Center for Digital Urban Living

Announcing Media Architecture Biennale 2012

2012-04-25T08:37:53Z

We are happy to announce that the second Media Architecture Biennale will be hosted in Aarhus, November 15-17. Building on the successful event in Vienna 2010, The Media Architecture Biennale 2012 brings together artists, academia and industry in the continued exploration of the meeting between architecture and digital media.

With public exhibitions, a conference and a series of workshops, the biennale offers many ways to participate and get involved. See the sections below for more details.

The 2012 biennale will extend the existing format with an academic conference track, new exhibition, awards and industry sessions, as well as a full day of workshops.

Sight Unseen: Envisioning the Virtual

2011-05-02T12:59:35Z

Public lecture by Professor Brian Massumi, Département de Communication, Université de Montréal, Canada.

The lecture will examine the status of the virtual in perception. As understood philosophically by thinkers such as C.S. Peirce, Henri Bergson, William James, Gilles Deleuze and A.N. Whitehead (in his notion of “pure potentiality”), the virtual is strictly complementary to the actual. It is a mistake to think of them as opposites or as in contradiction. The virtual is abstract by definition, which means that it cannot be reduced to the empirically present. But neither can it be separated from it. According to the philosophical concept of the virtual, there is a reciprocity between the actual and the virtual that enters actively into the constitution of every act of experience: they are co-gredient to perception. Although the virtual as such cannot appear in perception, its co-gredience to the constitution of experience cannot but make itself felt in some way with each perception’s arising. The question then becomes, in what way does the abstractness of the virtual come with coming perception? How does it make its active implication in experience felt? Applied to vision, this question translates into: what is a virtual image?

The lecture will examine the question of the virtual image through three examples: stereoscopic vision, an optical illusion, and the perception of movement. The status of the virtual “image” will be seen to be different in each case. Only by synthesizing its varieties can a workable account of the concept be obtained. As the concept is developed, it becomes clear that when the virtual comes with vision, it virtually brings along with it other modes of experience. “When any particular kind of feeling is present,” writes Peirce, “an infinitesimal continuation of all feelings differing infinitesimally from that is present.” The question of the virtual cannot be separated from the question of the continuity of experience across sense modes. This question is approached in experimental psychology under the rubric of “cross-modal” or “amodal” experience. After developing the philosophical concept of the virtual, the lecture will briefly consider its relation to, and distinction from, recent currents in experimental psychology, in particular that of “enactive perception,” whose best known proponent (Alva Noë) defends the thesis that vision is virtual.

Brian Massumi is a political theorist, writer and philosopher, and is currently a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Montréal in Quebec Canada. He is well-known for his translations of several major texts in French post-structuralist theory, including Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, Jean-François Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition, and Jacques Attali’s Noise. Massumi has authored several books, among others Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation (2002) and A User’s Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari (1992).

This lecture takes place on
Thursday the 5h of May 2011, 09:15-11:00
Lille Auditorium, INCUBA Science Park
Åbogade 15, 8200 Aarhus N

Public Interfaces

2011-01-05T10:13:26Z

Conference and PhD workshop, 12-14 January, 2011, Aarhus University, Denmark

The conference and Ph.D. workshop brings together researchers from Aarhus University, University of Plymouth, and guests to address the broad theme of Public Interfaces as part of ongoing research in Digital Urban Living. It is organized by Center for Digital Urban Living and DARC (Digital Aesthetics Research Centre), Aarhus University in collaboration with Dept. of Aesthetic Studies.

Emerging from DUL and DARC’s ongoing research around interface criticism, the aim is to broaden issues to encompass the development of urban interfaces, and the changing concept of the ‘public’.

Conference & workshop website

Smart Mistakes, or Business as Usual

2010-10-28T13:09:45Z

Share Festival 2010, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino. November 3, 2010 - 14.00-15.30. Panel hosted by DARC (Digital Aesthetics Research Centre, Aarhus University) and DUL (Digital Urban Living).

Presenters: Christian Ulrik Andersen (DK), Tatiana Bazzichelli (IT/DK), Geoff Cox (UK/DK), and Les Liens Invisibles (IT).

The panel investigates some of the interconnections between art, activism and business. Presenters examine how artists, rather than refusing the market, are generating cultural Trojan horses — social hacks, or “smart errors” — producing critical interventions from within. As the distinction between production and consumption appears to have collapsed, every interaction in the info-sphere seems to be a business opportunity. Therefore, the creative intersections between business and art become a crucial territory for re-invention and the rewriting of symbolic and cultural codes, generating political actions, attempts of social innovations, but also unexpected consequences and a deep level of irony. Errors or mistakes demonstrate the permeability of systems — that these can be reworked — and more so, that radical innovation requires modification of the prevailing business logic.

We are not suggesting these are new issues — as there are many examples of artists making interventions into the art market and alternatives to commodity exchange — but we aim to discuss some of the recent strategies that have emerged from a deep understanding of the net economy and its markets. Examples derive from software development and net cultures, such as peer production, free culture initiatives, gift economies, extreme sharing networks or open source business models. More specifically, we would cite the significance of sharing communities on the net to disrupt the business ecosystem, and offer alternatives even if this comes in compromised form in the case of the social web. And yet, clearly value is produced from the social web too; it becomes more a question of what kind of business model is preferred and how returns, or rather benefits, are distributed. We maintain there is nothing wrong with doing business as such.

In keeping with the term “smart mistakes”, we wish to explore some of these contradictions: that on the one hand, there are alternative or disruptive business models that derive from the art scene, often as critical or activist interventions, but on the other how these practices can be easily co-opted by proprietary business logic. This is perhaps exemplified by the business idea of ‘disruption-innovation’, where disruption is considered to be a creative act that shifts the way a particular logic operates and thus presents newfound opportunities. Does this mean that well-meaning critical strategies of artists and activists are self-defeating? How do we develop disruptive business models that do not simply become new models for business that ultimately follow capitalist logic?

For more on the SHARE Festival program, go to http://www.toshare.it/?page_id=2704〈=en.

Performative Interaction in Public Space

2010-10-21T19:17:17Z

Workshop at CHI 2011, 8 May 2011

..:: Camera ready extended abstract (pdf)

Please note: deadline for submission of position papers has been extended to 18 Feb. See below.

We often use personal digital technologies while public, and more and more public interfaces find their way into our everyday lives. Simultaneously, metaphors from performance and theatre studies find their way into research on these interfaces, addressing how interaction with technology can be understood in a performative sense. However, the term ‘performativity' is rarely addressed in ways that accentuate its nuances and its analytic power, and this is the focus of the workshop.

The workshop is relevant to media theorists, practitioners and/or designers interested in:

Gestural interaction and on-body sensing (e.g. wearable computing/sensing, Wii, Kinect and proprietary systems)
Interactive media art (e.g. installations, performances or mobile experiences)
Public screens or installations (e.g. in public squares, airports, theme parks and science museums)
Interfaces for use in public (e.g. kiosks, tangible and mobile interfaces)

We aim to create a community around performative interactions and will focus on group discussions and activities rather than individual presentations. The goal is a dynamic meeting where discussions evolve as the day progresses.

Three main interpretations of ‘performance' and ‘performativity' are likely to interweave in this workshop:

everyday performances (inspired by Goffman's seminal work). E.g. the social acceptability of technology related actions in public spaces; appropriations of UX discussions as well as spectator and performer roles in interaction.
staged/explicit performances (inspired by performance studies and possibly phenomenology) E.g. using ‘performativity' as a term that allows for a rich understanding of how, and under which circumstances, people interact with technology.
explorative interfaces. E.g. interfaces that are intentionally designed for a playful discovery of its affordances or subversive interfaces addressing use and perception of interfaces (e.g. inspired by critical design).

We seek works-in-progress, early results papers, and theoretical position papers, with preference given to papers that discuss issues of performativity in ways that allow for further development and discussion.

Submit a position paper (appr. 4 pages) using the CHI extended abstracts format (http://chi2011.org/authors/format.html#extendedformat) via email to perf.interact@gmail.com

At least one author of each accepted position paper must register for the workshop and for at least one day of the conference.

Important dates

Submission deadline - ~~Jan 14, 2011~~ extended to Feb 18th
Notification of acceptance - ~~Feb 11, 2011~~ March 1st
Workshop at CHI2011 - May 8, 2011

Organizers

Lone Koefoed Hansen is Assistant Professor at the Department of Aesthetic Studies, Aarhus University. Her main areas of interest are mobile media, design theory, urbanism, aesthetics, digital art, and exploratory ways of combining the above. She is currently partaking in the research project Digital Urban Living, focusing on the interplay between urban life, mobile media, and digital art.

Julie Rico is a PhD student in the Glasgow Interactive Systems Group (GIST) at the University of Glasgow. Her research revolves around the use of performative actions as input for mobile phones, examining user perceptions and the social acceptability of taking part in such interactions. She has explored these issues through a variety of methods including surveys, on-the-street user studies, interviews, and focus groups.

Giulio Jacucci is professor at the School of Art and Design, Aalto University, he has published a PhD on Interaction as Performance and is leading several international projects that apply advanced interface technologies in support of novel interaction formats and experiences. He is chairman of the board and co-founder of MultiTouch LtD a company providing products and services to create scalable multitouch displays.

Stephen Brewster is a professor of human computer interaction at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on sound, haptics, and gestures as ways of interacting with mobile devices. His recent work has included gesture-based interaction that moves away from hand-based gestures and 3D audio as an eyes free media consumption technique.

Daniel Ashbrook is a Senior Researcher in New Mobile Forms and Experiences at Nokia Research Center Hollywood. He has worked for over a decade with mobile and wearable computers; his current research concentrates on the usability of systems while the user is on the go.

Sensorial Cartography

2010-09-30T07:56:10Z

Sensorial Cartography is a seminar by DARC (Digital Aesthetics Research Center) and Digital Urban Living, which shows examples from Roberto Paci Dalò’s works based on urban explorations and expanded cartography.The seminar is held at the Department for Information and Media Studies, october 6th.

Workshop on "Designing for Performative Interactions in Public Spaces"

2010-06-17T07:48:48Z

As part of the Ubicomp2010 conference taking place in Copenhagen 26-29 Sept, members of DUL are co-organising the workshop "Designing for Performative Interactions in Public Spaces".

Deadline for application to participate is approaching fast, read more on the workshop website.

Building on the assumption that every human action in public space has a performative aspect, this workshop seeks to explore issues of mobile technology and interactions in public settings. We will examine the design of performative technologies, the evaluation of user experience, the importance of spectator and performer roles, and the social acceptability of performative actions in public spaces.

The workshop will aim to bring together researchers and practitioners who are interested in the rapidly growing area of technologies supporting use in a public setting, and through this, explore the themes the workshop offers, plan for publications which synthesize together this disparate work, and finally to facilitate future collaborations between participants.

Heritage Matters in Interaction Design

2010-06-04T10:01:00Z

Invited Talk: Professor Elisa Giaccardi, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
June 14, 2010 kl.13.00 – 14.30
IT-Parken Katrinebjerg, Wiener-bygningen, lok 026

Heritage matters are starting to emerge as an important domain for interaction design. Yet we are often stuck with traditional museological frameworks, failing to understand the nature of heritage as cultural process. In this talk I will argue that the means of heritage engagement and production are built not only in space (e.g., the museum exhibition, the heritage site or the natural environment) but also—naturally—over time, where the past can be projected in the present and in the future.

I will explain how this perspective foregrounds the dimension of time and harnesses its tensional flow as it aids in our ability to experience, remember, and imagine. I will show how dialogical structures of conversation capable to articulate past, present, and future experiences might be a useful conceptual resource for interaction design work in the heritage domain. I will also discuss how this perspective can facilitate new ways of understanding design processes focused on the social and cultural aspects of human experience, and promote new design sensibilities.

Elisa Giaccardi is Visiting Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), where she is affiliated with the Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Culture and Technology. Prior to her position at UC3M, she was a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She holds a BA in Modern Humanities, a MA in Media and Communication, and a PhD in Science, Technology and Art Research. Elisa´s work in cultural informatics revolves around the construction and meaning of cultural heritage in the age of information technology. Her contributions to this subject comprise research and design work on collective memories, affective geographies, and civic curatorial practices. She is the recipient of a US National Science Foundation grant investigating use and impact of social technologies in support of sustainable natural heritage practices.

Aesthetic eruptions of the digital

2010-04-20T10:15:33Z

Due to the ash- and eruption related cancellation of the three-day seminar “Interweaving Technologies – the Aesthetics of Digital Urban Living”, you are hereby cordially invited to the mini-seminar “Aesthetic eruptions of the digital”.

KaserneScenen, Aarhus University // 9.30 // Thursday 22 April 2010

This will be a minor seminar of 3-4 hours where we will take our departure in the already prepared presentations by the presenters from the Aarhus area. Additionally, we will have two of the workshops originally intended for the cancelled conference, as Martin Howse and Gordan Savicic will be joining us.

Schedule

9:30 // Presentations in discussion panels (there will also be breaks and time for lunch)
13:30 // Workshops begin with a joint presentation and then we split into groups

Please see the full programme here.

Presentations

Mediating urban life

Nina Gram “Mobile sounds and mediated immediacy”
Kjetil Sandvik “Mixed media, ubiquitous computing and augmented reality as educational format”

Experiencing (interactive) machines

Lotte Philipsen “What is interactivity in digital art?”
Morten Riis “The machine – From divine utopia to everyday gadget”

The politics of networks

Tatiana Bazzichelli “Aesthetics of Common Participation and Networking Enterprises”
Geoff Cox “Democracy 2.0: Les Liens Invisibles”
Christian Ulrik Andersen & Søren Bro Pold “Discursive places: The Talkaoke cases”

Workshops

Read more about the workshops here.

Psychogeophysics Aarhus, by Martin Howse
Wi-fi Cracking Workshop, by Gordan Savicic

Research seminar 21-23 April 2010

2010-04-12T11:22:06Z

INTERWEAVING TECHNOLOGIES - THE AESTHETICS OF DIGITAL URBAN LIVING

/ / / THE CONFERENCE HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO THE TRANSPORT PROBLEMS FOLLOWING THE VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN ICELAND / / /

The urban environment is increasingly formed by the development of digital and mobile media. Although these new technologies are generic in structure, they shape the environment differently, based on the context and site in which they are interwoven.

Latest information, programme etc.: http://darc.imv.au.dk/?page_id=450 Invited talks by:

Michael Bull - "Remaking the Urban? The Audio-Visual Aesthetics of iPod Use."
David Pinder - "Straying with maps: guides to urban dis/orientation"
Markus Kison - presentation of the art project “Touched Echo“

Workshops by:

Aram Bartholl - "Neoanalogue Interventions"
Gordan Savicic - "Wi-fi Cracking Workshop"
Martin Howse - "Psychogeophysics Aarhus"
Jacob Kreutzfeldt, Nina Gram & Morten Breinbjerg - "Urban/Sound/Interfaces"

Plus nine themed discussion panels: http://darc.imv.au.dk/?page_id=1094

Venue: Department of Aesthetic Studies and Department of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University http://darc.imv.au.dk/?page_id=864

AIM AND TOPIC

This conference is aimed at gathering researchers interested in the aesthetics and socio-cultural aspects of situated and ubiquitous technologies. The conference format will comprise invited keynotes and individual presentations of papers. A number of workshops aimed to facilitate further discussions of the conference topics through experimental group work will also be held. All workshops will have to produce an outcome that can be exhibited and presented at the closing reception (as posters or in a medium related to the workshop topic).

As part of the Nordic interdisciplinary research network “The Culture of Ubiquitous Information”,Digital Aesthetics Research Center proudly hosts this conference, which serves as the first out of four research seminars/conferences that the network will facilitate from 2010-2013. The conference is organized and curated by Lone Koefoed Hansen and Lars Bo Løfgreen, Aarhus University.