Commoning Riverlands, Sydney : a design research network for supporting community change

![CDATA[Visual communication design employs the unique languages of visualization and imagery for making sense and telling compelling stories. This poster will tell the story of a digitally facilitated design research network and a symposium held at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. The objective of the poster is to showcase research--‐based design practice that contributes to change initiatives across sectors of society and culture, with relevance to Western Sydney. It will outline the key design components that supported the formation of a network of researchers interested in amplifying the change agency of visual communications design. In brief, the poster tells a story about how design compellingly tells stories to support and model change. A keynote speaker, Italian information designer Angela Morelli, described her practice as info--‐graphic digital storytelling that doesn’t simply transform data into meaningful information but engages audiences in knowledge about which they care. Considered in the context of Donald Schön’s (1983) reflective practitioner, Morelli’s challenge is to develop storytelling as an effective genre for the translation of research into visualization and for exploring visualization as knowledge. The symposium enabled participants to share research methods and their own design practices such as visualization strategies, storyboards, information graphics, field work and mapping techniques used to generate meaningful dialogues and knowledge about supporting community change. The poster aims to provide a snapshot of 6 components that gave birth to and support this network.]]