Over the last 20 years the design and provision of healthcare within the UK has become increasingly democratised yet complex. Participatory Design Practice has been drawn upon to co-create future health services and products; bringing diverse communities together; accessing lived experience of service users and providers. Whilst a raft of Participatory Design Methods have evolved to underpin design within the health sector, few have hailed from cloth(ing)-led practice.
My Phd seeks to explore the affective capacities of cloth(ing)-led practice to address complexity in design for health settings. The research is framed around the analysis of two differing types of participatory method – 1. A Facilitated Workshop and 2. Wardrobe Probe.
Workshop Facilitation - I have conducted detailed analyses of contemporary facilitative practice in healthcare that draw on the capabilities of objects, materials and making to foster dialogues between diverse communities. I have reflected on my own practice as socially engaged artist and, more recently, design facilitator to understand the role of my methods in brokering conversations.
Wardrobe Studies Method - I have also designed and deployed a set of participatory cloth(ing)-led methods to support breast cancer service users to reflect on and discuss their experiences of diagnosis and treatment with others.
By analysing the social dynamics of these methods, through a New Materialist lens, the study explores ‘What Matters in contemporary facilitation in healthcare’; to provide a practice framework for applying cloth(ing)-led methods in future design for health settings (and beyond!).
Key words: Making, Wearing, Cloth, Clothing, Individual and Collective Creativity, Participatory Design Research, Facilitation, Breast Cancer Care, Healthcare, New Materialism, Affect,
This study has run in collaboration with charity Breast Cancer Haven, it’s service users, clinical staff and research team. It has been funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council and London Doctoral Design Centre.
Director of Studies - Prof. Jane Harris Co-supervisor - Prof. Sandy Black.
