Designing for mobile: A walk in the park

Design for mobile platforms and the challenges and opportunities inherent in the design of mobile applications and experiences are presented in this research report on the Park Walk Project. Park Walk participants use a specially programmed application on a mobile phone, connected via Bluetooth with a GPS device, to see images and hear stories mapped to various locations, enabling an exploration of the social, cultural, and natural history of Toronto’s Grange Park. The intention of the Park Walk Project is to tie information directly to places with the use of mobile technology and to create a narrative space in a public park that is open to collaboration

Eros, women and technology

Eros, Women, and Technology seeks to address the potential of a vibrant position for the body and a vital role for women in technoculture. The important job of imagining and re-imagining the potential of technologies to bring benefits, costs, and concomitant effects requires a plurality of approaches. Using a highly interdisciplinary methodology, I focus on an original project of research-creation undertaken between 1998 and 2011, featuring video interviews with thirteen contemporary artists and designers. Participants' personal stories were gathered using my radical method of nude narrative enquiry, and analysed using affinity mapping to identify important questions regarding erotic experience, expression and imagination, body image, pregnancy and mothering, and relationships between mothers and daughters. Themes of the erotic body and technology in education, family life, creative practices, and intellectual and professional pursuits, uncover a range of technological contents and discontents. Through an examination of the history of women's education, a positive chronology of their historical achievements is reported. Theoretical grounding is established through the Chora as conceptual locus for the female body in creative and technological practices. Related thinking of second- and third-wave feminists Balsamo, Battersby, Braidotti, Butler, Grosz, Irigaray, and Young addresses issues of female bodies, maternity, relationships, and the place of women in technoculture. The role of the camera as a favoured technological tool is examined through the work of photographic pioneers Julia Margaret Cameron, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, and Francesca Woodman, and parallels are drawn through my videographic artworks. Arendt, Blixen, Cavarero, and Kristeva provide theoretical framing for narrative in contemporary art and design projects using mobile technologies to locate and disseminate compelling personal and community stories. Insights are offered into the lives of creative women research participants who reinvigorate ways of thinking, making, and Being in technoculture. Concluding concepts, ideas, recommendations, and strategies are offered to inspire wider consideration. Original research expands from the narratives and professional practices of intellectuals, artists, and designers to build a better understanding of women's individual efforts, and collective work, on the frontlines of eroticism, creative making, and technological change

Narrative in Hybrid Mobile Environments in L.A. Re.Play, Mobile Network Culture in Placemaking

Personal digital technologies have become the tools of reproduction for personal narration and dissemination of broader cultural commentary. Mobile social media enables individuals to function as self-promoters and public commentators, with practices that offer a personal and often very explicit engagement between the self and technology. Narrative dissemi-nation can also make a contribution to a larger collective memory or mood, speaking back to aspects of culture at large. Communications become entangled and imbued with social currency as they are referenced, added to, and disseminated on multiple channels. These hybrid activities suggest an important relational interaction that is attentive to participant’s identi-ties, to their presentation of themselves, and to where they are located in virtual and physical space. This collaborative effort between narrators and participants and their locales adds complexity to personal stories and ties them to places and communities of practice

Report Designing for Mobile: A Walk in the Park

Abstract: Design for mobile platforms and the challenges and opportunities inherent in the design of mobile applications and experiences are presented in this research report on the Park Walk Project. Park Walk participants use a specially programmed application on a mobile phone, connected via Bluetooth with a GPS device, to see images and hear stories mapped to various locations, enabling an exploration of the social, cultural, and natural history of Toronto's Grange Park. The intention of the Park Walk Project is to tie information directly to places with the use of mobile technology and to create a narrative space in a public park that is open to collaboration. Keywords: Wireless; New media; Community networks Résumé : Ce rapport de recherche sur le projet Park Walk (« promenade dans le parc ») porte sur la planification de plateformes mobiles et les défis et occasions propres aux applications et expériences mobiles. Les participants au Park Walk utilisent une application spécialement programmée sur un téléphone mobile et reliée à un navigateur GPS au moyen de Bluetooth. Cette application leur permet de voir des images et d'écouter des histoires correspondant à des endroits spéci-fiques, de manière à ce qu'ils puissent explorer l'histoire sociale, culturelle et naturelle du parc Grange à Toronto. L'intention du projet Park Walk est d'associer des informations à leurs lieux correspondants au moyen de technologies mobiles et de créer dans un parc public un espace narratif ouvert aux collaborations

Postcard Memories: an interactive tablet application for elders with early-stage dementia

In this demonstration, we present ‘Postcard Memories’, an interactive tablet application to create a social space for elders with early stage dementia. The touchscreen tablet application encourages people to create, organize, and send digital postcards that combine photographs and short text with audio and video. Users can send digital or print postcards to family, friends, and caregivers to encourage memory recall and facilitate social interaction. Results from a mixed method user study indicate that people find the interaction with the application enjoyable and meaningful

People, places and things: A mobile locative mapping workshop

Personal digital technologies have become the tools of reproduction for personal narration and broad cultural critique. Mobile social media enables individuals to function as storytellers and public commentators, with practices that offer an explicit engagement between people, places, and things. Mobile technologies and mapping tools enable direct connection to place, involving local communities and public dissemination. Mobile narratives and their creators can also make a larger contribution to collective memories of place, speaking back to aspects of culture at large

Reality recalled: Elders, memory and VR

Reality Recalled explores memory, embodiment, and social interactions of elders and others with digital media experiences and VR. We advocate for a holistic view of the term `virtual' in its conceptual categorization within technology, and make a case for enlarging the audiences and extending the benefits of virtualized realities. In our methods, we argue that design and research decisions should be predicated on inclusivity, usability and the pursuit of pleasurable collaborative meaning making. When human interaction takes place in `real' and virtualized space, the mind is the ultimate virtual playground and memory acts as its controller. Through our research designs and testing with digital media projects, VR, and our current and prospective prototypes, we demonstrate the generation of new conceptual lenses, technological forms and experiences that may enrich the lives of elders, with potential benefits for other communities of participants

The CBC Newsworld holodeck

For the past 73 years, the CBC has disseminated a unique Canadian perspective across the world, producing a phenomenally rich multimedia record of the country and our social, political and cultural heritage and news. This project utilizes visualization and sonification of portions of an enormous historical CBC Newsworld data corpus to enable an "on this day" experience for viewers. The digitized collection of 24-hour news videos spans a 24-year period (1989-2013) within an immersive multiscreen environment, to enable gesture-driven context-aware browsing, information seeking, and segment review. Employing natural language processing technologies, the interface displays keywords and key phrases identified in the transcripts, enabling serendipitous video search and display and offering a unique browsing opportunity within this rich "big data" corpus

DEMO_109: The CBC Newsworld Holodeck Exploratory Demonstration

<p>DEMO_109: The CBC Newsworld Holodeck Exploratory Demonstration</p