Proceedings of The International Symposium on Pervasive Displays - PerDis '14, 2014
In this paper, we describe our Research-in-the-Wild driven methodology to tackle a complex range ... more In this paper, we describe our Research-in-the-Wild driven methodology to tackle a complex range of social, technical and interactional issues when implementing networked Urban Screens in London and Nottingham, UK [1]. The diversity of the local communities provides a unique opportunity for the research to examine interactions within the town centres, as well as UK-wide.
This paper draws on the design process, implementation and early evaluation results of an urban s... more This paper draws on the design process, implementation and early evaluation results of an urban screens network to highlight the tensions that emerge at the boundary between the technical and social aspects of design. While public interactive screens in urban spaces are widely researched, the newly emerging networks of such screens present fresh challenges. Researchers wishing to be led by a diverse user community may find that the priorities of some users, directly oppose the wishes of others. Previous literature suggests such tensions can be handled by 'goal balancing', where all requirements are reduced down to one set of essential, implementable attributes. Contrasting this, this paper's contribution is 'Tension Space Analysis', which broadens and extends existing work on Design Tensions. It includes new domains, new representational methods and offers a view on how to best reflect conflicting community requirements in some aspects or features of the design.
Highly diverse settings such as London (with people from ~179 countries speaking ~300 languages) ... more Highly diverse settings such as London (with people from ~179 countries speaking ~300 languages) are unique in that ethnic or socio-cultural backgrounds are no longer sufficient to generate a sense of place, belonging and community. Instead, residents actively perform place building activities on an ongoing basis, which we believe is of great importance when deploying interactive situated technologies in public spaces. This paper investigates community and place building within a complex multicultural context. We approached this using ethnography, complemented with workshops in the wild. By studying the relationships arising between different segments of the community and two networked screen nodes, we examine the place building activities of residents, and how screen nodes are incorporated into them. Our research suggests that urban screens will be framed (and eventually used) as part of this continuing process of social, spatial and cultural construction. This highlights the importance of enabling socially meaningful relations between the people mediated by these technologies.
In this paper we introduce the notion of media architectural interfaces (MAIs), which describe th... more In this paper we introduce the notion of media architectural interfaces (MAIs), which describe the relation between users engaging with dynamic content on media façades through tangible artifacts on street level. Firstly, we outline existing research concerned with public displays, urban screens and media facades, secondly we summarize related works that explore mediated urban interactions in connection with MAIs. We report on the technical set up of a field study, in which we deployed a novel tangible user interface (TUI), called the Smart Citizen Sentiment Dashboard (SCSD). This device gives citizens the opportunity to express their mood about local urban challenges. The input from this TUI is then instantly displayed on a very large (3700 sqm) media façade. The installation ran for three weeks during a media arts festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During this deployment period, we were able to gather data to help us understand the relationship between passers-by, participants, the TUI and the media façade. As a result we identified emergent behavior in the immediate space around the TUI and the wider urban space. The contribution this paper makes is in highlighting challenges in the design and deployment of large-scale media architectural interfaces.
In this paper we focus on the spatial configuration and emergent social interactions in two locat... more In this paper we focus on the spatial configuration and emergent social interactions in two locations in London mediated by interactive and networked urban displays. Our analysis draws upon interactions mediated through displays we implemented in the real world connecting four urban spaces . We outline our case study and the methodology we implemented, including the analysis of the spatial layout on the micro/local scale in two sites, followed by the observations of social behavior and technologically mediated interactions by actors, spectators and passers-by during two community events, before finally outlining the following identified interaction zones: 1) direct interaction space surrounding the display (direct); 2) the surrounding public space (wide); and 3) across spatial boundaries i.e. the remotely connected space through networked displays (connected) over time. We highlight site-specific interactions and compare them to the more generic types of interactions, thus contributing to the understanding of mediated social interactions. We suggest that the properties of the spatial layout play a significant role and, to a certain extent, frame the type of interactions mediated through public displays. We highlight in particular the dynamic and interconnected nature of this mediation, defined through the spatial layout, people, type of social activities, and time of the day.
Proceedings of The International Symposium on Pervasive Displays - PerDis '14, 2014
In this paper, we describe our Research-in-the-Wild driven methodology to tackle a complex range ... more In this paper, we describe our Research-in-the-Wild driven methodology to tackle a complex range of social, technical and interactional issues when implementing networked Urban Screens in London and Nottingham, UK [1]. The diversity of the local communities provides a unique opportunity for the research to examine interactions within the town centres, as well as UK-wide.
This paper draws on the design process, implementation and early evaluation results of an urban s... more This paper draws on the design process, implementation and early evaluation results of an urban screens network to highlight the tensions that emerge at the boundary between the technical and social aspects of design. While public interactive screens in urban spaces are widely researched, the newly emerging networks of such screens present fresh challenges. Researchers wishing to be led by a diverse user community may find that the priorities of some users, directly oppose the wishes of others. Previous literature suggests such tensions can be handled by 'goal balancing', where all requirements are reduced down to one set of essential, implementable attributes. Contrasting this, this paper's contribution is 'Tension Space Analysis', which broadens and extends existing work on Design Tensions. It includes new domains, new representational methods and offers a view on how to best reflect conflicting community requirements in some aspects or features of the design.
Highly diverse settings such as London (with people from ~179 countries speaking ~300 languages) ... more Highly diverse settings such as London (with people from ~179 countries speaking ~300 languages) are unique in that ethnic or socio-cultural backgrounds are no longer sufficient to generate a sense of place, belonging and community. Instead, residents actively perform place building activities on an ongoing basis, which we believe is of great importance when deploying interactive situated technologies in public spaces. This paper investigates community and place building within a complex multicultural context. We approached this using ethnography, complemented with workshops in the wild. By studying the relationships arising between different segments of the community and two networked screen nodes, we examine the place building activities of residents, and how screen nodes are incorporated into them. Our research suggests that urban screens will be framed (and eventually used) as part of this continuing process of social, spatial and cultural construction. This highlights the importance of enabling socially meaningful relations between the people mediated by these technologies.
In this paper we introduce the notion of media architectural interfaces (MAIs), which describe th... more In this paper we introduce the notion of media architectural interfaces (MAIs), which describe the relation between users engaging with dynamic content on media façades through tangible artifacts on street level. Firstly, we outline existing research concerned with public displays, urban screens and media facades, secondly we summarize related works that explore mediated urban interactions in connection with MAIs. We report on the technical set up of a field study, in which we deployed a novel tangible user interface (TUI), called the Smart Citizen Sentiment Dashboard (SCSD). This device gives citizens the opportunity to express their mood about local urban challenges. The input from this TUI is then instantly displayed on a very large (3700 sqm) media façade. The installation ran for three weeks during a media arts festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During this deployment period, we were able to gather data to help us understand the relationship between passers-by, participants, the TUI and the media façade. As a result we identified emergent behavior in the immediate space around the TUI and the wider urban space. The contribution this paper makes is in highlighting challenges in the design and deployment of large-scale media architectural interfaces.
In this paper we focus on the spatial configuration and emergent social interactions in two locat... more In this paper we focus on the spatial configuration and emergent social interactions in two locations in London mediated by interactive and networked urban displays. Our analysis draws upon interactions mediated through displays we implemented in the real world connecting four urban spaces . We outline our case study and the methodology we implemented, including the analysis of the spatial layout on the micro/local scale in two sites, followed by the observations of social behavior and technologically mediated interactions by actors, spectators and passers-by during two community events, before finally outlining the following identified interaction zones: 1) direct interaction space surrounding the display (direct); 2) the surrounding public space (wide); and 3) across spatial boundaries i.e. the remotely connected space through networked displays (connected) over time. We highlight site-specific interactions and compare them to the more generic types of interactions, thus contributing to the understanding of mediated social interactions. We suggest that the properties of the spatial layout play a significant role and, to a certain extent, frame the type of interactions mediated through public displays. We highlight in particular the dynamic and interconnected nature of this mediation, defined through the spatial layout, people, type of social activities, and time of the day.
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Papers by Moritz Behrens