Unbox: Metaphorical Spaces for Unusual Collaborations

We often use metaphors when talking about collaboration in projects—‘milestones’, ‘building blocks’, ‘goals’, ‘horizons’, ‘work packages’, ‘missions’ and so on, just as we use ‘fields’ and ‘areas’ to discuss disciplines or types of work. Indeed, the word ‘project’ itself hides a metaphor: the Latin proicere, to throw forward. Metaphors can be a way to bridge disciplinary boundaries, assumptions, and worldviews, grow the capacity for inter- and transdisciplinarity, and (hopefully) ensure people from different backgrounds are ‘on the same page’, a form of shared vocabulary. But metaphors can trap us in particular ways of thinking and working, reproducing assumptions and structures. New metaphors could help us imagine different forms of collaborations and project—and making them tangible through physical objects and playful activities can make the group process even more engaging.

Developed by an interdisciplinary team from Wageningen University, Utrecht University, and Norwich University of the Arts, Unbox is a game-like tangible toolkit (prototyped both at Norwich and in Utrecht) which expands the variety of metaphors available to project teams, using maps as metaphorical spaces which serve as contexts for related metaphors to be explored, navigated, and experienced together (rather than in isolation). Equally, a co-creative process of creating—and debating—new metaphors together can be part of a team integrating their collective knowledge and expectations.

Unbox comprises elements that materialise metaphors (from elephants-in-the-room to sea monsters, wormholes to lighthouses) within metaphorical spaces, to visualise and probe emerging assumptions and create a reflexive dialogue among participants from different backgrounds, so they can quickly understand (dis)agreements, align expectations, and learn about collaborative process design. Unbox aims to support flexible and reflexive approaches for (dis)assembling existing and prospective collaboration processes, especially in research projects but also with application in education, facilitation, and other knowledge exchange contexts.

Unbox Unleashed

Unbox Unleashed is a new iteration of the Unbox project, collaborating with Utrecht University, Wageningen University & Research, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Foundation We Are. With £85,000 in total funding from the Centre for Unusual Collaborations for 2026, the project will build on the tangible game toolkit (prototyped both here in Norwich and in the Netherlands) to find new opportunities for playful collaborations and knowledge exchange through new metaphors.

Conferences

Lockton, D., Student, J., Torrens, J., Bruijnes, M., Andreotti, F., Xing, K., van der Geer, N. (2024). Unbox: Metaphorical spaces as boundary objects for unusual collaborations. ITD24: Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Beyond Buzzwords: Educational Pathways for Sustainable Research Collaborations, Utrecht.

Lockton, D., Student, J., Torrens, J., Bruijnes, M., Andreotti, F., Xing, K., van der Geer, N. (2024). Unbox: Metaphorical spaces as boundary objects for unusual collaborations in systemic design. In: Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD13, Oslo.