Die Ärzte-Botaniker des XVII. Jahrhunderts

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Being Here: Designing for Distributed Hands-On Collaboration in Blended Interaction Spaces

This paper describes a concept for supporting distributed hands-on collaboration through interaction design for the physical and the digital workspace. The Blended Interaction Spaces concept creates distributed work environments in which collaborating parties all feel that they are present 'here' rather than 'there'. We describe thinking and inspirations behind the Blended Interaction Spaces concept, and summarize findings from fieldwork activities informing our design. We then exemplify the Blended Interaction Spaces concept through a prototype implementation of one of four concepts

Understanding and representing the social prospects of hybrid urban spaces

C1 - Refereed Journal ArticleAs built environments become increasingly hybrid physical, social, and digital spaces, the intersecting issues of spatial context, sociality, and pervasive digital technologies need to be understood when designing for interactions in these hybrid spaces. Architectural and interaction designers need a mechanism that provides them with an understanding of the ‘sociality-places-bits' nexus. Using a specific urban setting as an analytical case study, we present a methodology to capture this nexus in a form that designers of hybrid spaces can effectively apply as a tool to augment digitally sociality in a built environment

Connecting children to nature with technology: Sowing the seeds for pro-environmental behaviour

Regular interactions with nature are vital for the development and well-being of children and also to build attachment and value for natural environments that potentially promote pro-environmental behaviour in later life. In this paper, we report on a study designed to identify opportunities for digital technology to support children's connectedness to the natural environment, there by encouraging positive environmental attitudes in children, as well as healthy physical play. Through participatory engagement with a group of 15 Danish children (aged 8-12) and their parents, using focus groups and follow up interviews, we explore what motivates children to undertake everyday recreational activities, focusing on activities undertaken in nature, and how these interactions influence meaning associated with their local natural place. The contribution of this paper is a deeper understanding of what motivates children to interact with nature, and a discussion of how technology may enhance this interaction. Copyright 2014 ACM

Learning from Lost Architecture: Immersive Experience and Cultural Experience as a New Historiography

In 1986, a group of Spanish architects decided to physically recreate an icon of modernist architecture. Mies van der Rohe’s German pavilion for the Barcelona World Expo of 1929 was at the cutting edge of spatial and structural innovation but its influence was limited to what we understand through drawings, photographs, limited film footage and historical interpretations. We can now physically visit the pavilion and experience it but what of all the other pavilions by famous (and less famous) architects that are no more? It would be costly and time consuming to physically rebuild all of them, however virtual reality (VR) technologies and human computer interaction (HCI) methods can bring them back to life. International expo pavilions are temporary structures designed to be at the cutting edge of structural and material technology but what makes them unique and inspirational is seldom preserved directly, their architectural insights, experiential richness and cultural significance are easily lost. This paper asks: How might immersive digital experiences of space help us to recapture ‘authentic’ experiences of history and place? What implications does this have for architectural history, heritage and conservation? The authors offer some answers to these questions by presenting preliminary results from a larger project entitled ‘Learning from Lost Architecture’: a virtual reconstruction of the Italian Pavilion at the Paris Expo of 1937. Firstly, we will contextualise the practice of digital cultural heritage and present its potential for immersive, investigatory architectural experiences. Secondly, we will critique our own practice to better evaluate the potential of virtual reconstructions to affect architectural learning, discovery and historiography

Social NUI:Social perspective in Natural User Interfaces

Natural User Interfaces (NUI) offer rich ways for interacting with the digital world that make innovative use of existing human capabilities. They include and often combine different input modalities such as voice, gesture, eye gaze, body interactions, touch and touchless interactions. However much of the focus of NUI research and development has been on enhancing the experience of individuals interacting with technology. Effective NUIs must also acknowledge our innately social characteristics, and support how we communicate with each other, play together, learn together and collaboratively work together. This workshop concerns the social aspects of NUI. The workshop seeks to better understand the social uses and applications of these new NUI technologies - how we design these technologies for new social practices and how we understand the use of these technologies in key social contexts