UrbanIxD project: now at www.urbanixd.eu

NEWS! (June 2012)

Call for Participation: Interaction Design Workshop at NordiCHI 2012

Future Interactions:

Using Critical Design Approaches to Explore Urban Data Transactions

This interaction design workshop, at NordiCHI 2012 in Copenhagen, will address the question of how we, as individuals, might gain value from the exchange of data on a near-future urban setting. Together with a rapid ethnographic study of data exchange, the workshop will adopt a critical design approach as a means to reveal and examine potential issues around the design for this new landscape.

Important Dates

August 17th, 2012 – Submission deadline of workshop papers
August 24th, 2012 – Notification of acceptance
October 14th, 2012 – Workshop at NordiCHI 2012

Workshop website:  http://futureurbaninteractions.wordpress.com/

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UrbanIxD FP7 Proposal

We care currently working on a Coordination Action proposal for the European Commission under the Future and Emerging Technologies programme, with the working title of UrbanIxD. This Support Action will define a coherent multidisciplinary research community working in the domain of technologically augmented, data-rich urban environments, with particular focus on the human activities, experiences and behaviours that occur within them (Interaction Design).
The project will employ a “Critical Design” methodology to explore social and technological issues that will be important to future FET research agendas. This Critical Design methodology will act as a catalyst for reflection and examination, leading to a high-profile public outreach programme, including an exhibition, and will enable the production of an informed Research Agenda output. This Agenda document will use the exploratory design activities carried out across the duration of the project to reflect upon emergent issues, and synthesise these into a focussed statement on future research directions.
Interaction Design, in an urban context, (UrbanIxD) is an increasingly important field of research. City populations are currently in a state of rapid flux. Conurbations are fast becoming a hybrid of the physical environment and the digital world. How we, as physical beings, will connect with, interpret and adapt this increasing dataflow residing in our cities is already becoming a significant research question.

UrbanIxd project partners:
Dr Michael Smyth, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Dr Martin Brynskov, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Gianluca Zaffiro, Telecom Italia, Italy
Dr Ivica Mitrovic, University of Split, Croatia

We are delighted that we already have the support of the following people who will join us as advisors:

Prof DK Arvind
Chair in Distributed Wireless Computation, University of Edinburgh, UK

Attila Bujdosó
Architect, senior research supervisor, Kitchen Budapest, Hungary

Jason Bruges
Creative Director of Jason Bruges Studio, UK

Prof Richard Coyne
Professor of Architectural Computing, University of Edinburgh

Prof Paul Dourish
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine US

Prof Ernest Edmonds
Director, Creativity and Cognition Studios, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Chair in the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University, UK

Prof Dr Alois Ferscha
Institut für Pervasive Computing, Johannes Kepler University, Austria

Associate Prof Marcus Foth
Director, Urban Informatics Research Lab, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Carlos J. Gómez de Llarena
Med44, Media Architect & Interaction Designer, New York, US

Adam Greenfield
Founder and managing director, Urbanscale, US

Usman Haque
Founder of Pachube.com

Rob van Kranenburg
Founder, the Internet of Things Council, Belgium

Roderick McCall
The University of Luxembourg

Mark Shepard
Departments of Architecture and Media Study, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, US

Prof Andrew Shoben, FRBS
Goldsmiths, University of London
Founder, Greyworld, UK

Martijn de Waal
The Mobile City, The Netherlands

The City in Cinema:

how popular culture can influence research agendas

The European Future Technologies Conference and Exhibition 2011 is the second instalment of a new forum dedicated to frontier research in information and communication technologies.

FET11 :: http://www.fet11.eu

More details :: http://informingurbanfutures.wordpress.com/fet11-session-2/

The City in Cinema: How Popular Culture can Influence Research Agendas

Where can researchers find inspiration for the transformative applications, concepts and infrastructures that they believe will characterise the next decade? One approach to predicting the future is to reflect on the visions of the future that have been proposed in the past, and question how these visions are actively shaping our present. This session looks at the way in which cinema’s portrayal of the future city has been a source of inspiration for scientists, technologists and commentators.

Proposed Speakers

- Michael Smyth, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
– Ingi Helgason, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
– Ivica Mitrović, Arts Academy, University of Split, Croatia
– Gianluca Zaffiro, Telecom Italia, Torino, Italy

Session organiser: Ingi Helgason

Primary affiliation: Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Position: Researcher

Date: Thursday 05 May, 16:00