Cultural Artifacts as Emotional Catalysts and Social Mediators in Design Research

This paper is a reflection on the inclusion of Cultural Artifacts in the enhancement of design research methods, particularly probes. A Cultural Artifact is defined as an artifact, -- tangible or not -- that has imbedded meaning for a socio-cultural group and therefore has potential to elicit emotions in individuals. Ludic by nature, Cultural Artifacts are designed to be creative and inspirational. They consist in the appropriation of artifacts relevant to a group or culture and their deconstruction by a designer with the intention of discovering information traditionally overlooked by other research methods. One of the principal reasons for the inclusion of Cultural Artifacts is their potential to unveil thoughts, ideas, feelings and emotions that would otherwise be complicated for participants to express, explore and elicit. Focus is placed on the artifacts’ significance as emotional catalysts as well as their roles as social mediators between participants and researchers. Cultural Probes, a design research method typically consisting of a collection of self-documentation techniques and instruments serve as initial basis which we extend for cultural significance. Cultural Probes created initially by Gaver and Dunne of the Royal College of Art, were developed with the intention of eliciting emotional responses from participants. This proposal of Cultural Artifacts is based on the first author’s doctoral research in progress, zooming in on a Cultural Artifact developed for Mexican-American communities in Chicago, as well as the authors’ experience teaching Cultural Probes to graduate design students, researchers and participants in the United States, Mexico and Argentina