tangible technology
environmental (inspired by Sterling and Thackara)
a service
physical interaction
help people (socially, environmentally)
crime prevention
From proposed briefs on the AHO web page (institutter-institutt for industridesign-internt), I found these themes interesting
(4. Design of public and government services)
“…looks at how user needs and user requirements can improve public services, both in terms of content, methods and presentation.”
(7. Emotional computing)
The choices we make are increasingly emotionally driven. “…explore emotional computing, desire and design in a digital context and develop tools, methods and solutions that develop this further …an understanding of digital lifestyle (digital solutions as a reflection and central part of individual identity contstruction)
(9. Embedded intelligence)
Computers are becoming invisible and woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. This theme has a focus upon embedding intelligence and the consequences this will have for our daily lives. The focus here is on technology enabling behaviour, whereas nr. 2 is focussing upon behaviour pulling technology.
(10. Art as innovation in Interaction Design)
Artists often innovate with technology and interaction as part of their projects. This can be either by intention through pushing specific boundaries or through developing novel means of communicating an artistic message. This theme looks at artistic creativity from an interaction design point of view. It could be used to give industry new insights into technology and its role in society.
Why are they interesting, and what can we learn from, artistic pieces like Information Labs Cell Phone Disco and Usman Haques Sky Ear + all the other projects I looked at last term..
(12.Social software)
How can people be protected from themselves. (This evening – Monday the 17th Sept 2007) there was a report on Dagsrevyen about a girl who had been harassed into changing identity and moving away from her family at the age of 14, after being filmed and published naked by her “boyfriend”. Can we trust anybody anymore? Fortress society. Design Against Crime?
(14.Service Design for Tomra)
Tomra is a successful organisation that has traditionally had a product focus in product development. Recently it has become aware that is a hybrid service/product organisation. This project is to work with Tomra and to consider them a service organisation and suggest strategic and design solutions based upon this.
I have always been fascinated by this company, and the enormous system that works behind their little machines, placed in the far corner of most grocery stores. They do a great job for the environment, but in order to survive, they’ll need to constantly reinvent themselves. In a way that maintains the special Tomra identity/ environmental concerns. It IS possible to be economically efficient AND be environmental at the same time!
(21. Social objects)
There is an explosion of services and tools on the internet that serve people’s social needs: friend finders, social networks, event finders, mobile social software, etc. This activity currently takes place on screen, and is generally a private activity. But can we design, build and adapt physical objects that make social networks visible in more tangible ways? Can we design information-rich objects that help specific areas; teenage problems, group organisation, subcultures, family life or other social needs.
Further inspirational reading:
http://www.shirky.com/writings/situated_software.html
“Situated software isn’t a technological strategy so much as an attitude about closeness of fit between software and its group of users, and a refusal to embrace scale, generality or completeness as unqualified virtues.”
I would love to ground work involving tangible interactive technology and research on emotional computing and social and situated software on a specific social “problem” in the context of Norway or Oslo, only I don’t know what yet. Environmental, pollution, privatisation of the coastline, dumping of poisonous slug in the Oslo fjord, the problem with cabins/ holiday homes being built all over the place and ruining wild life, safety in the city (not very relevant if it’s true that Oslo is the safest capitol in the world to live in, according to the UN). Safety on the streets – there are so many roads across our stretched country, possibilities for commuters, safety for lorry drivers..
I would like to use everything I have learnt, and am still learning, about interaction and service design.
Artistic approach.
