Retrorepublik Deutschland (Retro-Republic Germany)
Experiential scenarios for e-government
Experiential scenarios for e-government
Transformation Design, Thesis (MA) Master of Arts, 2023
The public administration in Germany is considered to be outdated and on the European average decades behind. What are the special features of this system and how can the design sector contribute to shaping the administration? Through the method of Design Futuring, several future visions were put up for discussion, which should enable a perspective for the field and help to question the current state. After all, before digital platforms emerge, people should be clear about how they want to live and be governed.
In a format suitable for meeting spaces of citizenship and administration, actors from citizenship, the administrative sector and design are to be brought together to discuss their points of view, and thus to work out long-term goals or jointly initiate completely new ideas. When do seemingly everyday occurrences break through our moral codes? And what does our desirable future look like? Is it the Retrorepublik, in which everything works analog again? Is it the Social City, in which there is a balance between mechanization and human contact? Or is it a Smart City after all, where technology organizes everything for us in the background?
In the toolkit for this workshop, all documents are structured in a completely analog way. It is therefore also suitable for people who are less digitally savvy. The opening lecture introduces the scenario. Artifacts like typewriters open the discussion about how media works, and fictional objects like a future map of Europe or a sign with the opening hours of a hopelessly overworked administration add depth to the narrative. Images generated via generative AI facilitate the imagining of these possible futures. Selected creativity techniques and flow maps support idea generation. The format was tested with different participants and developed step by step. The results can be collected and added to on a padlet board.
Supervision:
Prof. Ulrich Fleischmann, Prof. Dr. Jennifer Schubert
The public administration in Germany is considered to be outdated and on the European average decades behind. What are the special features of this system and how can the design sector contribute to shaping the administration? Through the method of Design Futuring, several future visions were put up for discussion, which should enable a perspective for the field and help to question the current state. After all, before digital platforms emerge, people should be clear about how they want to live and be governed.
In a format suitable for meeting spaces of citizenship and administration, actors from citizenship, the administrative sector and design are to be brought together to discuss their points of view, and thus to work out long-term goals or jointly initiate completely new ideas. When do seemingly everyday occurrences break through our moral codes? And what does our desirable future look like? Is it the Retrorepublik, in which everything works analog again? Is it the Social City, in which there is a balance between mechanization and human contact? Or is it a Smart City after all, where technology organizes everything for us in the background?
In the toolkit for this workshop, all documents are structured in a completely analog way. It is therefore also suitable for people who are less digitally savvy. The opening lecture introduces the scenario. Artifacts like typewriters open the discussion about how media works, and fictional objects like a future map of Europe or a sign with the opening hours of a hopelessly overworked administration add depth to the narrative. Images generated via generative AI facilitate the imagining of these possible futures. Selected creativity techniques and flow maps support idea generation. The format was tested with different participants and developed step by step. The results can be collected and added to on a padlet board.
Supervision:
Prof. Ulrich Fleischmann, Prof. Dr. Jennifer Schubert
Website: http://www.retrorepublik.de
The senario opens up a discussion, showing opening making it more emotional by artifacts like typewriters and signs showing very long opening hours.
The toolbox contains everything needed to perform the workshop – marketing material like posters, images and the presentation to guide through the scenario.
Several interfaces show how governmental services could work digital and easily. But how could we get there? And is that the way we want it to be? (Text: "Would you like to share your data with the city administration?" – "Share data")
(Text: "Would you like to share your data with the city administration?" – "Share data" – "Done" – "You are now registered in your new city.")
In the scenario, all online services in Germany will be shut down. What will happen next? (Text: "Emergency notice – Shutdown of the online functions of the Federal Republic of Germany – Tomorrow, Friday, all servers of the Federal Republic of Germany will be shut down. Public DIenste will no longer be available online as of this date. For more information, please contact your nearest local government office.")
In the scenario, the so-called Retro-Republic develops to an analogue center. Europe will be devided into several zones. There are no more borders, just digital lines forming new possibilities. (Text: "Digital West" – "Digital North" - "Analogue Center" - "Digital South".
Image of future states are visualized by the tool Adobe Firefly. Despite of the Retro-Republic, there is the Social City and the Smart City, where digital devices show the daily routine.
How will governmental services work in the future? How will we register a born child? Will it be registered? How will we use public transport? Do we want that? It is those daily actions showing that show how governmental services will work in the future and change how we live together. (Text: "Register birth – How is the birth of a child reported to the relevant administration?")
How will governmental services work if everything must be done manually and analogue again? Will we need forklifters for alle the paperwork? Are waiting rooms extremely large? Will we have phones again? Will mailboxes be everywhere in the city? The images open the discussion to the participants of the workshops.
In groups, the participants talk about how they want to live an so be governed in the future. Even if the future means an alternative reality without any digital device.
Another group discusses about how to live in a Smart City. Will there be chips to register our identity? Will there be just one device where all our data is stored? Would we really like that? The discussion about scenarios can shape our opinions and change our views about the reality. Graphic design can help by visualizing those stories by simple Photoshop retouch and new methods of image generators.
In the end, the results are stored in a very non-digital way in a box. And to open up an online discussion, there is a padlet-platform on retrorepublik.de.
