PHASE III. PROTOTYPING
Implementation of workshops in selected locations (Action phase)
Implementation date: January –February 2014
Production and commercialization study (during phases III y IV) DESCRIPTIONThe facilitators, and other professionals with experience in several different artisan techniques, will analyze the creation process with the artisans of each community, following the methodology developed during Phase II. The focal element for this dialogue is the cultural artifact itself. The methodology should be sustainable as much from the socio-cultural as the economic and environmental points of view, and also it must allow, in a permeable way, its adaptation to each of the artisan´s communities. The workshops will be documented as part of a methodological study applied to the cooperative design of objects linked to traditional culture.
The goal in this phase is to outline prototypes made with materials eventually detached from the traditional in inter-communal and interdisciplinary communities. They should be the result of a design process participated by the artisans and the facilitators by establishing a dialogue about the use of the technique and its application to different materials. The aptitude for prototyping production of the selected materials will be studied as much from the point of view of its development and for the viability of its commercialization as from the feasibility of its manufacturing so it can be produced by the artisan´s communities. The prototypes will be used in an early evaluation of the ideas proposed by the participants in the generative research. They also enable the analysis of its constructive feasibility and a timely feedback so the necessary iterative changes can be implemented. The prototypes offer an answer based in the aesthetics, form, interaction, usefulness, and emotional content, and will serve as models to establish and develop the preparation techniques for the new family of products. For the analysis of its commercialization, there will be a study of the market, the distribution routes, and the trade strategies at real points of sale as well as the e-commerce virtual platform. |
Images: Felting Samples Workshop by Carmen Malvar & KeenaSuh. Nomadic Lab. Pratt Institute
|