that I was on to something when I designed the game, the extent to which people, both festival goers and random passers-by wanted to play came as a surprise. Inspite of various language barriers and  the context being “technology”, anytime I made myself available to play, someone (s) would pop up wanting to get their cards “read”.

I´m reviewing the documented material and will be posting insights or ideas for how to move ahead here in the near future. Something that stuck me is the apparent surprise many of the players experienced at their own stories, it´s as though they didn´t know they had them there. Also, it seems more conductive to narrative-building that the objects and technologies are framed as agents as opposed to inanimate things that are the passive recipients of some action done upon them by people. Also, engaging people outside the “tech space” in a conversation about technologies is well worth pursuing and investing in; it requires a different mindset and approach from what I see out there and I will continue to develop the Tarot tool and others. More on the first Testfest Tarot findings to be posted here in not so distant future/ Nadia

This is the one exception. #Gratitude to Alberto Mazetti@ The HUB Milano for sharing.

#gratitude@ Kostasprint for sharing.

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