iDMAa 2009 :: Android, Surface, and QR from Brian McNely on Vimeo.

iDMAa 2009 :: RFID Integration from Brian McNely on Vimeo.

Collaboration and Design in Virtual Worlds

Anachronistic Juxtaposition

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~ The Las Americas Virtual Design Studio Populates in Second Life ~

Guillermo Vasquez de Velasco, Antonieta Angulo, and John Fillwalk :: Ball State University

Antonieta Angulo describes the Las Americas Virtual Design Studio, from conception through implementation. One of the key components was the work of students from ARCH 501 :: Graduate Design Studio at Ball State University. Graduate students were designers for the project, while the IDIAA Immersion Seminar in Virtual Worlds at BSU, a course of undergraduate students, built the environment and carried out the design initiatives.

Angulo notes that “virtual worlds provide a platform in which we construct very compelling experiences,” and she argues that such worlds engage a community of learners by virtue of multiple tools for the exchange of ideas. Innovation through student immersion results in a memorable experience for students that leads to tangible and measurable learning outcomes.

~ Project Lifewerx ~

Dolores Zage, Wayne Zage, Ben Johnston :: Ball State University

Lifewerx is an “immersive virtual collaborative environment” :: Johnston discusses the client-side demands of virtual worlds development as well as the server-side demands of running Lifewerx.

One of the keys is that they can place this environment completely behind a corporate firewall, similar to the recently announced SL Enterprise, but at a drastically reduced cost. Really interesting software and security improvements in the most recent version of Lifewerx which allowed them to focus on their “killer app,” which was desktop sharing. There’s a challenge in integrating the desktop sharing app with the virtual world. Now the desktop appears in the world, just like a firefox or OO window. Fantastic recursion! Desktop in desktop in desktop. Floating desktops living inside the virtual world…

~ Interactive Archaeology ~

Michele A. Chiuni :: Ball State University

Chiuni discusses “Santa Maria Antiqua,” and argues that in archaeology, you often see things you don’t understand, hence the need to attempt to see differently–to shift the field and/or phenomenological perspective. The goal for the virtual world that Chiuni describes is giving visitors to a place like the Roman Forum something more interactive, something besides the standard visual tools (signage, etc). With the application Chiuni has developed, one can actually view a virtual model of historical excavation of the site, for example. Fly-through visualization gives one a sense of the original configuration of the site, the early excavation of the site, etc. One can move between 3 different stages of existence at the site, adding to one’s concomitant material experience.

It’s important to connect documentation to the visualizations, indicating–through the same interface–how credible documentation (photographic :: discursive :: survey drawings, etc) supports the claims made by the visual presentation. The entire site is surveyed with a laser scanner, and there are hopes for incorporating wearable computing devices eventually for folks navigating the material environment.

~ Why Art in Virtual Worlds? e-Happenings, Relational Milieux and “Second Sculpture” ~

Patrick Lichty :: Columbia College, Chicago

Patrick Lichty @ iDMAa 2009

Lichty discussed the semiotic qualities of contemporary art in Second Life. He described several compelling examples of digital art in SL, discussing the ways in which art meets and/or confronts the subject in virtual worlds. He discussed a transgressive approach (for example, one becomes trapped in a tornado if one uses the phrase “new media” :: release is predicated upon an apology). These projects are from Gazira Babeli, who suggests that “body of code is body of work”

Lichty discussed the work of Cao Fei, another artist trying to engage both the high art community and the virtual worlds community. Lichty moved on to discuss the idea of the “the Happening” as manifest through “Second Front” on SL.

He argues for “Affect and Engagement” :: “In the end, arguments can be made for formalism, avant-ism, etc.” :: “What is important is that there are elements of affect and social engagement that translate between worlds, genres” :: “social media demands social art”

“Design for the Future” :: Tom Kelley, IDEO

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Tom Kelley’s keynote presentation discussed the blurring of the line between design and innovation, and perhaps more importantly, the notion of pace in relation to these two elements.

He begins with a venn diagram that suggests principles that guide IDEO: Design Thinking —> :: People [ desireable ] :: Business [ viable ] :: Technical [feasible] ::

Kelley describes a project analyzing the supply chain for Kraft Foods, and notes that “we start here,” meaning that the Design Thinking venn diagram constitutes an operative framework for tackling professional problems :: begin with the humans in the supply chain :: approach problems from the human side, not solely trucks/infrastructure [ for me, this is similar to the language ~ communication efficacy ~ documentation ~ circulation problems discussed in Actor Network Theory, and in projects from researchers at places like WIDE ].

Kelley discusses The Red Queen effect, a notion from Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass: “if you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The pace of innovation has changed: “Sony didn’t stop innovating,” says Kelley; they just slowed the pace of their innovation, and were passed by Samsung.

The 10 Faces of Innovation

The Learning Roles

• The Anthropologist [ ethnography :: observation ]
• The Experimenter [ taking risks :: make :: do ]
• The Cross-Pollinator [ knowledge work :: distributed work :: homophily + dissonance ]

The Organizing Roles

• The Hurdler
• The Collaborator
• The Director

The Building Roles

• The Experience Architect
• The Set Designer
• The Caregiver
• The Story Teller

Kelley hones in on two of these components of innovation, the first of which is The Anthropologist :: “The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes” ~ Proust. “On a per capita basis,” Kelley says, “we’re probably the biggest employer of anthropologists in America.” “Anthropology is too important to be left to anthropologists.”

Kelley is basically arguing that people don’t notice the quotidian aspects of experience design; this is where observational study, ethnography, and applied anthropology come to the fore [ I'm thinking here specifically of Dan Lockton's Design with Intent methods ].

Kelley moves to a discussion of The Experience Architect, one of the faces of innovation which is paired nicely with the work of The Anthropologist. The Experience Designer is concerned with addressing needs, while The Anthropologist is concerned with identifying those needs.

Story :: Narrative :: Discourse :: Rhetoric

From the perspective of my own disciplinary expertise, experience design is always already a conflation between the material and the lingustic ~ the stuff and the discourse about that stuff ~ Stuff + Stories.

Like Herigstad, experience design for Kelley is about the vanishing interface :: the interface mediates, but the effective interface elides that mediation.

]]> http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/blog/design-for-the-future/feed/ 0 http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/blog/tweeting-idmaa-2009/ http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/blog/tweeting-idmaa-2009/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:40:05 +0000 Brian McNely http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/?p=296 Several Twitter users are already effectively backchanneling and broadcasting information about this year’s iDMAa Conference using the hashtag #iDMAa09 on Twitter.

Current Twitter users attending and updating from the conference include:

• Chris Blair ~ @DMSprof
• Rafael Fajardo ~ @RafaelFajardo
• Deloy Cole ~ @deloy
• BSU Daily News ~ @dn_campus
• John Strauss ~ @indyjohn
• Glenn Platt ~ @glennplatt
• Mike Bloxham ~ @BSUBloxham
• OMMA Ed:Blog ~ @ommaedblog
• Logan Braman ~ @lmbraman
• Becky Rother ~ @beckyrother
• Jessica S. ~ @digitaljess
• Michael Adamson ~ @madamson
• Joe Mandese ~ @jmandese
• Brad King ~ @Brad_King
• Brian McNely ~ @bmcnely
• Ashley Fitch Blair ~ @afblair
• Alexandra Samuel ~ @awsamuel
• Jenn Milks ~ @JennMilks
• IDIAlab ~ @idialab

Additionally, Rafael Fajardo has created a Twitter List of iDMAa 2009 participants, and tweets are being archived on FriendFeed.

If you’re tweeting from the conference, and I’ve left you off of this list, please include your name and Twitter username in the comments and I’ll update the post!

“Beyond Screens: Redefining the Media Space” :: Dale Herigstad, Chief Creative Officer, Schematic

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Herigstad is interested in discussing innovation, both within his company, within iDMAa, and within new media spaces. Beta = “putting things out there” :: Herigstad notes that innovation is predicated upon new norms of speed–”we design for now, and imagine the future.”

Much of Herigstad’s keynote involves rethinking conceptions of space and place. He describes two spaces within the context of media creation and consumption: “interaction space” and “content space.” The relationship between these two spatial norms constitutes a s sweet spot for interface creation and innovation, based upon characteristics such as distance gestures and touch gestures, both of which must consider notions of place and scale in terms of public spaces ~ small group spaces (friends/family) ~ and personal spaces.

Herdigstad moves on to discuss spatial navigation in traditional, linear media consumption :: what is the space of the screen? how is it rendered and revealed? how can it be manipulated and shifted?

He describes gestural interfaces in which applications are surfaced in one space; there’s no moving away from or to different applications–the interface is the application, and components are colocated and coterminous. He discusses previous work with Home Shopping Network, Sony, Windows Media Center, Vongo, etc.

Herigstad moves on to a discussion of layering (a concept with rich implications for GPS and geolocative social interaction), and how this notion related to both content and experiences, describing these ideas from within the context of a major project with Accenture.

Ultimately, Harigstad is interested in interaction with, by, and through no devices, no remote :: haptics ~ movement ~ touch ::

In the future, Herigstad sees stereoscopic 3D and related navigation processes. He shows a really interesting graphic depicting human/media interaction from artwork to stereoscopic 3D, from 2D distal interaction with a painting to AR interaction within media to VR, to stereoscopic 3D, which essentially expands media to surround the participant rather than the participant entering into the space of media.

One of the final projects he describes is The Cannes Lions Touchwall, a 5′ x 12′ screen that constitutes a digital watering hole ~ the wall offers many connection possibilities based upon Time ~ Connections ~ Space :: RFID enabled, the interface encouraged ambient connections based upon predetermined information about registered participants. Social information connects participants; the entire display is haptic, public, integrated with mobile devices.

No real explicit talk of social triangulation in ITV so far… Context connections yes, but spatial connections triangulated by the social (see Bloxham’s tweet) seem absent.

Overall, a wonderful beginning to iDMAa 2009!

]]> http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/blog/beyond-screens/feed/ 0 http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/blog/tracking-idmaa-2009/ http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/blog/tracking-idmaa-2009/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:46:47 +0000 Brian McNely http://www.idmaa.org/idmaa2009/?p=260 Welcome to Muncie, and to Ball State University!

While there are likely to be several backchannels at this year’s event, I wanted to take a moment to encourage Twitter users to interact at iDMAa with the primary conference hashtag: #iDMAa09.

We’ll be archiving all such tweets over on FriendFeed, where you are also encouraged to subscribe to the iDMAa 2009 Group.

Your humble bloggers can be found on Twitter:

Brian McNely ~ @bmcnely
Brad King ~ @Brad_King

Please feel free to list Twitter usernames in the comments, and please don’t hesitate to ping! See you at the conference!