Power to the People:Dynamic energy management through communal cooperation

In this paper we propose that design and HCI research address domestic energy management as a matter of timeliness, and organised on a community scale. We argue that instead of focusing on the financial benefits of energy saving, technologies can be used to connect users in systems that promote better understandings of the impact of their behaviours. We review current policy and practice and outline design proposals for systems that bring people together to work as a team to reduce the strain on national energy generating infrastructure. We argue that by exposing some of the complexity of power generation people can make more informed energy consuming choices

Designing Deployment: a visual paper of the batch deployment of research prototypes

In this paper we present the detailed design decision-making that went into the deployment phase of a project exploring Third Wave HCI through batch-produced devices. Building on the studio’s design-led methodologies, we produced multiple sets of Indoor Weather Stations (IWS), research devices that explore the microclimate of the home, and deployed them to 22 households over the course of a year to gather polyphonic feedback from participants. This project built upon our previous work of gathering polyphonic views of devices deployed to one or few households, but in order to scale our practice for multiple deployments, we had to develop new methods. We have documented the design and rationale of the IWS and the outcome of the field study elsewhere. Here, we focus on the design involved in the recruitment of participants, deployment of devices and the methods of gathering feedback. Designing the supporting artefacts for projects such as this – everything that goes alongside the main research object – demands almost as much attention as designing the object itself. Our usual fieldwork practice is to make numerous visits in person to participants in order gain insight into the impacts and effects of our devices. However with the scale of this project, it was not possible to pay multiple visits to all our volunteer households in the same way that we do when a single device is deployed. Instead, we designed new methods for this batch-deployment that we term Deployment Probes, using Cultural Probe sensibilities and approaches to develop methods to gather polyphonic feedback and insights from such a large number of participants. By adopting a visual paper, a paper format which focuses on image, we present material design decisions in a way that is difficult to achieve in writing, and offer an alternative to other written accounts of this project. Images require interpretation, so we rely on readers to interrogate those used here. Granted this, we believe the photographs and quotes included here effectively reveal our novel methods of recruiting, deploying and gathering feedback at a large scale

THE SOCIAL INSURGENTS

How can one be insurgent when overt protest is stifled or ignored? How does one rebel against a culture dominated by a totalising market logic without looking quaint or unwordly? This exhibition suggests the possibility of quietly disengaging from the large systems of media, commerce and government that overhang our lives. The collection may be small, but the work makes big statements: One media mogul shouldn’t control our news. One Internet company shouldn’t supply all our maps. There can’t be just one version of the Iraq war. But these social insurgents are neither heroic individuals nor isolated cranks. We call the exhibition the ‘Social Insurgents’, but we’re not just referring to the individuals exhibiting here - many of the pieces shown here enhance and distill work done by larger publics. i.e. Bridle’s books are publishing ‘our’ views on the iraq war. Muruganantham’s low cost sanitary napkin machines not only provide hygienic female sanitary products at an affordable price to those below the poverty line but it also provides jobs for women. The Balloon Toolkit forms part of a larger network of grassroots mapping available online, Prayer Companion re-presents social news as potential resource for prayer. We like to think that this exhibition echos some of the themes and tactics of our exhibitors. In occupying the Deptford Town Hall, the baroque headquarters of a former council, it follows a number of high profile protests that took place here in the recent past. Moreover, in choosing a site that is off the well-established design trail (for the London Design Festival these days, that means the affluent West Brompton quarter) we want to emphasise the disparity in these recessionary times between design for the elite and the more grassroots efforts shown here, and to suggest that real change is as likely to come from below as above. Finally, in gathering work that, in some cases, is years old, we mean to question the tendency for LDF to value novelty, and suggest instead that what is new here is the way that these pieces come together to suggest a new landscape for design. This exhibition is not a polemic, however. In fact, it is a methodological experiment, an exploration in our ongoing research on the sociocultural possibilities of new technologies. We are trying to open a space and ask questions, not create a definitive manifesto. Our catalogue reflects this: inspired by the Society of Independent Artists, we are allowing visitors to collect individual pages and collect them together as they see fit, thus allowing each of us to curate our own version of the exhibition. We hope your version will be thought-provoking, inspiring and optimistic

Understanding the attitudes and acceptability of extra-genital Chlamydia testing in young women: evaluation of a feasibility study

BackgroundChlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the UK. Recent studies suggest that in addition to the genital tract, C. trachomatis is found in the throat and rectum, suggesting the number of infections is under-reported. There is an urgent need to study the impact of extending diagnosis to include extra-genital samples; however, there is a lack of evidence on the acceptability of asking young women to provide these samples.MethodA mixed methods single group feasibility study explored the acceptability of combined genital and extra-genital testing in young women aged 16–25 years consecutively attending a sexual health centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. Young women were asked to complete a self- administered anonymous questionnaire whether they would be willing to give self-taken throat and ano-rectal samples. Interviews with women (n = 20) willing to self-sample were conducted before and after self-sampling, and these explored the underlying reasons behind their decision, and feelings about the tests.ResultsOf 500 women recruited to the study, 422 (84.4%) women provided sufficient data for analysis. From completed questionnaires, 86.3% of respondents reported willingness to self-sample from the throat. Willingness of ano-rectal self-sampling was lower (59.1%), particularly in women under 20 ( < 20 years: 44.4%; ≥20 years, 68.2%). Willingness of ano-rectal self-sampling was higher in women who had more sexual partners in the last 6 months (0 partners, 48.3%, n = 14, 3 or more partners, 67.4%, n = 60) and in those who have previous experience of a positive test for a sexually transmitted infection (STI) (positive: 64.5%; negative: 57%). Interviewed women suggested that a lack of knowledge of STIs, embarrassment and lack of confidence in the ability to carry out the sampling were barriers towards acceptability.ConclusionsIn this study, self-sampling of throat samples is largely acceptable; however, the acceptability of taking an ano-rectal sample for C. trachomatis testing in young women was lower in younger women. The study suggests further research to investigate the acceptability of extra-genital testing as an addition to routine C. trachomatis testing, and whether this increases detection and prevents infective sequelae for women

The Photostroller: supporting diverse care home residents in engaging with the world

The Photostroller is a device designed for use by residents of a care home for older people. It shows a continuous slideshow of photographs retrieved from the FlickrTM image website using a set of six predefined categories modified by a tuneable degree of ‘semantic drift’. In this paper, we describe the design process that led to the Photostroller, and summarise observations made during a deployment in the care home that has lasted over two months at the time of writing. We suggest that the Photostroller balances constraint with openness, and control with drift, to provide an effective resource for the ludic engagement of a diverse group of older people with each other and the world outside their home

Sustainability, Invention and Energy Demand Reduction: Co-designing Communities and Practice

A poster designed and presented at a workshop organised by RCUK

The Photostroller (Overview)

The Photostroller, an interactive device developed by the Interaction Research Studio, in the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London has recently been introduced into a care home in York to enhance the daily lives of its residents

The Photostroller

The Photostroller, an interactive device developed by the Interaction Research Studio, in the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London has recently been introduced into a care home in York to enhance the daily lives of its residents

LMDA Canada Newsletter, May 2004

Contents include: Letter from LMDA Canada Chair, Creative Dramaturgy and New Play Development: A Preview of Canadian Theatre Review 119 Summer 2004, LMDA Canada Meeting Friday March 5 2004, LMDA Canada Membership Listhttps://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/1031/thumbnail.jp

The Datacatcher at 'The Data Imaginary: Fears and Fantasies'

The exhibition includes artworks and designs that engage audiences in critical, playful and agentic reflections on data and creative technologies. Through the exhibition, workshops, podcast and publication, the audience will be empowered to respond to climate change patterns and future city design, interact with empathy from remote locations, learn about Indigenous cultural knowledges and reflect on everyday habits that secure data privacy