From digital interface to material artifact

In previous works I have discussed how the image of the graphical user interface (GUI) has been appropriated as a referent for a creative practice beyond the screen, materialized as two-dimensional print and painted images. In this paper I will explore instances where the GUI has been referenced in the creation of three-dimensional physical artifacts and performative three-dimensional spaces. An examination of selected works will give us the opportunity to look critically at the evolution of the computer desktop metaphor and its appropriation back into object based artifacts and to unpacking some of the theoretical implications implicit in these shifts in representation. The selected works examined in the paper originate from a group of international artists who have been repositioning the use of the computer GUI within the realm of creative practice. These creative recontextualisations allow us to problematise our engagement with digital technology. Allowing us to question our experience of the GUI in terms of a personal, and broader communal context. As well as intimating the pivotal place that computer technologies have taken in our everyday social, cultural and increasingly our creative realms. The transformation from digital computer icon to material artifact engenders the potential of the computer GUI to become a precious, rarefied object, which commands value and prestige

Hybrids (2010) at the MIC Media and Interdisciplinary Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.

MIC Toi Rerehiko is pleased to present Hybrids, an exhibition featuring nine local and international artists who integrate rapid prototyping processes with other media. Rapid prototyping technology has largely been used by industrial manufacturers and has since been adopted by architects and digital media artists. Considered within an artmaking sphere, the process raises issues over ontology, authenticity and place amongst others. The works in the exhibition seek to address these while still embracing their own materiality, in model making technology and digitalculture. As the title Hybrids suggests, the works comprise a combination of these ideas with a range of media including live performance, social and formal sculpture, video installation and painting. Hybrids articulates itself as an extension of Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs, which plays on the ontological properties of an object. His theory on the unification of concept and realisation has been re-interpreted, taking into account the undefined and evolving limitations of rapid prototyping. Kosuth’s statement that art is to embody an idea that remains constant despite changes to its elements will be tested within a digital framework. Concerns of the exhibition curators include existence and what constitutes the identity of an object, authorship of digitally created work, the fluidity of transformation from data set to three dimensional object, and the relational aspect between prototyping,audiences and real-time. Hybrids investigates the ability of rapid prototyping to blur the interface between manufactured truth and objective reality

Folder_cube: Rapid Prototype artwork from the 'Inside Out' Exhibition AU/UK 2010/11

The exhibition features the work of 46 designers and artists from Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. It is the result of a collaboration between six organisations including the Art Technology Coalition, the University of Technology Sydney and RMIT University in Australia along with De Montfort University, Manchester Metropolitan University and Dartington College of Arts at University College Falmouth in the United Kingdom. Each sculpture in Inside Out has been created using 3D computer modelling software and is designed to fit inside a 6cm x 6cm x 6cm box. All of the sculptures originated as 3D computer models which were then made physical through the process of 3D printing

Flying with data: Openness, forms and understanding

There is a concerted effort to make available large amounts of public and open data. This paper explores this much-vaulted idea in terms of how easy or difficult it might be to find and access this data, and how a non-specialist audience is able to read, comprehend and make sense of complex digital data in its conventional form. Following a discussion that introduces the concept of the datadriven physical object (the data-object), and the current issues pertaining to the access and use of open data, the paper traces the journey of two design researchers through the activity of locating and using publicly available healthcare statistics as source content for developing this new form of data interpretation. The documented ‘dataseeds’ case study suggests that making data publically available is only the first step in thinking about how digital data can be accessed and shared in meaningful ways by a range of different audiences

Understanding the needs and desires of service users in the design and creation of meaningful physical data representations.

This paper draws on the experiences of a small team of researchers, led by Professor Gwilt, who have been exploring novel ways of translating data into physical formats through an investigation into the potential for data-driven objects to help in the communication and sharing of data. The paper draws on a selection of research projects undertaken within the context of healthcare and wellbeing wherein data-objects were designed to help a variety of service users engage with data. A number of different data-object making and development strategies are discussed, and considered in terms of their effectiveness as communication tools. This discussion includes reflections on; finding and creating data sources, engaging with service users, thinking about the use of visual language, metaphor and material choices, audience needs and experiences, contexts of use and deployment. Observations on the conceptual process of creating hybrid objects and the social-cultural value systems employed in reading these artefacts are also debated. A list of guiding principles for the creation of meaningful physical data representations has been developed by the authors and is presented in the context of the epistemology of the data-object and how we might implement these methods to ask questions around the pedagogy of the Physicalisation of data

Augmented packaging for improved medicine compliance

In studies that have explored the problem of medical non-compliance, i.e. where patients do not adhere to a prescribed regime is a significant and complex problem (Eraker et al. 1984), it is estimated that non-compliance with short-term medication regimes can be as high as 92% with an average of 50% for some chronic diseases (Bergman and Werner, 1963). In their review paper Eraker et al., list a series of possible reasons for non-compliance such as the patients world-view, patient knowledge and experience, social interactions, social and demographic factors along with issues surrounding the training of healthcare professionals. Roter et al., (1998) undertook a meta-analysis of compliance research across a range of health issues and intervention types. The study showed again, that the issue of compliance is complex and that no single intervention strategy works across the board and that success can depend on the condition being treated and the relationship between the doctor and the patient. With the advent of the World Wide Web, interactive technologies and the advent and use of smartphones, there exists the potential to examine the use of this technology as an aid to medical compliance, in particular the improvement of medication regimes. Current digital technology to aid compliance is largely in the form of downloadable 'Apps' that allow a user to register and monitor their pill usage. This paper outlines work on a feasibility study looking at the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to provide support and supplementary information to patients undergoing various medication regimes. Using interviews and observation techniques the study contrasts and compares the patient experience and compliance data between using the AR and undertaking their 'standard' medication regime. The paper discusses the feasibility of using image recognition AR and proposes routes forward for this technology in aiding medical compliance. Keywords: Medical packaging, augmented reality

Data-objects : materialising digital information for discourse and cognition

Combining digital data, design, and new making technologies within health and wellbeing contexts to empower citizens, care providers and service users to make better decisions

Graphic design research: a cause for the concerned

There is an immediate need to clarify and develop the role of graphic design research for the theoretical underpinning of graphic design education. A report that accompanied the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) described ‘the intellectual and theoretical underpinning of graphic and communication design’ as ‘generically weak’. We report on progress about a project designed to identify and map graphic design outputs from REF2014, involving both a data analysis of the ‘Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory’ submissions, and focus group research with graphic design academics designed to elicit feedback on the emergent themes being addressed by the data analysis exercise as well as broader concerns. The aim has been to identify the nature of graphic design outputs submitted to the REF audit. In this paper, we provide a response to this state of affairs from a community of graphic design educators concerned about the perception of research in the discipline. Keywords: Graphic design research, Graphic design education, Research Excellence Framework, Graphic Design Educators’ Networ