Adventures in Urban Computing
This is a write-up of my diploma project in interaction design from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The project is entitled ‘Adventures in Urban Computing’ and this weblog post contains a brief project description and a pdf of the diploma report.
This diploma project is an expedition into urban computing, an emerging multi-disciplinary research field that focuses on computing and digital networks in urban contexts and on the cultural and social impact this has on the city. The ‘Adventures in Urban Computing’ is a study of how mobile technology devices can be used as instruments for participatory urban studies. It develops and tests experimental devices that raise urban awareness over time and can facilitate informed discussion.
The project is situated between urbanism and interaction design and works specifically with designing mobile technology devices with the purpose of provoking and gathering opinions about everyday life in cities and towns.
Framework
The first half of the project is a theoretical approach to the field where urban computing is placed, traced and discussed within a framework of current writings on ubiquitous computing, urban studies, technology and design. The framework is made up of critical perspectives from the contemporary urban computing discourse and including among others Anne Galloway, Paul Dourish, Genevieve Bell, Adam Greenfield and Stephen Graham. The central conclusions are these:
- Urban computing research may fruitfully be grounded in the daily practices of the present and not lead by architectural and technological fantasies of the metropolis of tomorrow.
- Urban computing research requires a fundamental cross disciplinary focus. A broader understanding of urban computing includes alternative perspectives and values to the discourse and to the design process.
- The understanding of urban computing and its implications must move beyond real vs virtual conceptual binaries. In daily life digital technology and “real” spaces can not be seen as separate domains.
- Urban computing belongs in the broader context of digital technology in everyday life. It should be understood in relation to both domestic practices and general network culture.
- Urban computing research should take the messiness of everyday life as its central theme. Computing and digital networks will never become the seamless and orderly utopia envisioned in traditional ubicomp research.
These conclusions set a scope within urban computing research that is narrower than the general ‘ubicomp of the city’ interpretation of the field. ‘Adventures in Urban Computing’ is not about everything from security, city maintenance, interactive architecture to sensor networks and spectacular near-future technologies. It is about designing interactions for exploring city usage within the daily practices of today and re-imagining the already mundane network devices of everyday life.
Interruptors
The second part of the diploma is a set of practical explorations that take these reflections as its starting point. These explorations investigates how mobile devices can be used to gather and provoke opinions about the city and how this can raise the awareness of daily urban environments. They focuses on how digital networks and information technologies can be used in collaborative city studies and in strategies/concepts for citizen participation.
The outcome of these studies is the Interruptor experiments. The Interruptors are urban computing prototypes that focuses on the behaviour of mobile devices in relation to the personal urban experience. The Interruptors are a result of experimental device design and fieldwork. The Interruptors are based on an analysis of the behavioral characteristics of the mobile phone. This analysis concludes that the interruptive character of the mobile phone may be an ideal initiator for observation on daily life and the city. This is not a feature of the technological platform, but of the usage of the phone. The interruption is a way for the phone to weave into the daily life.
The Interruptors is a series of devices that interrupts you and asks you to make observations. The Interruptors are networked, location-aware and are meant to be used for long periods of time in order to probe your responses everyday environments. The devices gather observations and opinions and encourage city exploration. The Interrruptor studies conclude in workshops and promotes informed discussions about urban environments. The Interruptors where developed thorough extensive fieldwork and tests and are illustrated though hypothetical case studies of collaborative city analysis and neighbourhood initiatives.
The diploma report can be downloaded here.
More pictures can be found here.
