Interaction Lab ONline workshop
Arundhati Roy’s widely shared Financial Times article offers an in-depth analysis of India’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s the closing passage that’s burned streaks around the internet. “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.” The idea of the pandemic as a portal captured imaginations globally, helping to frame an uncharted reality inside a simple metaphor.
The transition between the pre-COVID world and whatever comes after is not immediate. We can, and should, take time to construct and explore our collective view from inside the portal. What kinds of experiences and interactions might we want to create? What kinds of systems might we build, and whose priorities will those systems reflect? “What’s next?” was already the central question driving the Interaction Lab’s work. Now, seemingly all of a sudden, “next” is upon us.
For this first online gathering, we’re going to keep the program very simple. Our intention is to create space for our community to explore these ideas in conversation, and together use this time of pause to explore what kinds of experiences, cultural and otherwise, we’d like to build into whatever comes next.
Details
Programming will begin just after 1pm EDT and will run for 90 minutes. After that, we’ll keep the room open for an hour for anyone who’d like to hang around for further discussion.
We’ll be using zoom for this event, and Miro for collaborative documentation. To ensure a safe, secure environment, we plan to email a link to all registered participants no later than 2 hours before the event. The document we create during our time together will remain accessible to all who’ve contributed to use in whatever way you see fit.
We are eager to make this event accessible to anyone interested in participating. We are designing the format of this session now and are exploring options for creating an inclusive virtual space.
Check back here for updates on specific accommodations and format details. Please reach out to us with any information on how we can support your participation, and with requests for services by emailing CHAccess@si.edu or share when registering.
The Interaction Lab is Cooper Hewitt’s newly launched visitor experience design lab, bringing interactive design methodology to the very heart of Cooper Hewitt’s visitor experience—across digital, physical, and human interactions.
