Roma Patel and Andreas Reiter, both of the MRL, will give short talks on their PhDs to the research group.
Roma Patel: Wearable Scenography
In this talk, I will present some of the finding of a recent study undertaken with young audiences and performers at the Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham. This interdisciplinary doctoral research examines the capabilities and limitation that current digital technologies, such as, wearables and smart materials have on enhancing live audience’s participation and interactivity with scenography and costumes. I will discuss the affordance of objects to influence interaction and how disruption can offer new experiences to facilitate curiosity and surprise that can stimulate further exploration. When an audience member uses ‘wearable scenography’ to reconfigure a theatre space or costume, they can increase their own sense of agency and imagination . ‘The young child as a ‘maker’ of imaginary world, is a kind of poet and is in command of considerable intellectual resources, developed and exercised by such imaginative world.’ (Egan,1999. pp30)
Egan, K (1999) Children’s Minds, Talking Rabbits, and Clockwork Oranges, Teachers College Press
Andreas Reiter: Innovation, hacker-& Maker spaces and the practice of situated DIY Design
Innovation is at the heart of the digital economy, however it can be argued that little attention has been paid to its emergent and contingent character. The maker movement, in turn, has received wide recognition as providing spaces for innovation, receiving support by DARPA. Using data gathered in 7 months of fieldwork in Nottingham Hackspace, I will present and discuss a salient feature of everyday interactions there, arguably at the interactional onset of innovation: advice giving. As such, I will present instances of ad-hoc (read: “created for the purpose as necessary”), tailored, situated mutual assistance. These predominantly turn upon the managed visibility of ongoing interactional work, sharing of material resources and a knowledge of members displayed competencies. They present themselves in two main pathways: solicited and unsolicited by the advice-recipient. Finally, I will reflect on how these findings might relate and augment our current understandings of Innovation and Design.