Numbers that Matter: developing a methodology to explore collective wellbeing in the digital public space

This paper discusses ideas of digital public spaces as a framework for making sense of an experience of collaborating in Numbers That Matter, a short cross-sector engagement design project that explored open data, wellbeing and wearables devices. The investigation addresses the phenomenon of ‘digital coming to matter’ and the hybridity that this emerging digital-physical domain imposes, in terms of public and private, individual and collective. The ideas and concepts are found in the intersections of New Materialisms, specifically the Agential Realism of Karen Barad (2007) and Design Research. This paper explores a methodological set of ideas for working together with people, open data and participatory technological design.