Body and the city

BODY AND THE CITYJelle van DijkUniversity of Southern Denmark, SønderborgUtrecht University of Applied Sciences

International Week, February 10, 2014 Rotterdam Hogeschool,

Jelle van Dijk

Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1975MA Cognitive Science Nijmegen

Phd Industrial Design Eindhoven

Researcher-lecturer Hogeschool Utrecht, lectoraat Co-designPost-doc University of Southern Denmark, SPIRE centre, Sønderborg

www.jellevandijk.org

Interaction design ‘beyond’ the screen

Research Area’s: Ubiquitous computing, Wearables, Tangible Interaction, Embodied interaction,Augmented reality, Rich Interaction, Social Computing, Mobile computing, Ambient Intelligence, Human-Brain interfacing, etc…

Conference: Tangible, Embodied and Embedded Interaction (TEI)

TangibleInteraction

AugmentedReality

NaturalUserInterface

ContextAware

Full body interaction

Neuro-Feedback

Digital-physicalIntegration

Interaction Design: Two basic perspectives

The Information-Processing perspective

The Embodied perspective

THE INFORMATION PROCESSING PERSPECTIVE

Mind support

Physical support

RECENT WORRIES

Digital, digital, digital, digital…

Rotterdam City Walk App: info, info, info…

THE EMBODIED PERSPECTIVE

Embodied Cognition

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, W. White

“People sit where one can sit”“The best places are those where you can watch other people”

Design from an Embodied perspective

(Van Dijk, Van der Lugt & Hummels, 2014) Beyond Distributed Representation…

DESIGN FOR SKILLS

DESIGN FOR SOCIAL PRACTICES

DESIGN FOR TRACES

DESIGNING FOR SKILLS

Movie: “RAMPED”

Please go to:

http://www.ramped.nl/

DESIGN FOR SOCIAL PRACTICES

Klimavæggen (Climate Wall)Beyond Kyoto &

Digital Urban Living (Aarhus, Denmark)

DESIGN FOR TRACES

Andy Clark exlaining ‘Stigmergy’In: “Being There”, 1997

An alternative solution, however, is to open the campus for business without any paths, and with grass cov-ering all the spaces between buildings. Over a period of months, trackswill begin to emerge. These will reflect both the real needs of the users andthe tendency of individuals to follow emerging trails.

Movie “Gyroguide”

Please go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed5WdGOMwTs

The smart city: an embodied perspective?

How to move beyond the “interface” that gives “access to digital information”

How to design technology that supports ‘embodied interactions’ with the city?

How to design for:- Skills?- Social practices?- Traces?

?Google glass: good or bad example?

Tomorrow: CITIES, PLACES FOR TRACES

• Please bring examples of design projects you know that implement some form of TRACES in relation to the SMART CITY. Anything springs to mind?

• Bring your own ideas: how could we design new kinds of TRACES?

• Bring your favorite sketching tools, a camera (phone), laptop, …

www.jellevandijk.org jelle1975@gmail.com

CITIES: PLACES FOR TRACES

Tuesday lecture/workshop, Rotterdam Hogeschool International Week 2014

Jelle van Dijkwww.jellevandijk.org

Embodied Cognition

Suchman on canoe descent: embodied ‘know-how’

Such

man

, Pla

ns a

nd S

ituat

ed A

ction

s

(Ryle, 1949; Merleau-Ponty, 1963; Dreyfus, 1979; Suchman, 1986)

Design for know-how (instead of ‘know-that’)

“Know-that” “Know-how”

Rotterdam

What does this ‘know how’ consist of? (In other words what should we design for?)

(Van Dijk, Van der Lugt & Hummels, 2014) Beyond Distributed Representation…

DESIGN FOR SKILLS

DESIGN FOR SOCIAL PRACTICES

DESIGN FOR TRACES

DESIGN FOR TRACES

Andy Clark exlaining ‘Stigmergy’In: “Being There”, 1997

An alternative solution, however, is to open the campus for business without any paths, and with grass cov-ering all the spaces between buildings. Over a period of months, trackswill begin to emerge. These will reflect both the real needs of the users andthe tendency of individuals to follow emerging trails.

• Based on Stigmergy (ant trails, termite hills, etc…)

Definition of an interactive trace:

1. People are immersed in an activity that is meaningful to them2. There is not much ‘thinking’ involved, it is a skilled routine (e.g. biking to

work)3. As a ‘by-effect’ the activity leaves a trace (e.g. worn grass)4. Later on, these same people, or other people, can use such traces to

guide their actions (see where to go on the grass field)5. Again, one does not need to think about this, the trace gets ‘taken up’ in

the skilled routine, it becomes part of unconscious ‘embodied action’.6. We can make technology that enables people to create and perceive new

kinds of traces that don’t exist in the natural world (e.g. we could create ‘worn grass’ on a concrete road if that concrete is made interactive)

Traces

Flight strips: the role of artifacts

• Study by Hughes et al, 1995

• Studying everyday work practices of air-traffic controllers

• “Flight strips” do not just ‘record information’

• Strips and their location in the space help people to coordinate work ‘in action’, without explicit planning and management.

• People show ‘what they are doing now’ through the way they leave the flight strips as traces in the environment

• (Dourish, 2001)

Smart Aarhus,

Media Architecture Institute

research centre CAVI

Smart Aarhus workgroup Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS)

Feelspace

University of Osnabrück, Germany

INPUTSensing people’s activities in order to create the trace

OUTPUT Making the trace perceivable by the user

• Natuurlijke slijtage van product als ‘feedback’? (“Echte” traces?)

Target group

• Elementary school children (age 6-12)• Independent living seniors (70-80 years old)• Working mothers• People that bicycle to work each morning in rush-hour• Immigrants that just came to live in the city• Single people aged 25-35 who are married to their high-paid fulltime job• City cleaners• Ambulance personnel• Police officers who patrol the street (walking)• Street artists or street-musicians• Tourists from Azia

(Don’t take ‘students’ as a target group)

Ask the “How can...” question

• How can parents keep track of their children in the city through traces?• How can bikers be more social in traffic through traces?• How can foreign visitors meet local people through traces?• How can police patrol be optimized (or made less obtrusive) using traces?• How can children enjoy urban playgrounds more, using traces?• How can graffiti-art take on a whole new dimension, using traces?• How can older people show each other the way to ‘aged-friendly’ shops,

using traces?

• How can ….

Photocollage

30 min• Search (or make!) a photo of people of your target group) in their typical urban

setting (e.g. bikers in rush-hour)• Add your concept of interactive traces in Photoshop• Make sure it is clear what the people are doing, what ‘is happening’• Make sure it is clear what role the traces play in their activity (how they help)• Design from the concept, do not let the technological (im)possibilities constrain

your thinking.

• Send your picture to jelle1975@gmail.com

1 min per team• Pitch your concept

30 min• Discussion and reflection

RESULTS OF WORKSHOPCITIES: PLACES FOR TRACES

Traces guide people to less crowded spots on platform

Traces indicate where people went for dinner last evening

Traces enable you to run against a ‘ghost’ (the trace of another runner, or yourself, on another day/time, on this same track)

Traces show where local people often go, to tourists

Traces show how people usually walk to platform 1, 2, 3 (indicated in colours)

Traces show in which offices people are happy

Traces show how people usually walk to train, to taxi, to the busses, etc.