# Designing a multimedia documentary device for research-intervention through co-design-the case of the Innovation Labs Observatory

Cécile Payeur

► To cite this version:

Cécile Payeur. Designing a multimedia documentary device for research-intervention through co-design-the case of the Innovation Labs Observatory. Proceedings from the Document Academy, 2023, 10 (2), 10.35492/docam/10/2/7. hal-05521332

HAL Id: hal-05521332

https://hal.science/hal-05521332v1

Submitted on 20 Feb 2026

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
# Designing a Multimedia Documentary Device for Research-Intervention through Co-design: The Case of the Innovation Labs Observatory

Cécile Payeur

Université Paris Nanterre, cecile.payeur@parisnanterre.fr

Follow this and additional works at: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/docam

Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository.

## Recommended Citation

Payeur, Cécile (2023) "Designing a Multimedia Documentary Device for Research-Intervention through Co-design: The Case of the Innovation Labs Observatory," *Proceedings from the Document Academy*: Vol. 10 : Iss. 2, Article 7.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35492/docam/10/2/7

Available at: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/docam/vol10/iss2/7

This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by University of Akron Press Managed at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings from the Document Academy by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact mjon@uakron.edu, uapress@uakron.edu.
# 1. Co-design of documents for research-intervention projects

Documentation plays a key role in research-intervention projects—an area that companies and universities are working on together. Contractual documents, intermediate research documents and deliverables are all classical forms of documents produced in research-intervention projects, as listed by Jeanneret and Rondot (Jeanneret & Rondot, 2013). More recently, innovative research methodologies based on a constructivist approach and on the implication of different actors generate the creation of new forms of co-designed documents and documentary devices—or documentary “dispositives,” within Foucault’s meaning of the term, considering the created network of an heterogenous ensemble of elements, whether discursive or non-discursive, and taking into consideration the nature of the links that are connecting these elements (Foucault, 1994, p. 299). We adopt an info-communicational point of view considering that the documentary dispositives are technical objects with a transformative effect (Peeters & Charlier, 1999) that give access to specific documents resulting from original situations of communication.

We explore some new forms of these documents and documentary “dispositives” used for research-intervention projects through the case of an innovative project named the “Innovation Labs Observatory.” This project, in which we are involved as researchers, is a research-intervention project that began in 2019 and will end in 2023 and that is led by Le CNAM<fnref n="1" />—Le Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers—and Codesign-it<fnref n="2" />—a group of independent experts in co-design. The goal of this collaborative project involving researchers, designers, and public and private companies is to explore the activities of intern innovation laboratories—what we call “labs” —using co-design methodologies. The project has two phases: the first phase, which has been completed, was about exploring assessment, performance and typologies of design developed in private labs: Valeo, Airbus, and La Française des Jeux (Zacklad et al., 2021). We are now finishing the second phase. The research extends to public innovation labs in the context of a partnership with the “Direction à l’Innovation et à la Transformation Publique” (DITP)<fnref n="3" />. In this phase, we are focusing on methodologies and theorization of the diffusion of the lab’s practices.

To support this research-intervention project, we developed a specific documentary dispositive based on multimedia documents using co-design methodologies. In this article, we propose to explore the modalities of the co-design of this type of documentary object in the context of projects on research-

<footnote n="1">¹ https://www.cnam.fr/ (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² https://www.codesign-it.com/ (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ https://www.modernisation.gouv.fr/ (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>
intervention. We will also take into consideration the perspectives and questions that arise, both for research work and in the field, in a wide sense. In the first part, we present the methodology used for the research, in the second part, we expose the construction of the documentary dispositive and finally, in the third part, we consider some hypotheses informed by the research still in progress.

## 2. Methodology of the research

The work carried out for this research is based on two main theories. The first theory is the RICO-D approach, recently proposed by Manuel Zacklad and Marie-Julie Catoir-Brisson (Zacklad & Catoir-Brisson, 2021). RICO-D means Research Intervention by Co-Design and is a method based on cooperation between researchers and designers, using design methodologies at every step of the research process (data production, analysis, and results diffusion). This approach favors a dynamic of collective action by creating new knowledge and relationships between the actors. It is based on designing different communication situations—using rational myths, engagement levers and elicitation probes—as a part of a transmediation dispositive, that will have a transformative effect in organizations and in which documentary dispositives are developed to accommodate conversations and offer a place for debate.

We also use the C-K theory devised by Armand Hatchuel and his colleagues from the Ecole des Mines de Paris in Management and Design Science (Hatchuel & Weil, 2002, 2003) to represent the research process. The C-K theory is a design theory that allows representation of the early creative phase of a project—or surprise—and modeling of the reasoning underlying innovative design. It is aimed at exploring the existing situation and generating new knowledge and theories by considering the design as a “process by which something unknown can emerge from what is known” (Hatchuel & Weil, 2003). The central notion of the C-K theory “is a formal distinction between ‘concept’ (C) and ‘knowledge’ (K)” (Hatchuel & Weil, 2003). K is considered here as a Knowledge space, where propositions have a logical status (it can be true or false, for example), whereas C is a group of propositions that have no logical status in K (and then it becomes impossible to prove that it is indeed a proposition in K). In this project we use this theory at two levels: the first level concerns the labs’ activities—what we call experimental dispositive level (1) —and the second level represents the research process—what we call research dispositive level (2). The C-K tree below represents the research dispositive level (2) that was implemented in the project (Figure 1).
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1: C-K tree of the research dispositive in the Innovation Labs Observatory project.</figcaption></figure>

Here, we see the main concepts that are the results of the first phase of the project: three types of design have been identified as deployed in the labs—solution design, environment design and relation design—and one modeling has been proposed—the Labvi Model—(Zacklad et al., 2021). In the second phase of the process, we first return to the K space, where a transmediation dispositive will be constructed. Here, we can see that some communication situations—round table discussions, on-site visits, live sessions, for examples—give rise to different media documents—including podcasts, video interviews, photo reportages—and that these documents will be integrated in a documentary multimedia dispositive, that will be used for the generation of new concepts in C. The co-design of this documentary dispositive will be carried out in two stages: the first stage is the co-design of multimedia documents and situations, and the second stage is the co-design of the documentary dispositive.

### 3. From situations of communication to documentary dispositive

Different situations of communication and the engagement of all actors in creative transactions support the co-design of multimedia documents (Zacklad, 2020). The situations created were, for example, round table discussions, on-site visits, or live innovation sessions in the labs. In these situations, the actors in the field co-produced qualitative research data with the researchers using rational myths in the sense of Armand Hatchuel (1997) cited in (David, Hatchuel & Laufer, 2012, p. 62) as a class of speech that is a generator for the collective action, thus advancing both knowledge and relations. The participants produced speeches about three case studies: 1) a challenge project for the CarLab of Valeo<fnref n="4" />, 2) a reorganizational project for the Lab Etat’LIN depending

<footnote n="4">⁴ https://www.valeo.com/fr/ (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>
of the Prefecture of Pays-de-la-Loire<fnref n="5" />, and 3) a robotization process project for the Lab'O depending of the Prefecture of Occitanie<fnref n="6" />. Specialists with artistic viewpoints were involved in the design of the documents, and included journalists, photographers, or podcast producers. The participants worked together in cooperation, using design methodologies at different stages of the process—such as preparation, production, feedback, or diffusion of the documents.

Presented below is the round table discussion of a situation of communication involving a journalist, Valeo innovation professionals, a researcher, a co-design expert, and a podcast producer that resulted into a tangible podcast document (Figure 2).

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2: Round table discussion and podcast for the CarLab.</figcaption></figure>

A second example is a video interview produced during an on-site visit of the lab Etat'LIN involving a journalist and innovation professionals from the Prefecture of Pays-de-la-Loire. All the partners involved in the project participated in the preparation and production of this interview, including co-design experts and researchers (Figure 3).

<footnote n="5">⁵ https://www.prefectures-regions.gouv.fr/pays-de-la-loire (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ https://www.prefectures-regions.gouv.fr/occitanie (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3: On-site visit and video interview for the lab Etat’LIN.</figcaption></figure>

A third example of a situation of communication presented here is a photo taken
during a live innovation session in the lab Etat’LIN (Figure 4).

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Figure 4: Live session and photo reportage for the lab Etat’LIN.</figcaption></figure>

All the documents produced during the project reflect the different situations of communication that involved collaborative work of both the researchers and the participating organizations. Although these documents exploit different modalities (audio, video, picture), they need to be connected and integrated into a wider dispositive that makes them accessible to all the actors of the project. They were linked, structured, and placed into a network of additional content to become usable. We created a documentary dispositive in the form of a website<fnref n="7" /> exploiting the collaborative properties of the web to organize and give access to this tangible documentation. We are next presenting the process and the different steps that will lead to the design of an accessible multimedia documentary dispositive to both researchers and actors.

First of all, we harmonized and connected the documents format, frame, or
length, and structured them in a tree diagram, categorized as a menu and
annotated using tags. Then we produced additional documents like images (a

<footnote n="7">7 https://observatoiredeslabs.ricod.net/ (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>
new logo for example), videos (interviews of the stakeholders, for example), texts (presentation of the project and the labs, publications, captions, subtitles, etc.). At this step, we involved a graphic designer to add an artistic viewpoint and used Agile methodology and user-friendly technical tools (like Content Managements Systems—CMS). The documents were distributed via various platforms including Apple Podcasts<fnref n="8" /> or YouTube Channel<fnref n="9" />, or on social media (LinkedIn, for example), and linked to websites from companies and labs.

Next, we show the homepage of the constructed website (Figure 5).

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Figure 5: Homepage of multimedia documentary dispositive.</figcaption></figure>

To navigate one can browse the case studies by lab starting from this homepage. For each case the lab, podcast, interviews, and the photo reportage are all available. Figure 6 presents the specific example of the Lab'O in the Prefecture of Occitanie and identifies the three media documents (podcast, interview, and photo reportage).

<footnote n="8">⁸ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/observatoire-des-labs/id1669880783 (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ https://www.youtube.com/@observatoirelabs1588 (consulted on October 23, 2023).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Figure 6: Media documents for the Lab'O.</figcaption></figure>

If we focus on the photo reportage, we can see that there is a classification of the produced documents, each categorizing the different phases of the co-design process (Figure 7).

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Figure 7: Categorization of the photo reportage for the Lab'O.</figcaption></figure>

Another way to explore the documentary website is to navigate by media documents and find either all the podcasts, all the video interviews, or all the photo reportages through the different labs. All the videos and podcasts are also distributed via other media access including social media and streaming platforms.
4. Conclusion and perspectives

In this article, we started to explore the main steps of the design of an
intermediate documentary object both for researchers and actors in the field.
This is a form of sharing knowledge between different actors that gives a new
representation of the data observed. We presented a multi-faceted documentary
object that is the visible part of the iceberg and reflects the transmediation
dispositive that produces the speeches and the data, based on communicational
situations. It involves diverse actors in the design process based on co-design,
adds original mediation with artistic viewpoints, and gives a transversal
documents approach by exploring different case studies with a navigation by
lab or by media. This shared documentary object between researchers and
people in the field is an informational object, giving access to connected
multimedia documents and publications, and where we can find the latest
update, and project and lab's presentations. But it must also be considered as a
communicational object offering multi-channel diffusion, links with other
websites (especially social media), or spreading contact information to new
actors interested in getting involved in the project. At the same time, it provides
a new original intermediate research-material, where all actors can access and
analyze the data of the project, including potential new external members
joining the project.

Here, we presented a currently ongoing process that is being continued. Now in
order to produce results we will move on to the next stages in the research
process and will analyze the documents on the website, collect the feedback of
the project participants about the effects of this new documentation, and then
propose new concepts in C. This work raises the question of literacy in the
perspective of digital humanities 2.0 that "are dynamically linked to
communities vastly larger and more diverse than those to which the academy
has been accustomed" (Burdick & Drucker, et al., 2012, p. 75). It seems that the
research and innovative and creative processes converge in a co-design process
that must redefine its methods and models while moving forward. In this
constantly changing process, the documentation plays a double role, for the
research and for the fields, by connecting the actors and giving stability,
historicity, and at the same time by constantly evolving as an intermediate
research material. We hypothesize that the capacity of co-designing such
documentary dispositive could become a key-competence for the researcher
involved in research-intervention in the years to come. In addition, we question
the genericity of the dispositive (Payeur & Chupin, 2020), that could be reused
or reinvested in similar research projects. We are currently exploring this
question by developing similar websites in other research-intervention projects.
5. Acknowledgements

A special thank you to all the members of the Innovation Lab's Observatory project, especially to Professor Manuel Zacklad for the CNAM and to Catherine Foliot for the collective Codesign-it, to the DOCAM community for the exchanges about the design of documents and artistic points of views, and to Sarah Rigault and Frédérique Ruf Zamojski who kindly help me with the English oral and written versions of the text.

6. References

Burdick, A., Drucker, J., Lunenfeld, P., Presner, T. & Schnapp, J. (2012). *Digital_Humanities*, The MIT Press, Massachusetts Institut of Technology, 2012.

David, A., Hatchuel, A. & Laufer, R. (2012). *Les Nouvelles Fondations des sciences de gestion*, Paris : Presses des MINES, collection Économie et gestion, 2012.

Foucault, M. (1994). *Dits et écrits*, éd. Defert et Ewald, Gallimard, 1994, 4 vol., 3, 1976–1979.

Hatchuel, A. & Weil, B. (2002). "La théorie C-K : fondements et usages d'une théorie unifiée de la conception." *Proceedings of Colloque Sciences de la conception*, Lyon, March 15–16, 2002.

Hatchuel, A. & Weil, B. (2003). "A new approach of innovative design: an introduction to C-K theory." *International conference on engineering design*. ICED 03 Stockholm, August 19–21, 2003.

Jeanneret, Y. & Rondot, C. (2013). "Médiation de la médiation au musée du Louvre. Des logiques de recherche au sein d'un projet politique," *Les Enjeux de l'information et de la communication*, vol. 14/1, no. 1, 2013, pp. 131–147.

Payeur, C. & Chupin, L. (2020). "Génération et généricité des plateformes de valorisation participative du patrimoine numérisé." *La fabrique de la participation culturelle*. Plateformes numériques et enjeux démocratiques*, Nov. 2020, Nanterre, France.

Payeur, C. (2022). "Généricité des plateformes culturelles contributives. Forum contribution numérique, culture, savoirs, Carrefour numérique de la Cité des sciences et de l'industrie," Jul. 2022, Paris, France.

Peeters, H. & Charlier, P. (1999). *Contributions à une théorie du dispositif*. *Hermès, La Revue*, 25, 15–23.

Zacklad, M. (2014). "Humanités numériques et digitalisation de la science." *dans Actes du XIX congrès de la SFSIC, Toulon, June 4–6, 2014*.

Zacklad, M. (2020). *Changements de régimes de conversation dans la transition numérique*. *Approches Théoriques en Information-Communication*, 2020, 1, pp.7–40.
Zacklad, M., Arruabarrena, B., Berthinier-Poncet, A. & Guezel, N. (2021). Les labs d'innovation interne : typologie des innovations, approche plateforme, rôle du design. *Approches Théoriques en Information-Communication*, 2, 127-161.

Zacklad, M. & Catoir-Brisson, M.-J. (2021). “Culture de la conception et du design dans la recherche-intervention en SHS,” *Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication* [En ligne], 23 | 2021, mis en ligne le September 1, 2021, consulted August 24, 2023.

Zacklad, M. (2022). La transformation dans les services publics territoriaux en réorganisant “par le bas”: Le rôle des laboratoires d’innovation publique. Où en est l’innovation publique ? Institut national du service public - Paris.