Article:

This theoretical-practical investigation explores the arena of public art, focused on participatory design, which is sustained by an integrated view of the place. In this context, place is considered as an interaction between a set of human, biophysical, geographical, economic, political, historical, social, cultural and ecological conditions that characterize and determine, greatly, life in that place. This view focuses on a specificity of place that relates to the labor activities and natural resources manifest locally and, consequently, in the landscape. The methodology used in this investigation is experimental in nature. The investigative artistic practice and, in particular, the methods used in the projects development were open, involving the local people in the realization of the project through an empathic approach of interaction design based on paradigms of listening and dialoguing. The artistic projects were realized in peripherical places, which are strongly characterized by the relationships between the bodily subsistence of their population and the local natural resources. The artistic practice developed crossed with the participatory design expanded the notion of place for artists and designers. The aim of this active research was to analyze, test and interpret the evidence about the importance that place, considered in its multiple dimensions, can have in the conception and materializing of artistic interventions that interact with local populations, in a interaction and participatory design. It was also intended to test and evaluate the receptivity of the participant populations to the methodological characteristics of the realized projects.