A couple of intriguing sculptural projects that I have stumbled upon recently:
Kinetic Sculpture is designed by Art+Com for the BMW Museum and is intended as “… a metaphorical translation of the process of form-finding in art and design. 714 metal spheres, hanging from thin steel wires attached to individually-controlled stepper motors and covering the area of six square meters, animate a seven minute long mechatronic narrative. In the beginning, moving chaotically, then evolving to several competing forms that eventually resolve to the finished object, the kinetic sculpture creates an artistic visualisation of the process of form-finding in different variations.”
“Augmented Sculpture” by design agencies Grosse8 and Lichtfront. The installation is a 2,5m tall wooden sculpture augmented with projections in sync with an audio track.
The iPad relies heavily on the metaphors of books and bookshelves when users organize and read novels. Books are displayed on shelves, and you turn pages by dragging them as you would a physical page. Although the implementation is very smooth (and really, who would expect anything less from Apple), I am at a loss to understand why the iPad, intended to carve out a brand new category of interactive devices, should employ such anachronistic forms of interaction. Imagine having to navigate your tunes by first leafing through animated stacks of vinyl records, dragging them to a turn-table, putting down the stylus on the first track to start playback and then subsequently dragging the stylus with your finger to wide grooves in the rendered vinyl to change tracks; b-sides would require you to start over. I’m sure that it could be implemented with silky-smooth visual effects (especially by Apple), but would you want this to be the default mode of interaction? With the caveat that I have not handled the iPad myself, I am quite certain that I would quickly opt for alternative ways of browsing and consuming e-books than the one presented at the iPad launch event. Perhaps the functions are implemented primarily in order to demonstrate to the masses that the iPad is also an e-reader? Lessening the shock of the new by applying a varnish of something familar?
Anyways, I find the two concepts outlined below - Mag+ and Courier - much more interesting when it comes to taking the opportunity to rethink how one might use a tablet in lieu of a magazine and notebook, given the capabilities the platform offers. It is not hard to imagine apps designed for the iPad that ‘borrow’ traits from these concepts in the near future, of course, but it is curious that Apple’s own proposal for reading books is so grounded in the shelves-books-pages metaphor.
The Bonnier Mag+ - a well-conceived take on how and why magazine content can be presented and consumed by use of tablets. Emphasizes not only the immediate interaction with the device, but also the way in which magazines have a place in our surroundings.
The Microsoft Courier - an endless notebook. Captures salient aspects of browsing, collecting and remixing snippets of information as an ongoing process.
With the internet overflowing with mostly similar takes on the iPad, I find these two pieces worth a read for their analysis of the reception of the iPad and how it may, through what is broadly perceived as defects or missing features, usher a change in the perception of ‘computing as usual’.
“I’m often saddened by the infantilising effect of high technology on adults. From being in control of their world, they’re thrust back to a childish, mediaeval world in which gremlins appear to torment them and disappear at will and against which magic, spells, and the local witch doctor are their only refuges…
What you’re seeing in the industry’s reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.
The tech industry will be in paroxysms of future shock for some time to come. Many will cling to their January-26th notions of what it takes to get “real work” done; cling to the idea that the computer-based part of it is the “real work”.
It’s not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.”
“… the iPad’s multi-tasking is more than just speed. It’s a brand new user interface bringing in a new a new workflow. Something that’s simple, logical, focussed, and human. It’s multi-tasking dictated by end goals. What are you trying to achieve on this device? The iWork applications exhibit completeness within the user interface, including the media browser, file manager, and I’m sure it can send those documents as attachments via email as well.”
By peepholes, we refer to aspects of interactive artifacts and environments that utilize the tension between what is hidden and what is revealed to foster engagement. As a foundation for discussing the qualities of peepholes, we outline a pragmatist perspective on engagement in the paper. This perspective emphasizes the reciprocal relation between people, technology, and environment. From this perspective, we then explore the concept of peepholes as an example of a concrete means of engagement on the basis of a number of interactive installations, including two of our own design cases.
Here are the slides from yesterdays presentation of the paper:
I defended my PhD dissertation, Designing Engaging Interactive Environments: A Pragmatist Perspective on June 25th 2009. Below I have embedded a video of my talk at the defense - you can skip the introduction and formalities and jump to 2:50 for the main presentation. The slides are not very clear on the video, so these are embedded as a slidecast below the video.
If you don’t feel like watching the proceedings, you can also download the manuscript for my presentation (.pdf) to read alongside the slides.
Two weeks ago, I gave a talk on Experience in Interaction Design at an information and media studies research seminar. The talk sketches out the various ways in which the concept of experience is approached in interaction design. In particular, i emphasize the pragmatist perspective on experience that i build upon in my own work. This is followed by a discussion on the challenges and potentials of working with experiential aspects in real-life design projects, e.g. Aarhus by Light, Climate on the Wall and Warsaw MoMA.
I have been trying out alternatives to Powerpoint as a presentation tool, and I stumbled upon the magnificent and elegant Prezi. The embedded presentation above should give you the gist of things: Prezi basically gives you an infinite canvas on which you structure your content. You can then draw out paths on the canvas when building presentations and zoom through these when giving a talk. Do try out the full-screen option!
555 Kubik is a facade projection that dissolves the strict architecture of O. M. Ungers “Galerie der Gegenwart”. The resulting permeability of the facade “uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves - describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself.”
I’m happy to say that my PhD defense went very well, and that I am now officially entering my post-doctoral life. The defense was recorded, and I’m looking into a neat way of combining the video stream with my slides and manuscript. Also, I’m adding the finishing touches to the dissertation, which I will make available alongside the statement from the committee.
So, what’s next?
Although the final PhD writing sprint dragged me away from the various research projects that I was involved in, I have rapidly been finding myself re-involved. I’m in a research position that spans the rest of the year, so this fall I will be working on the Digital Urban Living project, as well as teaching two classes, Knowledge Sharing and Organizational Learning and Introduction to Interaction Design.
Good designers must always be avant-gardists, always one step ahead of the times. They should – and must – question everything generally thought to be obvious. They must have an intuition for people’s changing attitudes. For the reality in which they live, for their dreams, their desires, their worries, their needs, their living habits. They must also be able to assess realistically the opportunities and bounds of technology.
I’ll be giving a 30 minute presentation of my PhD project - not a very long stretch of time to present three years of research - followed by 3×45 minutes of discussions with the members of the committee: Peter Wright, Research Professor at Sheffield Hallam University, Thomas Binder, Associate Professor at the Danish Design School, and Ole Iversen, chairman of the committee and Associate Professor at Aarhus University. Though I expect tough questions and a bit of academic slugging, I also look forward to discussing the potentials and problems of my research. If all goes well with the defense, I’ll write up a summary of the response from the committee and make it available along with the dissertation proper.