Diverse Ecologies - Interdisciplinary Development for Cultural Education

We present a case study outlining development efforts towards an interface ecology to be deployed in museums. We argue that the problem at hand calls for a highly interdisciplinary design process. Furthermore, system design in the domain of cultural education poses a unique set of challenges. At the same time few existing design methodologies are suitable for addressing this special environment of system design. We outline a set of tentative methodological elements aimed at informing adequate interdisciplinary development processes. The discussion is embedded into a critique of existing methodologies while being orientated towards inviting critique itself. The guiding insight steering our methodological developments is that fundamental differences between project participants and other stakeholders should be construed as assets. Rather than trying to integrate them or covering them up, the dynamic friction between differing viewpoints can be rendered productive by means of poietic practices.

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