Quest for fire, water, earth and air: an interaction design bus and art installation reflecting climate change concerns through human and elemental connectedness

Abstract

The notion of travelling to open doors onto different perspectives is an antidote to living, working and socializing in spaces mediated by technologically designed artifacts. Interfaces have become ubiquitous and relationships and styles of communication have changed in keeping with this ever-present trend. The Bachelors in Technology design students, from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, have shared their concerns through their design research problems in exactly these areas. Questions regarding water safety, food security, air quality, sewerage management, marginalisation of people with disability, cultural specificity being erased by generic digital content arose; it became clear that the fragile threads connecting the ecosystem to the human system need nurturing. From an internal landscape to an external one, these students apply themselves creatively and intellectually in order to tackle real problems pro-actively; to talk less and do more. To this end, a sizable art installation piece has been conceptualized and constructed which will be unveiled with an accompanying performance piece at the 13th Participatory Design Conference (PDC) in Namibia, in October 2014.