CREATIVE JAM EXMOUTH, October 13 & 14th

The characteristic of SPACE in EXMOUTH is to work with young people of different ages. L'Ecole de design was invited to participate in their creative jam at Exmouth on October 12th and 13th. The sequence is composed in several stages: presentation of the issues of the session and visit of the friendly city, meals taken together and prepared from local ingredients, sessions of technical workshops (KET) with breaks for informal discussions. The second part of the creative jam has been dedicated to project development (Sunday). Students from the School of Design were invited to prepare the tools for Sunday's activity, as well as an introductory slide show on the issues of the city. The underlying question was: can we reinvent the world / the city without pouring into technological solutionism?

Working with young audiences

  The characteristic of the creative jam at Exmouth and Space is to confront very young audiences (average age 18 with people around 15). To meet this daunting challenge and far from project standards, the traditional tools of design thinking have been largely simplified, in collaboration with the youth workers from the center.

The smuggler: Matt

  Matt is the animator of the sequence. He knows how to find the right tone, enhance the motivation. His motto of the day: if we did things very well on Saturday, we would not have anyone on board. The key word: conviviality, communicative energy, but also a talent to divert/hack the tools.

Useful bingo or ice breaker

Based on the principle of playing bingo, it's about finding 10 people in the room for a limited time with the passions (watch Netflix, etc.). It's about getting to know each other and interacting. It is a particularly interesting tool that can detect young people in the room interact less, and come to discuss informally, to find real motivations.

From design research to treasure hunt in the city

The idea is, through a game of tracks, to sharpen the observation: elements are to be found in the city to be photographed. The educator then asks questions to find out what has been observed.

The peer educators

Young people were asked to facilitate contact, motivation. Aged 18, Faith is one of these ambassadors, essential links in the chain towards young people. They are also very naturally the best ambassadors of AYCH.

Separate places: Space * & Exmouth Propeller

The most interesting element is that of the coexistence of two ambiances: the very informal Space * and the very “start-up” to propeller, a non for profit organization that incubates several start-ups in the immediate vicinity of * space. During the workshops, young people are invited to spend an hour in this space and discover another atmosphere.

The students of the School of Design

The students had a long discussion with the “youth workers” to work on adequate tools to simplify the creative process. These are elements to frame the process, largely illustrated.

Their role during the first day was to participate in the workshops (as underwater testers) but also to link special relationships with young people to understand their motivations, their feedback, and the effectiveness of the devices.

On the second day, the students of l'Ecole de design played the role of tutors and project accelerators. At this stage, they used the tool A journey to your project, aimed at dynamising the ideation work within groups.

They also helped to synthesize and script ideas.

Their participation within the groups also allowed to divide a group in two to work on 2 separate projects.

An open event

How to motivate young people to exercise on weekends, on their free time? The question of the (rather limited) participation of young people in the event is raised. On the other hand, it is worth noting that the event started and ended with 15 young people. The creative jam was open enough to allow participants to come during the day.

Creative jam and workshops in general

  The purpose of this creative jam is to detect young people and pave the way for the development of entrepreneurship projects. Workshops are offered in day 1 with the aim of reusing these tools as part of the prototyping workshop the next day.

The workshops were quite different but focused more on awareness / discovery than on the acquisition of skills (short time 1,5h):

  • Discovery of technical tools like code (node ​​red), 3D scan, virtual reality: the focus is on the manipulation of tools and gains very fast, without going into the basics (NODE RED was largely pre- configured, like virtual reality). We are here more in an awareness than in a real practice.

 

  • Discovery of approach such as innovation, design, workshops more open to discussions or pre-project developments. Again, these workshops were quite open to discussions.

What can be noticed at this stage of the project: the conduct of the workshops varies according to the stakeholders. Few tools are left then available, written methods, the register being that of awareness.

Coaches

Many experts were involved throughout the day to monitor projects across a spectrum of skills ranging from project management to technical skills.

Pitch?

To avoid the stress of the pitch, short sequences were organized (5 minutes) with experts running on each table. The interest is to generate an informal conversation. The experts convened were different: Steve (head of commercial and charity), Ux designer (Paola), propeller App maker (Jim), entrepreneurs (digital marketing), manager of Space*.

Developed ideas & jury returns


Votato (game changer)

Encourage young people to vote. Vote white but still vote online …


Cyware (groundbreaking new tech)

Alert cyclists. Convincing investigation and storyboard work.


Hydro eco (young entrepreneurs in action)

a subject that mixes both ecology and disability: have bottles of better quality, filled on the spot, and more easily prehensile. When design for all meets ecology.


SIDD (New start up there)

to remove seagulls (flail in Exmouth) prototype and action useful in the city.


Spilling the T

Podcasts to communicate between citizens on the issues of the city and discuss to create a common base.

More to investigate ?

  • Idea to make a workshop guide, and key technology? to leave typical tools and open source?
  • How to take into account the diversity of audiences and profiles? Here is a perfect example of hacking tools.