MEDIACITY: projects
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Shared Encounters: Content Sharing as Social Glue in Everyday Places
ACM SIGCHI 2007 Workshop, in collaboration with: Mirjam Struppek (Interaction Field, DE), George Roussos (Birkbeck College, UK)
Our everyday lives are characterized by encounters, some are fleeting and
ephemeral and others are more enduring and meaningful exchanges. Shared
encounters are the glue of social networks and have a socializing
effect in terms of mutual understanding, empathy, respect and thus
tolerance towards others. The quality and characteristics of such
encounters are affected by the setting, or situation in which they
occur. In a world shaped by communication technologies, non-place-based
networks often coexist alongside to the traditional local face-to-face
social networks. As these multiple and distinct on and off-line
communities tend to carry out their activities in more and more
distinct and sophisticated spaces, a lack of coherency and
fragmentation emerges in the sense of a shared space of community. Open
public space with its streets, parks and squares plays an important
role in providing space for shared encounters among and between these
coexisting networks. Mobile and ubiquitous technologies enable social
encounters located in public space, albeit not confined to fixed
settings, whilst also offering sharing of experiences from non-place
based networks. We will look at how to create or support the conditions
for meaningful and persisting shared encounters. In particular we
propose to explore how technologies can be appropriated for shared
interactions that can occur spontaneously and playfully and in doing so
re-inhabit and connect place-based social networks.
posted by Konstantinos at 3:55 AM
Friday, June 09, 2006
Invisible networks
In collaboration with: Michelle Teran (Artist)
As mobile and wireless technologies proliferate in urban environments the
space can be considered as having an existence in terms of several
visible and invisible layers. In particular, we consider that there is
a physical layer that makes up our everyday direct experience and
several invisible layers of the digital nodes and networks that
facilitate communication. Yet, due to the ways in which we have
traditionally considered space, there are many limitations in current
ways of perceiving and thus engaging with these immaterial
environments. In this project, we explore concepts and methods for
raising public awareness of the presence and potentials of networked
social spaces. These methods include public performance, where
participation is through engaging in a series of walks through the
city, and workshops where participants engage in the design
implications through a process of locating, examining and documenting
some of these invisible networks. Overall, we seek to explore research
questions that regard the social space generated through the
intentional, or unintentional use of widespread public wireless
communication technology.
posted by Konstantinos at 1:09 PM
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Stories about Places
In collaboration with: Mike Kraus (BBC)
The objective of "Stories about Places" is to explore the use of widely
available imaging devices (e.g. camera phone, still camera) to capture,
edit and distribute short videos about small-scale places (e.g.
building, square, street, park, alley, cafe-bar, etc). Participants
could select between shooting with photo camera, mobile phone, but
video-editing should only employ basic editing (e.g. photos, videos,
transitions, voice-over, music, etc) and not advanced visual effects,
although basic filters are ok. Any type of short film is appropriate
(e.g. documentary, promotional, event, historical, etc). The expected
outcome is the development of a critical mass of content to be uploaded
on small-scale broadcast media stations at the respective places (e.g.
Open WiFi hot-spots). Then, passers-by could get an in-depth view of
the personal aspects of places and annotate.
posted by Konstantinos at 3:38 AM
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