| Submitted by Design Director, Bart Verveckken.
Sunday, 3 April
Assembling a group of participants from 15 different countries
turned out to be more time-consuming than expected. However
the opening ceremony took place in a festive and warm atmosphere
despite averse physical atmospheric conditions. A celebration
of song, dance and African story-telling illustrated the spirit
of present South African culture and its humour. It marked the
beginning of an important event sponsored by the SABS Design
Institute and supported by National, Provincial and local government
structures. Truly a first in the history of South African Design.
Monday, 4 Apr
 The
morning started with expert presentations relevant to the field
trips by Brian Marrian, Denise Buiten, Linda Jele and Hettie
du Plessis. This was followed by a successful visit to Mathopestat
and Syferbult where we were warmly welcomed by the Chief and
the residents. In the evening the first analyses took place
resulting in specific methodologies of enquiry for the next
day's visit.
Tuesday, 5 Apr
 The
visit to Pitsedisulejang had to be partially abandoned because
of the refusal of the bus drivers to continue the journey over
the gravel road. This was an excellent example of one system
of transport reaching the boundary of its usability. This was
largely disruptive to the interdesign process, although participants
used their time as constructively as possible.
 The
communications group and the group leaders managed to continue
the journey in a smaller bus and had a very constructive day
in the village, culminating in a long and late after dinner
feedback meeting which marked the end of an emotionally charged
day.
Wednesday, 6 Apr &
 The
morning was consumed entirely by a long series of very informative
presentations by technical experts from government and the private
sector. We also had the opportunity to view some examples of
donkey carts as well as bicycles available in South Africa.
The afternoon realised the first opportunity for the group
to really engage with the subject matter of the interdesign
and working sessions ran well into the evening.
Thursday, 7Apr
 A
second, and this time successful, attempt was made to reach
Pitsedisulejang with a select group of participants. Interestingly
they found a different reality than before, as it was pension
pay-out day and market day.
The evening offered the first two preliminary presentations
and open discussion on work done and insights gained.
Friday, 8 Apr
Friday was a very productive day for everyone where I, as
design director, could finally start to form a picture of how
the different groups are working.
Alternative transport modes (Stuttgart group)
This group analysed the relationship between territory,
community and settlement, diagnosing the unnecessary effort
in fulfilling expectations based on imported mind-sets and behaviour
patterns. 'Imported' is to be understood as belonging to the
community's original territory or being media induced.
A two-way strategy was reognized. It is recommended to initiate
education towards a creative and adaptive life within the new
territory. On the other hand it is expected to find solutions
for mobility with soft impact on the territory, and/or solutions
reducing the need for mobility by making use of on-the-spot
opportunities.
Bicycles and Tricycles
Analysis of observations and catching up around the camp
fire represent the start of the week. The group made extensive
use of relevant experts such as Ron Thompson to make sure they
started with reliable information. Opportunities were identified
in terms of types of vehicles and issues of use like school
and gender. From there targets were selected and materials and
related processes were investigated.
This started a reiterative process of sketching and group evaluations.
The communication group was consulted to optimise the research
into the way forward.
Alternative transport modes (South African group)
Looking at the empowerment of women through increased personal
mobility, this group focuses on the movement of goods, fire
wood and water, as dictated by the field work, using simple
means, preferably locally made.
New models and frame works are built, testing the group methodology's
capacity to cope with uncertainty and ambiguity.
Two subgroups are working on the mobility of goods. One is
looking at a multipurpose cart and a last subgroup concentrates
on children and education using mobility as a vehicle.
Animal Drawn Carts
This group comes to grips with the real problem in terms
of technical and social overview. They most probably have the
most direct focus of all groups and face the test against communities'
perceptions.
A decision was made to create 4 focus groups: socio-economic,
harness- hitching-donkey, cart technicalities and ergonomics
& user interaction.
Communication group
Here a multi-focus approach gives rise to three fields
of activity:
- studying the interface between some of the outcomes of
the industrial design teams and the user may lead to forms
of instructional design,
- dissemination of general information through graphic and
way-finding systems,
- exploring strategies of persuasion focusing on the possible
benefits of the usage of new systems.
Brief experiments with school children during site visits were
used to establish what kind of visual language should be used
to achieve the above goals in the target communities.
|
FOCUS AREAS 
In
an intense morning session, final presentations were professionally
presented by the teams, including several interesting prototypes.
A display of design work allowed each of the teams to finally show
what they had been working on.