Stockholm Environment Institute
——Danmark Real World Lab Workshop Toolkit Design
Date: 24/11/2025
Site: University of Art London
Member:Zixuan HONG, Gigi WANG
Denmark Real World Lab serves as a cross-disciplinary climate science experimental platform that connects research institutions, government departments, public service systems, and local practices. It aims to promote practical transformation in climate risks, adaptation, and governance through collaborative experiments in real scenarios.
Under this cooperation framework, I designed a set of participatory workshops for the participants of Real World Lab (including climate scientists, emergency management personnel, public sector workers, etc.) based on visual metaphors and creative expression. These workshops transformed the originally highly abstract and technical climate terms into visual language that is perceptible and capable of projecting personal experiences through means such as images, collages, hand-drawn illustrations, and text.
Compared to the traditional discussion methods in meetings where rational language plays a dominant role, this toolkit effectively triggers the following through the creative process of "first drawing, then speaking, and finally matching terms":
Participants' recollections of the overlooked sensory experiences in their daily work.
The expression of vague, uncertain and emotional cognition beyond the existing professional statements.
The previously unaddressed areas of misunderstanding, cognitive biases, and hidden differences within the team.
Visual creation here is not regarded as an outcome, but rather as a cognitive externalization tool, enabling experiences that are difficult for individuals to express in words to be transformed into public objects that can be seen, discussed and negotiated by others.