TryFilm : Situated Support for Interactive Media Productions

The emergence of participatory, on-demand and interactive media is changing the media production landscape. Producing interactive media is often more complex than creating traditional linear films, resulting in increased pressure for production teams. In this paper we explore what implications this has for cast and crew who participate in the production of such new media. We explore how collaborative technologies can support creative practitioners, within these challenging settings. We present TryFilm, a collaborative editing system, designed by the authors and deployed during an interactive film shoot by a small film company featuring a cast of early career actors

Worker-Centered Design: Expanding HCI Methods for Supporting Labor

HCI has long considered sites of workplace collaboration. From airline cockpits to distributed groupware systems, scholars emphasize the importance of supporting a multitude of tasks and creating technologies that integrate into collaborative work settings. More recent scholarship highlights a growing need to consider the concerns of workers within and beyond established workplace settings or roles of employment, from steelworkers whose jobs have been eliminated with post-industrial shifts in the economy to contractors performing the content moderation that shapes our social media experiences. This one-day workshop seeks to bring together a growing community of HCI scholars concerned with the labor upon which the future of work we envision relies. We will discuss existing methods for studying work that we find both productive and problematic, with the aim of understanding how we might better bridge current gaps in research, policy, and practice. Such conversations will focus on the challenges associated with taking a worker-oriented approach and outline concrete methods and strategies for conducting research on labor in changing industrial, political, and environmental contexts

HCI and re-making place

PhD ThesisIn recent years, technology, design and computing have been increasingly considered in public, media, and academic discourses as playing a significant role in supporting people affecting change in the places and communities in which they live. Drawing from three case studies that developed in North Tyneside’s Tynemouth, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Oreth in South East London, this dissertation shows how cross-disciplinary methodological perspectives—combining ontological politics, discourse and public work philosophy—can be used to understand the role of technology in everyday political processes, and drive the design of processes and socio-technical tools to open up spaces of contestation and dialogue in the everyday politics of place. The argument put forward in this dissertation is that in order to produce spatial processes that are more just and democratic, we must attend to people’s mundane communicative exchanges as forms of political action both conceptually and in practice; we must also recognize the heterogeneous actors and power dynamics involved, as well as the interpersonal and political work that contribute to forging and shaping these spatial processes. Vernacular rhetoric—the conception of everyday communicative exchanges as political action—forms the basis of this thesis. It is first utilised to understand the appropriation of a Facebook page by a group of residents concerned with the development of a derelict swimming pool. The perspective is then used to drive the design of processes that employed digitally supported urban walks to involve city residents in political discussions and reenvisioning of places in and about the city. The third case study explores how such participatory processes might be used to support a group of residents concerned with ‘rebuilding’ their community and wishing to create a digital walking trail in and about their housing estate undergoing urban regeneration. Finally, learning from the three studies is synthesized in a discussion on the relationship between vernacular politics, technologies and issues of spatial justice, and the role that HCI research, designed tools and participatory processes can play in supporting spaces of contestation and dialogue and the development of capacities to formulate collective rights towards the re-making of the places that matter to us

Direct Synthesis of Polyamides via Catalytic Dehydrogenation of Diols and Diamines

We discuss an experimental pilot study collecting and sharing media to explore active citizen engagement with older adults in the city. Our purpose was to inquire into the potential role of audio-visual media collection and presentation to inform urban planning. We encouraged collective documentation of the associations older people have with place and reflected on shared experiences within the context of mobile and civic technologies. We report on different phases of the study, contributing insights on the potential role of digital media to raise awareness and sensitivities to alternative perspectives providing expression of people's values. We speculate on potential opportunities for media architecture to present and re-mix media and make place-based contentions palpable

Research with a solidarity clinic:design implications for CSCW healthcare service design

This paper reports on a long-term collaboration with a self-organised social clinic, within solidarity movements in Greece. The collaboration focused on the co-creation of an oral history group within the social clinic, aiming to record and make sense of a collection of digital oral histories from its volunteers and volunteers-doctors. The process aimed to support reflection and shape the future of the clinic’s ongoing social innovation and to transform institutional public health services. Positioning the work of solidarity movement as designing social innovation, the work contributes to CSCW and ‘infrastructuring’ in Participatory Design aspiring to support social activism and social transformation processes. More specifically, through our empirical insights on the process of infrastructuring an oral history group within a social movement; and related insights about their ongoing participatory health service provision—we provide implications for CSCW concerned with its role in institutional healthcare service transformation

Socially Engaged Arts Practice in HCI

Socially engaged methods are increasingly being used within HCI research, yet arts practice in this context has been little explored. HCI research that aligns with socially engaged arts practices encourages debate around societal challenges; for example discussion of issues surrounding the role of digital technology in sustainability, inclusion, community, identity and the politics of participation. Building on existing research, this workshop will bring together a diverse group of HCI researchers, artists and other creators whose work or interests align with socially engaged arts practice, to foster critical exploration and creative collaboration

DIAGNOSIS AND ASSESSMENT FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE HISTORIC TIMBER STRUCTURES OF SAN FERMO MAGGIORE CHURCH IN VERONA

In the context of our architectural heritage, timber structures represent an important sector in terms of historical relevance, architectural technology and construction materials. Roof struc- tures constitute an integral part of the architectural complex in which they are located and should be treated with the same attention and respect due to their historical significance. The conservation process of these structures has found a proper role in the preservation project part- ly as a result of technological innovations and regulations of the sector of wooden artefacts be- longing to cultural heritage. This paper presents multi-disciplinary research project for the diagnosis, dendrochronological analysis, assessment and conservation of the historic roof timber structures of San Fermo Maggiore Church in Verona. The church has a single nave of more than 52 m in length and 18 m in width. It was realized by the Franciscans in the 14th century. The ribbed vault wooden ceiling, a sort of upside-down ship hull, is characterized by five painted vaults and is supported by three orders of brackets. The load-bearing structure of the roof, to which the heavy ribbed vault wooden ceiling is hanged, is made up of a series of 16 large trusses of rather complex geometry. The ribbed vault is connected with iron tie rods. The trusses, dis- posed with a distance of 3 m. from each other, lay on the masonry walls through brackets (typical brackets of the Veneto Region named “Barbacani”). The study, carried out in cooperation with the Superintendence and the Diocese, was addressed to timber grading according to the re- sistance of the main wooden elements constituting the roof structure that supports the ribbed vault ceiling. The conducted activity has constituted a base for the structural investigation phases