Bridging Perspectives
How can situated design contribute to dealing with misunderstood behaviour?
The number of incidents involving persons with disturbed behaviour is rising year on year. Reports registered by the police with the code E33 have increased from 74.936 in the year 2016 to 90.636 in 2018, and 102.353 in 2020. Behind these figures lie human suffering and social nuisance. Psychoses, dementia, suicidal behaviours, and other worrying situations can be misunderstood by neighbours or family. In the aftermath of police reports and social worker intervention, stories of these situations often end up in the hands of administrators and in the media, where the sufferers are discussed as ‘persons with disturbed behaviour’. Those who are given this label are deprived of their social selfhood, separated from regulated society .
A participation society calls for understanding and inclusiveness: at home, on the street, at school, and at work. Everyone must participate, everyone contributes. Friends, neighbours, relatives and colleagues comprise the social bedrock in which ‘people with confused behaviour’ live. How can artists and designers, as part of this bedrock, contribute to mutual understanding between those who need to relate to each other?
