Centre for Applied Research in Inclusive Arts & Design
The Centre for Applied Research in Inclusive Arts and Design has been funded by the Cardiff Metropolitan University Research Innovation Awards.
CARIAD puts people at the heart of design. During 2011 - 2012, our first year of working as a team, we have included people from across the globe in multi-disciplinary projects that encompass visual and performing arts, health, wellbeing, and social inclusion. As CARIAD evolves, our overarching aim is to evolve agile techniques and methods that give voice to communities, allowing their perspectives and desires to steer the creation and implementation of solutions. These solutions may be products, events, modes of interaction, publications, videos or services.
The CARIAD team and research students work with stakeholders in real world places. Our approaches vary depending on context, this maybe to use critical design to learn quickly about a particular challenge, or to refresh an existing solution. Other situations demand deeper theoretical understanding or long term stakeholder commitment. The methods we adopt are cohered around understanding, interpreting and communicating; using technology as a conduit for change, capable of transforming ideas into reality by adopting flexible viewpoints, managing and visualising data, and provoking design thinking.
Each member of the core research team is a lecturer committed to inspiring the student community to become agents for social change. Though their active engagement in real-world projects we encourage our students to practice a rigour of ethics and to respond intelligently to the challenges of social inclusion, social innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration. Ethical practice in relation to anonymity, confidentiality and informed consent is rigorously adhered to in all our projects. To support this we have created a range of presentations, workshop packs and guidance documents that guide students on topics such as sustainable design, designing with people, and being an ethical designer.
We use the CARIAD Team Performance Exchange site as a secure portal to encourage stakeholders to have a voice in decision making at relevant stages of the research. Furthermore, the TPE, adapted from the discipline of sport, is used for day-to-day project management and communication among teams. Information and resources from workshops, seminars and public events will be made openly available, ensuring that our growing portfolio of research activity is outward-facing and accessible beyond academia.