Creativity and participatory artwork for civic awareness

This paper discusses our reflections on the potential of creativity as an enabler of crosscultural conversation and collaboration, within a Participatory Design experience. We build reflections upon our own experience in organizing and facilitating ConstellACTION, a two days design workshop for the creation of a participatory artwork, during the 2014 edition of the Participatory Design Conference, held in Windhoek, Namibia. The goal was two-fold: raising awareness on civic participation in Namibia, and facilitating participation in generating ideas to tackle those challenges. The ConstellACTION experience enabled participation and awareness on social issues, showing features and fruitful potential of an art-combined participatory workshop. We discuss the dynamics that follow our considerations of how civic awareness arise in a mixed setting.