MINDtouch embodied ephemeral transference: Mobile media performance research

This is the post-print version of the final published article that is available from the link below. Copyright @ Intellect Ltd 2011.The aim of the author's media art research has been to uncover any new understandings of the sensations of liveness and presence that may emerge in participatory networked performance, using mobile phones and physiological wearable devices. To practically investigate these concepts, a mobile media performance series was created, called MINDtouch. The MINDtouch project proposed that the mobile videophone become a new way to communicate non-verbally, visually and sensually across space. It explored notions of ephemeral transference, distance collaboration and participant as performer to study presence and liveness emerging from the use of wireless mobile technologies within real-time, mobile performance contexts. Through participation by in-person and remote interactors, creating mobile video-streamed mixes, the project interweaves and embodies a daisy chain of technologies through the network space. As part of a practice-based Ph.D. research conducted at the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute at the University of East London, MINDtouch has been under the direction of Professor Lizbeth Goodman and sponsored by BBC R&D. The aim of this article is to discuss the project research, conducted and recently completed for submission, in terms of the technical and aesthetic developments from 2008 to present, as well as the final phase of staging the events from July 2009 to February 2010. This piece builds on the article (Baker 2008) which focused on the outcomes of phase 1 of the research project and initial developments in phase 2. The outcomes from phase 2 and 3 of the project are discussed in this article

MINDtouch: Embodied mobile media ephemeral transference

Copyright @ 2013 ISAST.This article reviews discoveries that emerged from the author's MINDtouch media research project, in which a mobile device was repurposed for visual and non-verbal communication through gestural and visual mobile expressivity. The work revealed new insights from emerging mobile media and participatory performance practices. The author contextualizes her media research on mobile video and networked performance alongside relevant discourse on presence and the embodiment of technology. From the research, an intimate, phenomenological and visual form of mobile expression has emerged. This form has reconfigured the communication device from voice and text/SMS only to a visual and synesthetic mode for deeper expression

Design and semantics of form and movement (DeSForM 2006)

Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM) grew from applied research exploring emerging design methods and practices to support new generation product and interface design. The products and interfaces are concerned with: the context of ubiquitous computing and ambient technologies and the need for greater empathy in the pre-programmed behaviour of the ‘machines’ that populate our lives. Such explorative research in the CfDR has been led by Young, supported by Kyffin, Visiting Professor from Philips Design and sponsored by Philips Design over a period of four years (research funding £87k). DeSForM1 was the first of a series of three conferences that enable the presentation and debate of international work within this field: • 1st European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM1), Baltic, Gateshead, 2005, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. • 2nd European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM2), Evoluon, Eindhoven, 2006, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. • 3rd European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM3), New Design School Building, Newcastle, 2007, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. Philips sponsorship of practice-based enquiry led to research by three teams of research students over three years and on-going sponsorship of research through the Northumbria University Design and Innovation Laboratory (nuDIL). Young has been invited on the steering panel of the UK Thinking Digital Conference concerning the latest developments in digital and media technologies. Informed by this research is the work of PhD student Yukie Nakano who examines new technologies in relation to eco-design textiles

Production of pace as collaborative activity

In this paper we investigate the concept of pace development and management among groups of people. We explore and compare groups visiting museums, and groups virtually co-located in a mixed reality system for a museum. In considering pace, and how to design to support it, we have to consider more than the speed or location of information display. We have to also take into consideration the social formation of pace through features such as the visitors' awareness of each other's location and attention. By considering aspects of collaboratively produced pace such as presenting engagement and disengagement, we offer suggestions as to how social handling of pace might be better supported by technology

Multimodal ways of eliciting students' voice.

For some time researchers have been exploring how students might best be supported to express their ideas, opinions and feelings and to demonstrate what they know and can do. In this paper, we discuss some of the implications of sociocultural view of learning for how classroom research is conducted and describe some of the approaches we have used to generate information on student classroom experiences. Over the course of our work we have found that the use of multiple and multimodal data generation methods allows student with different interests and abilities to take an active part in research. We then detail some of the challenges and rewards involved in working with students in these ways as part of a research agenda focused on enhancing teaching and learning

Pedestrian Detection with Wearable Cameras for the Blind: A Two-way Perspective

Blind people have limited access to information about their surroundings, which is important for ensuring one's safety, managing social interactions, and identifying approaching pedestrians. With advances in computer vision, wearable cameras can provide equitable access to such information. However, the always-on nature of these assistive technologies poses privacy concerns for parties that may get recorded. We explore this tension from both perspectives, those of sighted passersby and blind users, taking into account camera visibility, in-person versus remote experience, and extracted visual information. We conduct two studies: an online survey with MTurkers (N=206) and an in-person experience study between pairs of blind (N=10) and sighted (N=40) participants, where blind participants wear a working prototype for pedestrian detection and pass by sighted participants. Our results suggest that both of the perspectives of users and bystanders and the several factors mentioned above need to be carefully considered to mitigate potential social tensions.Comment: The 2020 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN PRE-SCHOOL AGE

This paper presents a study investigating the use of digital technology - tablets and mobile phones by six pre-school children in Požega, Croatia and the way this technology facilitated the English language learning process through its content. The children involved were two boys and four girls aged between four to five. The paper’s introduction reflects on today’s widespread use of digital technology amongst the young learners. The study itself was conducted using two quantitative research methods – contextual interviews with the pre-school children and interviews with the children’s parents. The study findings indicated that the children preferred multimodal content such as cartoons and video games with colourful themes or characters, that prompt or ask questions, i.e. encourage participation. A strong preference for English speakers changing pitch and tone within the content was also indicated in the findings. The findings pointed to children’s preference towards music videos – nursery rhymes teaching letters, numbers or colours. Finally, gaming videos and tutorials were a common choice of content for all six children, where they were mostly exposed to visual and aural prompts. In conclusion, the children independently selected multimodal content: cartoons, videos games, tutorials, gaming videos and nursery rhymes which all shared visual, aural, linguistic and spatial modes of communication. The research provided a valuable insight into the type of digital content that pre-school children opt for in non-educational environment and how they acquire basic communication skills in English as a result