This project, Global Talanoa Platform: blended collaborative environments and technologies to advance Pacific research communities, supports local and remote collaborations that are respectful of and aligned with Indigenous knowledge practices. Through systematic research of current and potential practices, it will inform the design and evaluation of culturally appropriate technological environments for collaborations amongst Pacific research communities.
Guided by creative, critical, and experimental thinking, we will proceed iteratively combining practice and scholarly research (Vaughan 2017) to explore the “interplay and interconnection” (Buchanan, 1992:20) of mātauranga Māori and Pasifika (Kahanu, Nepia, & Schorch 2019); spatial, communication and software design; critical and creative uses of technology; performance and public art; and aspects of perception and cognition (Newen, De Bruin & Gallagher, 2018).
Initially, we will scope potentially suitable technology platforms for adaptation. With our partners at universities around Aotearoa, the Pacific, the United States and Europe, we will collectively engage in webinars and on-line/on-site events to experience first-hand and then systematically reflect on:
constraints on talanoa imposed by available mainstream platforms / translations of important talanoa principles and values into on-line research exchanges / criteria by which to determine whether a translation can be deemed successful / steps, resources, tools, actions and protocols to facilitate successful translations of talanoa principles in blended collaborations / factors identified as favourably influencing the outcomes, their replication and up-scaling / requirements in compiling guidelines for a successful deployment
Collaborative exchanges will generate questions and ideas and serve as testing ground for concepts, practices, and technologies for the use of talanoa as a global research approach. This will generate clear technology design briefs with requirements and evaluation criteria, and an initial prototyping of new solutions, enhancing all members’ research portfolios, emerging to senior. The results will be a resource for similar research collaborations.
References:
Vaughan, L. (2017). Practice-based Design Research. London, Bloomsbury Publishing.
Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked problems in design thinking. Design issues, 8(2), 5-21.
Kahanu, N. M.K.Y., Nepia, M., Schorch, P. (2019). He alo ā he alo / kanohi ki te kanohi / face-to-face: curatorial bodies, encounters and relations. In Curatopia: Museums and the future of curatorship. Edited by Philipp Schorch and Conal MacCarthy. Manchester University Press.
Newen, A., De Bruin, L., & Gallagher, S. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford handbook of 4E cognition. Oxford University Press.