Full set of probes from the Personhood in Dementia project.

Abstract:

Writers and practitioners in dementia care have invoked

personhood to offer potential for preserving the agency of

people living with dementia. In this context we use

personhood to explore how relationships bring agentive

potential to experience-centered design through a cocreative,

design-led inquiry with Gillian, a woman living

with dementia, and John her husband. We designed bespoke

probes to empathically engage the couple in the design of

both jewellery and digital jewellery to support Gillian’s

personhood. Our design activity addressed the relationships

involved in the context of Gillian’s family life and the

progression of her illness and how they could be mediated

technologically. Reminiscence became, through Gillian and

John’s own hands, acts of sense making and legacy. The

process of design became the way of conducting the inquiry

and the designed artifacts became ways of posing questions

to make sense of our experiences together.