This one-day workshop explores how playful interaction can be used to develop technologies for public spaces and create temporal experiences

Flint, Tom

Speed, Chris

Williamson, Julie

English

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Playlab: Telling Stories with Technology (Workshop Summary) 
Julie Williamson 
University of Glasgow 
Glasgow, Scotland 
Julie.Williamson@glasgow.ac.uk 
Tom Flint 
Edinburgh Napier University 
Edinburgh, Scotland 
t.flint@napier.ac.uk 
Chris Speed 
Edinburgh College of Art 
Edinburgh Scotland 
c.speed@ed.ac.uk 
ABSTRACT 
This one-day workshop explores how playful interaction can be 
used to develop technologies for public spaces and create temporal 
experiences. 
CCS CONCEPTS 
• Human-centered computing→Field studies   
• Human-centered computing→Activity centered design   
• Human-centered computing→Ubiquitous and mobile 
computing design and evaluation methods 
KEYWORDS 
Playful interaction, storytelling, deployments. 
 
ACM Reference format: 
Julie R. Williamson, Tom Flint, and Chris Speed. 2017. Playlab: 
Telling Stories with Technology (Workshop Summary). 
In Proceedings of 19th ACM International Conference on 
Multimodal Interaction (ICMI’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2 
pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3136755.3137022 
1 ORGANISERS 
This workshop is organised by the current leaders of the 
Scottish Informatics and Computing Science Alliance (SICSA) 
PlayLab short research theme.  SICSA short themes provide 
funding to explore new topics in computing science through 
workshops and events.   
Julie R. Williamson, University of Glasgow 
Julie R. Williamson is a Lecturer in Human Computer 
Interaction (HCI) at the University of Glasgow.  Her research 
focuses on designing and evaluating technologies for public 
spaces including novel display hardware, evaluations of user 
experience, and whole-body interactions.  She has extensive 
experience completing evaluations of novel input and output 
techniques in real world settings.   
Tom Flint, Edinburgh Napier University 
Tom Flint is a lecturer in the School of Computing at 
Edinburgh Napier University.  Tom is a practitioner with a history 
of exhibiting aesthetic interactive work.  Tom’s recently 
completed PhD examined the phenomenon of appropriation 
focusing on interactive art for enquiry.   Tom’s research, practice 
and teaching center around physical computing and creative 
technologies. 
Professor Chris Speed, Edinburgh College of 
Art 
Chris Speed is Chair of Design Informatics at the University of 
Edinburgh where his research focuses upon the Network Society, 
Digital Art and Technology, and The Internet of Things. Chris has 
sustained a critical enquiry into how network technology can 
engage with the fields of art, design and social experience through 
a variety of international digital art exhibitions, funded research 
projects, books journals and conferences 
2 INTRODUCTION TO PLAYLAB 
The goal of the PlayLab short theme is to bring together 
researchers and practitioners interested in playful interaction 
from a variety of disciplines.  Often the focus of our work is on 
overcoming the constraints of specific technologies and learning 
their nuances and various uses.  By concentrating on play and 
playfulness our events and workshops aim to create a 
collaborative and supportive environment where technology is a 
tool for creating fun, happiness and engagement.   
Our workshops and events have explored a range of multimodal 
interaction techniques including multitouch surfaces (infrared 
visual and capacitive hardware), tangible interactive devices, 
whole body input using cameras, projected interfaces, 360º 
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for 
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are 
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies 
bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-
party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact 
the Owner/Author. 
 
ICMI '17, November 13-17, 2017, Glasgow, UK 
© 2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). 
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5543-8/17/11. 
https://doi.org/10.1145/3136755.3137022 
 
672
ICMI’17 November 13-17, 2017, Glasgow, UK  J.Williamson, T.Flint, C.Speed 
 
content and virtual reality experiences.  We are interested in how 
multimodal interaction can create playful public experiences,   
By bringing together researchers and practitioners in this area, we 
will be better placed to examine the role of technology in the 
everyday.  We hope to engage with different critical viewpoints 
from a variety of backgrounds. 
3  PLAYLAB IN THE PAST 
Playlab has produced two events to date: 
March 17th 2016 an evening panel with contributions from 
Robyn Taylor (Openlab Newcastle University) and artist Alan 
Brown.   
November 30th 2016 Playlab Day & Night.  During the day, an 
interactive piece was created from scratch for exhibition that 
evening.  In the evening, we presented the created work and 
hosted talks from Paul Maguire (Glasgow School of Art) and 
artists The Dennis and Debbie Club. 
 
4  PLAYLAB AT ICMI 2017 
4.1 Motivation 
This workshop will examine the creation and production of a 
narrative told with and through interactive technology.  
Participants are expected to take an active part in creating an 
interactive piece that explores storytelling through a multimodal 
installation. 
Our motivation is to explore and critique methods with which 
technology can be used as a medium for storytelling. 
4.2 Expected Outcomes 
This workshop will produce a functioning interactive artwork 
that is driven by narrative.  The piece will be exhibited throughout 
the duration of the conference.  We will work with the conference 
organisers to identify a suitable installation space and timelines.  
There is also an opportunity for workshop participants to 
consider the nature of narrative for creative technology with the 
possibility of producing work for dissemination by publication. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4.3 Impact 
This workshop will afford an opportunity for researchers 
interested in exploring creative uses of technology to collaborate 
and network.  Previous Playlab sessions have led to collaborations 
and further explorations between participants. 
 
5  WORKSHOP FORMAT 
This full-day workshop will involve gathering a group of 
researchers and practitioners in a supportive and collaborative 
creative environment. 
Tentative Program 
The workshop will revolve around the development and 
production of an installation with the majority of the workshop 
time spent building a working prototype. 
The workshop will also make use of the production space 
available in the School of Computing Science at the University of 
Glasgow, which Julie R. Williamson manages.  This is located near 
to the workshop venue and will provide the necessary technical 
support for the workshop. 
10:00 Welcome to workshop participants and overview of 
event 
10:30 Storytelling concepts initial brainstorming session 
11:30 Hardware/technical support overview 
12:00 Concept refinement and plan complete 
1:00 Lunch 
2:00 Workshop build and prototype completion 
5:30 Workshop wrap-up and deployment plan 
Workshop Paper Submission and Review 
This workshop will invite an optional two-page position paper, 
although we will allow any format of submissions, including the 
SIGCHI archival format, poster submission, or any multimedia 
submission. We hope this participation model will ensure a 
diverse group of participants, and allow people from a range of 
disciplines to submit meaningful work.   
Workshop participants will be selected by the organisers based 
on these submissions in a curated review process. 
Application is through the workshop website 
https://icmiplaylab.wixsite.com/playlabworkshop 
 
673


Playlab: Telling Stories with Technology (workshop summary)

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Playlab: Telling Stories with Technology (Workshop Summary) Julie Williamson University of Glasgow Glasgow, Scotland Julie.Williamson@glasgow.ac.uk Tom Flint Edinburgh Napier University Edinburgh, Scotland t.flint@napier.ac.uk Chris Speed Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh Scotland c.speed@ed.ac.uk ABSTRACT This one-day workshop explores how playful interaction can be used to develop technologies for public spaces and create temporal experiences. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing→Field studies   • Human-centered computing→Activity centered design   • Human-centered computing→Ubiquitous and mobile computing design and evaluation methods KEYWORDS Playful interaction, storytelling, deployments.  ACM Reference format: Julie R. Williamson, Tom Flint, and Chris Speed. 2017. Playlab: Telling Stories with Technology (Workshop Summary). In Proceedings of 19th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3136755.3137022 1 ORGANISERS This workshop is organised by the current leaders of the Scottish Informatics and Computing Science Alliance (SICSA) PlayLab short research theme.  SICSA short themes provide funding to explore new topics in computing science through workshops and events.   Julie R. Williamson, University of Glasgow Julie R. Williamson is a Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) at the University of Glasgow.  Her research focuses on designing and evaluating technologies for public spaces including novel display hardware, evaluations of user experience, and whole-body interactions.  She has extensive experience completing evaluations of novel input and output techniques in real world settings.   Tom Flint, Edinburgh Napier University Tom Flint is a lecturer in the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University.  Tom is a practitioner with a history of exhibiting aesthetic interactive work.  Tom’s recently completed PhD examined the phenomenon of appropriation focusing on interactive art for enquiry.   Tom’s research, practice and teaching center around physical computing and creative technologies. Professor Chris Speed, Edinburgh College of Art Chris Speed is Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh where his research focuses upon the Network Society, Digital Art and Technology, and The Internet of Things. Chris has sustained a critical enquiry into how network technology can engage with the fields of art, design and social experience through a variety of international digital art exhibitions, funded research projects, books journals and conferences 2 INTRODUCTION TO PLAYLAB The goal of the PlayLab short theme is to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in playful interaction from a variety of disciplines.  Often the focus of our work is on overcoming the constraints of specific technologies and learning their nuances and various uses.  By concentrating on play and playfulness our events and workshops aim to create a collaborative and supportive environment where technology is a tool for creating fun, happiness and engagement.   Our workshops and events have explored a range of multimodal interaction techniques including multitouch surfaces (infrared visual and capacitive hardware), tangible interactive devices, whole body input using cameras, projected interfaces, 360º Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.  ICMI '17, November 13-17, 2017, Glasgow, UK © 2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5543-8/17/11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3136755.3137022  672ICMI’17 November 13-17, 2017, Glasgow, UK  J.Williamson, T.Flint, C.Speed  content and virtual reality experiences.  We are interested in how multimodal interaction can create playful public experiences,   By bringing together researchers and practitioners in this area, we will be better placed to examine the role of technology in the everyday.  We hope to engage with different critical viewpoints from a variety of backgrounds. 3  PLAYLAB IN THE PAST Playlab has produced two events to date: March 17th 2016 an evening panel with contributions from Robyn Taylor (Openlab Newcastle University) and artist Alan Brown.   November 30th 2016 Playlab Day & Night.  During the day, an interactive piece was created from scratch for exhibition that evening.  In the evening, we presented the created work and hosted talks from Paul Maguire (Glasgow School of Art) and artists The Dennis and Debbie Club.  4  PLAYLAB AT ICMI 2017 4.1 Motivation This workshop will examine the creation and production of a narrative told with and through interactive technology.  Participants are expected to take an active part in creating an interactive piece that explores storytelling through a multimodal installation. Our motivation is to explore and critique methods with which technology can be used as a medium for storytelling. 4.2 Expected Outcomes This workshop will produce a functioning interactive artwork that is driven by narrative.  The piece will be exhibited throughout the duration of the conference.  We will work with the conference organisers to identify a suitable installation space and timelines.  There is also an opportunity for workshop participants to consider the nature of narrative for creative technology with the possibility of producing work for dissemination by publication.                   4.3 Impact This workshop will afford an opportunity for researchers interested in exploring creative uses of technology to collaborate and network.  Previous Playlab sessions have led to collaborations and further explorations between participants.  5  WORKSHOP FORMAT This full-day workshop will involve gathering a group of researchers and practitioners in a supportive and collaborative creative environment. Tentative Program The workshop will revolve around the development and production of an installation with the majority of the workshop time spent building a working prototype. The workshop will also make use of the production space available in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow, which Julie R. Williamson manages.  This is located near to the workshop venue and will provide the necessary technical support for the workshop. 10:00 Welcome to workshop participants and overview of event 10:30 Storytelling concepts initial brainstorming session 11:30 Hardware/technical support overview 12:00 Concept refinement and plan complete 1:00 Lunch 2:00 Workshop build and prototype completion 5:30 Workshop wrap-up and deployment plan Workshop Paper Submission and Review This workshop will invite an optional two-page position paper, although we will allow any format of submissions, including the SIGCHI archival format, poster submission, or any multimedia submission. We hope this participation model will ensure a diverse group of participants, and allow people from a range of disciplines to submit meaningful work.   Workshop participants will be selected by the organisers based on these submissions in a curated review process. Application is through the workshop website https://icmiplaylab.wixsite.com/playlabworkshop  673

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