Ongoing Matter: Demystifying, Deciphering and Decoding Fact in the Mueller Report

This Workshop aims to generate design strategies for increasing public engagement with factually dense documents – such as government reports and records – necessary to the health of democratic societies yet difficult to access or understand. Though focused specifically on the Mueller Report, this Workshop is a case study for similar scenarios wherein information dissemination is crucial to the public interest. Participants will work in teams to explore multimedia design interventions that 1) minimise obstacles preventing the general public from reading the Mueller Report, 2) emphasise key content from the report, and 3) posit methods for addressing the public’s reticence towards accepting reported facts, breaking through the ‘fake news’ echo chamber. By creating design interventions in a collaborative, international context, we hope to dismantle communication barriers and create deliverables and applications that can be enacted and tested during the Workshop and beyond. We will, moreover, present the results of the Workshop as a resource of approaches that can be shared, tested and implemented more broadly. All participants will be acknowledged for their contributions to Ongoing Matter.