In this paper, I analyse the role of prosthetic prototypes developed during my doctoral research (completed in 2022), generating critical thoughts and new insights into our value system as it relates to human-centred societal challenges. The investigation settled in the experimental approach of Research through Design alongside a qualitative case study combined with the power of critical disability studies to advance space for understanding relationships between phenomena and theory. To focus on the central questions from a particular single case study project, I worked with Luca Szabados (a highly creative independent artist with a congenital disability) to craft a prosthesis using digital technology. The role of prototypes in the research not only encompasses the experimental and physical nature of the study but also creates links in the chain of knowledge development and carries evidence data. The prosthetic prototypes guided reflections on humancentred societal challenges as a non-verbal modelling media. The tangible material nature of the prototypes provides the possibility of operating with a set of ‘boundary objects’ within discussions that include the enactment of latent perspectives. The prosthetic prototypes encode a tangible chain of thoughts as a result of the design synthesis of knowledge and research questions with the central links of the method. The data of the artefacts construct the evidentiary values of the research and enable an exploration of philosophical and strategic approaches to co-Ability. The term ‘co-Ability’ is rooted in the critical approach of posthuman disability studies. It serves as a broad umbrella term under which we can reconsider the potentials of various entities (biological and artificial) that enhance the shared competencies of those entities rather than dwell on the oppressive nature of human-centred norms. In this research, the discursive prosthetic prototypes thus carry a profound and integrative argument that significantly connects with the general viewer and represents the theory development.

Dezso, R., 2023. Prototypes as a Structured Information Source in Theory Nexus, in: From Abstractness to Concreteness – Experiential Knowledge and the Role of Prototypes in Design Research. Presented at the International Conference 2023 of the Design Research Society Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge (EKSIG), Politecnico di MIlano, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, pp. 470–489.