Digital re-presentation of indigenous knowledge remains an absurdity as long as we fail to deconstruct the prevalent design paradigm and techniques continuously re-framing technology within a western epistemology. This paper discusses key challenges in attempts of co-constructing a digital representation based on experiences from a longitudinal community-centred research project in rural Africa. In a quest to shape design from a locally situated viewpoint, we codesign a 3D visualization of an African village with its inhabitants. Prior invisible local perspectives, as well as dominant designer’s views are brought to light within the design interactions. A new digital reality is created at the periphery of the situated knowledge through continuous negotiations and joint meaning making.
Posted to the Ethnos Project by Mark Oppenneer on December 30th, 2014