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Led by Michael Smyth, Centre for Interaction Design, Edinburgh Napier University

The Body and the Urban Space: designing for connection between the augmented human and the intensely technological environment..

Introduction
It is envisaged that the urban spaces of the future will be saturated with both visible and hidden media that gather and transmit information. How we as physical beings connect with, interpret and shape the increase of data residing in our environment will be a significant challenge. The forms in which this data will be presented, and how we decide to conceptualise it, is as yet unknown. Will the technologically enriched environment adapt to accommodate human/city contact points, and, in response, how will we choose to interact with and navigate through, this information landscape?
Today’s urban experience is enhanced by technology that increasingly enables simultaneous existence in both the virtual and real worlds. Such technology offers a number of bridges between these worlds but in so doing places an increased tension on the sense of place and subsequently the identity of the individual. Identity has many components that have to be woven in our everyday lives. It is postulated that in order to cope with the demands of our society, people must be capable of switching between identities actively and quickly while stitching these different identities in place (Hall, 1991).

Approach
Humans have always been in constant engagement with their surroundings, often without being consciously aware of the process or nature of this interaction. By investigating the activities that currently take place in this liminal space we may be able to identify important themes and issues. Taking inspiration from ethnographic design research methods, the workshop will take an experimental approach to the recording of these human activities. By using the everyday technologies that people have to hand, the participants in the workshop will be provided with a new perspective on the traditional techniques that designers have employed, such as the creation of scrapbooks, mood boards and sketches. It is envisaged this approach will widen opportunities for participation in the design process. These can assist the technologists and designers of the future as they work to shape physical and virtual environments in such a way that they can be made sense of and manipulated.

Research Questions The workshop will seek to address questions such as: What form will the information landscape take? How will people adapt their behaviours and indeed how will the nature of the urban landscape alter as increased amounts of information is overlaid on the physical environment? What new products and services will be available given the increase of targeted information aimed at specific communities and interest groups? Will this result in an increase in segmentation and fragmentation associated with the urban experience leading to the possibility of the creation of multiple experiences of the same physical space. What will inform the visual aesthetic of the future information landscape?

Topics for Investigation

• ‘OFF=ON’ – blurring the boundaries between real and virtual objects.
• ‘Urban Computing’ – embedding/overlaying/blending technology in the physical environment to create new hybrid experiences.
• ‘Body Storming’ – acting out roles focussing on intuitive responses prompted by the physical environment.

Preparation
Participants may find it useful to collect research material that would inform and provoke initial group discussions and concept generation sessions. Such material should be wide ranging and may include anything from examples of work from designers / artists / architects, literary and film references even science fiction. Every participant will present his/hers research findings to the other group members. It will provide a good opportunity to begin to assess what approach you may like to take towards the brief and also to introduce yourself and your specific expertise.

Reading/Inspiration
Bullivant, L. (2006) Responsive Environments – Architecture, Art and Design, V&A Publications, London.

Bullivant, L. (2007) 4dsocial interactive design environments, Architectural Design, Vol77, No4.

Scott R. Klemmer, Bjorn Hartmann and Leila Takayama. "How Bodies Matter: Five Themes for Interaction Design". Proceedings of DIS 2006, pp140-149.

"Bodystorming" -- see Marion Buchenau and Jane Fulton Suri, "Experience Prototyping". Proceedings of DIS'00, pp424-433.

"OFF=ON". http://trendwatching.com/trends/offon.htm

References
Benjamin, W. (1997) Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism, Verso Classics, London.
Hall, S. (1991) Stitching yourself in Place, Annual Magazine of the European Network for Cultural and Media Studies, Vol 1, Amsterdam, 4-13.