In the futurehomestories project, participants work with researchers to design individual, alternative and innovative scenarios for the home of the future based on their personal life experiences, wishes and needs.
How can people use co-creation methods to tell stories about how they would like to live with technology in their homes in the future?
In order to be able to answer this question, we would like to invite people from the population to co-creation workshops so that they can actively contribute their ideas on how they want to live in the so-called smart home. Their active participation enables us to better understand the home as a place of application for new technologies. A case will be designed for the workshops that will build on existing methods and tools. This case will be sent to participants or used in workshops. The material contained in the case gives the participants the opportunity to express their personal ideas.
The results, for example in the form of stories, are documented in form of a book of alternative futures (zine) and will be accessible to the public and specialists. In perspective, the goal of futurehomestories is to make the tried and tested co-creation methods available on a sustainable basis. For this purpose, the methods and tools contained in the case are compared and analyzed by the researchers and later prepared for context-independent use.
The futurehomestories project is part of the network for integrated research. The overarching goal of this is the conception, implementation and establishment of integrated research, with the aim of achieving a comprehensive research concept for integrated research.
Futurehomestories deals critically with various aspects of integrated research and strives for transdisciplinary adaptation, implementation, reflection and the transfer of co-creation methodologies. For this it is important to establish ethical, legal and social aspects in the co-creation process and its reflection. Overall, the aim is to further advance integrated research.
The project is divided into four successive phases and two work areas that extend over the entire duration of the project.
Phase 1: Preparing the project.
Phase 2: Conception and implementation of the co-design workshops.
Phase 3: Revision of the concept and renewed implementation of workshops.
Phase 4: Follow-up of the findings from the previous phases and knowledge transfer in science and society.
Process-accompanying phases
Communication and cooperation between researchers from different disciplines should be ensured for the entire duration of the project. Furthermore, a continuous exchange with the general public and the specialist audience should take place.
Workshop 6. Social Design Modes
Diversifying Approaches to Co-Designing the Smart Everyday (15:00-21:00 Hong Kong)
- Aim: Explores the goals and values of co-design tools for domestic smart objects and services from a non-Western perspective.
- Organisers: Alexa Becker, Benedikt Haupt, Christian Pentzold, Arne Berger, Albrecht Kurze, Dries De Roeck, Jesse Josua Benjamin, Simone Mora, Michael B. Heidt
- Contact Organiser: Arne Berger
- Brief: The workshop is split into three parts. In the first part, there will be a short presentation on co-design methods and toolkits for the IoT. Furthermore participants will collect and unpack individual and cultural assumptions, values, and goals of “the home” and its relation to the “smart everyday.” In the second part, the participants will try out two co-design methods and toolkits to ideate a novel object or service for domestic use. The process will be facilitated by the hosts. Lastly participants and hosts will document and reflect on the designed objects and services.
More information will be available closer to the event.
Futurehomestories is a joint project of the Institute for Communication and Media Studies (IfKMW) at the University of Leipzig and the Department of Computer Science and Languages at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (Koethen). The futurehomestories project is part of the network for integrated research.
Network coordinator
Prof. Dr. Arne Berger
Fachbereich 5 - Informatik und Sprachen an der Hochschule Anhalt
Lohmannstraße 23
06366 Koethen
Phone: +49 (0) 3496 67 3136
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the High-Tech Strategy 2025