Touching the State the final publication of this project is available for download here. (pdf 5.5MB)

The magazine features contribution from Hilary Cottam, Ben Rogers, David Blunkett, Clive Grinyer, David Curry, Deyan Sudjic, Henrietta Moore, Jane Roberts, Louise Ferguson, Ralph Ardill, Stephen Coleman, Thomas Heatherwick, Tony Walter, Colin Burns plus the results of our Design Challenge.

Voting is not a very up-to-date act; it is an under-involving act. You turn up, you have Corrupt Practices Act literature on the walls, and that's it. This is the one occasion in five years when 30 million voters are going to interact with their Government as citizens. But the message projected by government is one of complete indifference. Patrick Dunleavy

Touching the State is a collaborative project between the Design Council and the Institute for Public Policy Research. We will explore the role of design in mediating the most important encounters between our state and citizens. From the voting booth to the citizenship ceremony, our interactions with the state are designed often it appears by default and in ways which are increasingly out of step with experiences in other areas of life. Can these encounters be designed differently to increase engagement and a sense of citizenship?

This short project aims to raise awareness of design's potential in this area. Beginning by tracking the experiences of nine citizens as they participate in jury service, the citizenship ceremony and the run up to the European elections, we will hold a creative workshop on the 21st June with experts from a variety of fields including design, policy, social sciences, media, commerce and academia to identify some of the major opportunities for redesigning these experiences.

Based on the user research and the findings of the workshop, this group will be invited to contribute think-pieces and concepts to a publication to be launched in September. The publication will be supplemented by related projects sourced from around the world, and by responses to a challenge to the wider international design community to redesign an aspect of state-citizen encounters. The challenge will run between the 22nd June and 19th July.

A series of happenings to debate and discuss the issues raised by the project will take place in September at the Design Council with additional events showcasing the project including at the London Design Festival.

MANIFESTO
800k pdf

DESIGN CHALLENGE PAGE

PROJECT UPDATES

Also see CITIZENSHIP archive.

KEY DOCUMENTS

CITIZENSHIP (.doc)
A short introduction.

SUGGESTED DESIGN BRIEFS (.doc)

Also see CITIZENSHIP on our weblog.

PROJECT TEAM

ippr

Acacia Avenue

Gary Cook

Grant Gibson

USER RESEARCH

COMPLETE PRESENTATION PARTS 1-7
(.pdf 7.5MB)

1 CITIZENSHIP (.pdf)

2 RESEARCH APPROACH (.pdf)

3 CITIZENSHIP MEANS... (.pdf)

4 VOTING (.pdf)

5 JURY SERVICE (.pdf)

6 CITIZENHSIP CEREMONY (.pdf)

VIDEOS

1 ADRIAN (CITIZENSHIP)
(.mp4 2.7MB)

2 BRENT CEREMONY
(.mp4 1.58MB)

3 DEIDRA (VOTING)
(.mp4 1.12MB)

4 FETHIA (VOTING)
(.mp4 1.817MB)

5 JANE (JURY)
(.mp4 2.65MB)

6 KINGSTON CEREMONY
(.mp4 2.25MB)

7 KIRK (VOTING)
(.mp4 1.7MB)

8 LINDSAY (JURY)
(.mp4 1.38MB)

9 RICHARD (JURY)
(.mp4 1.65MB)

10 RON (CITIZENSHIP)
(.mp4 2.45MB)