22 research outputs found
Becoming with Clothes : Activating wearer-worn engagements through design
Frequently associated with the superficial and the frivolous, fashion has been treated as a subject of lowly relevance in both practice and research. Not exclusive to fashion, this overvaluation of the superficial and the visual has deemed the relationships between individuals and designed artefacts as weak and unengaged. In order to shift this state of affairs, this research asks about paths towards more active engagements between wearer and worn. More specifically, it is interested in understanding how fashion designers can support this change through practice. In order to answer this question, the experiences between wearer and worn and the ways these two entities interact become a central matter of concern. The realm of experience has been marginalised in the considerations of fashion studies as they have privileged investigations on fashion as a system of signification. Through a literature review, this research confirms that the few considerations on the experience between wearer and worn are articulated at a theoretical level with little applications to practice.
This doctoral research is situated between the fields of fashion, design and philosophy, and unfolds as two iterative experiments in fashion design, developed under a research through design approach. Within the experiments, the design process is exposed and its outcomes are investigated through the experiences of the participants. Against the lack of previously developed methods to investigate experience between individuals and their clothes, the research engages in crafting a methodology able to embrace this study subject. Named âwardrobe interventionsâ, this method inspired by Cultural Probes collects data longitudinally on long-term relationships via deployed kits containing a garment and a diary. In the project, the importance of the interaction between wearer and worn is made visible in the theoretical framework, as it prioritises experience and agency over culture and visuality. Here, the data collected is interpreted under the light of a revised phenomenological approach, strongly grounded on theories of material agency.
The first experiment, Dress(v.), explores dress in an active form and asks about ways to enhance the wearerâs reflectiveness on wearing practices. The findings from this first experiment suggest care, wardrobe novelty and time as spaces to be explored further towards more engaged relationships. The second experiment, Wear \Wear, builds on these findings. It explores answers to the question of time as a space for design and proposes surprise as a catalyst to active engagements between people and clothes. The results reveal that open-endedness can be used as a tool to motivate stronger engagements and make visible the agency of clothes. The findings expose how knowledge on clothing is constructed through embodied experiences and mutual affects â or in other words, through becomings. Once open to such becomings, wearers are aware of clothingâs ability to act, and more engaged relationships may emerge.
This doctoral dissertation expects to share with its readers an urgent need to make visible the agency of clothes. It contributes to previous fashion studies by broadening understanding of the ways humans and clothing interact and presents a methodology to support this endeavour. In the field of practice, the investigation suggests ways of entangling research and practice, highlighting the relevance of wearing as a matter of great concern to designers in the field of fashion
The influence of social identity when digitally sharing location
By enabling users to self-report their whereabouts and share it with a vast and diverse audience, location sharing systems can be useful means of projecting the self and expressing oneâs social identity (an individualâs personal self-conception). Through three research studies, this thesis investigates how social identity influences the digital sharing of location. It does so by first exploring how people socially interact offline and then investigates how facets of this behaviour are enacted in location sharing systems. Thus, it offers insights into how offline social behaviour extends to digital spaces and how it impacts social interaction in the digital realm.
This thesis finds that social identity not only influences digital location sharing, but in systems that enable social networking, is the very driving force behind the phenomenon. Users actively exhibit their identity through their location, using it as a means of communicating moods, emotions, activities, and experiences. Social identity impacts the places likely to be shared and those places, in turn, reflect oneâs identity by revealing much about an individualâs personality and lifestyle.
This research also discovers that aspects of offline social behaviour have not been replicated particularly well in the online world. Conventional location sharing systems often require users to broadcast their content to one homogenous âfriendsâ list. This model overlooks some of the key components of offline social behaviour such as multi-faceted identities, context-specific behaviour and the heterogeneity of human relationships. This can result in challenges when attempting to manage different facets of identity and can heighten anxieties about sharing as a whole. Recommendations are made on how such issues can be mitigated in future platforms.
This thesis has implications for the design of future location sharing systems. By studying human interaction in digital environments, it also contributes to the Human Factors and HCI disciplines
Recommended from our members
Technology and the family car: situating media use in family life
This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe thesis describes how family life is organised in the car, with a particular focus on exploring the role and use of mobile technology in this setting. The objective of this research is to use the insights from video ethnographic data collected with families to discuss how social interaction between family members may be situated to technology use. Drawing from the notion of âordinary workâ discussed in ethnomethodology and applying this to naturalistic video data of families in cars, the thesis demonstrates how family activities are locally produced, drawing on background knowledge and common-sense understandings of family membersâ work. Using methods from conversation analysis, the research demonstrates how transcribed instances of talk can reveal how parents and children produce their actions and talk to jointly produce activities in relation to media use. The analysis presented in this thesis demonstrates how the family car provides an opportunity for parents and children to come together, and engage in mundane family activities of talk and play while using a range of mobile devices. The thesis draws on richly documented and closely analysed episodes of interaction to demonstrate how family life unfolds in the accomplishment of activities in which interactions are situated, orderly and observable. The production of family life within the car involves talk and embodied action that is artfully placed within interactions between parents, children and technology. The analysis elucidates how the features of negotiation, collaboration and coordination around device-use are placed alongside driving activities. The contributions of this thesis lie in providing a descriptive analysis of the social organisation of family life through technology, developing an understanding of family technology use in a mobile context and highlighting elements of interaction that will inform the development of insights for the design of technology that is sensitive to the nuances of family life, mobility and technology practices.EPSRC and Microsoft Researc
The smartwatch: a family's expectations, use and experiences
Business subjects in higher education are critical for solving todayâs global business challenges, but the curricula of such subjects must be designed with a focus on constructive alignment. This study aimed to introduce the application of constructive alignment in business subjects. The study provides a lens for understanding the various opportunities to achieve constructive alignment in a subject in order to ensure the curriculum meets the quality standards of institutions
Understanding food consumption lifecycles using wearable cameras
Application of design in HCI is a common approach to engendering behavioural change to address important challenges such as sustainability. Encouraging such change requires an understanding of current motivations and behaviours in the domain in question. In this paper, we describe use of wearable cameras to study motivations and behaviours around food consumption by focusing on two contrasting cultures, Malaysia and the UK. Our findings highlight the potential of wearable cameras to enhance knowledge of food consumption practices and identify where and how some digital interventions might be appropriate to change food behaviour. This includes appealing to peopleâs motivations behind food consumption and capitalising on existing practices such as gifting of food and social meals. We propose a food consumption lifecycle as a framework to understand and design humanâfood interaction. The use of wearable cameras enabled us to capture a high-level overview of spatially distributed food-related practices and understand food behaviours in greater depth.This work was co-funded by Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, UK, and Crops for the Future, Malaysia.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-015-0871-
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurized Components
This conference, the tenth in a series on NDE in relation to structural integrity for nuclear and pressurized components, was held from 1st October to 3 October 2013, in Cannes, France. The scientific programme was co-produced by the European Commissionâs Joint Research Centre, Institute for Energy and Transport (EC-JRC/IET). The Conference has been coordinated by the ConfĂ©dĂ©ration Française pour les Essais Non Destructifs (COFREND). The first conference, under the sole responsibility of EC-JRC was held in Amsterdam, 20-22 October 1998. The second conference was locally organized by the EPRI NDE Center in New Orleans, 24-26 May 2000, the third one by Tecnatom in Seville, 14-16 November 2001, the fourth one by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing in London, 6-8 December 2004, the fifth by EPRI in San Diego, 10-12 May 2006, the sixth by Marovisz in Budapest, 8-10 October 2007, the seventh by the University of Tokyo and JAPEIC in Yokohama, the eight by DGZfP, 29 September to 1st October 2010, the ninth by Epri NDE Center, 22-24 May 2012 in Seattle.
The theme of this conference series is to provide the link between the information originated by NDE and the use made of this information in assessing structural integrity. In this context, there is often a need to determine NDE performance against structural integrity requirements through a process of qualification or performance demonstration. There is also a need to develop NDE to address shortcomings revealed by such performance demonstration or otherwise. Finally, the links between NDE and structural integrity require strengthening in many areas so that NDE is focussed on the components at greatest risk and provides the precise information required for assessment of integrity. These were the issues addressed by the papers selected for the conference.JRC.F.5-Nuclear Reactor Safety Assessmen
Understanding food consumption lifecycles using wearable cameras
Application of design in HCI is a common approach to engendering behavioural change to address important challenges such as sustainability. Encouraging such change requires an understanding of current motivations and behaviours in the domain in question. In this paper, we describe use of wearable cameras to study motivations and behaviours around food consumption by focusing on two contrasting cultures, Malaysia and the UK. Our findings highlight the potential of wearable cameras to enhance knowledge of food consumption practices and identify where and how some digital interventions might be appropriate to change food behaviour. This includes appealing to peopleâs motivations behind food consumption and capitalising on existing practices such as gifting of food and social meals. We propose a food consumption lifecycle as a framework to understand and design humanâfood interaction. The use of wearable cameras enabled us to capture a high-level overview of spatially distributed food-related practices and understand food behaviours in greater depth.This work was co-funded by Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, UK, and Crops for the Future, Malaysia.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-015-0871-
Older people as equal partners in the creative design of digital devices
This thesis describes research which explores the importance and feasibility of involving older people as equal partners in the creative design of digital devices for an ageing population. In exploring this topic, I have carried out two preliminary studies, a pilot study and a major empirical study. Firstly, I invited three groups of people, including very old people, active older people and postgraduate students, to evaluate a mock-Ââup model of an interactive device intended for older people that was designed using a standard design process. The results of this study suggested that products without an adequate contribution from older people would not always meet their needs. Secondly, I carried out observations of very old people, active older people, and young designers to identify factors that influence the way in which both older people and young designers can be involved in the creative design process. These factors included experiences with technology, processes and approaches currently applied with older people and designers, factors that stimulate or inhibit creativity, and practical constraints such as health issues. The results of these observations fed into the design of a pilot study, where I tested the content of a creative design process and a procedure for analysing data for the main empirical study. The main study involved three creative workshops where the same creative methods were employed with different sets of people: young designers, mixed groups (with older people and designers) and older people only. The results show that older people are able to participate in a creative design process; however, certain practical constraints have to be taken into account. Also, older people perform better when they work together with designers. Finally, the mixed groups with older people, who have relevant life experiences, and designers, who are familiar with the newest technology, may be more suitable for designing appropriate products for the older population.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo