An mm affiliate! work in conversation and dialogue with the Material Matters team - individual projects and material explorations conducted in our labs.

Ricardo Leal Barrocas (Author)

Emily Carr University of Art + Design Graduate Studies (Degree Granting Institution)

Hélène Day Fraser (Thesis Supervisor)

Older people, Nursing homes, Design, Observation (Psychology), Ethnology, Aesthetics

Residential care, Critical design, Critical ethnography, Social function, Motion, Pinball machine, Elderly

Abstract: This project is about humans. It is about people and their waning days. It is about the inevitability of decline and the acceptance of the inexorability of our life cycle. The end of life that's usually spent in nursing homes and devoid of things that once meant something to us. It is an attempt to observe and, above all, sympathize with those who already – and inevitably – can have a glimpse of the last days of their lives. Observing and yielding much more than a snapshot of a setting and the people within. A study that fosters the redemption of the researcher's background, assumptions and culture. An observation method that does not pretend to be free from all sorts of biases, but one that considers pre-existing circumstances and makes the most out of them, refining subjectivity and nurturing interpretative accuracy sharp enough to explore alternative design values. This project explores to what extent critical design can be informed by critical design insights and bear inspiring, engaging and provocative outcomes able to subvert the status quo and cultivate an aesthetic sensibility. And it does so in nursing homes, among elderly residents.

Link to thesis