In this Conversation we invite thinking about those artifacts that hold together collaboration and participation. We take as a starting point our experience as anthropologists in a participatory design project in which a digitally-enhanced carrier bag was designed and used to connect communities including women belonging to different memory sewing circles in Colombia and researchers/designers from different locations and disciplines. The connections were made through the sharing of stories, through effortful listening, and through the fostering of new relations which together nourished different forms of engagement and careful witnessing in the comprehension of conflict and reconciliation in Colombia. In the proposed format of the Conversation we ask participants to engage in listening to stories of the carrier bag, and responding with their own stories of effortful listening related to their design practices. The Conversation aims to become a carrier bag that holds together stories of more-than-listening as integral to participatory design practices.

NOTE: This Conversation is seeking 20 volunteers interested in bringing stories to the conversation before the conference, if you want to contribute, and have registered to the conference please fill this form to contact the hosts.