Experimental Thinking/Design Practices

Energy and CoDesigning Communities (ECDC) 2010–14

ECDC is a co-design project developed as a collaboration between the departments of sociology and design at Goldsmiths, University of London. Funded by the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Programme, ECDC is one of several projects that explore how the UK can reduce its energy consumption by 80 percent before 2050. ECDC’s co-design process combines a number of methodologies, including fieldtrips, workshops, and the distribution of cultural probe packs in communities such as Whitehill Bordon Eco Town and Low Carbon Living Ladock. The workshops explore questions, such as “How is people’s engagement with technology affected by who they trust?” In 2014, ECDC distributed Energy Babble devices to thirty homes. The Energy Babble is a domestic appliance that broadcasts comments and sounds sent from a network of Babbles. The ECDC team describes the Energy Babble as “familiar, playful, [and] ambiguous” and designed to provoke debate within communities. With the Babble network device, ECDC explores the imaginative and emotional dimension of energy usage and what they call the “potential” of people’s imaginative application of technologies.