workshop documentation
June 25, 2009
Veronika`s photos: http://picasaweb.google.cz/veronika.trachtova/InteractionsInLiminalSpaceWorkshop
Research & fieldwork http://www.flickr.com/photos/dksingapore/sets/72157620386518873/
Presentations & lectures http://www.flickr.com/photos/dksingapore/sets/72157620528110394/
Brainstorming & workshop http://www.flickr.com/photos/dksingapore/sets/72157620528254602/
Testing http://www.flickr.com/photos/dksingapore/sets/72157620387456557/
DAY 6 &7: JUNE 9 & 10 – realisation & testing
June 25, 2009
The main concept & technology on which we agreed are invisible diodes with which we can build signs and create posters with secret messages visible only to the cameras that visitors so often use in the Jewish quarter. These signs will be part of a viral campaign related to the Golem legend. We used our two German participants that never walked in the quarter as test subjects to spot the important places where people stop or spend more time, this will help us decide on the location for these messages. The prototype that we can use on the streets will be build in August 2009, the project is supposed to start in 2010.
DAY 5: JUNE 8 – more presentations & workshop
June 18, 2009
Morning 10:00 – 12:00: LECTURES & PRESENTATIONS
Petr Šourek (http://www.Scart.cz): Performances in public space
Petr Šuta (http://www.sksblansko.cz): RFID applications
Jan Rod: Contemporary theory in ubiquitous and pervasive computing
Nikola Schmidt: Digital Urban Legends http://www.dul.cz/en
Afternoon 13:00 – 17:00: PROJECT REALIZATION
Andrej Boleslavsky: Workshop on the use of diodes, tinkering with diodes
DAY 4: JUNE 7 – preparation of the concept
June 18, 2009
While taking pictures of the site we encountered following phenomena: people constantly carry camera and a map, they stop on the crossroads to get orientation and plan their next step, they like to follow & read different signs, posters, schedules, they always look in the shop windows, we also notice some less important but interesting objects/ actors: clocks and the strange clock, animals – pigeons, food.
Type of activities: taking pictures, resting, planning, peeping inside the graveyard, window shopping.
In the brainstorming sessions one question became central: how to use the cameras as a medium of interaction, how to support the activity of taking pictures for some meaningful interaction with the past, Golem legend etc. The idea we got was to create invisible pictures, posters, signs that can be read only via the camera, that can surprise you on your pictures, that will transform the walk into sign deciphering and play with the past, reproduce the Renaissance analogical thinking that is searching for secret signs of the creation in the world outside. We decide to turn the camera as a representation medium into deciphering medium, into interaction with the past. This simple idea – camera and taking pictures in a historical, tourist site as a mean of interpreting, deciphering etc. was then developed in terms of technology: infrared emmiting diodes that you can see only via some camera, so the idea now was to create shapes, letters, secret messages with these diodes that visitors can read with their camera or take picture of them by chance.
Morning 10:00 – 12:00: PEOPLE, ACTIVITY, CONTEXT I.
Design exercise: Brainstorming
Using the material gathered from the field trip and ethnography focus on how and why people desire to use and interact with your proposed tool, system, concept. Exploring the dialogue between products, people, and contexts (physical, cultural, historic) and anticipate how will it mediate relationships and affect understanding.
What will be the user experiences: aesthetically pleasing, supportive of creativity, rewarding, emotionally fulfilling, fun, satisfying, enjoyable, entertaining, helpful, motivating?
Record ideas an issues on post-it-notes or cards.
Questions:
Who are the intended users?
What activities, tasks should we support?
What is their experience and expertise?
Why will they use your tool?
How long should it take users to complete their tasks?
What is the cultural, physical etc. context?
What are the technical and environmental constraints?
What key functionality is needed to support the user needs?
Afternoon 13:00 – 17:00: PEOPLE, ACTIVITY, CONTEXT II.
Design exercise: Using Affinity Diagrams & Process mapping & Contextual inquiry
Affinity Diagrams: gather post it notes/cards into a single place (e.g. a desk or wall).
Sort the ideas into groups based on the teams thoughts. Continue until all cards/notes have been sorted and the team is satisfied with their groupings. Name each group with a description of what the group refers to and place the name at the top of each “group”. Capture and discuss the themes or groups and how they may relate. Consolidation and affinity building: The data from individual users is consolidated to show a larger picture of the work of the targeted population. The affinity notes from all users are brought together into an affinity diagram, a hierarchical representation of the issues labeled to reflect user needs.
Process mapping: Agree the boundaries – where does the process start and where does it end.
Create a visual depiction of activity including the functions that take place and related inputs and outputs. A process map should show enough detail that’s useful but not too much that it over complicates matters. Ensure that the map covers routes where errors occur e.g. rework etc.: List the steps in the process, maintain the flow of the process in a single direction (either vertically or horizontally).
Contextual Inquiry: use field interviews and notes about the users to capture the practices and daily activities of the people in give space. Team discussions in which observations and interviews are retold, key points (affinity notes) are captured, and models representing the user’s practice are drawn (including as-is sequences of tasks). Share the findings, build a common understanding of the user, and capture all the data relevant to the project in a form that will drive the design.
DAY 1: JUNE 4 – presentations & fieldwork
June 18, 2009
Morning 10:00 – 12:00: INTRODUCTION & PRESENTATIONS
Michaela Sidenberg: 400th anniversary of the death of Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Bezalel & context of the site
Denisa Kera: Cultural heritage and location sensitive technologies
Andrej Boleslavsky: Arduino & location technology
Afternoon 13:00 – 17:00: FIELDWORK & INITIAL CONCEPT
Design exercise: individual field study & ethnography
Using a digital camera or phone, take at least 10 pictures of things & situations that explain how people interact with the heritage site and among themselves at the site. Pick the three best photos. Explain why they are the best examples of something that they inspire you to do in terms of design. Using the material gathered from the field trip and ethnography describe what you think might be a good design concept to support user interaction with the past and the legend, to create a liminal space/time.
Divide into groups and brainstorm initial design concepts
Pecha Kucha style presentation of the initial concept
Group evaluation and discussion
Questions:
Why is the project being developed?
What are the overall objectives?
What are the stakeholder and organizational requirements?
What are the technical and environmental constraints?
How will it be judged as a success?
Starting: June 04 2009 at 10:00 AM
June 1, 2009
Faculty of Arts, Charles University, room n. 304, FF UK, Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1
If you get lost, call Denisa 777817774
Programme for the first day:
10:00 – 12:00 introduction & presentations (Jan Rod, Michaela Sidenberg, Denisa Kera, Andrej Boleslavsky): context of the site, cultural heritage, issues in ubiquitous and pervasive computing, tools & technology
13:00 – 17:00 divide into groups, ethnography & visit of the site, initial ideas
Organizers: Jewish Museum in Prague, SCART – Society for Arts and Sciences, New Media Studies, Charles University, Communications & New Media, National University of Singapore, Keio University, Future Cities Forum, Media Geography University Siegen
The workshop will explore possibilities and challenges of RFID technologies, ad hoc networks and other location sensitive and near-field communication technologies (GPS, Bluetooth) used for the sake of reanimating cultural heritage sites. It will bring together scholars from humanities and social sciences as well as artists and designers to test their design ideas and to build prototype tools. The workshop results will be our contribution to the series of cultural events initiated by the Jewish Museum in Prague to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of one of the most prolific authors, inspirational intellectuals, and spiritual leaders of early modern period, Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Bezalel (c. 1525-1609), a.k.a. the Great Maharal of Prague.
Through our “design rituals” discussed and further developed in the workshop collaborative way we intend to define and test different options for interaction in urban space. This interaction re-creates and revives the hidden and often long forgotten past and brings the soulless matter back to life. After all, the goal of every design practice recalls one of the most recurrent themes in the history of human creativity inspired by the great sources of Jewish mysticism (the Kabbalah) and nurtured by widespread popular believes: the possibility of creating and animating artificial beings – golems.
Such a creative achievement, i.e. forming a humanoid of clay that can be brought to life by a special formula of Hebrew letters aleph, mem, and tav (the first, the middle, and the last graphemes of the Hebrew alphabet which, composed in the described succession, form the Hebrew word for “truth” – EMeT) was, among others, also ascribed to Rabbi Loew, from the last quarter of the 18th century an iconic character of Jewish legends and folk-tales. In a manner similar to Loew’s alleged use of the basic elements of air, fire, clay, and water from the Vltava river, we will try to revive parts of the city’s grounds from which a new “golem” can arise to connect the city’s present with its past.
Development of the mobile internet and various location based services offer unprecedented possibilities to revive cultural heritage sites not only by crating and accessing “virtual containers” from which relevant metadata relating to specific sites can be retrieved, but also by causing a major shift in setting our liminality. At present, numerous tourism, education, and research projects experiment with technologies allowing to blend physical reality with layers of data hidden in the archives. The workshop will examine different possibilities of designing interfaces which would encourage and stimulate the flow of interactions between a physical location and a virtual “information capsule.” This we see as a kind of activity that can significantly enhance one’s individual experience of a specific site and instigate communication based on sharing extensive sets of cognitive and intuitive data. Our ultimate goal is to establish a meaningful and active (inter)connection between everyday occurrences, situations, and events that are taking place “here and now” and the seemingly timeless and amorphous fabric of data preserved in the archives. We also hope to reinforce the general awareness of the fact that the presence we live is the history of the future and that, once recorded, it can be shared not only across vast distances, but also across the time.
All location awareness technologies are an interesting attempt to recreate the Lebenswelt (lifeworld) envisioned by Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology and recent concepts of embodiment in the realm of interactive design (Paul Dourish). Some may see it as a paradox, but the use of these technologies can potentially lead to a successful reenactment of the phenomenology’s natural world. Rendering their outputs in the form of GPS and other coordinates, the technologies constitute our personal experiences and set the horizon of the mathematized and objectified model of Planet Earth. This concept of the world represents a common ground for a communal participatory experience.
The liminal space and time that are created thanks to the connection of cellular telephony, Internet, and location based technologies enhance our sensitivities. It makes us aware of our personal ties to the past and facilitates our access to cultural heritage on a personal (personalized and intimate) level. It is this personal participation which enables us to discover and reanimate what has been hidden from our perception. By doing so, we explore not only the space, but also the time. Using our mobile phones and other portable communication devices as if they were a kind of time machines, we open yet another dimension of our lives: it is the possibility to communicate and interact on a level that, if it was not for this type of technological empowerment, would remain inaccessible and sealed.
Call for proposals: if you want to share your insight and ideas in the field, please send me an e-mail.
All workshop participants are asked to bring their own equipment.
