Format:

Considering the typical form of a requirements document–a lengthy text document with minimal illustrative components that employs highly technical language–with regards to the potential participant groups at the 01SJ Biennial–ideally, a group of industrial designers; more realistically, a mixed group where designers are outnumbered by non-designers–a radical disconnect and potential for broad miscommunication seems apparent. While the initial claim for including a requirements document for Sheep’s Clothing was to appropriate a form and language comfortable to industrial designers to speed up the synthesis of information and concept, for persons other than the ideal participants, the document would fail to speed up anything (especially speculation about an unfamiliar topic). The most glaring issue is one of comprehension, where participants would be more focused on understanding the written text, thereby expending the majority of mental capital on a tangential task. This means that the initial requirements document must be changed to allow ease of access to all parties by lowering the threshold of comprehension, i.e. avoiding unfamiliar formats, lengthy texts, non-illustrative examples, and all-too-flexible interpretations. So, a more structured and explicit document is needed to focus the workshop(s).

As part of my process of thinking, I have been developing a set of visual aids–short texts with an image or diagram. These aids have tended to be provocative in order to evoke a certain range of responses that orbit around sensors, mushroom cultivation and foraging, and the urban environment. While initially envisioned as a means to generate draw people in to the exhibit (they can still function this way in fact), they are perfectly suited–in both form and content–to focus the process of speculation around sensing within the city. That is, the traditional requirements text document will be replaced by 20 to 30 image-based requirements. Save the obvious lack of specificity at times (as well as over-specificity at other times), the goal has never been to be completely accurate in thinking about speculative designs for hidden sensors. Instead, the idea has been to use speculative design approaches to foster conversations about how technology and small-scale agriculture can be integrated at a conceptual level, both in terms of function and value.

Areas:

A typical requirements document is product focused; this illustrative document will divide focus between the product itself, i.e. the sensor housing requirements, and the process of mushroom foraging and cultivation. Since the product is only a housing, the functionality will be fixed beforehand–moisture, light, pH, and temperature (which are derived from the purchased garden sensors). By limiting the features to design, the requirements document will focus specifically on the materiality (e.g. what the housing looks like, what aesthetics it employs, etc.) as related to the values of mushroom foraging (e.g. exploration, identification, secrecy, opportunism).

I. Introduction:

What constitutes ag-aesthetics, how ag-aesthetics and agricultural practices are linked (directionally), why ag-aesthetics misrepresents small-scale and alternative agricultures

II. Background on mushroom cultivation/foraging

What the process entails for either act (inoculation, fruiting); what are the limitations (sense-able such as moisture and light; not sense-able such as identification), factors (ecology of mycelium), concerns (e.g. remediation of soil); description of ideal environments (particular diversity)

III. Background of sensor devices

What has been made (prominently featuring EasyBloom, standard 3-way soil meter) and what they sense (not factors for mushrooms mainly) the notions about farming as a practice, as a production method that are lacking (value divide); focused largely on interaction design

IV. Requirements for new ag-aesthetics

Primarily composed of images of sensors in the urban environment paired with jarring value judgments of foraging; secondarily composed of urban foraging as a sustainable and integrated act (again divide between the two areas); lastly composed of future ecologies