Workshop | Week 3

Today we had our prototyping workshop with the patients of the ceramic atelier. We had planned to have it outdoors, to see if and how working outdoors might change the working atmosphere of the participants, however this was not possible due to the cold weather conditions. We therefore decided upon arrival to set up our work space on a separate table inside the ceramics-atelier.

Fortunately we were able to motivate the same people to take part in the workshop, as those who had already helped with the cultural probes.

The workshop table was set up with five workstations, a hand full of tools, and about 10-15 pre cut pieces of fresh clay. Based on our prototyping session we had at ZHdK the day before we decided on specific sizes of the clay portions (ca. 150 gr./piece). We figured this size should allow for fast drying time of the sculptures (ca. 1 week), as well as a nice balance between the weight of the pieces and the strength of their mounts/connector pieces. This is important to properly mount/attach them in their future urban environment.

At this point we already had an understanding of our final goal. We were unsure however, how the patients would accept our idea. After getting positive feedback on our explanations throughout the workshop, as well from staff-members and patients, we can now consider this as our proof of concept.

We were more than pleased regarding the outcome of the workshop. In total, 21 pieces were made within 90 minutes by participants and ourselves. The molds worked well, but need to be adjusted with bigger holes, as the ones on the prototypes will shrink too much and no longer fit a zip-tie. Also we will prototype a stamp to easily label the objects with some sort of info (maybe a url or an instagram hashtag).

Unfortunately it is highly possible that within the remaining 3 weeks of our course we will not be able to produce and fire another series of prototypes and have them ready in time to be placed outdoor. If necessary we will use the ones from this workshop to play through the whole process.