Participatory drawing in ethnographic research

The chapter reports on a participatory drawing research study conducted by the Royal College of Art within the SusLabNWE project. It sought to explore people’s notions of energy and to visualise their ideas and associations relating to it. The study is framed within the context of the broader ethnographic research tools that were employed by the SusLabNWE consortium. The study was conducted in three phases with visitors to the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design’s Life Examined exhibition at the Royal College of Art in September 2013; with students participating in the UK ArtScience Prize at The Silk Mill, Derby in April 2014; and with visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum Digital Design Weekend in September 2014. Participants were offered drawing materials and asked to respond to the question: What does energy look like? In this chapter we discuss the outcomes of the research process, we analyse the images that were created and we explore what they tell us about the participants’ ideas about energy and what this could mean for energy visualisations.