1. What is Doors of Perception?
2. So Doors is some kind of computer industry trade show?
3. Who will come to Doors 5, then?
4. How many of us will there be?
5. What are the main themes of the conference?
6. Phew. But why `play'?
7. So it will be all about computer games?
8. What has all this got to do with design?
9. What do you hope to achieve with the conference?
10. All that from a conference?
11. Surely`play-as-learning'is already being debated in education?
12. But you read about schools and the Internet every day
13. So `play' is an umbrella for all aspects of learning on the Internet?
14. What about play and work? what's the connection?
15. That sounds very abstract
16. Terrific: so Doors 5 will be about The Meaning Of Everything?
17. How very Dutch: you have a plan for play?
18. Why do you want policy makers to attend?
19. Is your bottom line a proposal to replace schools with websites?
20. But information technology will come anyway
21. It all sounds pretty serious. Is there much play in the conference?
22. Should I check our the earlier conferences?
23. Will you publish the proceedings of Doors 5?
24. So I can use the Internet and skip the trip?
1. What is Doors of Perception ?
It is an international conference which we started in November 1993 as the first major project of the Netherlands Design Institute. Each conference takes as its basic theme: "the design challenge of interactive multimedia and networks". People from many disciplines, many industries, and many countries, attend.
2. So Doors is some kind of computer industry trade show?
Absolutely not. Many interesting and important people from the computer industry are involved—but they are not allowed to make commercial product presentations! Doors is about ideas, not about sales pitches.
3.Who will come to Doors 5, then ?
Designers, teachers, policymakers, managers of media, Internet and publishing companies,toy makers, technologists, journalists, computer scientists, philosophers—and students of the above, whatever their age.
4. How many of us will there be?
642 people came to the first conference; 1,100 came to Doors 2 on `home'; 650 to Doors 3 on `info-eco' (which was workshop-based, and lasted a week); 800 came to Doors 4 on `Speed'. We expect 800 people—including you—to come to Doors 5 in November, when the theme is `Play'. Once again it will be a full-house. Book early to avoid heart-wrenching disappointment.
5.What are the main themes of the conference?
There are five. PLAY/TIME asks why play is so important in the design of work, school and learning—with or without the Internet. PLAY/SCHOOL looks at innovative uses of the Internet to foster school-based learning; the emphasis here is on tools, places and experiences that do more than just pour data into childrens' heads. PLAY/THINGS is about the games, toys, and media that we play with.SIM/PLAYis about theatre and story-telling, with case studies of participatory play in virtual environments. DESIGN/ PLAY is about products, processes and environments that `emerge' from improvised and collaborative forms of work.
6.Phew. But why `play'?
We chose the theme `play' as an oblique way to look at interactivity in learning. In design, we tend to think of play as limited to the times and tools of childhood. We want to find out if there a way to capture the creative power of play for work, not just for school—with multimedia and the Internet as our new media.
7.So it will be all about computer games?
Not exactly, although computer games will be an important part of the programme . Many of us, as teachers and parents, tend to rather critical of computer games without knowing much about them. We will ask our speakers, among whom will be some of the world's best designers, what it is about games that so engages people. The big question then becomes, how do we transfer those qualities to other forms of learning and work?
8.What has all this got to do with design?
A good question. At a basic level, devices, artefacts and environments for play and learning have to be designed. But 'design' does not just deal with things. Design also shapes the environments in which people communicate with each other. This is where the idea of `designing play' comes in—not just as the design of toys, or games consoles, or classrooms—but also as the design of interfaces to communication networks, or projects, or organisations. At this level, of course, much design is about removing obstacles—to play, to improvisation, to interaction between people.
9.What do you hope to achieve with the conference?
Three things. First, we want to start a debate about the role of design in replacing old models, tools, and places of learning. Second, we will bring together different constituencies that hardly meet each other at the moment. Thirdly, we hope that after the conference intensive knowledge-sharing will continue between designers and these other groups.
10. All that from a conference?
We've done as much as this in the past. At Doors 3 `info-eco', for example, we brought together two communities that had barely even heard of each other—environmentalists, and information technology people. The event was extremely dynamic—and many projects, which were born at that event, are still going strong.
11. Surely`play-as-learning'is already being debated in education?
We assumed so too—at first. So we looked at plans for the National Grid of Learning in the UK; we went with a European delegation to find out about plans to put 1,000 schools online in Japan; we checked out Al Gore's idea that every US child be connected by 2000. And the alarming result was that behind the rhetoric and grandiose spending plans (the world education market was worth $28 billion in 1996) we found little substantive or innovative attention to the content of all this connectivity in schools.
12. But you read about schools and the Internet every day
Nearly all the coverage is about technical infrastucture for information and communication technologies. But these large-scale, technology-driven programmes say almost nothing about the what? why? where? and how? of learning and education.
13. So `play' is an umbrella for all aspects of learning on the Internet?
That's where we started early this year. But as soon as you ask the questions, "what do we need to learn, or "how, where and with what shall we learn in the future"—you immediately run into even bigger issues to do with the nature of knowledge, and the connection between learning and work.
14. What about play and work? what's the connection?
Well, if it is true that we are in the middle of a transition from an economy based on production, to an economy based on knowledge, then the question arises: what does it mean to create new knowledge through the medium of playful work?
15. That sounds very abstract
It is. But we're very busy collecting examples of what play-as-work means in practice. Have you any suggestions? We need examples of playful work that involves design, and which leads to socially and economically valuable innovation.
16. Terrific: so Doors 5 will be about The Meaning Of Everything?
...and an understanding of nothing? You are right to be nervous. Many discussions of learning are indeed either vitriolic, or hopelessly abstract. But fear not! We have a plan!
17. How very Dutch: you have a plan for play?
We take this play business seriously! The programme is divided into five chunks over three days. Each chunk has three elements: first, a scene-setting keynote lecture; second, a number of short but striking case study presentations by people who are doing amazing things in the real world; and third, a panel discussion to draw the threads of the first two bits together.
18. Why do you want policy makers to attend?
To meet with the other people involved and learn from the presentations by innovators in real schools. David Hargraves, a professor of education at Cambridge University, criticised Big Bang educational technology policies in a recent Demos pamphlet; he wrote that education "requires from political leaders a playful attitude to ideas and alternatives—a readiness to experiment and mount clinical trials—a pragmatic philosophy that will learn from experience". Doors 5 will bring together some of that experience.
19. Is your bottom line a proposal to replace schools with websites?
No way! But fantasies of a technological `fix' for education are very attractive to some politicians. Do you remember the joke about the factory of the future? "It will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog; the dog will be there to stop the man touching the equipment". That is indeed how some politicians think about the Internet and schools. You read of plans to `penetrate the schools' with new technology. Policy documents announce that `teachers are the main impediment' to `technological modernisation'. This is old-style technological determinism of the worst kind—dressed up as educational modernisation.
20. But information technology will come anyway
Yes, it will. That's why we believe this Doors is so important. Our starting point is how to use communication technology well—how to extend and enrich learning cultures, not replace them with some technologist's fantasy of a global knowledge machine.
21. It all sounds pretty serious. Is there much play in the conference?
We have designed plenty of free time into the programme for reflection and networking. [We got the idea of `time design' from Doors 4 on Speed]. We have also designed-out stress-inducing distractions. Apart from the bookshop, there are no side-events, no product displays, no booths. All you can do, between sessions, is think—and talk to people. (The latter is compulsory).
22. Should I check our the earlier conferences?
Definitely. So far we have done four conferences and posted more than1,000 pages of transcripts, summaries, quotes, Internet links, speaker biographies, best bits,and other highlights...
23. Will you publish the proceedings of Doors 5?
Yes: on this website—and later as a book.
24. So I can use the Internet and skip the trip?
You can, but you'll miss an awful lot. A large party of the Doors community are repeat visitors who come back for the quality of presentations, atmosphere, the mix of people, and the overall energy. Nobody can put all that online.
Send your questions and remarks to editor@doorsofperception.com. |
