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Our UARTS Faculty Engineering/Arts Student Team (FEAST) explores current participatory design theory and practices. Participatory design has become a central issue in modern design thinking, and we understand “participatory design” as the active integration of users in the project or a co-design practice. We are ideating, prototyping, and testing participatory design pieces to advance our understanding and application of participatory design.

Our explorations span many domains – from contemporary art to customer experience strategies, health education to policymaking, and philosophy to colonialism studies. We are looking to facilitate a dialogue between a user (addressee) and artist/designer (addresser). Our current project deals with the worldwide traditions of tea consumption and trade, modern and historical tea rituals and ceremonies, cultural diffusion, and appropriation. We experiment with onset expectations for forms, shapes, media, functions, and context, as well as the triggers of identity, connection, relationship, comfort, sensations, and pleasure. We document our process by using a creative notetaking technique.

In the next phase of the project, we will plan for the digital and physical tool/s development: we will take our ideas to physical and digital prototypes and test our findings. We will start building prototype/s and try them with broader participant groups. 

Meeting Details
Fridays, 4-6pm
Modality: In-person (interested in the project but unable to be on campus? Contact us to inquire!)

Students apply to a specific role on team as follows:

User Experience Research & Design (2 Students)

Preferred Skills: Ideation, user research, contextual inquiry, diagramming (user flows)

Likely Majors/Minors: CASC, CS, PSYCH, SI, SOC, SW

Data Science (2 Students)

Preferred Skills: Data analysis, data visualization (Python, R, Tableau)

Likely Majors/Minors: CE, CS, DATA, SI

3D Fabricator/Modeling (1 Student)

Preferred Skills: 3D modeling, ceramic, etc. to work with engineers on prototypes

Likely Majors/Minors: ARCH, ARTDES, ME

Graphic Design & Video Editing (1 Student)

Preferred Skills: Video editing/video art and or/graphic design skills

Likely Majors/Minors: ARCH, ARTDES, FTVM, SI

Engineer (2 Students)

Preferred Skills: Arduino or other similar technology – should be able to work with sensors to trigger digital output

Likely Majors/Minors: CE, CS, EE, IOE

Faculty Project Lead

 Vadim Besprozvany is a Lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Information. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in interaction design, visual design and communications, mentors independent studies in emotional design, animation, branding and identity, and design language. He is an ArtsEngine faculty liaison (UMSI) and is interested in growing intellectual collisions and collaborative practices driven by the arts, design, and engineering. He serves as a curator and consultant at the Odesa Contemporary ArtsMuseum (MSIO, Ukraine), and participates in art(co)archive initiative, which is dedicated to Ukrainian contemporary art. Besprozvany’s primary research areas include visual rhetoric, semiotics, media, cultural studies, and communications theory. He received his B.A./M.A.from Tartu University, Estonia, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Students: 8

Likely Majors/Minors: ARCH, ARTDES, CASC, CE, CS, DATA, EE, FTVM, IOE, ME, PSYCH, SI, SOC, SW

Meeting Details: Fridays, 4-6pm

Application: This project requires applicants to include link(s) to your portfolio, work samples, or other website(s) in the personal statement portion of your application to share work you would like considered as part of your submission.

Summer Opportunity: Summer research fellowships may be available for qualifying students.

Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students on campus.

IP/NDA: Students who successfully match to this project team will be required to sign an Intellectual Property (IP) Agreement prior to participation.

Course Substitutions: CoE Honors