Multispective Experience Design (MiXeD)

InSituEx is a collaborative research agenda based at the Institute of Creative Media Technologies (ICMT), University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten (USTP). It is dedicated to developing a comprehensive framework for Multispective Experience Design (MiXeD). This integrated approach combines analytical, narrative, participatory, and immersive methods, enabling stakeholders to explore complex sociotechnical issues from diverse human and nonhuman perspectives.

The current research agenda focuses on the mediation of environmental controversies—a domain in which communicative challenges, conflicting values, and multispecies entanglements are particularly evident. Contemporary research shows that traditional, information‑driven communication has limited impact on public engagement with environmental issues. In contrast, participatory, experiential, and immersive approaches have demonstrated significant potential for fostering understanding across positions.

Environmental controversies—such as debates related to climate change, energy policy, or genetic engineering—therefore serve as a strategic use case in which the MiXeD framework is developed, tested, and refined. However, this iterative research and design process is transferable and can be applied to other complex fields with divergent perspectives and positions, including technological innovation, public health, mobility planning, or cultural heritage.

Cross-Disciplinary and Multi-Stage Research and Design Process

The MiXeD framework integrates several complementary methods into a multi-stage, cross‑disciplinary research and design process:

1. Controversy Mapping: Controversies are analyzed and visualized using computational methods, including AI-supported tools, to identify relevant human and nonhuman actors and their positions.
2. Multispecies Ethnography: Key actors—and proxies for nonhuman entities—are interviewed and observed to generate a deeper understanding of situated perspectives.
3. Polyphonic Personas: Drawing on more‑than‑human design and narrative theory, multispective personas and scenarios are created to convey the complexity of perspectives within a controversy.
4. Ecodrama Workshops: Stakeholders engage in participatory role reversals, performing not only their own positions but also those of other human and nonhuman actors.
5. Mixed‑Reality Mediations: Immersive applications extend the ecodramatic experience by enabling stakeholders to adopt alternative perspectives through digital technologies.

Rather than seeking consensus or compromise, the aim of the MiXeD approach is to cultivate mutual understanding, ethical perspective‑taking, and more informed collective reflection.

Case Studies on Wind Power Controversies in Lower Austria

The InSituEx research agenda comprises three interconnected projects, each focusing on recent controversies surrounding wind power in Lower Austria as an exemplary field of application. They are currently in the planning phase or under review by funding agencies.

• Out of Frames: Analysis and Mapping of Wind Power Controversies in Lower Austria
• Polyphonic Personas: Multispective Representation of Wind Power Controversies in Lower Austria
• Dramatic Mediation: Immersive Role-Play of Wind Power Controversies in Lower Austria

These projects contribute to establishing a robust conceptual and methodological framework for Multispective Experience Design (MiXeD), with applicability beyond environmental issues to communication and design research and practice, as well as to participatory governance.