April 9
Hi IIP Partners
The past few weeks of IIP have been a period of disruption and rapid adaptation due to both the COVID-19 restrictions and the fact that the students have been heavily occupied with their elective subjects – either Envisioning Futures or New Knowledge-Making Lab -–which both ended today.
I'd like to thank you all for your commitment and adaptability in challenging circumstances this semester. We've heard some great stories of how projects have pivoted in interesting directions and students have been able to help you and your organisations adapt to rapidly-changing circumstances.
The key IIP tasks we set for the students over these past three weeks were to undertake some stakeholder analysis and interview you about key trends in your industry sector. These insights will be combined with the methods and knowledge students have gained from their elective subjects to assist them with their exploration of the problem space you have set for them.
To give you a sense of what the students have been doing in their electives:
- For Envisioning Futures, students worked on a challenge set by Celestino around the Sydney Science Park in Western Sydney. They were asked to design and showcase a virtual future experience to provoke discussion around the desirability of future scenarios for the site. This involved applying a range of futuring methods, including horizon-scanning, backcasting and causal layered analysis, and designing an immersive possible future for their virtual showcase event.
- For New Knowledge-Making Lab, students considered how to integrate diverse ways of knowing, including differing stakeholder perspectives, Chinese knowledge systems, Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing that involve listening, body movement and meditation. They also created research clusters across highly diverse topics, explored boundary objects as a way of bringing together different fields and generated a human library of knowledges.
Next week in IIP we will be shifting from the early deep dive phase into a generation and ideation phase, where students will use methods such as reframing and intervention strategies for complex systems to start producing possible responses to your challenges. They will further develop these ideas leading up to the mid-project check-in that they will organise with you by 8 May. Please be aware that the week of 20–24 April is designated as Stuvac (Study vacation) where we have no classes or online activities. Some students may also have less availability to connect with you that week, depending on their other commitments.
We recognise that there may be a need to pivot in terms of the focus of your challenge brief due to COVID-19 and we are committed to working with you to provide this flexibility. Please reach out to myself (Subject Coordinator), Beth Wilson (Partnerships Team) or the relevant tutor on the project to discuss this further.
Alex
