Cenários de design orientados por redes: abrindo caminhos metodológicos pela análise visual

Abstract

Strategic Design can be seen as a discipline that invites us to speculate on the possibilities of the future through the construction of scenarios. In a way shared with Planning and Futurology, scenarios are a way of thinking about possible, probable, utopian, and dystopian futures. They use visual narratives and start from a common practice: they are often guided by dichotomies and polarities that contrast and tension visions of the future. This research seeks a less dichotomous form, based on the network concept, derived from systems theory. With the advancement of Computer and Communication Sciences, the present research seeks to open methodological paths for the visual analysis of networks as guides for Design scenarios. To fulfill this objective, a qualitative and exploratory research is developed. The methodological strategy applied was an action research carried out in two movements. First, bibliographic research is developed along with a documentary to conceptualize the theoretical body and to map and debate on research and studies that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and references for the construction of scenarios, data visualization and network analysis. In the second movement, field research is carried out with six workshops with variations of actors and themes to experiment with how subjects can build scenarios using network-oriented strategies. In this way, it was understood that both the scenarios and the networks presented are highly communicative artifacts, the first pointing to the future and the second to elements of the present and the problematic past. Still, it was found that networks can help to highlight the semantic field of a given theme, contributing to conceptualize the vocabulary. The networks can also serve to measure positive and negative feelings and encourage subjects to find nodes that instigate the telling of cases and the creation of narratives. Finally, it was noted that network graphics, often called maps, need to be situated and contextualized so that they are not used only as an aesthetic curiosity.