Blog
Mementoys
Last week I attended an interesting talk by Walid Hassanein, help by the SUPA. Walid's presentation gave an interesting insight into his project, which explored the emotional connection we have with physical objects, and looked at how memories could be stored by the objects themselves, and in particular a child's toy.
By using digital technology, such as audio recording that would be triggered by manipulating the toy, they hoped to capture different memories of childhood, and store them in a way to be accessed in the future.
The Q&A brought up many questions on data storage, but the more interesting topic discussed was how to distinguish between what the toy should store as a 'memory' and what to disregard. The concept of value vs. quantity is relevant in many other devices that we use today.
I wonder if the ability to store large amounts of photos on digital cameras/hard drives has led to less 'quality' pictures e.g. memorable and cherished photos.
Posted: 2010-02-03
Project process
Having neglected this blog for a while, I will attempt to summarise what has happened in the last month or so.
Having completed my observations in Edinburgh I returned to Dundee and worked through the observations that I had recorded through my notes and sketches. I found this task at times quite demanding, and it took longer than I had expected to analyse and synthesise the data into something which I was happy with. On reflection I feel that this could have been due to working alone, as I appreciate the value that a team can bring to this stage, particularly when it comes to bouncing ideas around etc. In addition to the fieldwork I consulted a two regular rail commuters through informal interviews, primarily to gain some feedback on my analysis but also to gain a bit more data. I had considered forming a focus group, and using it as a participatory design session, to gain some design ideas. However, lack of numbers combined with a change in decision resulted in the further analysis/data gathering route.
Afterwards, I managed to group my data into some themes, and then was able to merge them into a couple of core ideas - infrastructure and behaviour. Underneath each of these themes I have established a series of issues/topics that are illustrated through my observations.
I am now working on how to communicate these themes and issues effectively, and also in a way that they could be useful in the design of future technologies within transitory spaces. I have almost completed the illustrative report, which will outline the process along with the results, and I have also been working on the online presentation that I will do next week as well.
So it is coming together quite well at the moment. The biggest challenge will be making sure that I get my points across successfully, and hopefully show the value in my work.
Posted: 2009-09-03
The Medium is the Message
Marshall McLuhan - The Medium is the Massage
I found this book again whilst I was in Edinburgh doing a more extended period of observation at Waverly. Not too sure where this idea is going, but maybe just something to mull over for a while.
"All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered."
Posted: 2009-07-20
Personal Space
So I've been doing my first round of analysis and some codes/themes have been emerging. One of these was personal space, and particularly how the environment and the individual's actions affects this.
Coincidentally I came across this post by Alan Rapp on the Design Observer blog. It mentions Robert Sommer so I think I will take a look into his book Personal Space: The behavioral basis of design. I've also started finding a few articles on how things such as listening to music can alter people's perception and awareness of the space around them.
Posted: 2009-07-20
Primary Observation
Last week I was down in London beginning my observational fieldwork at St Pancras Station. I was able to spend a couple of days in the space, and get a feeling of how people were acting in the environment. I was most aware of the amount of people still working/communicating whilst on the move. These "mobile workers" came in various forms, from the businessman/woman working on a laptop at any opportunity to someone simply on talking/texting on their mobile phone whilst on the move. It was just something that stood out to me, and something to consider during my analysis. It was also intriguing to see how people adapted the space and objects within the space to suit their needs.
My next step will be to do an initial round of analysis/synthesis to see what stands out.
Posted: 2009-07-20
Landworkers
I attended the Landworkers Symposium, held as part of the RIAS Convention, at the DCA last Thursday. It presented a series of collaborative projects where the land itself was considered the medium.
I found the first presentation by Gavin Renwick particularly engaging. He showed his work in the Canadian Northwest Territories, and how he had spent time with the local people, and thus built up an understanding of their culture. An interesting insight was the Inuit relation to space. For example he stated that they have no words for inside or outside, as you are always home, as the land is your home.
In a similar vein, the second presentation from Juhani Pallasmaa included two examples of projects he has been involved in. The first was the design of the Siida museum for Sámi culture and the nature of Northern Lapland. The main exhibition in the museum had been spatially organised, where every space had meaning relating to the seasons and work cycle of the Sámi people. The second project was a monument design for a T-junction in Detroit at Cranbrook Acadmey, which they wanted transformed into a feature. The final solution was again rooted within context, with local glacier rock used as the main material, and Juhani described this as a collaboration between architecture and nature and history.
Siida Museum interior
I was lucky enough to meet Juhani the day before the symposium, and this idea of collaboration came up then as well. He talked about collaboration not just being between a designer and users, or a designer and experts, but collaboration should also be with tradition and history, and what has been done before. He also pointed me in the way of some more literature that I might find interesting, mainly in regards to human behaviour and architectural history.
The most significant points that I will take with me from these two days are the concept of collaboration being with everyone, from the people you are designing for, to the client, to the past and all the other people that may be affected. Also empathy for everyone is important, as by understanding how others think it will be easier to interpret their motives and needs.
Posted: 2009-07-11
Research Proposal Presentation
Today we presented our research project proposal, as if pitching for funding from the Research Councils UK for their proposed research programme on "Connected Communities".
As a team were very happy with our proposal, and I think this aided us in the presentation. All four of us believed in and had confidence in our concept, and were comfortable with pitching the idea. I hope that we managed to sell the idea as well as we could. We have all been thinking about the project for a while now, and so the most important factor will be if we have managed to succeed in communicating our thoughts to other people.
In conclusion, after this project I feel that I have a much better sense of how I would go about planning a proposal for a research project in a real situation. At the start of this module it's fair to say that I wouldn't have a clue how to even begin thinking about costing a 3 year research project, however now I hope I could get somewhere close.
In a general sense I hope I can take some of what I have learned and I apply it in my own work. As Tom said, it is the theory behind what we have learned that we will be able to apply. It doesn't matter what the subject matter of the project is, but it is the design methods and approaches that we have learned that will be applicable across many realms.
Posted: 2009-05-01
K.N.I.T.
Our group has finally come up with the name for our project proposal. It is Kommunity Networking for Information Transfer, or the acronym KNIT, and the tag-line is "weaving the community together". It arose from a discussion about how to incorporate all of our ideas, and we felt it encompassed our concept as a whole quite well.
As it is an important factor of how we would brand and advertise the project Grace has also worked on a logo, which encapsulates the concept quite well. We have done some work on branding previously but I feel in this particular project the branding of it would be quite significant. If the project was not branded correctly then it would be very difficult to get support from local people and businesses. It would have to be able to cross a wide range of stakeholders and incorporate both new and old associations with Dundee.
Posted: 2009-07-11
Urban Computing
Whilst doing a bit of browsing for ideas on my 3rd Semester Project I found this PDF called Sliding Friction: The Harmonious Jungle of Contemporary Cities. It really relates to the Urban Traces project we worked on.
It's been written by two of the contributors to Liftlab, Nicolas Nova and Fabien Girardin, who are both "designers methodically searching for processes and interaction within the urban environment". They both look at how understanding people could help in the design of future technology, particularly this notion of urban/ubiquitous computing.
On Girardin's blog I found this old post on Mapping Urban Computing. It depicts the image below, which was created by Karen Martin. I could really relate to the image, and saw how my own interests fall into this diagram. I wonder how I can make sense of it all, and find out how I can tie everything I'm interested in into a project.
I realised that Karen Martin had worked with Giles Lane in the past. Giles had come to IMD during my 3rd year, I think, to talk about his work with Proboscis.
I did a bit more digging around on Urban Computing, and found this article on Bruce Sterling's blog, where he mentions The Situated Technologies Pamphlet Series that "explores the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism: How are our experiences of the city and the choices we make in it affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics, and other “situated” technologies?"
Posted: 2009-07-11
Dundee Waterfront
Yesterday Annabella and I went to Tayside House to find out about the Dundee Waterfront redevelopment. We thought that it might be interesting to look at in regards to the DIR project as their vision has some similarities to ours. Their vision is "to transform, energise and connect the city to the waterfront, threading the city and water together to create a special sense of place". We were lucky enough to meet with Les Banks from the Planning and Transportation Department, who shared a great deal of information on the project, and explained the whole process and the wider factors that effect it's progress. He also talked us through the recent 3D animation, and explained the reasoning behind many of the new waterfront's features.
I found the meeting really useful, particularly for the DIR project but also in regards to my own interests in urban design. It was surprising to see the large amount of factors and considerations that have to be consulted when undertaking a project as large as this - traffic counts, local business losses during Christmas, local residents opinions on the greenery and the strengthening of the rail tunnel were just a few of the things mentioned.
Posted: 2009-07-11
Space and Place
Whilst browsing through the Space and Place listserv archives, which I finally managed to sign up to (to some degree anyway), I found the Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action & Research, or Pukar.
Most engaging was the Gender and Space project, which has an interesting Ethnographic study conducted in railway stations. They also present how their research led to public interventions, specifically the Railway Lighting Campaign.
Posted: 2009-05-01
Fibrecity
Our group met to discuss our DIR project, where we talked about the title for our project, as we felt it may help us to tie it all together. We were considering how to relate the project to Dundee, as we thought that the general population may not actually relate to the Art/Design and University based culture in the city, and would identify Dundee with the past associations such as Jute, Jam and Journalism. We thought it may also be useful to look into the language used in promoting the idea, as it would be important to look into the mindset of the people that we would hope to involve.
We found out that Dundee is to be Scotland's first Fibrecity. We really liked the term, and thought about ways to incorporate the idea of "weaving" the old and new images of Dundee to connect the people of the city together to form the "fabric" of the city.
The concept of Fibrecity also brought us onto a discussion of the digital divide, and how something like this which proposes the connect the community better to the outside world may inadvertently cause some people to become more detached.
Posted: 2009-04-10
Networking
In DIR this week we discussed how to establish credibility. Tom suggested to give "seeds" to people by allowing them to find out about you from more than one direction. I think this is could be difficult to accomplish. I suppose it might mean just giving yourself every opportunity to be seen, and then hoping that word of mouth will play its part. It may also mean being strategic in choosing the right people to speak to. It all goes back to selling yourself, which means making sure anything which represents you, does so as you wish it to.
In relation to the project Tom said it was important to actually sell our idea in the presentation, as they are more likely to be convinced to back the project if we believe in it ourselves.
Posted: 2009-04-10
The Price Is Right
On Tuesday morning our DIR group had a meeting with Tom to discuss our idea in a bit more depth. One of the key words he mentioned was legacy. This was in terms of what we wanted the outcomes of our research to lead to i.e. what it would mean for the community in the long run, or what it could mean for other communities.
It seems that for this project he is really wanting us to work out the mechanics of conducting a research project, and really consider how much time things take and what the costs of various tasks may be. My first reaction is that I'm not great at doing this, and I agreed with Brandi in that I was always pretty terrible when playing along to The Price Is Right. Attempting to guess the price of things often requires a bit of knowledge on the matter, so I suppose doing research into the area will help this.
Nice to see you, to see you... nice
Hopefully I'll be better suited to help out in other areas of the proposal. However we were also encouraged to find out for ourselves how much it would cost for different tasks, for instance enquiring how much it would cost to include a documentary filmmaker in the process. As Tom put it at the end "it's not rocket science" as these things can all be worked out.
Posted: 2009-03-20
Ethnography and Architectural Design
While browsing the Anthrodesign group for examples of ethnographic fieldwork used in an urban/public space environment I came across a few interesting questions which led to suggested reading and links. I found a link to this Space and Place listserv as well, and I've tried signing up to it although it seems a bit complicated.
At Peter Merholz's blog peterme.com I found an old post, which talks about the value that anthropological thought can bring to the design world. In the post he mentioned an architectural firm MKThink, who had used an anthropologist to help them "move beyond standard architectural practice and consider ethnography as a method toward constructing better built environments". I think they might be worth contacting in relation to my project, possibly just to gain a better sense of the role that ethnography could play in urban design.
MKThink designed the new AT&T Park concourse
I think I'd like to explore this idea in the Summer. I'm keen to see how ethnography can be used to help design the environments we live in - from public parks to city centres.
Posted: 2009-03-12
Creative collaboration in the community
Our group in the DIR module have been shaping our research proposal. We had originally been looking at the idea of a neighbourhood swap shop, where communities would share and trade skills etc.
Yesterday the idea altered slightly, we are still looking at engaging a community in collaboration however I think it is now more concerned with creativity, and looking at ways to rejuvenate a community through social networks.
I think we are all a happier with this angle, the passion was somewhat down on last week for the skill swapping idea, plus we felt it would be difficult to find an innovative approach as there are already quite a few examples along the same lines.
From doing a bit of research into this new idea, and combined with the general research I've been doing for my 3rd semester project I'm beginning to find some research fields that I'm really interested in. I think it could be really valuable to use design thinking in contexts such as urban/community planning, and also utilise the methods available to involve the people of that community within the process.
I think through community participation and inclusion people can really get a sense of ownership of a space, and this has great potential for expansion into a variety of contexts.
Posted: 2009-03-12
Butterfly Minded
This week in DIR we critiqued the list of research proposals we had come up with by putting them through a framework. The point Tom made about the sheets being a form of knowledge management was useful. As he said, a mind map can be a good way of brainstorming, but is less useful at recording the ideas. A week later the data might not still make sense. Even if filling in the sheets can be tedious at times.
Our group went through the sheets and seemed to gravitate towards the community swap shop idea. Although some of the other ideas that might be just as good are rejected, Tom said that these can be put away in a box of "future projects". This could be useful for me as I often find that during a project I come across other really interesting subjects, and I have to refrain from going off on a tangent. Catriona described this likely trait in ethnographers as being "butterfly minded". I suppose it's my habitually curious nature that led me to study design ethnography in the first place.
I'm still not sure if it's a strength or weakness yet. I like the fact that I am inquisitive and try to learn about everything, and when researching a subject I look around for all the connections and related material. However sometimes I feel it might prevent me from understanding a specific subject in any depth, and at other times it will lead me away from the route I should be following.
Posted: 2009-03-05
Project sketching
This week in DIR we have been working on our project platforms, and mapping out some project sketches for possible ideas.
On Tuesday Tom Inns had given an overview of the research study journey. Similarly to others he mentioned the need to know the network around, and what else is going on in your field. I feel this is really relevant to what we are doing in design ethnography as we are currently trying to build up a network in relation to our projects. I'm trying to include a variety of sources including people that I may use as contacts, various literature materials, companies that I have looked and what they are doing that relates. I'm hoping to map out the connections between them all as well, so I'm playing around with a few ideas about how to do this at the moment.
The project in DIR revolves around the theme of Connected Communities, and we have come up with a few ideas for a research proposal. I think the section that I am most interested in is how to engage the community itself within the process. I'm keen to look into methods such as participatory design and workshops which use the community to help generate ideas and give them a sense of ownership in regards to the final outcome.
Posted: 2009-03-05
Kitchen Stories
I watched Kitchen Stories last night, a subtly humorous Swedish film that plays on the idea of observational research being done by a impartial scientist. Although slightly surreal, the film actually made me think about some interesting points. There was a scene where the observer and subject are in a discussion about their situation where one of them says "How can you understand someone else just by watching them? You need to communicate..." which made me think a bit about selecting when it is right to observe, and when you need to speak to people to find out required information. Another similar point it illustrates is that it is almost impossible to impartially observe people, as just you being there will have an effect on their actions in some way.
Posted: 2009-02-24
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
Found this short clip from William H. Whyte's "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces". It's has some really interesting observations of human behaviour, but sadly this is the only clip available. Chris said that the book of the same title is definitely worth a read as well.
Posted: 2009-02-24
Case Studies: Nesta
Yesterday we received talks from Brian Carlin on his Resqroll, and Mel Woods on her company ambaba. They had both received assistance from Nesta, however I noticed that they both seemed more appreciative of the networking and exposure they received in comparison to the actual funding, although I'm pretty sure they appreciated the cash as well as they had both sacrificed their own money for their relative ideas. I thought about the stress which must be involved when you have to keep supporting your ideas with your own money. I always feel sorry for the people in Dragon's Den who have poured their life savings, various bank loans and borrowings into their product, which they believe in relentlessly, only for it to get shot down by Duncan Bannatyne.
Whilst Brian was talking I though about the notion of myself being an entrepreneur. I suppose wherever I am I will have to either sell myself, bringing back the question of trust, or sell my ideas. It's about convincing everyone else what I will already be convinced about, as Brian had had to do with the Resqroll.
Going back to the point about networking, another thing which I picked up whilst Brian was talking was the importance of being selective with who you get to back you. If you need to convince someone about something, then there's nothing better than getting an expert to put weight behind your argument. Although I kept thinking through Brian's talk that it must be pretty difficult to argue with something which saves lives!
The last thing I took from both of them was the fact that you have to find the motivation to keep you going. For Brian it was the fact that he knew his product could make a difference, and meeting people in the spinal fractures unit would put him back on track if he wavered.
Posted: 2009-02-19
A day in the life of a mobile phone
Over the last week or so we have been working on a mini project where we have had to develop an account of a day in the life of a mobile phone. As I would be away for a large proportion of the project I really had to manage the project to a fairly strict time schedule.
I decided to attempt a cultural probe, where I gave two participants a notebook and pen and asked them to record their mobile phone usage. I also conducted some observations, primarily in pubic spaces. I also set the research aims, although on reflection I maybe didn't specify these well enough and they could have been more precise.
Once I had collected all the data I used a grounded theory approach to analyse the data, where I went through the information and picked out various concepts. I then grouped these into categories, which I gave titles, and then based my ideas on them.
For my poster I presented the outcomes through the following narrative account from the perspective of a phone. It was interesting to try and write this way, as usually I would illustrate it through a different means, and I'm not too sure how successful it is.
This morning I started the day with my alarm. My owner silenced me several times before getting up. I’ve been on all night incase someone wants to get in contact. The first thing my owner does is send a text message to their partner to say good morning. Later they look at my clock and realise how late they are for work. Quickly they put me into my pouch to protect me, and then into their bag for the journey. Once on the train they take me out and check through the messages. They realise they haven't replied to a friend and send an apology. They agree to meet later this evening. They then plug in some earphones and listen to my music for the rest of the journey. At the 11am meeting at work they realise they forgot to put me on silent. Slight embarrassment as their mum phones and the ringtone is loud. During the meeting they text their mum to say they will phone back later. At lunchtime they show a work colleague one of the photos in my albums. It will probably never be seen again. They phone their mum and realise the call was about a trivial matter. They don't reply to the message from their partner, they are annoyed about something. I sit in their bag the rest of the afternoon, they are unaware of the messages I receive. I will let them know the next time they pick me up. It's time to leave work and my owner looks at me and realises the missed correspondences. They get back in touch with them all on the train ride home. I spend the rest of the evening in their pocket. They go out to meet friends. They use me at various times to find out where other people are. On the walk home they check their pocket to make sure I'm there. The alleyway is dark and they're glad I'm there in case anything happens. I do know a taxi number but they don't use it tonight. Back at home they phone their partner. They're no longer annoyed. They say goodnight, and I go back on charge.
Posted: 2009-02-19
Case Studies: Scottish Arts Council
This afternoon we discussed how we were reflecting in our journals. It was suggested that we try writing about today in the form of writing a letter to someone, so here goes...
Dear blog, today we listened to both Sara Keith and Sarah Kettley talk about getting funding, mainly for research. They appeared to me to be from similar backgrounds i.e. art and craft. The first thing that struck me was that I don't think I consider design to be a craft for some reason. I've always associated craft more with "making things", which makes me thing of a person who uses their creativity and skill to produce something by hand. I suppose because I've not thought too deeply about going to do further research and so I've not really thought about where I would go if I did need funding. I suppose for my interests I would look in to more computing, design, and now anthropological/sociological areas, however more and more I am seeing projects that come from all sorts of areas that use "design thinking" to solve problems.
I think the most interesting ideas that I took from these two talks were the idea of building trust with people, which Hazel highlighted, and professionalism. These two notions also go hand in hand, and as I seek a career in industry it will be important to be both professional and able to build trust with a variety of people. I see building trust as important with everyone I will deal with, from the people I will work alongside to the people that may be part of a study.
Another thing I thought about, when Sarah Kettley was talking about research questions, was the importance of defining these. This year in my 3rd semester project it will be crucial to make sure these are well shaped, but also adaptable as the project may alter over time.
Posted: 2009-02-19
I (heart) public space
After a discussion with Catriona today I feel a bit happier about the direction for my 3rd semester project. For a while it seemed to be moving towards an exploratory kind of research project, where I would open up a range of questions or issues. As we agreed I am a more problem solving oriented person, and so need a project which relates to this. We discussed the possibility of observing how crowds of people behave in somewhere like a train station and so the project summary would be something like:
"Provide train station designers with insights into how to design a station concourse" and these insights would be formed from the observations etc. from my research.
I had a little browse for ideas this evening and came across The Design Trust for Public Space, who are trying to improve the design of New York's public spaces i.e. streets, plazas, parks and buildings by working with a variety of people. Some of their stuff is really cool and they seem to appreciate the likes of sustainability, innovation and generally making the world a better place.
The project that resonated with me the most was Problems and Possibilities: Re-imagining the Pedestrian Environment in Times Square. The report illustrates the problems, some insights and ideas, and some solutions. It's the sort of project I could see myself working on, where I would be working with a variety of people from different communities and looking to solve problems and issues through design thinking.
Their blog, I (heart) Public Space, has even more information and other ideas around the theme of public space. And what's more they love a bit of ping pong!
Posted: 2009-02-09
Interactions in the Urban Environment
I'm still researching into interactions in the urban environment for my project in the Summer. I read The street as platform by Dan Hill at City of Sound.
I really liked the narrative account he portrayed to describe the "data cloud" that has become invisible to us as we go about our daily lives.
"We can’t see how the street is immersed in a twitching, pulsing cloud of data. This is over and above the well-established electromagnetic radiation, crackles of static, radio waves conveying radio and television broadcasts in digital and analogue forms, police voice traffic. This is a new kind of data, collective and individual, aggregated and discrete, open and closed, constantly logging impossibly detailed patterns of behaviour. The behaviour of the street.It was a fascinating read, and reminded me of some science fiction writing, like Snow Crash, which I read a couple of years ago in relation to an undergrad project on the future of interactive entertainment. However, as Dan states, this is not fictional and the technology described is either already in place, or could be used for the concepts illustrated.
Such data emerges from the feet of three friends, grimly jogging past, whose Nike+ shoes track the frequency and duration of every step, comparing against pre-set targets for each individual runner. This is cross-referenced with playlist data emerging from their three iPods. Similar performance data is being captured in the engine control systems of a stationary BMW waiting at a traffic light, beaming information back to the BMW service centre associated with the car’s owner."
It is interesting how he mentions that systems will be rarely used if they are not adequate or suitable for the user's needs:
"An on-street information kiosk stands beside the screen, offering a scrollable map of the local area and directory of local businesses. It’s little-used, as the directory of businesses was always incomplete and intermittently updated, its data now rusty and eroded by time."
Posted: 2009-02-10
