Research Students in the HMI Research School and at the Interactive Institute are hereby invited to participate in the HMI Summer School 1999 on
New Interfaces: Design and Aesthetics in Human Machine Interaction
Venue: CID & IPLab, NADA, KTH, Stockholm
Time: Saturday afternoon, June 12, until Friday evening, June 18
Please note (see below) that we want registration as soon as possible, including position statement with project idea, and that we have to limit the number of participants to 24!
Purpose
The purpose of the summer school is to investigate new interface devices and
techniques and the relations between disciplines, which may need to be established
to effectively explore their potential. Contemporary HMI research is seeing
an increasing interest in such varied techniques as virtual reality (VR, where
users are presented with a computer graphical world intended to give them a
sense of presence in an artificial place), smart artefacts and reactive environments
(where computational capability is built into everyday objects and physical
environments), and agent-based interaction (where a user's interaction with
information is mediated by a computational agent). In each of these cases, new
alternatives to desktop-based, direct manipulation paradigms for interaction
are being explored, along with new physical devices and, for that matter, underlying
research philosophies .
The summer school will explore the challenges made by these and other new interfaces to approaches to design in HMI. For example, in research in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), several workers have employed ethnographic social scientific field studies to inform system development. How might these methods be employed to study interaction in virtual worlds or with an artificial agent when the tradition they draw upon very strongly insists on studying real-world interaction between human participants? A growing theme in contemporary research concerns a re-evaluation of the roles different disciplines can play in HMI design. While the contributions of computer science, ergonomics and psychology are well established in HMI, and, in many areas (especially CSCW), the voices of sociologists and anthropologists can be heard, the new interfaces are attracting attention from media-artists, graphical and industrial designers amongst others. Indeed, a specific purpose of the summer school is to examine the work of artists and designers who are exploring new media and interaction techniques from aesthetic standpoints. The value of the incorporation of these traditions and their methods into HMI and the importance of aesthetic criteria in design will be specifically examined.
Tentative schedule
June 12 15.00 Get-together - introduction by John Bowers,
NADA, KTH
June 13 morning Lecture by Susanne Bødker, computer and design scientist,
Aarhus University after- Lecture by Sally Jane Norman, artist and noon writer,
ZKM Karlsruhe evening Joint dinner
June 14 morning Lecture by Dan O¹Sullivan, Tisch School of the Arts,
New York Univ
afternoon Introduction to project work
evening Project work
June 15 morning Lecture by Tom Rodden, computer scientist with
multidisciplinary project experience, Lancaster University
afternoon Continued project work
June 16 morning Lecture by John B and Yngve S
afternoon Continued project work
June 17 all day Finalising project work
June 18 morning Presentation and reflection on project results
afternoon "Public" exhibition
The speakers are associated with varied orientations to the design of
new interfaces.
Projects
The ensuing practical work will be conducted in small groups (4persons) and
will be devoted to construction of some chosen artefactor device, or demonstrating
some novel interaction technique. Aninformal, yet public, exhibition of the
students' work is planned toclose the summer school after a set of internal
presentations. Asapproximately four working days are available to groups for
theirpractical development work, their projects have to be carefully andrealistically
scoped. The students will be contacted by the courseorganisers for project based
on their ideas.Prior preparation will beemphasised.
Throughout students will be encouraged to reflect upon theirdesign experience working with new interfaces and present someevaluation of their own work to the summer school.KTH will provide technical facilities and expertise. Groups canexpect to have available to them at least one networked highperformance workstation, a projector, VR and sensor technology andprogramming tools and support for their practical work. Supportingexperts on sensor technology and programming are Dan O¹Sullivan,Cristian Bogdan and Aurelian Bria, on 3D VR programming Kai-MikaelJää-Aro, Olle Sundblad and Gustav Taxén.
Preparations
Registering not later than May 25, 1999, accompanied by a one-page
position statement, including a project idea, email to Yngve
Sundblad, yngve@nada.kth.se
Reading of assigned literature, a list will be sent to registered students.
Post-workshop assignment for full 5 credits
A 10-15-page paper reflecting on experience and reading.
Accomodation
For nearby hotel/hostel email your needs (dates) to Karin Molin,
karinm@nada.kth.se
Social events Spontaneous + maybe boat tour on Tuesday + exhibition on Friday.