A sense of change: Media designers and artists communicating about complexity in social-ecological systems

Joost M. Vervoort; Diederik H. Keuskamp; Kasper Kok; Ron van Lammeren; Taconis Stolk; Tom A. Veldkamp; Joost Rekveld; Ronald Schelfhout; Bart Teklenburg; Andre Cavalheiro Borges; Silvia Jánoškóva; Willem Wits; Nicky Assmann; Erfan Abdi Dezfouli; Kate Cunningham; Berend Nordeman; Hannah Rowlands

doi:10.5751/ES-06613-190310

A sense of change: Media designers and artists communicating about complexity in social-ecological systems

Joost M. Vervoort^*, Diederik H. Keuskamp, Kasper Kok, Ron van Lammeren, Taconis Stolk, Tom A. Veldkamp, Joost Rekveld, Ronald Schelfhout, Bart Teklenburg, Andre Cavalheiro Borges, Silvia Jánoškóva, Willem Wits, Nicky Assmann, Erfan Abdi Dezfouli, Kate Cunningham, Berend Nordeman, Hannah Rowlands

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

To take on the current and future challenges of global environmental change, fostering a widespread societal understanding of and engagement with the complex dynamics that characterize interacting human and natural systems is essential. Current science communication methods struggle with a number of specific challenges associated with communicating about complex systems. In this study we report on two collaborative processes, a short workshop and longer course, that aimed to harness the insights of interactive media designers and artists to overcome these challenges. The two processes resulted in 86 new interactive media concepts which were selected by the participants and organizers using set criteria and then evaluated using the same criteria by a panel of communication and media design experts and a panel of complex systems scientists using the same criteria. The top eight concepts are discussed in this paper. These concepts fell into the categories of serious games, group interaction concepts, and social media storytelling. The serious games focused directly on complex systems characteristics and were evaluated to be intuitive and engaging designs that combined transparency and complexity well. The group interaction concepts focused mostly on feedbacks and nonlinearity but were fully developed and tested in the workshops, and evaluated as engaging, accessible, and easy to implement in workshops and educational settings. The social media storytelling concepts involved less direct interactions with system dynamics but were seen as highly accessible to large scale audiences. The results of this study show the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration between complex systems scientists, designers, and artists. The results and process discussed in this paper show the value of more structural engagement of interactive media designers and artist communities in the development of communication tools about human and natural systems change.

Original language	English
Article number	10
Journal	Ecology and society
Volume	19
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06613-190310
Publication status	Published - 2014

Keywords

Communication
Complexity
Participation
Scale
Serious gaming
Social-ecological systems
ITC-GOLD

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10.5751/ES-06613-190310

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Vervoort, J. M., Keuskamp, D. H., Kok, K., van Lammeren, R., Stolk, T., Veldkamp, T. A., Rekveld, J., Schelfhout, R., Teklenburg, B., Borges, A. C., Jánoškóva, S., Wits, W., Assmann, N., Dezfouli, E. A., Cunningham, K., Nordeman, B., & Rowlands, H. (2014). A sense of change: Media designers and artists communicating about complexity in social-ecological systems. Ecology and society, 19(3), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06613-190310

@article{83deb2552de240769ab1879ab0208028,

title = "A sense of change: Media designers and artists communicating about complexity in social-ecological systems",

abstract = "To take on the current and future challenges of global environmental change, fostering a widespread societal understanding of and engagement with the complex dynamics that characterize interacting human and natural systems is essential. Current science communication methods struggle with a number of specific challenges associated with communicating about complex systems. In this study we report on two collaborative processes, a short workshop and longer course, that aimed to harness the insights of interactive media designers and artists to overcome these challenges. The two processes resulted in 86 new interactive media concepts which were selected by the participants and organizers using set criteria and then evaluated using the same criteria by a panel of communication and media design experts and a panel of complex systems scientists using the same criteria. The top eight concepts are discussed in this paper. These concepts fell into the categories of serious games, group interaction concepts, and social media storytelling. The serious games focused directly on complex systems characteristics and were evaluated to be intuitive and engaging designs that combined transparency and complexity well. The group interaction concepts focused mostly on feedbacks and nonlinearity but were fully developed and tested in the workshops, and evaluated as engaging, accessible, and easy to implement in workshops and educational settings. The social media storytelling concepts involved less direct interactions with system dynamics but were seen as highly accessible to large scale audiences. The results of this study show the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration between complex systems scientists, designers, and artists. The results and process discussed in this paper show the value of more structural engagement of interactive media designers and artist communities in the development of communication tools about human and natural systems change.",

keywords = "Communication, Complexity, Participation, Scale, Serious gaming, Social-ecological systems, ITC-GOLD",

author = "Vervoort, {Joost M.} and Keuskamp, {Diederik H.} and Kasper Kok and {van Lammeren}, Ron and Taconis Stolk and Veldkamp, {Tom A.} and Joost Rekveld and Ronald Schelfhout and Bart Teklenburg and Borges, {Andre Cavalheiro} and Silvia J{\'a}no{\v s}k{\'o}va and Willem Wits and Nicky Assmann and Dezfouli, {Erfan Abdi} and Kate Cunningham and Berend Nordeman and Hannah Rowlands",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014 by the author(s).",

year = "2014",

doi = "10.5751/ES-06613-190310",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

journal = "Ecology and society",

issn = "1708-3087",

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Vervoort, JM, Keuskamp, DH, Kok, K, van Lammeren, R, Stolk, T, Veldkamp, TA, Rekveld, J, Schelfhout, R, Teklenburg, B, Borges, AC, Jánoškóva, S, Wits, W, Assmann, N, Dezfouli, EA, Cunningham, K, Nordeman, B & Rowlands, H 2014, 'A sense of change: Media designers and artists communicating about complexity in social-ecological systems', Ecology and society, vol. 19, no. 3, 10. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06613-190310

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AU - Vervoort, Joost M.

AU - Keuskamp, Diederik H.

AU - Kok, Kasper

AU - van Lammeren, Ron

AU - Stolk, Taconis

AU - Veldkamp, Tom A.

AU - Rekveld, Joost

AU - Schelfhout, Ronald

AU - Teklenburg, Bart

AU - Borges, Andre Cavalheiro

AU - Jánoškóva, Silvia

AU - Wits, Willem

AU - Assmann, Nicky

AU - Dezfouli, Erfan Abdi

AU - Cunningham, Kate

AU - Nordeman, Berend

AU - Rowlands, Hannah

PY - 2014

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N2 - To take on the current and future challenges of global environmental change, fostering a widespread societal understanding of and engagement with the complex dynamics that characterize interacting human and natural systems is essential. Current science communication methods struggle with a number of specific challenges associated with communicating about complex systems. In this study we report on two collaborative processes, a short workshop and longer course, that aimed to harness the insights of interactive media designers and artists to overcome these challenges. The two processes resulted in 86 new interactive media concepts which were selected by the participants and organizers using set criteria and then evaluated using the same criteria by a panel of communication and media design experts and a panel of complex systems scientists using the same criteria. The top eight concepts are discussed in this paper. These concepts fell into the categories of serious games, group interaction concepts, and social media storytelling. The serious games focused directly on complex systems characteristics and were evaluated to be intuitive and engaging designs that combined transparency and complexity well. The group interaction concepts focused mostly on feedbacks and nonlinearity but were fully developed and tested in the workshops, and evaluated as engaging, accessible, and easy to implement in workshops and educational settings. The social media storytelling concepts involved less direct interactions with system dynamics but were seen as highly accessible to large scale audiences. The results of this study show the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration between complex systems scientists, designers, and artists. The results and process discussed in this paper show the value of more structural engagement of interactive media designers and artist communities in the development of communication tools about human and natural systems change.

AB - To take on the current and future challenges of global environmental change, fostering a widespread societal understanding of and engagement with the complex dynamics that characterize interacting human and natural systems is essential. Current science communication methods struggle with a number of specific challenges associated with communicating about complex systems. In this study we report on two collaborative processes, a short workshop and longer course, that aimed to harness the insights of interactive media designers and artists to overcome these challenges. The two processes resulted in 86 new interactive media concepts which were selected by the participants and organizers using set criteria and then evaluated using the same criteria by a panel of communication and media design experts and a panel of complex systems scientists using the same criteria. The top eight concepts are discussed in this paper. These concepts fell into the categories of serious games, group interaction concepts, and social media storytelling. The serious games focused directly on complex systems characteristics and were evaluated to be intuitive and engaging designs that combined transparency and complexity well. The group interaction concepts focused mostly on feedbacks and nonlinearity but were fully developed and tested in the workshops, and evaluated as engaging, accessible, and easy to implement in workshops and educational settings. The social media storytelling concepts involved less direct interactions with system dynamics but were seen as highly accessible to large scale audiences. The results of this study show the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration between complex systems scientists, designers, and artists. The results and process discussed in this paper show the value of more structural engagement of interactive media designers and artist communities in the development of communication tools about human and natural systems change.

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KW - Complexity

KW - Participation

KW - Scale

KW - Serious gaming

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KW - ITC-GOLD

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JO - Ecology and society

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ER -

A sense of change: Media designers and artists communicating about complexity in social-ecological systems

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