Community co-design sessions at Erindiroukambe to expand on open topics.

The team of Gereon Koch Kapuire with two honors students Michael Chamunorwa and Donovan Maasz

made a visit to Erindiroukambe (our research site) during the weekend of 31st July – 2nd August 2015. The purpose of this trip was to hold community co-design sessions with community members to obtain information which the two students wanted to utilize in further expanding some open topics within the IKS project.

The student's topics were as follows:
1. Michael: Effective visual hints in a 3D virtual environment for an indigenous community.
2. Donovan: Designing 3D Representations of Flora and the 24 Hour Clock Cycle in rural Namibia
It was decided to get at least 2 community members who were willing to participate in these sessions. The first participant was easy to come by as he is one of the village elders whom has taken part in most of the projects at Erindiroukambe (Alex). Both students posed questions related to their research topics to him and at the conclusion of both sessions, the team set out to find the second elder. On their way, they met another village elder who notified them that the elder they were seeking was unavailable. However, instead of turning back, the team leader - Gereon asked if the elder could participate in the project, to which he agreed. The second session went smoothly and the two students had the chance to sit with both elders thereafter to hear their conversations about the village and happenings in the community. The team returned to Windhoek on the 2nd of August and began working with the data they had obtained during the trip.

During the trip, Michael using the 3D models developed for the Homestead Creator set out to determine how digitally illiterate community elders and youth identify an activity depicted in a 3D environment. The research was meant to elicit what types of 3D artifacts and arrangements made it easier for them to correctly identify culturally relevant events in a 3D model. A total of two sessions were carried out with elders and youths from the community in Erindiroukambe.