©HT

Seminar on Creativity and Infrastructuring

30.11.2023 - 09:00-15:30

Sitzungszimmer (Meeting room) Rectorate, 1040 Vienna, Karlsplatz 13, Staircase 2, 1st floor (Room Number AA0106)

Goal

Have you ever had your creative idea rejected because it does not fit? Did you ever experience coming up with a brilliant solution to a complex problem, only to be told that the solution will not work? Did you ever see others' ideas being rejected, not because they were not good but because they did not fit into existing settings? Then we want to hear from you!

Many of our most serious societal challenges – climate change, aging populations, polarization – will require creative and radical solutions. In fact, many of us might already have designed such solutions through design thinking, brainstorming, and other creative processes. But often, when such creative solutions are presented, they are immediately rejected because they don’t fit the existing world, the infrastructure. Yes, your idea is excellent but impossible to implement!

Often, the problem lies in the infrastructure. Infrastructures develop over years and decades, and become harder to change as they get older. An infrastructure of gas stations will make it impossible to come up with a creative climate-friendly transportation solution. A forty-year-old IT platform will make it impossible to transform an organization digitally with new and better solutions. The problem can also lie with the creative solution. The solution may not be as brilliant as we think. It might not be sustainable because of a faulty business model. It might have severe side effects.

So, how do we use creativity to improve our infrastructures and solve big problems? This is the question we ask in this one-day seminar. The interactive seminar consists of short presentations and group discussions. The outcome of the seminar will be a list of lessons learned and an agenda for future collaborative research.

Program

The workshop is structured as a day event. It will consist of diverse activities, with an emphasis on in-depth conversations and community building.

  • 09:00 - 09:30 Welcome & meet-and-greet
  • 09:30 - 12:30 Presentations

    Creativity and design practices: How can we be creative in designing systems?
    Hilda Tellioglu, TU Wien (pdf)

    What is infrastructure?
    Babak Farshchian, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (pdf)

    STEM education: Are we forgetting infrastructures?
    Monica Divitini, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (pdf)

    The role of art and gameplay in the education of STEM
    Olivia Fischer, PH Wien (pdf)

    Design of learning space to support artistic activities of youth
    Ahmed Murat Hancer, TU Wien (pdf)

    Aesthetic-educational-approach in STEAM-teaching: (Ex)change in science, arts & service-learning
    Anastasiya Savran-Wellscheid, PH Wien (pdf)

    Uncertainty - a driving force for team creativity?
    Martina Hartner-Tiefenthaler, TU Wien (pdf)

    Infrastructures in healthcare: Shadow systems as creative solutions
    Nora O. Ringdal, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (pdf)

    Service innovation through digitalisation
    Michaela Schmidt, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (pdf)

    Content moderation as a sociotechnical infrastructure problem
    Kevin Blasiak, TU Wien (pdf)

    Design Games as a creative co-creation tool for planning public infrastructure
    Gerfried Mikusch, TU Wien (pdf)

    Experiences with the idea of a piece of nature in front of the door
    Theresa Schütz, TU Wien (pdf)

  • 12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
  • 13:30 - 14:30 Discussions
  • 14:30 - 15:30 Closing & future work

Further readings

  • Wolfgang Weinlich, PH Wien (pdf)

Organizers

Hilda Tellioğlu is an associate professor and head of Artifact-based Computing & User Research (ACUR) Unit at the TU Wien at the Faculty of Informatics, chair of EUSSET, and scientific director of Center for Technology and Society of the TU Wien.

Monica Divitini is Monica Divitini is Professor in Cooperation Technologies at IDI-NTNU since 2002. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from Aalborg University, Denmark.

Babak Farshchian has been working as an associate processor at IDI since August 2018. Before that he worked as researcher and research manager at SINTEF Digital. Before that he was for seven years researcher and project manager at Teleor R&D.

Contact us for registration

Feel welcome to join our seminar! To register, simply send us an email with your name and contact information: hilda.tellioglu@tuwien.ac.at
Registration deadline: Friday November 24 2023
Supported by CTS