Abstract
Participatory design in informal urban contexts often relies on low-threshold analog media to surface situated knowledge, while computational tools enable rapid iteration and auditable records. Yet, when analog outputs are digitized in a one-way pipeline, cultural meaning and participant authorship can be stripped away. This paper examines how representational media shape design cognition and participation by comparing two workshop conditions in a Bangkok neighborhood: on-site analog illustration and a browser-based voxel editor built with Three.js. Across 16 youth and young-adult participants (ages 18–28), analog sessions elicited narrative, symbolic, and affective reasoning that articulated place-based memories, rituals, and care practices. Voxel sessions supported modular configuration, circulation testing, and visible revision histories through rapid branching and interaction logs. Because neither modality alone was sufficient, we frame reciprocity cautiously. The study establishes a comparative foundation and provides a worked proof-of-concept for round-trip annotation that traces one analog narrative into voxel translation and back while preserving authorship and context. We contribute comparative evidence linking media to cognition and participation dynamics, a lightweight specification for a community-ready voxel workflow including export and logging primitives, and an operational protocol for narrative round-tripping to support design justice and accountable participation in understudied Southeast Asian contexts.
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