The eight continent: design for an intentional surprise

In this paper I will present and discuss the design thinking, methods, processes and some examples of work, that demonstrates how I together with different co-creators set up a work practice, using digital 3d objects and images. That in different ways and formats helps us to explore how a database, a set of rules can be used in a dialogue with artistic work practice and how such a process can be used to create images and animation in a variety of design and art projects. The main example is a project called Conversation China that still is in its making, here we work with rather complex processes, involving several digital analogue techniques as the basis for creating the images for a 150 pieces porcelain dinner set. My interest in this work is how the intention of the artist or designer is transferred and later embedded in the procedural or algorithmic process and how this intent is organized and set up to secure an desired outcome, mixing the possibilities of the digital media object with manual editing and artistic craftsmanship. With the idea of design fiction, we continue to ask and explore how intent can be critical to the design process as well as the final result, that is rendered between the procedural techniques and the artistic intention. What this paper tries to put forward is how we designed and set up environments for working with non linear and procedural media, their different expressions and forms by using explorable prototypes and design thinking?