[spectre] Designing the Not-Quite-Yet: Ideas and Methods for engaging the Public in a Digital Future of their Choice

[Virginia Simpson]

Call for participation in a workshop on 14th Sept, during HCI2006 
(www.hci2006.org) 

Designing the Not-Quite-Yet: Ideas and Methods for engaging the Public in a 
Digital Future of their Choice 

How do we broaden the constituency of design? How do we help people
engage with social and political transformations engendered by
technology? How do we enable the appropriation of an invasive, yet
intangible, 'internet of things’? 

This workshop will explore the potential of innovative methods, such as 
performance, public art, games, etc, to:
* deliver methods that help people do 'design thinking',
* widen the design franchise,
* base the design of future technologies more closely on society's
needs and desires. 

The day is intended to open discussion on how to engage more people in 
design in the context of an increasingly digital world – one in which 
designed information spaces surround the ordinary spaces we occupy. Ambient 
intelligence, pervasive computing, augmented reality, smart buildings and 
clothes, identity tagging, 
 the digital future is promised as connectivity 
'anytime, anywhere', as seamless flows of information between environments, 
objects and people. More than ever this will see social practices and 
institutions embedded in technology. 

The social challenges arising from these developments have been noted, but 
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) specialists have not fully engaged with the 
question of how to design for them. These challenges are particularly 
interesting because they require users to think like designers or submit to 
being run by the software surrounding them. This workshop asks how we can 
create the competent and empowered 'end-designer'. 

We would expect methods drawn from the arts, education and science/social 
science to be relevant and we invite you to bring them and share them at 
this event running during HCI2006. So if you work to involve, engage or 
educate the public on the potential of digital technology – especially in 
innovative or experiential ways – or you'd like to know more about how to do 
it, sign up. The emphasis will be on sharing practical work, not formal 
presentations. 

A particular feature of this workshop is the participation of a group of 
artists commissioned by Space (a London media arts and education charity) 
under the umbrella of looking at the potential of identity tagging 
technologies, such as RFID, and communicating this potential to the public. 
They will be demonstrating their work on public engagement to the wider 
conference during the afternoon. There will also be a chance for other 
participants to showcase their methods alongside these interactive exhibits. 
So, it is a chance to take HCI in a truly interdisciplinary direction and 
feed this into the conference as a whole. 

Please note that attending this workshop is a little different from most 
conference workshops as it is running alongside the conference itself and 
parts of the day will see the two events merging. The approximate schedule 
is as follows: 

Meet 9.30 for brief introductions, before heading on to: 

Alan Newell of the University of Dundee and Maggie Morgan of Foxtrot Theatre 
HCI2006 keynote on using performance to elicit design requirements. 

~11am – 1pm: Workshop participants share experience and practice. 

~2pm – 3.30: A panel-type session will provide an opportunity for leading 
experiential learning tasters and exhibit artworks/demos – this will be open 
to the general conference to attend. Workshop participants will lead this 
(mostly by prior agreement) and it will be a chance to experience the 
methods talked of. 

~4pm – 5.30 Participants regroup, review progress and look to the future. 

Attending:
It is possible to sign up just for the workshop by paying the workshop 
registration fee (this will include entrance to the conference sessions 
mentioned above). If you are at the conference, you may sign up for the 
workshop without cost by sending an expression of interest as outlined 
below. (If you do sign up, you will be expected to attend all of it.) 

Expression of interest:
In all cases, to participate please send Ann Light (annl at dcs.qmul.ac.uk) a 
description of your work/interest up to a maximum of 3 pages by 9th June. 
Please include any practical activities you would like to lead in the 
session and whether you are interested in demonstrating/describing these to 
a wider conference group. You will be notified of our decision by 16th June, 
in time for the end of early-bird registration (23rd June). 

Workshop organisers:
Ann Light is a member of the Interaction, Media and Communication Group at 
Queen Mary University of London and co-runs a campaign called "Transform-Ed" 
(www.transform-ed.org) on bridging the divide in society's comprehension of 
the potential of digital networks. She is chair of trustees for a digital 
media charity (www.fiankoma.org) and edits UsabilityNews 
(www.usabilitynews.com) on a part-time basis. She was once a drama teacher 
and still uses this background in her interpretation of 'interaction 
design'. 

Pat Healey leads the Interaction, Media and Communication Group and 
Augmented Human Interaction Laboratory at QMUL. He is interested in the 
potential of digital technologies to provide uniquely flexible media which 
transform human communication. Pat's research applies models of human 
communication - drawn mainly from psychology and sociology - to 
understanding these processes. 

Gini Simpson is the head of SPACE Media Arts, based in Hackney, East London. 
SPACE Media Arts undertakes large scale electronic arts projects linking 
artists and communities and provides open access to new technology in East 
London. This has included working with award winning artists, street gangs 
from Bow and patients at a London psychiatric hospital. Previous to this, 
Gini worked for DDB Advertising and Magic Lantern productions iTV. She has 
produced art events nationally and internationally, including the production 
of the first New Media marquee and field at Glastonbury Festival.